Centerview Unit to Launch Blank-Check Company

Another big name Wall Street firm is expected to launch an acquisition vehicle that would give it a "blank check" to make deals.

Centerview Capital Holdings LLC, the private-equity arm of mergers-and-acquisitions advisory firm Centerview Partners, is planning to launch a blank-check company that would buy consumer-products companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Blank-check companies raise money in public offerings to spend on future acquisitions.

Jim Kilts, a Centerview Capital partner and former Gillette Co. chief executive, is expected to help lead the venture, which could launch as soon as July, the people said. Centerview will seek to raise about $300 million in the offering, one of the people said.

Centerview has tapped Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to underwrite the deal, according to people familiar with the offering.

Special-purpose acquisition companies, as they are also known, are making a comeback during an otherwise lackluster IPO market, and some well known names on Wall Street are joining the wave.

Centerview Partners, founded by investment bankers Blair Effron and Robert Pruzan, has advised on some of the largest M&A deals of the past decade, including General Electric Co.'s sale of roughly $200 billion in GE Capital assets and Time Warner Cable Inc.'s $55 billion merger with Charter Communications Inc.

Mr. Kilts joined Centerview in 2006, shortly after the advisory firm's launch, to build out its private-equity arm. Centerview Capital now has roughly $500 million in committed capital, according to its website.

SPACs raised $3.9 billion in 20 deals in 2015, their busiest year since before the financial crisis, according to Dealogic. So far this year, five SPACs have raised roughly $1.5 billion in public offerings.

Landcadia Holdings Inc., a blank-check company formed by the CEOs of Jefferies Group LLC and Landry's Inc., this week raised $250 million in an IPO for possible acquisitions in the dining, hospitality, entertainment and gaming industries, according to regulatory filings. Last week, a blank-check company run by former Blackstone Group LP partner Chinh Chu and Fidelity National Financial Inc. Chairman William Foley raised $1.12 billion, including $515 million from a private group of investors.

Private-equity firms have been particularly active in the SPAC market, as both buyers and sellers. TPG launched a SPAC in 2015, and earlier this year it sold a majority stake in one of its portfolio companies to a blank-check company controlled by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. Energy-focused Riverstone Holdings LLC owns 20% of a SPAC launched in February to buy up oil and gas assets.

Because the companies have no operations at first, investors who buy SPAC shares are betting on the investing prowess of their sponsors and their target industries.

The Centerview SPAC will target consumer-products companies, an area of strength for Mr. Kilts. He sold Gillette to Procter & Gamble Co. in 2005 in a deal valued at roughly $54 billion, creating the world's largest consumer-products enterprise.

Write to Maureen Farrell at [e-mail] and Dana Cimilluca at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 27, 2016 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)

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