ADC Acquisition Corporation, the UAE’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), announced that shareholders have approved the business combination with Abu Dhabi-based United Printing & Publishing (UPP), and the private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction, at its General Assembly held on 12 October, 2023. The deal will see UPP become a publicly listed company on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), and in turn becoming Gulf’s first successful SPAC merger process.
ADC was co-established in 2018 by ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company, and Chimera Investment, a leading Abu Dhabi-based private investment firm managing a diversified portfolio of listed and unlisted equities on both local and regional markets.
Shareholders in ADC approved the issuance of 62.3 million new Class A shares in the company to ADQ in exchange for ADQ’s transfer of the entire issued share capital of UPP to ADC.
The new shares will be issued at a rate of 10 dirhams per share, each having a nominal value of 2.50 dirhams, and will be paid fully. The book building for the PIPE transaction was completed on 3 October, 2023, with ADC set to issue 73.4 million new Class A shares at a price of 10 dirhams a share to the PIPE subscribers.
With 1.1 billion dirhams (about $297 million) of proceeds from the SPAC and PIPE fundraising, UPP will be well positioned to pursue both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. “These will help accelerate UPP’s growth trajectory in its business segments and capture market share by leveraging its brand, customer base, and the strength of its ecosystem,” says an ADC statement.
ADC CEO Seif Fikry says, “As the region’s first SPAC merger process, this transaction marks a notable achievement for ADC and reaffirms ADX as the region’s most dynamic financial market. We are confident that UPP represents an attractive platform, with strong and stable revenue, through its long-term contracts and relationships with anchor customers, such as the UAE government entities.”
Established in 2006, United Printing & Publishing specializes in security and commercial printing, packaging, and distribution and logistics services.
