It has only been listed for a week, but North Atlantic Acquisition Corp (NAAC), a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) formed to hunt for targets within the next two years, has already been inundated with interest. Gary Quin, its chief executive, tells Euromoney that he’s fielding a wealth of inbound pitches for business combinations, many of which are from investment banks keen to line up an alternative option for clients already in their own IPO pipelines.
Having originally filed to raise $300 million, the NAAC Spac ended up being upsized to $379.5 million when it listed on Nasdaq on January 22. The structure is a typical one, with 37.95 million units priced at $10 each, comprising one Class A share and one third of a redeemable warrant that entitles holders to buy further shares at $11.50. The bookrunners were Wells Fargo and BTIG, a brokerage that grew out of Baypoint Trading, which was founded in 2002 by Scott Kovalik, a former head of equities at Bank of America.
NAAC’s mandate technically allows it to acquire targets in Europe or North America, but it is the European angle that is its primary focus and is what Quin is stressing.
