A SoftBank Corp store in Tokyo.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. plans to raise as much as $ 630 million through two more blank check companies, benefiting from the record demand from investors for the vehicles.
The technology conglomerate in Tokyo said it would create the special-purpose procurement companies less than two months after it was filed to set up a $ 525 million blank check business. SPACs want to merge with private companies and lease them is publicly traded, while avoiding the uncertainty of an initial public offering. The vehicles have become a popular way to support new ventures on businesses to list on the public markets. More than $ 35 billion has been raised through the 117 SPACs announced on U.S. stock exchanges this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The new SoftBank vehicles, SVF Investment Corp 2 and 3, will focus on the same diverse areas of technology as the first, including mobile communications and artificial intelligence, according to filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because the SPACs have different sizes, they can work with companies of different maturity.
SVF 2 has entered into a pre-purchase agreement in which it has committed between 100 and 150 million dollars in capital for a combination with another company, it appears from the prospectus. SVF 3 has entered into a pre-purchase agreement in which it has committed between 150 and 200 million dollars of capital for a combination with another company, it appears from the prospectus.
For both new vehicles, each unit of the SPAC consists of one share and one fifth of a warrant. Citigroup Inc., UBS, Deutsche Bank AG, Cantor Fitzgerald and Mizuho Securities advise on the listings.
SVF 2’s management committee is chaired by Munish Varna, a managing partner of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, while SVF 3’s management committee is chaired by Ioannis Pipilis. SoftBank’s first SPAC is led by Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra. Navneet Govil, CFO of Vision Fund, serves as CFO of all three SPACs. Everything is overseen by SoftBank Investment Advisers, which also manages the company’s Vision Fund.
With three SPACs, SoftBank is embarking on a growing collection of multi-vehicle companies, including the Gores Group and investor Chamath Palihapitya’s Social Capital Hedosophia.