A pair of British insurance executives have lined up a major industry player in Qatar to back a plan to launch one of the first of a new wave of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) on the London Stock Exchange.

Sky News has learnt that Andy Rear, a former Munich Re executive, and Will Allen, who has worked for the investment bank KBW, have secured £50m of provisional funding for their new vehicle from cornerstone investors including Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) and Toscafund.

Insurance industry sources said that Financials Acquisition Corp (FINSAC), the pair’s SPAC, had hired Barclays, HSBC, Numis and The Growth Stage to work on the remainder of an initial £200m capital-raising.

Several senior figures, including David Morant, a veteran fund manager, and Paul Jardine, the chairman of Lloyd’s of London managing agent Asta, have been identified as non-executive directors.

FINSAC has picked London’s standard segment as its listing venue because of the depth and history of innovation in the UK insurance sector, according to insiders.

They added that the SPAC was likely to target fast-growing companies in areas such as insurtech, which has spawned a wave of British ‘unicorns’, such as Marshmallow.

If it proceeds in the coming months, it would be among the first of a new wave of SPACs to arrive on the London market.

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The City watchdog has pledged to overhaul the rules for such vehicles listing in the UK following a Treasury-commissioned review led by the former EU commissioner Lord Hill, who recommended that they be liberalised in order to narrow the deficit with New York.

While there have been growing concerns about the quality of some of the SPACs listing in New York, a number of fast-growing British companies, including Cazoo, the online car retailer, and Vertical Aerospace have announced mergers on the other side of the Atlantic.

London-based bankers say there is a strong pipeline of SPAC sponsors preparing to list in the UK.

FINSAC declined to comment on Friday.

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