An acquisition company backed by serial dealmaker Martin E. Franklin has raised $550 million, exceeding an earlier goal for the initial public offering.
Admiral Acquisition Ltd. priced 55 million units at $10 each after earlier marketing 50 million units, according to a term sheet for the listing. The shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange.
Those buying the units include a mix of institutional investors and family offices, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public yet.
The acquisition company is sponsored by Mariposa Capital, a Miami-based family office owned by Franklin. The Jarden Corp. co-founder is working with UBS Group AG and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. on the offering.
Franklin pressed ahead with the listing even after the bubble in special purpose acquisition companies burst in the US, with many of the vehicles shutting down for a lack of targets. Of blank-check companies that did manage to complete deals, a slew have filed for bankruptcy after the target company faltered.
Admiral Acquisition isn’t a US-style SPAC, since it won’t have free shares issued to the founders at completion of a transaction, according to the terms. Also, unlike a US SPAC, shareholders won’t be able to redeem their shares rather than participate in the acquisition, providing certainty to the target company’s shareholders.
Franklin was a pioneer in using blank-check companies, raising money for acquisitions as early as 2006 and taking companies including Nomad Foods Ltd. public. He has been skeptical of the boom in SPACs, warning last year that it would end badly and urging better governance of the business model.
--With assistance from Phil Serafino.
