The parent company Reliance ADAG may be financially stressed, but a group entity Reliance Entertainment and its chief executive Shibasish Sarkar is targeting the American markets to raise funds for a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC that will look at investing in the media and entertainment businesses in several geographies, including India.

Sarkar is set as chairman, CEO and leading shareholder of International Media Acquisition Corp. (IMAC), a New Jersey-registered company, which is looking at raising $200 million-230 million through an IPO on the NASDAQ within the next 12-18 months, Variety reported.

According to the report, SPACs, often described as ‘blank check companies’ are vehicles for raising finance and allowing privately owned companies and start-ups to obtain share listings. Without a track record of their own, and without much business operations, SPACs rely on the financial muscle of their bankers and the reputations of their founders to pull off their first moves.

IMAC’s board of directors also includes Sanjay Wadhwa, managing partner of AP International Group, one of the biggest Tamil-language IP owners; former WME agent David Taghioff, who now heads international film funder Library Pictures; and Greg Silverman, current head of Stampede Ventures, and former president of creative development and worldwide production at Warner Bros. Pictures with credits including “The Hangover,” “The Dark Knight,” “Gravity,” “Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” and “Suicide Squad”.

Others associates are former Disney India executive Vishwas Joshi, who is set as IMAC’s finance director, U.S. businessman Paul Pelosi Jr. and Suresh Ramamurthi, chairman of CBW Bank.

IMAC’s filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reviewed by Indianbroadcastingworld.com, states that the New Jersey company “may pursue an initial business combination target in any business, industry or geographic location…with a focus on North America, Europe and Asia” for target companies within the media and entertainment (M&E) sector.

“We intend to focus specifically on companies that are positioned to benefit directly from the growth of digitally available content. While our efforts to identify a target will not be limited to any particular M&E segment or geography, we intend to focus our search on content, film, post-production and/or visual effects facilities, animation, streaming, augmented and virtual reality, music, digital media, gaming and e-sports,” the company said in its initial filings at the SEC.

Pointing out that Sarkar served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer at IMAC “since our inception” the company gives some details about the Indian M&E industry and its evolution. Since January 2019, Sarkar has been the Group CEO at Reliance Entertainment and was Group COO from September 2015 to December 2018.

Reliance Entertainment is part of the Reliance ADA Group, a leading private sector business serving over 250 million customers across financial services, infrastructure, power, telecommunications, media and entertainment, and healthcare sectors, the filing says.

“Our goal is to identify and acquire a business with untapped opportunity for building a public company. We believe that our management’s and directors’ experiences, from evaluating assets through investing and company building, will enable us to source and execute a business combination with high-quality targets,” IMAC’s prospectus filing stated.

Interestingly, it is mentioned that IMAC’s sponsor, Content Creation Media LLC, has “committed to purchase” from the company an aggregate of 722,000 units (or 804,500 units if the over-allotment option is exercised in full), or “private units,” at $10.00 per private unit (for a total purchase price of $7,220,000, or $8,045,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full).

“These private units will be identical to the units sold in this offering, except as described in this prospectus. The private units will be sold in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. A portion of the proceeds we receive from these purchases will be added to the proceeds of this offering and placed in the same trust account described in this prospectus maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as trustee,” the IMAC prospectus said.

Reliance Entertainment has diversified business interests in the M&E sector in India and abroad, including shareholding in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and a host of Indian production houses, some now shuttered (like Anurag Kashyap’s Phantom Films). Reliance Entertainment also has interests in gaming, digital, animation and films, apart from producing shows for the big screen and streamers like Netflix and Viacom18’s VOOT.