Fintech-Focused SPAC Far Point Acquisition Corporation to Begin Trading Tuesday
This evening, Far Point announced the pricing of their $550 million, Third Point sponsored SPAC. The unit will begin trading Tuesday morning under the symbol FPAC.U.
This deal was hot, hot, hot. It started as a $400 million IPO, was upsized to $500 million and finally, upsized again to $550 million tonight. As a side note, I was personally, slightly more excited about this SPAC than GS Acquisition. Not to say that I didn’t like GS Acquisition (I did), but if I had to choose between the two, I would choose Far Point. Why? Less conflicts of interest (GS had a laundry list of conflicts with Goldman and a non-compete with David Cote and Honeywell, which may or may not be significant, but they’re there….) and I think the sector focus of Far Point edges GS out – Fintech vs. Industrials, for GS. However, based on our SPACInsider Poll, I was in the minority (62.5% voted in favor of GS vs. 25.0% for Far Point, and 12.5% for neither).
Regardless, both are massive, high-profile SPAC deals with similar structures and I expect both to present A+ business combinations. (Anyone want to place any bets on which presents the better acquisition?) As a reminder, I’ve listed below the summary IPO terms, but you can also find them here.
Summary of terms are as follows:
- $10.00 unit comprised of one share of Class A common Stock and one-third of a full warrant
- 100% held in trust ($10.00 per share)
- 24 months to announce an acquisition (+ 3 month extension with LOI)
- Warrant Redemption Price: $18.00
- Redemption Rights: limitation of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO
- Sponsored by Far Point LLC, an affiliate of Third Point LLC
- Forward Purchase Agreement: capped at the amount of redeeming shares over 20 million (40% of the IPO)
- Underwriter fees: 2.0% + 3.5% deferred fee
Congratulations to the Underwriters – Credit Suisse and BofA Merrill Lynch as book-runners. Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP, were Issuer’s and Underwriter’s Counsel, respectively.
With the passage this weekend of $95 billion in funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan by the House of Representatives, some focus has gone back towards the defense sector, which has generally had a good year as a whole. But, SPACs have not been as active in defense, despite the fact that companies in the...
At the SPAC of Dawn As April’s sleepy month for SPAC news continues, there is only one special meeting on the docket to consider a SPAC deal approval, that being today’s vote on Pegasus Digital Mobility‘s (NYSE:PGSS) combination with equipment manufacturer Schmid. Three more SPACs are facing extension votes this week, including Pyrophyte (NYSE:PHYT), whose...
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending April 19, 2024 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. Passover and school spring break starts next week, which most likely means a slowdown in SPAC filing activity. Although Churchill IX is now rumored to...
Despite a week of general pull-backs in the market, fintech firm Ibotta (NYSE:IBTA) nonetheless took the dive and had a good week debuting via a traditional IPO in the choppy waters. The company, which provides app-based consumer cashback discounts on purchases, priced its IPO at $88, above its proposed range of $76 to $84, and...
At the SPAC of Dawn Happy Friday! SPACInsider has unveiled new presets on SPAC Performance accessible via the Data drop-down to easily sort for the highest and lowest performing active SPACs and de-SPACs. On the de-SPAC side, Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) continues to be well ahead of the pack, logging a 710% return by share price adjusted...