A SoftBank Corp. store in Tokyo.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. plans to raise a whopping $ 630 million through two more blank check companies to capitalize on record investor demand for the vehicles.
The Tokyo-based technology conglomerate said it would create the specialty acquisition companies less than two months after filing for a $ 525 million blank check company. SPACs want to merge with private companies and leave them publicly traded while avoiding some of the uncertainty of an IPO. The vehicles have become a popular way for venture capital startups to list in the public markets. According to Bloomberg data, more than $ 35 billion has been raised by the 117 SPACs disclosed on US stock exchanges this year.
The new SoftBank vehicles, SVF Investment Corp. 2 and 3, will focus on the same diverse technology areas as the first, including mobile communications and artificial intelligence, according to filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Since the SPACs have different sizes, they can work with companies of different maturity.
SVF 2 has entered into a purchase agreement in which it has committed $ 100 million to $ 150 million in capital for when combined with another company, the prospectus states. SVF 3 has entered into a forward purchase agreement in which it has committed $ 150 million to $ 200 million in capital for when combined with another company, the prospectus shows.
For both new vehicles, each unit of the SPAC will consist of one share and a fifth of a warrant. Citigroup Inc., UBS, Deutsche Bank AG, Cantor Fitzgerald and Mizuho Securities advise on the listings.
The SVF 2 management committee is led by Munish Varna, a managing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund, while the SVF 3 management committee is led by Ioannis Pipilis. SoftBank’s first SPAC is headed by Rajeev Misra, Chief Executive Officer of Vision Fund. Vision Fund Chief Financial Officer Navneet Govil serves as CFO of all three SPACs. All are overseen by SoftBank Investment Advisers, who also manage the company’s Vision Fund.
With three SPACs, SoftBank is launching in a growing collection of companies with multiple blank checks, including the Gores Group and investor Chamath Palihapitya’s Social Capital Hedosophia.