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A senior figure in Donald Trump’s Cabinet is plotting a £700m deal that would see one of Britain’s biggest digital-only banks being listed on the US stock market.
Sky News has learnt that a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up by Wilbur Ross, who was President Trump’s commerce secretary between 2017 and 2021, is in detailed talks about a merger with Durham-based Atom Bank.
Banking industry sources said this weekend that the discussions were at an advanced stage, although there was no guarantee that an agreement would be reached, particularly against the backdrop of equity markets haunted by soaring inflation and rising fears of recession.
If completed, however, a deal would make Atom Bank one of the most prominent UK-based companies to be taken public through a SPAC, joining the likes of Cazoo, the digital car-buying platform, and Vertical, the aerospace company founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick, the entrepreneur behind Ovo Energy.
Under the terms of the prospective merger, Atom Bank would agree to merge with Ross Acquisition Corp II, a SPAC which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the spring of last year, according to a banking industry insider.
The SPAC – a shell company launched with the purpose of finding an operating business to combine with – would also raise about £150m through a so-called PIPE (private investment in public equity).
Mr Ross and his other founding SPAC shareholders could choose to participate in that PIPE fundraising.
A deal would take place in one of the most volatile stock market environments for years, and after a string of SPACs have abandoned previously announced transactions or been forced to hand money back to their original investors after failing to identify a deal.
If it does announce a deal with Atom Bank, it would probably take around six months to complete.
In 2010, WL Ross, Mr Ross’s private equity firm,…
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Source : skynews
