Thomas O. Hicks, the owner of the Texas Rangers and a veteran of the leveraged buyout business, is seeking to raise $400 million for his “blank check” company, Hicks Acquisition. He is jumping into a crowded field: Nearly 100 blank check companies have held initial public offerings since August 2003, creating a small army of shell companies, each prowling for an acquisition target. Also known as special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPAC’s, black check companies raise money from the public with the sole mission of buying a company — whose identity is unknown at the time of the I.P.O. In large part, investing in SPAC’s represents a bet on the deal-making prowess of the company’s founder. Other prominent figures that have gone into the SPAC business include Michael Gross, who co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Management with Leon Black, and Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Mr. Hicks, who is 61, has been making deals for decades. From 1989 to 2004, he was chairman of Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, the private equity firm he cofounded. Now he leads Hicks Holdings, an investment vehicle that owns the Rangers baseball team, the Dallas Stars hockey team and half of the Liverpool Football Club in the United Kingdom.
In a way, Mr. Hicks’s new SPAC looks a bit like a private equity fund. Mr. Hicks himself paid a nominal sum ($25,000) for what will be a 20 percent stake in the post-I.P.O. company. (Investors, by contrast, will pay $400 million for their 80 percent stake.)
View article >>> Star-Telegram
View filing >>> Hicks’ Prospectus via SEC
See related >>> Financial News Online: Billionaire launches $400m spac and WSJ: Acquisition Vehicles Gather Steam
