Private Equity veteran Rohan Ajila and The Manipal Group Chairman Gautham Pai partner together; launch a consumer sector focused SPAC in the US

Bengaluru: A blank cheque company backed by Private Equity veteran Rohan Ajila and The Manipal Group Chairman Gautham Pai have set up a special purpose vehicle for acquiring companies in the Consumer Sector.

Global Consumer Acquisition Corp (GCAC) raised $ 170 MM in an initial public offering this week. The company, listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “GACQU”, aims to combine with a number of consumer businesses with strong growth potential that complements the management team’s extensive investment and cross border operator experience, according to its IPO prospectus.

“We intend to focus on global consumer companies with a significant Asia presence or a compelling Asia potential especially India ” said Ajila, Co-Chairman and CEO of GCAC. “This complements the expertise of our management team in cross border M&A, Business Development and Asia/India expansion.”

GCAC is aiming to acquire targets with enterprise value in the range of $ 500Mn – $1Bn complemented by a series of tuck-in acquisitions in similar or adjacent categories to further accelerate the growth of this platform. The company declined to specify which companies they are in discussions with. “The SPAC aims to get a deal done in the next 12 months” Ajila said.

The GCAC team believes that the consumer industry provides a number of interesting acquisition opportunities that it can tap into through its global private equity and operator network. “Today every company is rethinking their business in terms of technology, supply chain and markets and this provides us specific opportunities” said Ajila.

Rohan, the Co-Chairman of GCAC, is a private equity veteran with over 20 years of experience in investment management. He is a Managing Partner at FIDES Business Partner, a private equity firm based in Zurich and was also the Managing Partner of Capvent AG, a private equity and Fund of Funds investment house which has invested more than a billion $ globally over the last two decades.

“While we may look at additional SPACs in the future, our current focus is solely on making Global Consumer Acquisition Corp a success” said Ajila.