SGs Blank Cheque Firm Tiga Acquisition Raises $240m In Upsized IPO

Tiga Acquisition, a Singapore-based blank cheque company, raised $240 million in its upsized initial public offering (IPO) by pricing 24 million units at $10 each, according to its filing.

The company, led by CEO and Chairman Raymond Zage III, founder and CEO of Tiga Investments and former Managing Director and CEO of Farallon Capital Asia, originally filed to raise $200 million by offering 20 million units in its US IPO.

It offered 4 million more units, with each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one-half of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades under the ticker symbol TINV.U beginning November 24.

Tiga Acquisition earlier said it may raise an additional $50 million at the closing of an acquisition.

The blank cheque company is formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

While it has not selected a target industry yet, the company plans to pursue businesses with fundamentally sound business models that may be temporarily misunderstood by the marketplace, among other criteria.

Tiga Acquisition said the uncertainties in the global economic environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic increase the chances of finding special situation investment opportunities.

In addition, the recent geopolitical tensions, including the US and China trade wars, are also forcing businesses to re-evaluate their supply chains and ownership structures, the company said.

“We believe that many businesses and industries may have to change their fundamental way of doing business whereas some others are benefitting greatly from the current environment,” Tiga Acquisition added.

The company had not commenced operations and said that it will not generate any operating revenue until after the completion of a business combination, at the earliest. It will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income from the proceeds derived from the proposed public offering.

Tiga’s IPO comes two months after Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp, another Singapore-based black cheque company, filed for a $225-million IPO in the US. The SPAC is led by CEO and Chairman Ravi Thakran, who is also the group chairman at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA South/Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand.