Cohen & Co. raises $230m with second Butler-led re/insurance SPAC

Cohen & Company, LLC, the fixed income financial services focused investment specialist, has successfully upsized the initial public offering (IPO) capital raise for its second insurance, reinsurance and insurtech investment focused Special Purpose Acquisition Company, INSU Acquisition Corp. II.

INSU Acquisition Corp. II follows on from the first SPAC, often called blank check company, launched by Cohen & Co., which was named Insurance Acquisition Corporation.

Insurance Acquisition Corp. (IAC) raised almost $151 million in an upsized offering and then effected a combination transaction with automotive e-commerce firm, Shift Technologies Inc.

With INSU Acquisition Corp. II, Cohen & Co. launched the IPO targeting the sale of 20.125 million shares at $10.00 each, for a maximum offering of $201.25 million after over-allotments were accounted for, totaling potential gross proceeds of almost $207 million after an additional private placement was considered.

In the end the SPAC IPO offering has upsized to secure total gross proceeds of $230 million.

The IP ended up selling 23,000,000 units at the $10.00 each price, which includes 3,000,000 units issued pursuant to the underwriters’ over-allotment option, resulting in a $230 million capital raise.

Each unit is equivalent to one share plus a third of a warrant exercisable for one share of Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share, which means the company can expand its capital as these are exercised.

The units, shares and warrants will all now be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “INAQU”, ”INAQ” and ”INAQW,” respectively.

As we explained in our previous article on Cohen & Co.’s second Special Purpose Acquisition Company, John Butler, who was formerly a Managing Partner at insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment specialist Twelve Capital and joined Cohen & Co. in 2017 to drive the development of a U.S. Insurance Asset Management Platform and Global ILS Program, is will lead the new re/insurance SPAC company.

Butler, who has broad expertise in reinsurance and in insurance-related investing, is CEO and President of INSU Acquisition Corp. II, with a key role in originating and evaluating acquisition or combination opportunities made by the SPAC with the capital it raises.

Cohen & Co. founder Daniel Cohen will take on the Chairman role for INSU Acquisition Corp. II.

As with the first Insurance Acquisition Corp., the target for this new Cohen & Co. SPAC is the insurance and reinsurance space, including insurtech combinations. But it could again elect to invest its money in a related or adjacent sector, if the opportunity is particularly attractive.

Cohen & Co. also recently announced a successful fundraising of €375 million for European private insurance debt investments.