TOKYO – SoftBank Group on Monday filed in the U.S. to raise up to $ 604 million for a special purpose construction company, marking the combination ‘s latest attempt to boost public markets this year.
SVF Investment Corp., as the vehicle is called, is backed by SoftBank Investment Advisors, the SoftBank unit that manages the nearly $ 100 billion Vision Fund. It will be led by Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra and he plans to list “quickly” on the Nasdaq exchange.
It offers 52.5 million units for $ 10 per piece, with an overdraft option for another 7.9 million units.
Regulating SPAC – a shell company that merges with an operating company, allowing the latter to go public without going through the traditional IPO process – will allow SoftBank to support for a company that wants to list their shares quickly.
The first Vision Fund was designed to invest large sums of capital in late single stages – companies worth $ 1 billion or more – but that strategy suffered when WeWork, one of the high-profile investments, failed her image, to be made public last year.
This year, the Vision Fund’s strategy has shifted towards smaller investments in early stage companies. But early-term investments usually take longer to leave. SPAC can support a company that is still in a growth phase but is keen to take advantage of a strong public market.
The SPAC may also be a measure of investor confidence in SoftBank after it scrapped plans to raise $ 108 billion for a second Vision Fund earlier this year.
The original fund’s performance was hit by a sell-off in stock in March, but recovered sharply in the second half of the year. It was inspired by the benefit of a major paper invested in U.S. food delivery startup DoorDash, which went public recently.
SVF Investment aims to use the SPAC to buy a tech company “where our management team has different knowledge and insights” according to U.S. filing. The filing did not remove the ability to purchase a company linked to SoftBank.