Activist Hedge Fund Elliott Looks To Raise $1B SPAC: WSJ

Activist investor Elliott Management Corp is looking to jump aboard the blank check company bandwagon, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

What Happened: The Paul Singer-founded company has held discussions with bankers to raise a billion dollars for the special purpose acquisition company, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. 

There is no clarity on which industries Elliott might target for a merger — post the formation of the blank check company, as per the Journal.

Only a dozen SPACs have raised more than $1 billion, according to SPACInsider.

“The argument for the larger SPAC is that it’s easier to negotiate with a company if the money has already been raised,” said Kristi Marvin, the founder of SPACInsider, as per the Journal.

See also: How to Invest in SPACs How to Invest in SPACs

Why It Matters: Fellow activists looking for targets for their SPACs include William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP and Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value LP.

Ackman’s Pershing Square Tontine Holdings Ltd (NYSE: PSTH) raised $4 billion in 2020 and emerged as the largest SPAC in the market.

SPAC IPO transactions amounted to $83.04 billion in 2020 and so far this year SPACs have raised $35.3 billion, according to SPACInsider data. 

SoftBank Group Corp (OTC: SFTBY), a Japanese conglomerate targeted by Elliott, is also planning to launch two more SPACs and raised $550 million in total in their IPOs, according to Reuters. 

See Also: Activist Investor Elliott Exits AT&T, Buys Uniti, Boosts Dell

Photo courtesy: World Economic Forum via Flickr