Polaris Acquisition Corp. completed its IPO on January 17, 2008, selling 15,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit. The gross proceeds totaled $150 million, in line with the amount that the company was looking to raise when it filed its initial S-1 on August 29, 2007. A total of $150,000,000, equal to $10.00 per common share, has been placed into an escrow account. This balance includes $6,750,000 deferred by the underwriters, which will be paid when the company completes an acquisition, and $4,500,000 from the sale of warrants to certain of the insiders. In the event that the company is liquidated, neither the underwriter nor the insiders will receive any of the funds placed into the escrow account.
Up to $1,800,000 of interest earned on the trust fund balance can be used to fund expenses related to investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements.
Each unit consists of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase one additional share at $7.00 per share.
Warrant terms: Each warrant will become exercisable on the later of the completion of a business combination with a target business and January 11, 2009. The warrants will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 10, 2012, or earlier upon redemption.
Polaris Acquisition Corp. is not going to be focusing its acquisition efforts on any particular industry.
The securities are listed on the American Stock Exchange. The units (TKP-U) are trading at $9.88 today. The common shares (TKP-WT) and warrants (TKP-U) are not yet trading.
The final prospectus: sec.gov
Significant principals
Marc V. Byron has served as our chairman of the board and chief executive officer since our inception. Mr. Byron co-founded Trivergance, LLC, a middle market merchant banking and investment firm, in June 2006, and has served as a Managing Member since its formation. Trivergance acted as a strategic and financial advisor in the $750 million transaction in which Sunterra Corporation went private. Since May 2003, Mr. Byron has also served as chairman of MG, LLC, d/b/a Tranzact, a marketing services firm that helps companies acquire customers and manage complex transactions by combining expertise in developing customer acquisition strategies with experience in applying technology. He has also served as an advisor to Apollo Management on large marketing and media related transactions, a consultant and partner to Halyard Capital on mid-size media and marketing transactions, and an investor in and advisor to Sonostar Capital related to smaller media and marketing transactions. In 1997, Mr. Byron founded Paradigm Direct and served as its chief executive officer until its sale to Mosaic Group, Inc., a Canadian marketing services firm. After the sale, Paradigm Direct changed its name to Mosaic Performance Solutions North America and Mr. Byron served as its chief executive officer until December 2001. From January 2002 to June 2003, Mr. Byron served as chief executive officer for Mosaic Group, Inc. At the time Mr. Byron became chief executive officer of Mosaic Group, Mosaic Group was highly leveraged and was ultimately required to file for restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, or CCAA, in Canada in December 2002. From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Byron served as president of National Market Share Inc., an outbound telemarketing firm. Mr. Byron's experience includes marketing consultation at the senior-most levels in corporate America, creation and execution of nationwide direct marketing efforts on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, as well as the effective management of rapid corporate growth. He has strategic and tactical experience in brand extensions, data aggregation, direct marketing, packaging and promotion, telecommunications and many other consumer-focused marketing services businesses. Mr. Byron received a B.A. from Emory University.
Lowell D. Kraff has served as our president and a member of our board of directors since our inception. Mr. Kraff has spent his career in the private equity, merchant banking and investment banking fields. He has been a principal equity investor for over 13 years participating in leveraged buyouts, growth equity, and early stage venture capital transactions. Mr. Kraff co-founded Trivergance, LLC in June 2006, and has served as a managing member since its formation. Trivergance acted as a strategic and financial advisor in the $750 million transaction in which Sunterra Corporation went private. From July 2001 to June 2006, Mr. Kraff was a founding principal of Connecting Capital & Partners, LLC, a merchant banking company organized to make principal investments in alternative assets and provide limited strategic investment banking advice. During that time period, Connecting Capital & Partners participated in and provided strategic investment banking advice for transactions aggregating approximately $2.5 billion, including the acquisition of Creekstone Farms Premium Beef by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners in March 2005, the acquisition of the Marketing Service Division of Cendant Corporation by an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P. in October 2005 and the acquisition of SourceCorp Inc. by an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P. in July 2006. From June 1996 to July 2001, Mr. Kraff was founding principal of Vision Capital Partners, an early stage venture capital/private equity business. At Vision Capital, Mr. Kraff and his partners sourced proprietary deals and invested in several early stage and growth capital opportunities. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Smart Pack Solutions, LLC, an internet-based retail sales firm. Mr. Kraff received a B.S. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. |
