Poema Global Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) focusing on tech firms in Asia and Europe, has announced it has raised US$300 million in its IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The capital stems from pricing 30 million units at US$10 each, with each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one-half of a warrant, redeemable at US$11.50. The company offered five million more units than anticipated.
The units is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market and is traded under the ticker symbol “PPGHU” beginning January 6, 2021.
The offering is expected to close on January 8, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Led by Emmanuel DeSousa and Joaquin Rodriguez Torres, Co-founders and Managing Partners of Princeville Capital, the SPAC intends to focus on highly-scalable tech companies with high growth rates and sound unit economics across Asia and Europe.
Princeville Capital is a San Francisco-based venture investment firm founded in 2017. With offices in Berlin and Hong Kong, the firm has over US$1 billion in capital under management and 13 active portfolio companies.
Also Read: David Gowdey of Jungle Ventures: Why we will see an IPO from SEA in the next 12-18 months
As per Investopedia, SPAC is a company with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise capital through an IPO to acquire an existing company. They are also known as blank-check companies.
While the concept has been around in the market for many years and is used as a mechanism to bring companies public in the US, it has been relatively new to Asia, where companies are yet to jump on the SPAC bandwagon.
This news comes amidst the growing popularity of SPACs as an option to go public for startups within the region.
“A SPAC is one of the options we are evaluating given we have been approached by a few,” Traveloka President Henry Hendrawan said in a statement in response to a Reuters report that it was evaluating a merger with a SPAC as a possible listing option.
Also Read: Traveloka considers SPAC option as it plans to go public
Earlier, Bridgetown 2 Holdings, a SPAC targeting internet economy companies in Southeast Asia and backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li, announced last month that it was seeking to raise US$200 million in an IPO in the US.
In an interview with e27, experts commented that the SPAC model that the company is implementing can be “an alternative” way to fundraise for startups in SEA.
“Having seen the more than 100 SPACs emerge in North America earlier in 2020, we are not surprised to see this new SPAC coming out to focus on Southeast Asia. We welcome this initiative, which will provide an alternative path to liquidity and access to public markets for one or more rising tech, financial services or media company in the region,” said Sanjay Zimmermann, Senior Associate at White Star Capital.
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