The blank cheque company is on a lookout for businesses in the “new economy sectors” such as digital media sectors, financial technology.
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 26): Catcha Group intends to list its special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Catcha Investment to raise US$250 million on the New York Stock Exchange.
The blank cheque company is on a lookout for businesses in the “new economy sectors” such as digital media sectors, financial technology, or digital services across Asia Pacific, according to the filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The filing shows that Catcha Group on Monday made a submission for an initial public offering on Wall Street.
The company will be led by the co-founders of Catcha Group Patrick Grove, who will serve as CEO and chairman, and Luke Elliott, who will serve as president and director.
Catcha Group has made over 50 investments globally which are held directly or indirectly, and brought six digital businesses from their early stages to a public listing or sale, with an aggregate valuation of over US$1 billion.
Among those currently on Catcha Investment’s investment advisory board are David Gowdey, formerly from TPG and currently a managing partner at Jungle Ventures in Singapore, a regional VC that manages US$352 million assets under management, and Robert Kuok’s grandson Kuok Meng Xiong, the founder and managing partner of Singapore-based K3 Ventures, one of the early investors into tech giant Grab and who has other investments including Bytedance and SpaceX.
Also on the investment advisory board are Khailee Ng, managing partner of 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, Thomas Tsao, co-founder and managing partner of Gobi Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in Shanghai, and Helen Wong, partner at Qiming Venture Partners, focusing on TMT sector.
“We have not selected any business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target.
"We will not be limited to a particular industry or geographic region in our identification and acquisition of a target company,” said the SPAC in the filing.
Catcha Investment plans to raise US$250 million by offering 25 million units at US$10 each. Every unit will consist of one share of common stock and one-half of a warrant, exercisable at US$11.50, according to the filing.
Catcha Investment noted that the investment advisory board will assist the management team in sourcing suitable acquisition targets and provide business insights when the SPAC assesses potential business combination targets and as it works to drive additional value in the businesses that it acquires.
Catcha Investment noted its intention to focus its search on a target with operations or prospective operations in technology, digital media sectors, financial technology, or digital services, which it refers to as the “new economy sectors”, across Asia Pacific.
“We believe that Asia Pacific will continue to enjoy an outsized growth trajectory, particularly in the new economy sectors, and that this will result in opportunities for attractive risk-adjusted returns from our initial business combination,” it added.
The sponsor for the SPAC is Catcha Holdings LLC, a Cayman Islands limited liability company.
JP Morgan is listed as the book running manager.
Malaysian companies making way to Wall Street
Just a few weeks ago, Genting Bhd's life-sciences division merged with NASDAQ-listed GX Acquisition Corp to form a SPAC in an attempt to create a publicly-listed leader in allogeneic cellular therapy.
Earlier this month, Celularity signed a definitive merger agreement with GX Acquisition Corp, of which the companies are planning to take it public by the second quarter of 2021, subject to approval of both Celularity and GX’s shareholders.
Also in the US listing pipeline is Grab Holdings Inc. Bloomberg reported that Grab has picked Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co as its advisors for a potential US initial public offering that could raise at least US$2 billion.
The listing could happen as soon as the second half of this year, according to Bloomberg.