16.01.2020

Global Blue and Far Point Acquisition Corporation announce USD 2.6bn business combination

Global Blue, a leading strategic technology and payments partner empowering global merchants to capture the growth of international shoppers, today announced it will become a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with Far Point Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company co-sponsored by the institutional asset manager Third Point LLC and former NYSE President Thomas W. Farley. Current investors, including Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, will remain significant shareholders in the combined company. New investors, anchored by Ant Financial Services Group, a member of the Alibaba digital economy and operator of the world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform Alipay, and Third Point, have committed to invest a total of USD 350 million in the combined company at a EUR 2.3 billion (approximately USD 2.6 billion) enterprise valuation in the form of a private placement. The new public company will be incorporated in Switzerland and will trade as Global Blue under ticker symbol NYSE: “GB” upon closing.

Niederer Kraft Frey advises Global Blue and Silverlake as Swiss counsel. The NKF team is led by Corporate/M&A partners Philipp Haas and Ulysses von Salis, working with partner Andreas Casutt (Corporate/Executive Benefits), senior associates Adrian Koller (Finance), Deirdre Ní Annracháin, associates Shu Bernet-Zhang, Samuel Hochstrasser, Julia Tolstova, and junior associates Stephanie Huchler, Naomi Loretz and Patrick Janshekar (all Corporate/M&A).