A merger with former US President Donald Trump's new social media venture has delivered a potential windfall of US $420 million for a former finance executive who has been trying for a decade to reinvent himself as a serial dealmaker.
Benessere Capital CEO Patrick Orlando's stake in Digital World Acquisition Corp, the Miami-based blank-check acquisition firm he is leading, was worth US $423 million on Thursday, Oct 21 after his deal to merge with Trump Media and Technology Group was announced, according to a regulatory filing and Reuters calculations.
Orlando invested only $3 million in Digital World and is set to receive the windfall because the deal entitles him to additional compensation in shares as sponsor of the firm, the filing shows.
Digital World shares ended trading on Wednesday, up 357 per cent after the deal was announced, giving the firm a market value of close to US $1.5 billion.
To be sure, these gains are on paper. The terms of the SPAC do not allow Orlando to cash out until six months after the merger has been completed.
It is nevertheless a remarkable reversal of fortune for the former Deutsche Bank AG derivatives banker who worked in Peru's biofuel industry and for a US sugar trading company before trying his hand at special purpose acquisition companies SPACs.