Cable legend Leo J. Hindery Jr., is attempting to raise about $425 million through his second special purpose acquisition company -- Trine II Acquisition Corp. -- to purchase a company in the media, telecom or technology space.
Hindery formed his first SPAC about two years ago -- Trine Acquisition Corp. -- raising about $261 million. Trine Acquisition agreed to purchase 3D printing technology company Desktop Metal in August in a deal that valued the company at about $2.5 billion.
Trine II filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 17. The company plans to offer about 42.5 million shares at $10 each. Hindery and former Hemisphere Media head of corporate development Pierre Henry -- who was also his partner in the first Trine SPAC -- will lead the new venture.
Other Trine II executives include EVP and general counsel Mark Coleman, who served in the same role at Trine II and Richard Miller, managing director of consulting firm Evora Partners, who will serve as EVP and chief financial officer of Trine II. The board of directors will include retired RBC Capital executive and former Daniels & Associates chief Brian Deevy; Desktop Metal chairman and CEO Ric Fulop; LightShed Ventures general partner Jamie Seltzer; Land’s End chairman Josephine Linden; Providence Strategic Growth executive Jim Moran; investment form Kay2 Ventures co-founder Jason Kay and LightShed Ventures general partner Jamie Seltzer.
Hindery has a long history in the cable industry, serving as president of Tele-Communications Inc., CEO of AT&T Broadband and CEO of the YES Network, and has also been an investor in programming through InterMedia Partners.
Trine II has 24 months to find an appropriate target, which must be valued at at least 80% of the money raised by the SPAC.
Related: SPACs: The New Final Frontier
Also called “blank check companies,” SPACs have become a wildly popular way to take private companies public. Last August, documentary-focused streamer CuriosityStream agreed to merge with Software Acquisition Group in a deal that valued it at more than $500 million. According to SPACInsider, SPACs are on a pace to shatter another record this year, with 158 of the investment vehicles created in 2021, raising about $48.1 billion. Last year 248 SPACs were formed -- nearly five times the previous year -- raising more than $83 billion.
