SoftBank’s Vision Fund is preparing to raise between $500 million and $600 million via an initial public offering of its first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), U.S. news portal Axios reported on Sunday.
Moreover, Axios reported, SoftBank is moving toward creating additional SPACs.
Such a move would see Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank joining the rush for SPACs, shell vehicles that raise money in an initial public offering (IPO) before merging with a privately held company.
About SPAC’s
SPACs are blank-check companies created for the purpose of merging or acquiring other companies.
An SPAC would give the Vision Fund another way of investing in private companies, and also allow the public to invest in SoftBank’s portfolio picks.
While this would be SoftBank’s first SPAC, one of its portfolio companies, real-estate platform OpenDoor, recently went public through an SPAC.
Another one of its investments, Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia, is also considering going public through a SPAC backed by Richard Li and Peter Thiel, after putting its IPO plans because of the pandemic.
About funding
Companies or investment groups create SPACs to raise money through the sale of stakes to either the public or entities such as private equity funds.
External Funding
Reuters reported in October that the Vision Fund was targeting external funding for a blank-cheque company.
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