The Spac ScION Tech Growth I, promoted by a subsidiary of ION Investment Group, started trading on Nasdaq yesterday. ION Investment Group is a global technology provider serving the financial sector, founded more than 20 years ago by the Italian entrepreneur Andrea Pignataro (see here the press release). The Spac has reached its raising target of 500 million dollars, placing 50 million shares at the price of 10 dollars each and now the underwriters have 45 days to exercise the overallotment option for a maximum of other 75 million dollars.
As announced at the launch of the fundraising in early December (see here a previous article by BeBeez), each share is associated with one third of a warrant, exercisable at the price of 11.50 dollars per share. Under a forward purchase agreement, the sponsor also committed to subscribe additional shares of the Spac for a minimum of 100 million dollars and a maximum of 300 millions at the time of the announcement of the business combination. A structure similar to that of the Spac promoted by Investindustrial and listed a few days ago on the NYSE, which, after having raised 402.5 million dollars from investors in a private placement and after the full exercise of the overallotment option, reached a firepower of 652.5 million dollars thanks again to a forward purchase agreement to be fulfilled at the business combination for 250 million dollars (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
The proceeds from the listing will be used to invest in technology, software and fintech companies with strong market position, leading products and global development potential. The target company of Spac will have an enterprise value (EV) between three and 10 billion dollars. The Spac is led by executive chairman Andrea Pignataro, founder and ceo of ION Investment Group, and by ceo and director Mathew Cestar, who previously held the role of Co-Head Investment Banking and Capital Markets in EMEA at Credit Suisse.
Ion Investment Group, based in London, specializes in software, data and analytics for financial institutions. Since its foundation in 1998, it has also grown with acquisitions. In particular, since 2004 it has conducted 26 acquisitions for a total enterprise value of 10 billion dollars. In May 2019, for example, it bought from BC Partners and GIC, the Singapore sovereign fund, the control of Acuris, the media group to which the well-known providers of information and data on the world m&a and debt capital market such as Mergermarket, Debtwire, Unquote and Asia Venture Capital Journal (see here a previous article by BeBeez). In November 2017, on the other hand, ION, together with Carlyle, had recapitalized Dealogic, a well-known data provider on the international m&a market (see here the press release at the time). Today it is said that ION is studying the Cedacri dossier, the Italian company specialized in the outsourcing of IT and back office services to banks, owned by FSI and looking for an industrial partner in view of a subsequent listing (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
