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Och-Ziff founder's SPAC Ajax I files for a $750 million IPO

October 9, 2020

Ajax I, a blank check company formed by Och-Ziff's Daniel Och and MSD Capital's Glenn Fuhrman, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $750 million in an initial public offering.

The New York, NY-based company plans to raise $750 million by offering 75 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-quarter of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. At the proposed deal size, Ajax I would command a market value of $833 million.

The company is led be CEO and Director Daniel Och, founder and former CEO of Och-Ziff Capital Management and former Co-Head of US Equities Trading at Goldman Sachs, and President and Director Glenn Fuhrman, co-founder and former Co-Managing Partner at MSD Capital. The board is comprised of Kevin Systrom, co-founder and former CEO of Instagram; Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andme; Square co-founder Jim McKelvey; and Steve Ells, founder and former CEO of Chipotle.

Ajax I plans to target the internet, software, fintech, and consumer industries, focusing on companies with defensible business models, large and growing end markets, and superior unit economics. The company is implementing a different economic structure than most SPACs by reducing its sponsor's promote, which it believes will create a competitive advantage in executing a deal.

Ajax I was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol AJAX.U. The company filed confidentially on September 25, 2020. Goldman Sachs, Citi and J.P. Morgan are the joint bookrunners on the deal.