Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is turning to business.
Photo: Mark Goldman/Zuma PressPaul Ryan, the consummate Washington negotiator, is trying his hand at another kind of deal making, jumping into the rush on Wall Street toward blank-check acquisition companies.
The former House speaker will serve as chairman of a vehicle known as Executive Network Partnering Corp., which will seek to raise roughly $300 million in an initial public offering, people familiar with the deal said. That figure is subject to change based on demand.
Mr. Ryan is a director of Fox Corp., which shares common ownership with Wall Street Journal parent News Corp.
Also known as special-purpose acquisition companies, blank-check vehicles turn the traditional IPO model on its head by going public before acquiring a business. They have gained popularity as deal makers look to take advantage of the economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Among other notables launching SPACs, hedge-fund billionaire William Ackman recently raised $4 billion for the largest one in history. Last month, health-care-services provider MultiPlan Inc. said it was merging with a blank-check company run by veteran Wall Street deal maker Michael Klein in an $11 billion takeover that marks the largest such transaction ever.
ENPC, which will serve as the new vehicle’s ticker symbol, will be a twist on the traditional SPAC, with longer-term incentives for its backers and potentially slimmer fees for underwriters, the people said.
Its founders won’t be able to sell any of their shares for three years after any merger closes; typically, SPAC founders can either sell a year after a merger closes or as soon as the shares trade above a certain level.
In documents set to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next few days, ENPC will outline its structure, the people said. It will be called CAPS, an acronym for “capital which aligns and partners with a sponsor”—or SPAC in reverse.
As part of the deal, fees to Wall Street banks will be slashed. Evercore Inc., the sole underwriter of the blank-check fund, will be paid 1% of the size of the vehicle compared with 2% upfront in a typical SPAC. When a merger deal is struck, typically the same underwriters get paid another 3.5% for their work—and often additional advisory fees. In this case, Evercore isn’t guaranteed to get the second fee, but will get a separate, smaller advisory payment. ENPC could work with other advisers on any subsequent merger deal.
Alex Dunn, the former president of security company Vivint Smart Home Inc., will serve as chief executive of the new SPAC. Solamere Capital, run by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s son Taggart, will be the main sponsor.
Write to Maureen Farrell at maureen.farrell@wsj.com
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