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The French multimillionaire Pinault family joins the growing line of sponsors of European Spacs, with the aim of raising up to 300 million euros for a blank check company that will focus on the leisure industries and leisure.
The acquisition vehicle for special uses, called I2PO, will be unveiled on Wednesday in Paris. It is also backed by Centerview Partners banker Matthieu Pigasse and will be led by former WarnerMedia executive Iris Knobloch.
The spaces are investment vehicles that appear on the stock exchange and then look for a private company with which to merge. Wall Street is the center of the Spac craze that has swept the stock markets for the past 18 months.
Proponents say it’s a simpler and cheaper way to make companies public, but they’ve recently looked at regulation in the U.S. about their often dazzling financial projections. Vehicle sponsors typically receive 20% of Spac shares for a nominal commission.
Only three Spacs were launched in Europe last year, grossing $ 500 million, according to Refinitiv data. This compared to the 244 in the United States that took advantage of investors for more than $ 80 billion.
Activity in Europe has intensified in 2021, although the US remains the busiest market. So far this year, 21 Spacs have raised $ 5.4 billion in Europe; in the U.S., 365 Spacs have raised $ 106 billion, according to Refinitiv.
I2PO will focus on acquisitions of between 1,000 and 2,000 million euros in areas such as the transmission of music and video, games, multimedia services or platforms for booking travel and entertainment.
“We are here to build a European champion in the industry,” Knobloch told the Financial Times. “I think the world has changed. . . The importance of scale and size. That is why I see a great opportunity to consolidate a fragmented market and go beyond Europe to other markets ”.
The three sponsors are Knobloch; Artemis, the Pinault family holding company that manages 40 billion euros and controls the luxury group Kering; and Pigasse’s financial holding company, Combat Holding. Artemis will be represented on the board of directors of the new investment vehicle by François-Henri Pinault and Alban Greget.
“It is the first Spac that Artemis has made as a sponsor, the first Spac founded and run by a woman and the first Spac in Europe focused on entertainment and leisure,” said Knobloch, President and CEO of I2PO.
Knobloch resigned last month from a senior European position at WarnerMedia to take over the job. He also serves on the boards of AccorHotels, Lazard and Kering’s rival LVMH.
Pigasse, Lazard’s former boss in France, is behind Mediawan and 2MX organic, the first two Spacs launched in the country, and is also a shareholder in media such as the newspaper Le Monde.
Earlier this month, the Zaoui brothers, founders of the investment banking boutique Zaoui & Co, partnered with top European executives and raised € 300 million in Amsterdam for a Spac called Acquisition of Odyssey which will invest in health and technology companies.
In February, LVMH founder Bernard Arnault, Tikehau Capital and former UniCredit boss Jean Pierre Mustier raised € 500 million on the Amsterdam list of a blank check company called Pegasus Europe invest in European financial companies.
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