Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht and buyout firm Warburg Pincus are teaming up in a three-way blank-check transaction valued at ~$20B, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
While the three-SPAC structure is unusual — two backed by Warburg Pincus and one backed by Sternlicht — so is the fact that Warburg Pincus owns the acquisition target, Allied Universal, a security services company, the people said.
Warburg Pincus Capital Corp. I-A (WPCA+1.0%), Warburg Pincus Capital Corp. I-B (WPCB+0.7%), and a SPAC affiliate of Sternlicht's family office, JAWS Estates Capital LLC, are said to be in talks to raise a private investment in public equity (PIPE), to finance a transaction with Allied Universal.
The transaction could provide Warburg Pincus with a way to exit its investment in Allied Universal. The investment firm agreed in 2015 to take a majority stake in Universal Services of America and later combined it with AlliedBarton Security Services.