Eighteen months after its $110 million initial public offering of stock, Cold Spring Capital Inc. is dissolving after failing to drive an acquisition with the “blank check” provided it by investors.
The New Canaan shell company is distributing the proceeds of its November 2005 IPO proceeds back to investors.
Cold Spring was founded two years ago as a blank-check company, which under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules is allowed to sell equity on public stock exchanges for use in acquiring one or more operating companies. Blank-check companies are required to have a deal in place within 18 months, or must return capital to shareholders.
Cold Spring becomes the second local blank-check company in a month to abandon its plans. In mid April, Stamford-based Bank Street Telecom Funding Corp. yanked its SEC registration for an $88 million IPO to fund the purchase of a communications company. Bank Street is run by Richard Lukaj, an investment banker who consults in the industry.
TAC Acquisition Corp., a Greenwich firm run by investment analysts, voted earlier this year to dissolve after canceling a planned acquisition of AVIEL Systems Inc.
Others are moving forward, however. In late April, another blank-check company in Stamford called Information Services Group Inc. spent $280 million to acquire TPI Advisory Services America Inc., which consults on sourcing strategies for corporate clients. ISG is run by Michael Connors, the former vice chairman of ACNielsen Corp. which is now part of VNU.
In February, a Danbury company called NTR Acquisition Inc. held a $240 million IPO to purchase an as-yet-unnamed oil refining or distribution company. NTR Chief Executive Officer Mario Rodriguez is a former investment banker with Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Larry Feinberg, the chairman of Oracle Healthcare Acquisition Corp. in Greenwich, runs the Oracle Partners LP hedge fund. Oracle Healthcare raised $116 million in March 2006, and has yet to identify a takeover target in the health-care industry.
Doubloon Corp. of Norwalk, from Pirate Capital L.L.C. founder Thomas Hudson Jr., has a blank-check filing on tap.
Cold Spring was founded by Randy Stratton and Joseph Weingarten; its IPO backers included Wellington Management Co., a prominent money management firm in Boston.
With experience buying and selling vacation time-share loan portfolios, last November the company reached a $132 million agreement to acquire Sedona Development Partners LLC, which runs Arizona”™s Club at Seven Canyons resort, whose golf course is rated among the 50 best nationally by Golf Digest. Sedona had plans to build a second course and time-share resort.
Cold Spring had expected its new operations to produce a $27 million profit this year on $164 million in revenue, but backed away after revenue projections were reduced.
