HydraFacial to Go Public Through Merger

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The beauty and health company HydraFacial is going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. In a statement, HyrdaFacial said it has reached an agreement to merge with Vesper Healthcare Acquisition, a SPAC cofounded by the former chief executive officer of Allergan, Brent Saunders.

The agreement gives HydraFacial an enterprise value of $1.1 billion, consisting of $975 million payable upon completion and $75 million after certain acquisitions are completed by the combined company. Following the transaction, the company expects to have $100 million in cash and no debt.

The deal comes as U.S. capital markets have seen a surge of SPAC IPOs. The data tracking website SPAC Analytics said there were 218 SPAC IPOs this year, accounting for 48{f08ff3a0ad7db12f5b424ba38f473ff67b97b420df338baa81683bbacd458fca} of total U.S. IPO proceeds. Vesper filed for its IPO in September, four months after AbbVie completed its $63 billion acquisition of Allergan. At the time of its IPO, Vesper said its primary goal was to pursue an initial business combination target in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, with specific focus on medical aesthetics.

“This is a significant day for Vesper Healthcare and HydraFacial as we team up with a category-creating company in the emerging area of beauty health,” Brent Saunders said in a statement.

Following the deal, HydraFacial’s chief executive officer, Clint Carnell, will remain head of the company. Liyuan Woo will continue as chief financial officer. Vesper CEO Brent Saunders will become executive chairman and Vesper’s CFO, Manisha Narasimhan, will become chief strategy officer.

Institutional investors including Fidelity Management & Research, Redmile Group, Principal Global Investors, Camber Capital Management and Woodline Partners have committed $350 million. Linden Capital Partners will remain the largest shareholder.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2021.