Home Run For A-Rod

At the beginning of February, Slam Corp. — a SPAC backed by Alex Rodriguez — announced its intention to go public through a $500 million IPO. Less than a month later, A-Rod & Co. have reached their goal. 

The blank-check company, which is also backed by hedge fund Antara Capital, announced it has raised $500 million by offering 50 million units at $10 each. The units include one share of common stock and one-fourth of a warrant.

Under Nasdaq ticker SLAMU, the SPAC plans to target acquisitions in the “sports, media, entertainment, health, and consumer technology sectors,” according to its prospectus.

While the SPAC doesn’t plan to buy into professional sports teams, retired Walmart e-commerce chief Marc Lore, who has expressed interest in buying a team, is a special advisor to the SPAC.

Slam started trading publicly today, and its IPO is expected to close on Feb. 25, 2021. As of last week, SPACs had already raised $38 billion in 2021 — nearly half of the record $83 billion raised in 2020.

In December, A-Rod also joined Miami-based private equity firm CGI Merchant Group to invest in hotels. The group is looking to raise $650 million.