By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Kingswood Acquisition Corp (NYSE:KWAC_u), a US-listed blank cheque company, has reportedly signed a letter of intent to acquire UK wealth management company Lombard, according to Sky News. The deal would be one of the first involving a US-listed Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) and a UK financial services company.
About Kingswood
Kingswood Acquisition is sponsored by major shareholder in UK-based wealth management firm Kingswood Group and is chaired by Gary Wilder. According to the Kingswood Group website, Wilder has over 30 years of experience in pan European private equity and real estate.
About Lombard
Lombard has been owned by the US investment management company Blackstone Group Inc (NYSE:BX) since 2014. Reports had suggested that they had begun exploring a sale of Lombard since the end of last year after receiving various expressions of interest.
They bought the company for around EUR 400mln from Friends Provident, but Sky News said analysts believe a deal could value Lombard at around EUR 700mln this time around.
SPAC deals
Deals to take companies public via SPACs have taken off over the last year. One of the most recent large deals saw online broker eToro agree to go public at a valuation of $10.4bln, after merging with Fintech Acquisition Corp V (NASDAQ:FTCV).
Other large names to have gone public via a SPAC include Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) and DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG), while Tesla rival Lucid Motors has agreed to merge with Churchill Capital IV Corp (NYSE:CCIV).
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that shared office space company WeWork is in discussions to go public at a valuation of $9bln via a SPAC deal.