Fintech company Apex Clearing Holdings LLC and Northern Star Investment Corp II (NYSE:NSTB), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. As a result of the merger, which values Apex at a total of approximately $4.7 billion post-money, Apex is expected to become a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol, “APX”.

Following the closing of the transaction, Apex CEO, William Capuzzi, and Apex President, Tricia Rothschild, will continue to serve in their current roles at the combined company, supported by a deep and talented management team with substantial expertise building businesses at the intersection of financial services and technology. Northern Star Chairwoman and CEO Joanna Coles, a creative media and technology executive, will join the combined company’s Board of Directors.

The transaction is expected to provide up to $850 million of gross cash proceeds at closing, assuming no redemptions of Northern Star’s existing public stockholders and excluding debt repayment and transaction expenses. The deal includes an upsized, fully-committed $450 million private placement of common stock at $10.00 per share (the “PIPE Offering”) led by Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Baron Capital Group, Coatue, and Winslow Capital Management, LLC among other top-tier institutional investors.

All Apex shareholders and management are rolling over 100% of their equity into the combined company.

The proceeds are expected to be used to accelerate and support the continued build out of Apex’s platform and business as well as to partially reduce existing Apex debt obligations.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, Apex generated unaudited operating revenues of approximately $236 million and unaudited adjusted EBITDA of approximately $86 million.

The Northern Star Board of Directors and Apex Board of Managers have unanimously approved the proposed merger and the related transactions, which are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021, subject to, among other things, regulatory approval, the approval by Northern Star’s and Apex’s stockholders of the proposed merger and satisfaction or waiver of other customary closing conditions.