Toronto-based Acasta, which is targeting an acquisition in North America, plans to sell some 27.5 million units at C$10 a unit to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company said late Wednesday.

Acasta's IPO would be the biggest by a Canadian SPAC this year. SPACs are publicly traded buyout companies that use a private-equity style, leveraged buyout model to make acquisitions.

The boards and management ranks of these shell companies are typically filled with a 'who's who' of Canadian businesses.

Acasta is headed by Anthony Melman, a former partner and managing director of Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp (>> ONEX Corporation). It is chaired by Belinda Stronach, whose family founded Magna International Inc (>> Magna International Inc.) and who heads the Stronach Group, a private consortium that owns and operates a number of businesses.

Acasta's board, management and advisory ranks also include Air Canada (>> Air Canada) Chief Executive Calin Rovinescu, Hunter Harrison, the CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway (>> Canadian Pacific Railway Limited); Rick Waugh, the former head of Bank of Nova Scotia (>> Bank of Nova Scotia) and Geoff Beattie, former president of Woodbridge, the Thomson family's holding firm that is a majority shareholder of Thomson Reuters (>> Thomson Reuters Corporation).

Acasta said it was focused on acquiring companies with an enterprise value of between C$1 billion and C$2 billion.

The IPO is being underwritten by Bank of Montreal (>> Bank of Montreal), Toronto-Dominion Bank (>> Toronto-Dominion Bank) and Canaccord Genuity Group Inc (>> Canaccord Genuity Group Inc).

Earlier this month, another SPAC, Alignvest Acquisition Corp , raised almost double the money it set out to raise via its IPO.

Prior to that, INFOR Acquisition (>> INFOR Acquisition Corp) raised C$230 million in May, while Dundee Acquisition Ltd (>> Dundee Acquisition Ltd) raised some C$112 million in April.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Bernadette Baum)

By Euan Rocha