When billionaire investor Bill Ackman first proposed his riff on the SPAC — he wanted to slap an R in the middle of the acronym — few cared on Wall Street. This was mid-2021 and the SPAC market, where investors hand cash to a dealmaker hunting for a company to acquire, was just months removed from peak mania. So bankers weren’t too interested in contemplating a new flavor of SPAC that would add a layer of complexity, Bloomberg reports.
Now, with the dormant SPAC market in need of a jolt, the Ackman SPARC is getting another look.
The fundamental difference with Ackman’s SPARC is that potential investors will know the target company and can then decide whether to put their money on the table.
The SPARC will shortly be distributing special purpose acquisition rights at no cost to former securityholders of Pershing Square Tontine. Ackman once raised $4 billion in the biggest-ever SPAC, but he returned the money to investors after failing to find a suitable target company to take public.
Pershing Square said the SPARC will immediately begin to pursue a merger with private, high-quality, growth companies. It is targeting companies who seek to raise a minimum of $1.5 billion of capital, the company said.
Ackman’s Pershing Square funds could commit a minimum of $250 million and up to $3.5 billion as anchor investors in the potential transaction, the company said. Read more.
