Blank-check company to buy payments firm Global Blue for $2.6 billion, take it public

By Cara Lombardo 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (January 17, 2020).

Far Point Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company launched by former New York Stock Exchange President Thomas Farley, said Thursday it plans to buy 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.

Global Blue, which processes transactions for international shoppers, has been majority owned since 2012 by Silver Lake. Far Point said the private-equity firm plans to retain a minority stake.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Thursday that the parties were nearing a deal.

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 to remain in his role, while Mr. Farley will become chairman, Far Point 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, Far Point said. In addition to that group, 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 17, 2020 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

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