SoftBank Plans To Unveil SPAC In Two Weeks

SoftBank Group Corp. SFTBY Vision Fund CEO Sanjeev Misra said that the Japanese group has plans to launch a special purpose acquisition company in the coming two weeks, Axios reported Monday.

What Happened: The initial public offering's formal sponsor would be SoftBank Investment Advisors, the manager of the $100 billion Vision Fund and Vision Fund 2, according to Axios.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS and Citigroup, Inc C would manage the listing.

The intent behind the launch of the blank check company is not to take an existing SoftBank portfolio company public, as per Axios.

Misra disclosed that the Japanese group was flush with liquidity. “Our problem is to find investment opportunities,” he said, according to Barron's.

“While a good, large company that was going to go public, will go the IPO route anyway,” Misra said. “The SPAC is right for a good growth company that had plans to go public in a year or nine months and uses this window of buoyant capital markets.”

Why It Matters: The Masayoshi Son-led group's Vision Fund is invested in startups such as Uber Technologies Inc UBER, WeWork, Slack Technologies, Inc WORK, and TikTok parent ByteDance.

SoftBank-backed Opendoor is set to merge with Social Capital Hedosophia Corp II IPOB, a SPAC led by Chamath Palihapitiya, in a deal valued at $4.8 billion in September.

Three of Palihapitiya's SPAC companies raised $2.1 billion in three public offerings last week. Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. III IPOC is expected to merge with Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG Google ventures-backed Clover Health in the first quarter next year.

Fisker Inc is set to go public later this month by merging with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp SPAQ.

Price Action: SoftBank OTC shares closed nearly 4.3% higher at $34.36 on Monday.

Photo courtesy: MIKI Yoshihito via Flickr