HomeToGo seals merger with Lakestar SPAC in German stock market first (updated)

HomeToGo SE

14/07/2021 18:41

(Adds details from statement)
    By Douglas Busvine
    BERLIN, July 14 (Reuters) - Travel tech startup HomeToGo on
Wednesday became the first company to seal a deal to float on
the German stock market by merging with a listed shell company,
as it tied up with venture capitalist Klaus Hommels' Lakestar
SPAC I  LRS1.DE .
    The merger puts an equity value of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4
billion) on HomeToGo, a Berlin-based marketplace for vacation
rentals that connects travellers with online travel agents and
independent landlords.
    HomeToGo recovered from a travel slump early in the
coronavirus pandemic to post record gross booking value of 1.3
billion euros last year, when it came close to breaking even at
an adjusted EBITDA level.
    Pandemic trends such as 'workations', when people extend
their holidays to work remotely, helped fuel 27% growth in gross
booking value to 904 million euros in the first half of this
year.
    "High-quality, multi-purpose and unique vacation rentals are
the new zeitgeist, and this trend has drastically accelerated
over the last year," HomeToGo co-founder and Chief Executive 
Patrick Andrae said in a statement. 
    Hommels, founder of Swiss-based venture capital fund
Lakestar, floated the first special-purpose acquisition company,
or SPAC, in Frankfurt earlier this year in a bid to create a
route for startups to go public in Europe rather than having to
go to the bigger U.S. stock market.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2KN52O
    His search for a target was short: Lakestar had already
backed a $170 million investment round at HomeToGo in 2018 that
put a post-money valuation on the business of $630 million,
meaning that HomeToGo has more than doubled in value since then.
   
    In addition to the 275 million euros that the Lakestar SPAC
raised in February, investors will commit a further 75 million
euros to a so-called public investment in private equity (PIPE)
as part of the merger.
    The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of
2021, subject to shareholder approval, and the company will be
listed in Frankfurt under the 'HTG' ticker.
 ($1 = 0.8475 euros)

 (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Emma Thomasson and
Steve Orlofsky)
 ((douglas.busvine@tr.com; +49 30 220 133 562;))