London has seen its largest initial public offering in over a year with the US$550mln (£441mln) listing of special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) Admiral Acquisition.
Registered in the British Virgin Islands offshore jurisdiction, Admiral was co-founded by British-American tycoon and SPAC veteran Sir Martin Franklin, who has at least six previous blank cheque listings to his name with over US$8bn (£6.4bn) raised.
Robert A.E. Franklin, Michael E. Franklin, Ian G.H. Ashken, Desiree DeStefano and James E. Lillie were also listed as founders in the prospectus. All listed founders are affiliated with the Mariposa Capital investment advisory firm.
Despite his expertise, Franklin became sceptical of SPACs prior to the 2021 SPAC boom.
“You have people who are buying businesses that have no revenue, no earnings and a story,” he told Bloomberg back in 2020. “We’re in silly season in SPAC-land… This is going to end badly.”
His prediction proved extremely accurate when, in the following years, the SPAC boom left a trail of failed, overvalued companies in its wake.
One of the most high-profile SPAC failures was BuzzFeed, which recently closed its news wing losing billions in market value.
When a SPAC lists on the public markets, it has a two-year timeframe to find a suitable takeover target before having to liquidate and return raised funds back to investors.
Admiral Acquistion has not disclosed a particular industry or geographic region for seeking a target company.
Shareholders will not be given the opportunity to vote on a potential takeover target.