Blank-check firm Union Acquisition Corp II to buy LatAm’s Procaps

March 31 (Reuters) – U.S. blank-check company Union Acquisition Corp II on Wednesday said it will buy Latin American softgel maker Procaps Group for an enterprise value of $1.1 billion, the latest deal in Wall Street’s SPAC acquisition frenzy.

Procaps, founded in 1977 and based in Barranquilla, Colombia, researches how to deliver medicines to patients through different forms, like softgels, chewable medicines, or by coating pills to make them taste more pleasant to patients.

Union Acquisition Corp II said it raised $100 million in an oversubscribed private investment in public equity, or PIPE, transaction, providing additional funding to Procaps.

The PIPE was raised from a group of Latin American and healthcare investors, including funds such as Compass Group, Moneda Asset Management and Consorcio Seguros.

The money will be used for organic growth, investing in new product categories, and also for acquisitions of mid-sized companies likely in pharmaceutical or contract development and manufacturing organizations, Union Acquisition Corp II said.

Other investors in Procaps include the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Alejandro Weinstein, who was previously chief executive of generic drugmaker CFR Pharmaceuticals SA, which was bought by Abbott Laboratories in 2014.

Procaps is expected to have $436 million in gross revenue and $105 million in adjusted core profit this year.

Reuters had exclusively reported earlier this month that Procaps was in talks to go public on Nasdaq through a merger with Union Acquisition Corp II.

Union Acquisition Corp II is the second SPAC led by Kyle Bransfield, who expects Union Acquisition to launch more SPAC IPOs and is in the process of raising its third, slightly larger, SPAC at the moment.

So-called special purpose acquisition company’s (SPACs) are listed shell companies that raise funds to acquire a private company with the purpose of taking it public, allowing such targets to sidestep a traditional initial public offering. (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)

source: reuters.com