City Tycoons Plan Blank Cheque Company for Five Billion Dollar Takeover

Three of the City’s most prominent figures are plotting the launch of a so called blank cheque vehicle on the London stock market. The initiative is being led by JRJ Group, set up by Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Roger Nagioff, both former executives of Lehman Brothers. British American hedge fund billionaire Noam Gottesman and his firm Toms Capital have also joined the venture.

Codenamed Project Mayflower, the company is currently in early stage discussions with institutional investors. Their aim is to raise up to 500 million dollars, which will then be deployed to target a major acquisition likely valued between two and five billion dollars. These targets will probably be businesses currently held by private equity firms eager to exit investments that have stalled during an uncertain period for initial public offerings.

Blank cheque companies, also known in the UK as reverse takeover vehicles or Spacs, have a chequered history. Their popularity soared during the pandemic when a record 240 billion dollars was raised globally, primarily in the United States. Approximately half of these vehicles ultimately failed to secure a suitable acquisition within the standard two year time frame, resulting in returned funds to investors. This was arguably more favourable than investing in ventures such as WeWork, Cazoo and Virgin Orbit which ended in collapse after their Spac deals.

The current scheme draws comparisons to past market frenzies, including the Knutsford vehicle of the late Nineties, whose market value soared in speculation before ultimately landing a more modest financial services deal. Gottesman has an extensive track record in such ventures, having co founded GLG and established Spac vehicles like Nomad Holdings which acquired the Birds Eye producer Iglo in 2015 for 2.6 billion euros. Isaacs and Nagioff set up JRJ in 2009 and have since focused on financial services and trading platform investments, including Marex.

Significant amounts of the founders’ own capital are expected to be committed to Mayflower. Their move is seen as a bold attempt to capitalise on a market where private equity exits are needed and appetite for major deals is beginning to resurface. Any comments from JRJ or Toms Capital about the venture are yet to be disclosed.