Sagard Holdings-backed blank cheque company Portage Fintech Acquisition has priced its planned Nasdaq initial public offering (IPO), increasing its target by $40 million USD.
The company, which began trading on the Nasdaq today, has priced its IPO of 24 million units at a price of $10 per unit. This would give Portage Fintech Acquisition total gross proceeds of $240 million USD, $40 million more than its initial $200 million USD target.
Portage Fintech Acquisition is a newly organized special purpose acquisition company.
Sagard is the alternative investment arm of Montréal-based Power Corp. and manager of Portage Ventures and Diagram Ventures. Through its holdings, Sagard has invested in FinTech and healthtech companies ranging from Wealthsimple to Borrowell, Koho, and Dialogue. Portage Fintech Acquisition is a newly organized special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), formed for the purpose of making acquisitions in the FinTech space with one or more businesses or entities.
Portage Fintech Acquisition aims to pursue acquisitions in verticals like wealth and asset management, consumer and small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) finance, insurance, payments, information services, and FinTech infrastructure.
The SPAC’s units began trading on the Nasdaq on July 21, under the symbol ‘PFTAU.’ Each unit consists of one Class A common share and one-third of one redeemable warrant. Whole warrants enable holders to purchase one Class A common share at a price of $11.50 apiece.
When the Class A common shares and warrants begin trading separately, they are expected to list on the Nasdaq under the symbols ‘PFTA’ and ‘PFTAW,’ respectively. The SPAC expects its IPO, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, to close on July 23.
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Portage Fintech Acquisition is led by Steve Freiberg (former Etrade CEO, co-chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s Global Consumer Group, and current board vice chair of SoFi and board member of MasterCard), Adam Felesky (co-founder and CEO of Portage Ventures), and Ajay Chowdhery (former VP of corporate development at Visa).
Portage Fintech Acquisition’s board of directors includes Paul Desmarais III, chairman and CEO of Sagard Holdings and co-founder and chairman of Portage Ventures. The company’s board also includes Stuart C. Harvey Jr (former chairman of Paysafe Group and the former chairman, CEO, and president of Ceridian) and Jason Pate (head of corporate strategy and development at Plaid), among others.
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Portage Fintech Acquisition said it may pursue a deal in any business, industry, geographic location, but plans to target companies operating in industries that complement its team’s background and “capitalize” on its ability to source and acquire businesses in the FinTech and financial services ecosystem.
Goldman Sachs, BTIG, LLC, and Scotia Capital are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, with SoFi Securities serving as co-manager. Portage Fintech Acquisition has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase additional 3.6 million units at IPO price to cover over-allotments.
Portage Fintech Acquisition plans to make an acquisition within 24 months from the closing of its IPO. If it does not, the company has promised it will return any capital raised to its shareholders.
Feature image from Portage Ventures