The founders of the UK-listed investment firm Promethean have raised a $200 million special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Atlas Acquisition Holdings in the US, the largest ever SPAC targeted prominently at India.
Atlas Acquisition Holdings raised $200 million (Rs 800 crore) through the American Stock Exchange, the hub of global SPACs.
Though the SPAC does not mention in its offer document any geography or sector it would target, it is understood that Atlas is looking at businesses which have an India story. According to sources in the merchant banking industry, Atlas would eye a minimum deal value of around $500 million which could include funds raised by it as a SPAC and would be backed by debt. However, Atlas could even scout for bigger deals which could go upto $1 billion in enterprise value.
Atlas is led by its chairman & CEO James Hauslein, along with Gaurav Burman, part of the Dabur Group and also a key member of Promethean India. Promethean India is an AIM-listed investment firm with a corpus of $115 million, which targets Indian companies to pick small private equity stakes.
The funds raised by Atlas are large, even by US standards where SPACs size in general is around $100 million or lower. As per the data compiled by US-based investment banking firm CRT Capital, out of the total 142 SPACs raised in the US till early February 2008, only 30, including Atlas, raised $200 million or more.
As reported in Economic Times
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