Heat’s Shane Battier, MLB Giants Co-Owner Seligman Raise $200 Million SPAC
A special purpose acquisition company from San Francisco Giants co-owner Scott Seligman and Miami Heat vice president of analytics and basketball development Shane Battier priced its IPO last night and began trading this morning.
The SPAC, BOA Acquisition Corp., raised $200 million, more than the initial $175 million sought from the blank check. BOA seeks to acquire a business in the so-called proptech space—technology related to real estate in some manner, according to the latest version of its prospectus available with the Securities and Exchaneg Commission.
A minority owner of baseball’s Giants, Seligman is a real estate executive heading Seligman Group, a family business that has a large portfolio of Los Angeles apartments, as well as other commercial and multi-family real estate holdings, including the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. Seligman is chairman of BOA and his business is the SPAC sponsor, the entity that provides initial capital to fund formation and underwriting of the blank check.
In his capacity with the Heat, Battier leads a group looking for data-based solutions to guide the NBA franchise’s initiatives. He’s probably best known as a star on Duke basketball teams at the turn of the century, earning national player of the year honors from nine organizations in 2001. He played in the NBA from 2001 to 2014. Battier is one of five directors of BOA, rounded out by private equity and technology executives.
BOA joins a list of more than 100 SPACs involving sports figures, most of which have formed in the past year. Like all blank check businesses, BOA seeks to bring another company public through its stock market listing. The SPAC has 24 months to find a target or it will have to return the IPO capital to shareholders. BOA sold 200 units at $10 each through investment bank BTIG. The units hold one share and a third of a warrant, the right to buy an additional share at $11.50 after the SPAC makes an acquisition and at least a year has passed.
A spokesperson for BOA declined to comment.
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