📈🚕 Marblegate's Taxi Medallions (& Loans) Coming To Stock Market

Marblegate, via a publicly-listed investment holding company, appears to be preparing to list a significant part of of its NYC taxi medallion-related holdings

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• Marblegate, one of the largest investors in the NYC taxi medallion industry, appears to be preparing to publicly list its taxi medallion related holdings

• Although investment proposal also includes Chicago & Philadelphia taxi medallion assets, vast majority of portfolio relates to NYC medallion assets 🚕

• Marblegate, it appears, will manage taxi medallion holdings through a management company, if transaction is successful

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Marblegate, the investment company that made a large “distressed” bet on NYC taxi medallions and medallion loans, appears to be preparing to list a large portion of its NYC taxi medallion holdings on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Although more details are yet to come, a Marblegate-controlled publicly listed “blank check” (Nasdaq: GATEU 0.00%↑ ) holding company is proposing to merge with the DePalma Companies, which represent entities that hold Marblegate’s taxi medallion-related investments.

For pop culture buffs, according to SPAC Insider when Marblegate was initially buying distressed taxi medallions and medallion loans it did so via LLCs named after characters of the popular sitcom Taxi which aired in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For example, Louie De Palma, played by award winning actor Danny DeVito, is the head dispatcher of the fictional Sunshine Cab Company in the show.

$750 Million & Management Agreement

Although more details still need to be revealed, the proposed deal will be based on a valuation of $750 million 👀. We don’t know how many medallions or medallion loans that includes, but when we get further details it’ll be interesting to understand the valuation approach. We do know that Marblegate’s holdings of Chicago and Philadelphia medallion-related assets make up less than $18 million in value of the $750 million - so the majority of value relates to NYC.

In addition, the SEC filings reveal a Management Services Agreement proposal where Marblegate might still be involved in managing the assets, similar to a taxi medallion garage. Our guess, is Marblegate is not exiting their investment completely, but is rather planning to realize some proceeds and create liquidity (i.e., tradeable stock) for its investment. It still appears they want to be involved in, at the very least, managing the taxi medallion-related asset portfolio they’ve built.

Why Is This Important?

We’ve covered Marblegate’s involvement in the NYC yellow taxi medallion sector in depth over several previous articles. Long story short, they started investing in the industry when it was in distress 📉 pre-pandemic (i.e., medallion loan is being sold for 20 cents on $1), by acquiring both taxi medallion loans secured by medallions and the taxi medallions themselves.

After sticking with their investment through the pandemic (i.e., extreme distress 📉📉 when medallions fell as low as $75,000 👀) & being a key player in helping push through the historic taxi medallion debt restructuring - they are probably ready to realize some return.

At this point, some of our readers might be thinking 🤔🤔…GREAT, a hedge fund wins again, makes millions…how does this impact my life?

Ahead of officially listing its NYC taxi medallion assets, Marblegate is going to need to publicly explain its whole thesis, including in-depth market analysis of the taxi medallion sector and the overall NYC TLC industry, to investors. If they do a good job at explaining their thesis, investors are going to (re)educate themselves on the “left for dead” NYC taxi industry. This, in turn, could begin to restart interest and investment flows into the entire TLC market.

As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.

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