New SPAC Targeting Real Estate, Mortgage Companies
A new special-purpose acquisition company is on the hunt for targets in the mortgage and real estate space.
The company, called Southport Acquisition Corp., is looking to partner with a financial services software or fintech company with revenues of $50M to $100M and a valuation between $1B and $2B, “with particular focus on mortgage and real estate verticals in the United States,” documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission detail.
Southport is offering 20 million units at $10 a piece, a fairly standard price. It is hoping to raise upward of $234M, provided that BofA Securities exercises a 45-day option to purchase an additional 3 million units, Inman reported.
“Within the home and housing industry, there is a $100B home insurance market and a $16B title insurance market that is known to house many legacy companies with certain products and services that we believe are outdated,” Southport’s investor prospectus states. “We seek to partner with companies that are creating new technology-enabled solutions to provide a greater offering for consumers.”
Industry veterans are at the helm of the blank check company. Southport’s CEO will be Jeb Spencer, the co-founder and managing partner of TVC Capital, “a software focused, growth equity fund,” and the board of directors will include Sig Anderman, the co-founder of mortgage industry automation software company Ellie Mae, and Cathleen Schreiner Gates, the CEO of mortgage software company SimpleNexus. In all, three members of the management team are veterans of Ellie Mae.
“Our management team includes prominent leaders with proven track records in the software industry, who are well positioned to identify and evaluate businesses within various sectors that we believe would benefit from their experience, skills and access to the public markets,” the prospectus notes.
A SPAC frenzy generated billions in 2020 as 248 firms went public and raised $83B in the process, The Real Deal reported, citing data from SPACInsider. Though the fervor seems to have slowed a bit this year, as of June 2021, more than $103B had been invested in SPACs, according to SPAC Research.
