Former Knesset Member and Israeli cabinet minister Yizhar Shai’s new SPAC company called Israel Acquisitions Corp raised $143 million in a NASDAQ IPO. The firm said the funds would be used for investment in the Israeli technology market. Shai was a Knesset member from Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party and was Israel’s Minister of Science & Technology from 2020 to 2021.
Israel Acquisitions Corp offered 12.5 million units at a price of $ 10 per unit. They were listed on the NASDAQ and trade under the ticker symbol “ISRLU.” Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one redeemable warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share of the Company at a price of $11.50 per share. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the Class A ordinary shares and warrants are expected to trade on NASDAQ under the symbols “ISRL” and “ISRLW,” respectively.
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Shai spoke about the current SPAC market with Globes saying, “There was a combination of circumstances here. At the end of last year, quite a few SPACs returned money to investors and announced that they were ceasing their activity for all kinds of reasons, and the result is a shortage of a product that for a certain category of investor is a popular one – that is, our timing was good.”
“The falls in stock prices and the changes in the market in the past year repositioned the SPAC as a good alternative, and against that we presented an excellent and very attractive team,” he added, “and a strategy focused on the Israeli market, which is a subject all of its own. The investors, who are almost all Americans, believe in this market and want to invest in it. All this together led to the offering going successfully with very nice demand.
“For me, the most heartening thing was the sweeping support for Israeli high-tech. We talked to dozens of investors who are not characterized by Zionism or Jewishness or any connection to Israel, and the subject of Israeli high-tech as a source of significant companies arose time and again. All the feedback was supportive.”
