NEW YORK & ZURICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global Blue Group AG, a leading provider of Tax Free Shopping and payment solutions, today announced that it has completed its business combination (the “Business Combination”) with Far Point Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: FPAC, FPAC.UN, and FPAC.WS), a special purpose acquisition company (“FPAC”). The Business Combination was approved by FPAC’s stockholders on August 24, 2020.
The combined company is named Global Blue Group Holding AG (“Global Blue”), and its common stock and warrants are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols “GB” and “GB.WS”, respectively, beginning Monday, August 31, 2020.
Global Blue will continue to be led by its experienced management team including CEO Jacques Stern. Tom Farley, co-sponsor of FPAC and former President of the New York Stock Exchange, will become Chairman of the company.
Existing Global Blue owners, including global technology investment firm Silver Lake and global private markets investment manager Partners Group, will remain significant investors, owning approximately 81.1% of Global Blue’s outstanding shares.
Ant Group, the financial services technology affiliate of Alibaba Group and operator of the Alipay mobile payments platform, also has made a significant investment in Global Blue, becoming one of its main shareholders, with approximately 6.5% of its outstanding shares. Ant Group also will have representation on Global Blue’s board of directors.
PJT Partners acted as lead financial advisor to Global Blue and its shareholders. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Niederer Kraft Frey, and Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal advisors to Global Blue and its shareholders. Credit Suisse acted as equity private placement agent, financial advisor and capital markets advisor to FPAC. BofA Securities acted as financial advisor and capital markets advisor to FPAC. Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal advisor to FPAC. BNP Paribas and Morgan Stanley were coordinators and active bookrunners on the senior debt financing for the combined company, with mandated lead arranger and bookrunner roles also for each of Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays, BofA Securities, Credit Suisse, and J.P. Morgan. Of the aforementioned financing banks, those not serving as financial advisors to Far Point served as financial advisors to Global Blue and its shareholders, with Deutsche Bank also serving in that capacity.
About Global Blue
As the worldwide leader of the Tax Free Shopping industry for the last 40 years, with a global footprint spanning more than 50 countries and 300,000 points of sale, Global Blue’s mission is to empower merchants to capture the full potential of international shoppers. The Group offers a seamless shopping and payment journey for tourists and also provides a wide range of Added-Value Payment Solutions for all the stakeholders involved, including retailers and international shoppers. For more information, please visit http://www.globalblue.com/corporate/.
About Far Point
Far Point Acquisition Corporation was a special purpose acquisition company organized under the laws of Delaware for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses in the financial technology industry. The company completed its initial public offering on the NYSE in June 2018, raising $632 million from investors. The Business Combination with Global Blue was its initial business combination transaction, and it will cease to be a listed company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Blue.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes forward looking statements. When used in this press release, the words “estimates,” “projected,” “expects,” “positions,” “predicts,” “anticipates,” “forecasts,” “plans,” “intends,” “believes,” “seeks,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “future,” “propose” and variations of these words or similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, and such statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results, and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, estimates and other important factors, many of which are outside Global Blue's management's control, that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Global Blue undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.