(Alliance News) - Cazoo Group Ltd will debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday after sealing its merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
London-listed Daily Mail & General Trust PLC, the newspaper publisher which has a 17% stake in Cazoo, said it has received USD5 million in net cash as part of Cazoo's listing process.
"Under the terms of the business combination agreement, AJAX and Cazoo have now combined under a new holding company, Cazoo Group, which will receive proceeds of over USD1 billion before expenses from the transaction to further build out its brand and infrastructure as it continues to transform the car buying and selling experience across the UK and mainland Europe," Cazoo explained.
Cazoo in March said the deal would give it a pro-forma enterprise value of USD7.0 billion and a pro-forma equity value of USD8.1 billion and each Cazoo share would be valued at USD10.00.
DMGT at the time said it may receive USD1.35 billion on closing, though added that the final figure may be lower should AJAX shareholders make redemptions.
The Daily Mail owner invested in Cazoo through its dmg ventures capital arm.
Back in October 2020, it topped up its stake after taking part in Cazoo's GBP240 million fundraise.
The deal marks another occasion when a high-profile company has bypassed a traditional stock market float and instead merged with a SPAC. These are investment vehicles that raise money on stock exchanges and then invest in other companies or mount reverse takeovers.
Daily Mail shares were 0.6% higher at 1,100.00 pence each in London on Friday afternoon.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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