Selina, a hospitality brand targeting millennials and Gen Z travelers, said on Thursday it will list in New York through a merger with a blank-check firm in a deal valuing the combined company at about $1.2 billion. Cash proceeds of $285 million from the deal with BOA Acquisition Corp (BOAS.N) include $70 million in private investment in public equity from investors including South Light Capital, MORE Investment House and venture capitalist Sir Ronald Cohen. Co-founded by Rafael Museri and Daniel Rudasevski in 2015, Selina has a network of 134 properties in North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. Selina expects to gain from the remote working trend and a health and wellness-focused lifestyle shift by its target customers, which the company anticipates will become more pronounced in the coming years. Some of Selina"s peers in the hospitality industry have also selected a SPAC merger over a traditional IPO. San Francisco-based lodging startup Sonder, which offers refurbished properties for short-term rentals, agreed to merge with a blank-check firm backed by billionaire investors Alec Gores and Dean Metropoulos in April in a deal that values the combined company at around $2.2 billion. read more The hospitality industry was one of the worst hit since the pandemic and the sector underwent a liquidity crunch that led to mounting debt. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022, after which the combined company will operate as Selina Hospitality Plc and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SLNA". Reporting by Sohini Podder and Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta