SPAC owned by Niel, Pigasse and Zouari soars on its Paris debut

Teract SA

09/12/2020 14:17

PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Shares in 2MX Organic  2MX.PA , an
acquisition vehicle belonging to French billionaire Xavier Niel
and his partners, opened as much as 30% higher on Wednesday,
marking a strong debut for the Paris stock exchange's biggest
IPO this year.
    Telecoms magnate Xavier Niel, former Lazard banker Matthieu
Pigasse and entrepreneur Moez-Alexandre Zouari said on Monday
they had raised 300 million euros ($363 million).
    By 1343 GMT 2MX Organic shares were up 8.2% at 10.74 euros,
compared to the initial public offering of 10 euros per share.
    The SPAC or a special purpose acquisition company, set up to
carry out acquisitions within the production and distribution of
durable consumer goods sector, is a shell company that uses
proceeds from going public to buy other firms that have not yet
been identified at the time of the listing.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ID3JR
    The three partners, who announced the launch of their SPAC
last month, aim at building a leading European player in
sustainable consumption by taking advantage of the surge in
consumer demand for organic products.
    "We want to invent a distribution of tomorrow from scratch,
by building a consumer-centred alternative model," Zouari said
at a virtual bell ring marking the company's stock market debut.
    Xavier Niel, best known for founding mobile operator Iliad
 ILD.PA  in France, has already used the format with Matthieu
Pigasse to create French media group Mediawan, born out of the
country's first ever SPAC.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IF0F8    
    "With 2MX Organic, we want to create the Tesla of
responsible consumption", Zouari added.

($1 = 0.8260 euros)

 (Reporting by Patrick Vignal, Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris ;
writing by Juliette Portala in Gdansk
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((patrick.vignal@tr.com ; +33 1 49 49 54 23))