Far Point Acquisition Nears Deal to Buy Global Blue From Silver Lake
January 16 2020 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Cara Lombardo
Far Point Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company launched by
former New York Stock Exchange President Thomas Farley, is nearing
a purchase of Swiss payments company Global Blue for $2.6 billion
including debt.
The deal would hand Global Blue a U.S. listing and an additional
$1 billion from Far Point and investors including Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd. affiliate Ant Financial Services Group and Daniel
Loeb's activist hedge fund Third Point LLC, people familiar with
the matter said. It could be announced as soon as Thursday.
Global Blue, which processes transactions for international
shoppers, has been majority owned since 2012 by Silver Lake. The
private-equity firm plans to retain a minority stake, the people
said.
Far Point was launched in 2018 by Mr. Farley and Third Point to
buy financial-technology companies. The special-purpose acquisition
company, or SPAC, raised more than $600 million by listing shares
on the NYSE.
Global Blue's network enables international tourists to purchase
goods tax-free. Its main business unit helps merchants digitize the
process of refunding value-added taxes for international shoppers,
while another gives merchants the ability to accept payment in the
tourists' own currencies.
As middle-class populations in emerging markets grow and travel
more widely, cross-border transactions have been increasing at
faster rates than domestic transactions, making investments in the
firms that handle them attractive to investors.
Global Blue Chief Executive Jacques Stern is expected to remain
in his role, while Mr. Farley will become chairman, the people
familiar with the matter said.
So-called blank-check companies like Far Point don't have assets
when they go public and investors don't know in advance what the
SPAC will target. Instead, SPACs are often viewed as bets on their
executives. They generally have 24 months to make an
acquisition.
The blank-check structure has been popular in recent years. Last
year, Richard Branson's space-tourism venture Virgin Galactic
Holdings Inc. went public by selling a 49% stake to a SPAC, Social
Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp.
In the case of Far Point, its CEO is Mr. Farley, who as
president helped the Big Board win the stock listings of some of
the biggest technology companies to go public during his tenure,
including Alibaba and Snap Inc. He left the NYSE in 2018 to lead
Far Point.
As part of the Global Blue deal, a group of investors will put
an additional $225 million into the company, with $100 million of
that coming from Third Point, the people said. Ant Financial, the
world's largest financial-technology firm, plans to invest $125
million and expand the work it does with Global Blue on its Alipay
platform.
The financial-technology industry, which digitizes the plumbing
of banking and payments and has exploded as cash transactions
decrease, has been consolidating as companies race to offer
customers streamlined experiences.
Earlier this week, Visa Inc. said it would buy
financial-technology company Plaid Inc. for $5.3 billion, twice the
startup's roughly $2.65 billion valuation from a 2018 funding
round.
Corrie Driebusch contributed to this article.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 16, 2020 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
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