By Corrie Driebusch

Consumer-lending platform and Blackstone Group Inc. portfolio company Finance of America Equity Capital LLC is set to go public with a valuation of $1.9 billion through a blank-check merger, this year's hottest way to list shares, according to people familiar with the matter.

Finance of America is set to merge with the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Replay Acquisition Corp., the people said. In conjunction with the merger, institutional investors will also make a private investment of $250 million in the company. In all, the deal will leave the consumer lender's founder and funds managed by Blackstone with a 70% ownership stake.

SPACs are all the rage in 2020, quickly having become a favored way for companies to go public in a year when initial public offerings are hotter than ever. Their popularity is a sign that there is more demand for newly listed companies than there are companies going public. So far this year, companies have raised more than $109 billion going public in the U.S., surpassing every other full year on record, according to Dealogic, whose data go back to 1995. SPACs have accounted for almost half of that total.

The sole purpose of SPACs, which are also known as blank-check companies, is to raise money to acquire a private target and take it public. Founders of these shell companies pitch their names or expertise in certain industries; once they have raised a certain amount of money they have a specific amount of time, typically two years, to identify a target. Announced deals are subject to shareholder approval. Finance of America's services include traditional mortgages, reverse mortgages, commercial-real-estate loans and fixed-income investing. It has grown via a series of acquisitions and over the past roughly five years as a portfolio company of Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities business, which can invest across any asset class, industry, sector, security type or geography.

The move is the latest in a recent spate of financial dealmaking. This summer, Quicken Loans parent Rocket Cos. went public through a traditional IPO. Last month, wholesale mortgage originator United Wholesale Mortgage said it intended to go public via a SPAC, and Caliber Home Loans Inc. is also prepping an IPO. Morgan Stanley recently struck a deal to buy fund manager Eaton Vance Corp., and activist investor Nelson Peltz invested in Invesco Ltd. and Janus Henderson Group PLC, planning to agitate for a deal.

The new listings come as the mortgage market has held up surprisingly well in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Mortgage Bankers Association expecting mortgage originations to hit recent highs in 2020. Record-low interest rates are also driving refinancings, with the Mortgage Bankers Association expecting mortgage originations to hit recent highs in 2020. Record-low interest rates are also driving refinancings.

Finance of America had been considering a traditional IPO but then earlier this summer began speaking with the founders of Replay Acquisition Corp., one of the people said. Though the money raised in the deal goes to current owners, the person said becoming a publicly traded company allow the consumer-lending platform to raise additional capital more easily going forward.

--will

Write to Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-13-20 0013ET