According to people familiar with the matter, a special purpose acquisition company of American billionaire investor Bill Aikman is close to completing a merger and listing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG). This will be the largest SPAC deal in the world so far, with Universal Music's valuation reaching around 40 billion US dollars.
Southeast Asia ride-hailing software giant Grab and Altimeter Growth Corp. will retire from the SPAC deal after merging. According to SPAC Research, the deal valued Grab at over $30 billion.
Affected by this news, shares of Aikman's special purpose acquisition company Pershing Square Tontine Holding (PSTH) fell more than 9% after the market on Thursday.
French media giant Vivandi is currently the majority shareholder of Universal Music, and Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings holds a minority stake in it.