Blank-check companies are increasingly looking to India for acquisition targets, which will keep the country’s recent dealmaking streak going, according to Nomura Holdings Inc. ReNew Power last week agreed to merge with a U.S.-listed special purpose acquisition company in a deal that will give India’s biggest renewable power producer an enterprise value of $8 billion. Online grocer Grofers is also looking to go public in the U.S. through a merger with a blank-check company, Bloomberg News reported in February.
“SPAC-led transactions are expected to increase in the coming years in India,” Utpal Oza, head of investment banking for India at Nomura, said in a phone interview. “Wherever you’ve got businesses which have caught the fancy of international investors especially in sectors such as renewables, tech or e-commerce, where the corporate structure enables it to be merged quite easily, you will see SPAC activity.”
A blank-check company is a shell company that raises money from public investors with the goal of acquiring a business within two years. These deals — some sponsored by the rich and famous including Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li and ex-Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam — have raised more than $66 billion in the U.S. alone just this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Source: BNN Bloomberg
By Baiju Kalesh
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