Since his departure from the TV host’s White House and frankly successful replacement by another TV host, the doors of high finance haven’t exactly been swinging open in Gary Cohn’s direction. Certainly there was going to be no place for him at his old stomping grounds, even if his stint as head of the National Economic Council hadn’t been such a consistently embarrassing disaster, which it was. But there doesn’t seem to be much of a place for him anywhere else, either, aside from the golf course, the academy, Steve Cohen’s house and the occasional media appearance. Not at Wells Fargo. Not at Tesla. Not even, apparently, at the hedge fund he so clearly had his eye on when hammering out that tax plan with Steve Mnuchin.
And so, the former number two at Goldman Sachs, a man who apparently seriously entertained becoming director of the CIA or chairman of the Federal Reserve, is left with no option save the last financial services refuge of scoundrels: a SPAC.
Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president and Trump administration adviser, joined Wall Street’s latest buyout fad as he moved to raise $600m through a listing of a blank cheque company…. The company, known as Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp, said it would “capitalise” on Mr Cohn and [ex-KKR dealmaker Clifton] Robbins’ relationships and experience in the investment world. It said it had not started discussions with a would-be target, but that it would attempt to clinch a deal with a large private equity- or venture-backed company, or buy a business being carved out of a company.
“Our founders have expertise and experience investing across virtually all industries and sectors and we may pursue an acquisition in any business industry,” the company said in its filing. It added that it believed there were “attractive trends” in the consumer, software and financial technologies sectors.
Former Trump adviser Gary Cohn joins blank cheque company [FT]
Ex-Trump adviser Cohn seeks $600 million for blank-check company IPO [Reuters]