Admiral Acquisition will buy North American engineering and lab-testing services provider Acuren in a $1.85 billion deal, the blank-check company co-founded by dealmaker Martin E. Franklin said on Wednesday.
The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024, will also see Admiral move its listing to New York and cancel trading on the London Stock Exchange, the company said.
Acuren provides mission-critical, regulatorily mandated, non-destructive testing, inspection, engineering and lab testing services across a variety of industries.
Admiral raised $550 million in an initial public offering (IPO) last year, at a time when the popularity of blank-check firms, also known as special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) had lost lustre.
Franklin is known as a pioneer in the world of SPACs, having launched several such vehicles, including J2 Acquisition, which raised $1.25 billion in a London IPO in 2017.
The U.S.-listing comes as an increasing number of companies are moving away from European listings in favour of U.S. markets, where valuations can be higher. London, particularly, faces questions around its attractiveness for IPOs, following a series of high-profile defections by locally listed or British companies to New York.
Source: Reuters.com