Don Putnam's Grail Partners has created a buying machine. The newly formed blank check company, Grail Investment Corp., on Monday filed to raise $200 million from an IPO.

Grail will offer 20 million units at a price of $10 apiece. The offering is a "blank check" IPO which means that Grail's business plan is to acquire existing firms.

Blank check companies often invest in micro-cap companies with potential to grow. A possible avenue Grail may go down here is to buy some of the smaller ETF firms out there.

Grail Partners is an investor in ETF shop XShares Advisors and one of Grail's partners, William Henson, serves as XShares' CEO. Also in December Grail filed with the SEC to launch an active ETF trust of its own.

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Company Press Release

Grail Investment Corp. announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its units.

Grail Investment Corp. is proposing to offer to sell 20,000,000 units, each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant entitling the holder to purchase one share of common stock, at a price of $10.00 a unit. Grail Investment Corp. may sell up to an additional 3,000,000 units, also at a price of $10.00 a unit, depending on the extent to which Lazard Capital Markets LLC, the sole book-running manager of the offering, exercises the over-allotment option. The net proceeds of the offering will be held in trust pending the completion of a business combination, as described more fully in the prospectus contained in the registration statement.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time that the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus and will contain detailed information about the company and its management, as well as financial statements. Copies of the preliminary prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Attn: Syndicate Department, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York 10020 or by phone at 212-632-6717.

About Grail Investment Corp.

Grail Investment Corp. is a newly formed blank check company organized for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or other similar business combination with an existing business in the financial services industry (excluding depository institutions).

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release relating to the company’s intention to effect an initial public offering of its securities and the expectation that the company intends to sell its securities in the proposed offering are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that could cause Grail Investment Corp. not to effect an initial public offering include changes in the general business and economic conditions and the state of the financial services industry; increased competition in attempting to acquire an existing business in the financial services industry; the prospects of acquiring a business in the financial services industry; the availability of obtaining further financing, if necessary in connection with the acquisition of a business in the financial services industry, and other risk factors as described in Grail Investment’s Corp.’s registration statement on Form S-1 filed in connection with the proposed initial public offering.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that we will effect an initial public offering. Thus, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Grail is headed up by investment banking vet, Don Putnam, who co-founded another investment bank, Putnam Lovell Securities, in 1987. The company also filed launched a new active ETF trust on December 14 of last year. 

Edited by: Erin Kello


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