Our Company
We are a blank check company newly incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not identified any potential business combination target, and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any potential business combination target.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business industry or sector, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify, acquire and manage a market-leading business that may provide opportunities for attractive risk-adjusted returns. We believe the expertise of our management team will allow us to identify potential acquisition targets with attractive risk-adjusted returns across a diverse set of industries and geographies. Furthermore, we believe that our management team is positioned to drive ongoing value creation post-business combination, as our team has done with investments in the healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, services, industrial, consumer and other sectors over time.
Our sponsor is an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative asset manager active in private equity, growth equity, credit and real asset strategies. Through our affiliation with H.I.G. Capital, we intend to capitalize on the ability of H.I.G. Capital’s multi-sector platform. Given H.I.G. Capital’s global reach and experience across industries, we believe our team has the required investment, operational, diligence and capital raising expertise, as well as relationships with financing, deal sourcing and advisory counterparties to effect a business combination with an attractive target and to position it for long-term success in the public markets.
We intend to identify and acquire a business that complements the experience and expertise of our management team and H.I.G. Capital. We believe that we are well positioned to capitalize on the significant volume of transaction opportunities that H.I.G. Capital consistently generates but is not currently pursuing via its existing strategies and vehicles. H.I.G. Capital has in the past declined to pursue potential investment opportunities that offered attractive risk-adjusted returns that would have been relevant to our acquisition strategy because those opportunities were not within size parameters of H.I.G. Capital’s existing funds. H.I.G. Capital’s deep industry experience and historical success of value creation in businesses position us well to identify, evaluate, and manage these larger businesses. By leveraging the management team’s extensive operating expertise, we believe we can identify critical “value creation” drivers needed to help companies realize their full potential.
H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital was founded in 1993 by Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer, each of whom are currently Co-CEOs of H.I.G. Capital. As of August 31, 2020, H.I.G. Capital managed approximately $40 billion of capital under management, or aggregate capital commitments of private funds and accounts, across multiple investment fund strategies, including private equity, growth equity, credit and real assets. With offices in the U.S. (Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Stamford, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta), Europe (London, Paris, Hamburg, Luxembourg, Madrid and Milan) and Latin America (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Bogota), H.I.G. Capital’s approximately 425 dedicated investment professionals bring a depth of experience and skills across a broad range of industries and transaction types.
Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. Capital has executed over 1,000 investments and managed more than 380 companies worldwide. Over its 27-year history, H.I.G. Capital has maintained a successful investment track record across multiple investment cycles and changing macroeconomic environments, including two recessions, the September 11 attacks and the financial crisis of 2008. H.I.G. Capital identifies intrinsic “value creation” drivers needed to help companies realize their full potential, including implementing impactful operational efficiency improvements, significantly scaling the business through acquisitions, strategically repositioning the business, and investing capital and other resources to increase capabilities and expand market penetration. By identifying, executing and integrating accretive acquisitions and financing them efficiently, H.I.G. Capital’s investment professionals work to help businesses further cement their market leadership position. H.I.G. Capital’s investment professionals collaborate with management to optimize the go-to-market strategy and cost structure, assist in diversifying into ancillary products and markets and divest non-core businesses. H.I.G. Capital’s investment professionals collaborate with management to streamline and prioritize strategic initiatives and establish detailed and consistent frameworks to track the progress of such initiatives.
H.I.G. Capital’s strong multi-decade track record of generating industry-leading returns is a function of its systematic investment selection process centered around its investment committees, which review all of H.I.G. Capital’s deals across all strategies, applying consistent criteria to evaluate risks and upsides in every investment and benefitting from years of accumulated pattern-recognition experience of H.I.G. Capital’s key decision makers: firm co-founders Mr. Mnaymneh and Mr. Tamer and firm co-presidents Rick Rosen and Brian Schwartz. The investment our blank check company will eventually make will be subjected to the same rigorous review process led by the same key individuals who stand at the heart of H.I.G. Capital’s success to date.
Our Board and Management
Brian Schwartz serves as our Chief Executive Officer and on our board of directors. Mr. Schwartz is Co-President of H.I.G. Capital. He joined H.I.G. Capital in 1994. In his current position, along with Co-President Rick Rosen, he helps run the day-to-day operations of the firm and sits on the investment committees for all H.I.G. Capital funds. Prior to this role, Mr. Schwartz held a number of leadership positions at the firm, as well as having led the acquisition of 25 platform investments in a variety of industries. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Schwartz worked in PepsiCo’s strategic planning group. His responsibilities included managing strategic acquisitions for PepsiCo and evaluating new business opportunities. Mr. Schwartz began his career with the investment banking firm of Dillon, Read and Co., where he split his time between the corporate finance group and certain private equity funds. Mr. Schwartz earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.S. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rob Wolfson serves as our President and on our board of directors. Mr. Wolfson is an Executive Managing Director and the Head of the H.I.G. Capital Advantage Buyout Fund (the “Advantage Fund”), as well as the Head of U.S. Healthcare. Mr. Wolfson joined H.I.G. Capital in 2005. Prior to leading the Advantage Fund, Mr. Wolfson spent almost 12 years as a Managing Director leading transactions across multiple H.I.G. Capital strategies. Mr. Wolfson has worked with companies in a variety of industries, with a focus on healthcare, business services, and technology. In addition to the responsibilities mentioned above, Mr. Wolfson brings investment and operating experience across many industries. Prior to H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Wolfson was an executive at IPWireless, a wireless infrastructure provider. Mr. Wolfson began his career as a consultant with LEK Consulting, a leading worldwide strategy consulting firm where he worked with Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms and private equity portfolio companies. Mr. Wolfson earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University.
Timur Akazhanov serves as our Chief Financial Officer. He is a Managing Director of the Advantage Fund, where he focuses on investing in telecommunications, media and technology sectors, as well as tech-enabled services sectors. Mr. Akazhanov has more than a decade of experience in private equity in a broad range of industries, including technology, services, education, industrials, media and healthcare. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Akazhanov was a Managing Director in the Private Equity Group at Blackstone for seven years, and before that worked at Bain Capital and McKinsey and Company. Mr. Akazhanov earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker and a Ford scholar, and his A.B. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.
Richard Siegel serves as our Vice President and General Counsel. He has been General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of H.I.G. Capital since 2005. He is responsible for all of the firm’s legal, regulatory and compliance matters worldwide. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Siegel was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Ryder System, a Fortune 350 global transportation and logistics company, and General Counsel of a private investment firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Siegel began his legal career in the New York and Melbourne, Australia offices of Sullivan & Cromwell and served as a Judicial Clerk for Andrew G.T. Moore II, of the Delaware Supreme Court. Mr. Siegel received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and earned a B.S. in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland.