* Tikehau Capital and Arnault's vehicle backers of Pegasus
vehicle
* Pegasus to raise 500 mln euros in Amsterdam SPAC
* Vehicle to target financial services acquisition
(Adds background on SPACs)
By Abhinav Ramnarayan and Simon Jessop
LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - France's richest man Bernard
Arnault and former Unicredit head Jean Pierre Mustier launched
the 500 million euro ($605.40 million) listing of their special
purpose acquisition (SPAC) in Amsterdam on Monday, the
bookrunners on the deal said.
Pegasus Acquisition Company Europe B.V. aims to target
opportunities in the financial services sector and joins a wave
of similar listings in Europe and the United States.
A SPAC is a shell company that raises money in an initial
public offering (IPO) to merge with a privately held company,
that then becomes publicly traded as a result.
Pegasus is backed by institutional sponsors Tikehau Capital
and Financière Agache -- Arnault's investment vehicle -- and by
individual sponsors Diego De Giorgi and Mustier, according to a
message from the bookrunners to investors seen by Reuters.
An additional 100 million euros will be unconditionally
provided by Tikehau and Financière Agache as a forward purchase
agreement for any acquisition.
Citi and JPMorgan are the bookrunners on this deal.
There have been 10 SPAC listings in Europe in 2020 and 2021,
with a total value of about $1.3 billion, compared with the
United States where 522 such listings have attracted more than
$300 billion, Refinitiv data to the end of March shows.
The pace of SPAC listings in the United States has slowed in
recent weeks as IPO markets have turned more cautious. Bankers
in Europe say demand for SPACs may collapse before the European
pipeline even gets going.
The Pegasus deal is expected to complete later this week and
begin trading on Euronext Amsterdam on Thursday.
The four sponsors have also committed to invest an aggregate
amount of 55 million euros in IPO units.
($1 = 0.8259 euros)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Karin Strohecker and
Edmund Blair)