Billionaire investor Ronald Perelman filed yesterday to raise $500 million from public investors to finance the takeover of a business he has yet to identify.
The new capital will be raised through a so-called blank-check company, called MAFS Acquisition Corp., which plans to sell 50 million shares for $10 each sometime next year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Perelman’s holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, has agreed to buy $40 million worth of shares in the IPO and the billionaire and his partners will buy another $10 million worth of stock in a private placement before the offering.
MacAndrews & Forbes owns stakes in a number of companies including skin-care company Revlon and Scientific Games, the biggest supplier of instant lottery tickets.
The number of blank check companies has more than tripled this year as private equity investors seek new ways to quickly raise capital for deals.
Billionaire investor activist Nelson Peltz, who owns a franchiser of Arby’s restaurants, former Vice President Dan Quayle and Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks have all filed to raise about $10 billion in blank check offerings so far this year, according to Bloomberg data.
Investors who buy a piece of Perelman’s offering are betting he can identify a company to buy and close a deal within 24 months.
If MAFS fails to find a deal, it will liquidate and return the money, minus expenses, to investors.
Any deal that MAFS does must be approved by at least 70 percent of public shareholders. The threshold is about 10 percent below what typical blank check companies require to approve an acquisition.
Barry Schwartz, 58, will be the CEO of MAFS. He has been executive vice chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes since November.
In the offering document, MAFS said it did not have “any specific business combination under consideration” and that it has not “contacted any prospective acquisition candidate or had any substantive discussions, formal or otherwise” regarding any deals.
Perelman is currently embroiled in a legal battle with his ex-wife, actress Ellen Barkin, over financing for a film company they formed before divorcing.
