Foley-backed SPAC agrees to $7.3 billion deal with Blackstone's Alight

[January 25, 2021]  

(Reuters) - A blank-check firm backed by prominent investor Bill Foley has agreed to take Alight Solutions LLC, the U.S. benefits services provider owned by buyout firm Blackstone Group, public in a deal valued at $7.3 billion, the companies said on Monday.

Reuters was first to report on Sunday that Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp was nearing a deal to take Alight public.

The deal includes an investment of $1.55 billion from a number of investors, including a $250 million investment from Cannae Holdings Inc, and a $150 million investment from Fidelity National Title Insurance Co, Chicago Title Insurance Co and Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co.

Foley Trasimene's shares rose 9.4% in premarket trading.

The merged company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ALIT".

Based in Lincolnshire, Illinois, Alight offers cloud-based benefits administration and human resources services to businesses, including 70% of the Fortune 100 companies, in 188 countries, according to its website.

It was acquired by Blackstone in 2017 from insurance broker Aon, in a deal that valued it at up to $4.8 billion.

The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Blackstone pursued an $800 million initial public offering of Alight two years ago, but abandoned the effort amid concerns it would not fetch the terms it was seeking.

A SPAC is a shell company that raises money in an IPO to merge with a privately held company that then becomes publicly traded as a result.

The deal comes on the heels of another blank-check merger involving Blackstone and a Foley SPAC in recent weeks. The private equity firm and its peer CVC Capital Partners said last month they would merge Paysafe Group with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II in a transaction that valued the payments processor at $9 billion.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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