Online used-vehicle retailer Shift has completed its reverse merger with Insurance Acquisition Corp. and will begin trading under the “SFT” symbol on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday. The transaction will raise about $300 million for Shift, the company said in a release.
Insurance Acquisition is a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. SPACs operate as a vehicle for companies to go public in what’s seen as a more efficient manner than a traditional initial public offering.
Insurance Acquisition’s shares, currently traded under the “INSU” symbol, will become SFT shares on Wednesday. INSU shares were trading up 2.5 percent to $11.60 on Tuesday afternoon.
Shift announced its planned reverse merger in June. Though there had been chatter about becoming a public company for a few years, Shift, founded in 2014, had still not necessarily expected to do so quite so soon.
That changed with the coronavirus pandemic, Shift co-CEO George Arison told Automotive News, as it has created unprecedented demand for e-commerce. “I think what we’ve seen in the public markets is a massive shift between winners and losers,” he said. “And e-commerce companies are the big winners here.”
