Paul Singer
Photographer: Misha Friedman / Bloomberg
Photographer: Misha Friedman / Bloomberg
Elliott Management Corp., a hedge fund known for its activist shareholder campaigns, is meeting with bankers to raise more than $ 1 billion to finance a special-purpose acquisition company, Dow Jones said on Sunday.
The process is at an early stage and plans may change, said Dow Jones, citing people familiar with the matter who were not identified. Elliott, founded by billionaire Paul Singer, could use the proceeds to buy a company with the potential value of billions in double digits, based on goals that similarly sized SPACs have agreed to negotiate, the report said.
Once an obscure investment vehicle, SPACs raised $ 83 billion on U.S. stock exchanges in 2020, accounting for about 46% of the total of all initial public offerings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This year, at least 117 SPACs have raised more than $ 35 billion, in line with another record year. SPACs raise funds to finance merger and acquisition opportunities.
It is unclear which sectors Elliott may be looking at, Dow Jones said.
Elliott, with more than $ 45 billion in assets under management, has been agitated by changes in some of the largest and most important companies in the world, including Twitter Inc., Softbank Group Corp., AT&T Inc. and others.