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The coronavirus crisis is fueling a craze for blank-check companies, and the billionaire owners of pro sports teams are cashing in. On Monday, Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula said in a securities filing he’s aiming to raise $300 million by selling shares in East Resources Acquisition Co., a blank-check company that’s looking to scoop up …
The coronavirus crisis is fueling a craze for blank-check companies, and the billionaire owners of pro sports teams are cashing in.
On Monday, Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula said in a securities filing he’s aiming to raise $300 million by selling shares in East Resources Acquisition Co., a blank-check company that’s looking to scoop up bargains in the energy space.
A few days earlier on Friday, Ron Burkle, co-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL franchise, said he was launching a $300 million blank-check company that’s looking to acquire a “business that is proprietary-sourced, has strong or promising franchises, and has attractive risk/return prospects.”
Burkle admitted he isn’t targeting any particular industry.
But when it comes to blank-check companies, the specifics of the investment may be less important than the person who’s making the pitch, say people familiar with the matter.
On Wednesday, hedge fund luminary Bill Ackman was expected to raise upwards of $4 billion for a new blank-check company — despite that he hasn’t revealed what he’s looking to buy with the cash.
Likewise, blank-check companies are a natural fit for sports-team owners, who are typically seen as smart, well-connected and skilled business people, according to investors familiar with the deals.
“It’s a no-brainer that star power matters,” said one investor who focuses on blank-check companies, also known as special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.
“It’s all the rage,” a banker for sports teams told The Post, adding that the cachet of owning a professional sports team can help convince investors to give their money for a mystery acquisition.
Ahead of Ackman’s splashy launch, sports team owners raised $2.5 billion for SPACs, according to SPACInsider, which tracks the industry. That’s 18 percent of the total $14 billion raised this year, SPACInsider’s stats show.
Golden State Warriors minority owner Chamath Palihapitiya appears to have kicked the craze off last year with a $674 million SPAC that helped take Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., public. Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive, has raised money for two SPACs this year, totaling $1.1 billion.
Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley has raised $1.4 billion, also through two SPACs.
Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who owns the Golden Nugget casino chain, used the $275 million he raised with a SPAC last year to cash out of Golden Nugget Online Gaming, which he had owned personally.
Also last year, Jon Ledecky, a majority owner of the NHL‘s New York Islanders, raised $200 million through a SPAC to buy software services company KLDiscovery.
Blank-check companies have been around for decades. They have gained traction in recent years as a way to tap the stock market without having to go through a traditional initial public offering. Instead of IPOing, the target company simply takes the listing space previously used by the SPAC.
The coronavirus pandemic has helped stir interest in SPACs thanks to growing sentiment that now’s the time to buy good companies on the cheap. As of Tuesday, before Ackman’s big launch, the total raised by SPACs this year has already surpassed last year’s total of $13.5 billion .
Another reason for the surge may be that more sports team owners now have a finance background, said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Cuban, known for his role as a judge and investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” said he’s not interested in jumping on the SPAC bandwagon. Still, he says he expects to benefit because a company in which he owns a minority stake is in talks to be sold to a SPAC.
“If this were 20 years ago, I’d be chasing it hard,” said Cuban, who’s worth an estimated $4.3 billion, according to Forbes. But now, he said, “I’m not chasing my next dollar.”
