Serial entrepreneur and investor Mark Ein is raising up to $345 million with his fifth blank-check company, Capital Investment Corp. V, according to new Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The offering includes $300 million in shares and an additional $45 million if the underwriters exercise their ability to purchase additional equity in the company, which would become a publicly traded company with no products or services but would use that cash to purchase or merge with a private company — in effect taking the other company public and bypassing the traditional IPO process.
The company will trade on the Nasdaq Exchange under the ticker symbol "CAP.U," according to the filings, although no date is set for its debut.
Ein declined to comment.
Ein's first blank-check company merged with real estate investment trust Two Harbors Investment Corp. in 2009, the second with cruise company Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. in 2013, the third with public relations software company Cision Ltd. in 2015 and the fourth with specialty equipment rental provider Nesco Inc. in 2017.
The blank-check company is also known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, and there have been a proliferation of such SPACs in 2020. Silver Spring documentary streaming service CuriosityStream Inc. recently merged with one such SPAC to go public, and a partner at Monumental Sports & Entertainment launched his own health care-related SPAC.
Ein has once again teamed up with Dyson Dryden, who partnered with Ein on all but the first blank-check company, in which he served as an adviser. Dryden had previously been a vice chairman and investor in CDS Logistics Management Inc., a company specializing in home improvement product delivery services, as well as Citigroup Inc. in its investment banking division.
The company said in filings that it plans to target business that will experience substantial growth after an acquisition and that have developed leading positions in industries with strong fundamentals. Not surprisingly, it is looking for companies led by talented, experienced and highly competent management teams, although it would identify and recruit new management if needed.
Ein owns stakes in a number of companies, and is the chairman of security company Kastle Systems International LLC as well as Washington City Paper.
