An Israeli blank-check company will begin trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange after raising about $260 million, making it the largest such deal in the Middle East and the region’s first this year.
Investors behind ION Acquisition Corp 1 plan to buy an Israeli technology startup worth at least $1 billion, and see an opportunity to capitalize on a banner run for local offerings. The deal was multiple times oversubscribed and ended up bigger than an initially planned $200 million, said Gilad Shany, chief executive officer of ION Acquisition.
Israel’s startups have traditionally sought to go public via initial public offerings -- prominent examples over the past year have included Lemonade Inc. and JFrog Ltd. But with low interest rates and market volatility helping fuel a frenzy, special purpose acquisition companies have raised more than $40 billion this year as an alternative.
“It’s become very costly, it’s become very complicated and cumbersome for companies to go public,” Shany said. “We give them certainty, visibility, price visibility, which you don’t get in a very volatile market.”
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