“I have never found any blank-check investment vehicle attractive. No matter what the reputation or what the sponsor might be. . . . They are the ultimate in terms of lack of transparency.”
— Arthur Levitt, former SEC Chairman
That’s a great quote…and it’s especially ironic given that Arthur Leavitt is currently Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Group, which is the Sponsor of Regalwood Global Energy. Oops.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen or heard negative quotes like that about SPACs. Mostly, they are from people who aren’t that well informed about the product. Or, as is the case with Arthur Leavitt, he’s referring to a time when Blank Check Companies actually were a terrible product. (To be fair, that quote from Arthur is very old.)
However, SPACs have since evolved. Bigger, better, more badass now.
So for fun, I found some old articles from back in the day that shows how the product (and the reporting) have changed over the years. Here’s hoping that one day in the near future, financial reporters will stop referencing SPACs from “the bad old days”. (Seriously, it’s a different product now. Please find a new angle.)
Note: It’s July 4th tomorrow and unless something crazy gets filed or there’s a major news announcement Thursday or Friday, we won’t be back until Monday.
Have a great Fourth of July, everyone!
SPAC Articles Through the Years
2005: Crave Huge Risk? This Investment May Be for You
2007: Wall Street’s New Status Symbol: The SPAC
2008: $300 Million to Burn, With a Catch
2016: More Wall Street banks, investors help write blank checks
2018: Why Are Top CEOs Flocking To SPACs (Blank Check Companies)?
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending January 17, 2025 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. We may be heading into a Polar Vortex, but SPACs managed to generate some heat this week with three more IPOs. For those keeping count,...
Giving internet users a place to chat or post pictures of their lunch has never been an especially profitable endeavor until social media platforms gain the scale to leverage user data en masse like Meta (NASDAQ:META). But, the addition of retail investor appetites to the equation has suddenly turned even smaller platforms into a tantalizing...
At the SPAC of Dawn This week comes to a close with the debut of the year’s fourth SPAC IPO as Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII (NASDAQ:HVIIU) priced last night. This brings the month’s total IPO proceeds to $597.5 million, which is already a drastic year-on-year improvement from January 2023, which saw just $144 million...
Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII (NASDAQ:HVIIU) announced the pricing of its $175 million IPO and its units are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “HVIIU”, Friday, January 17, 2025. The new SPAC intends to seek out a business combination with a company in the industrial technology and energy transition sectors. Hennessy...
Equites and crytpo trading platform eToro has reportedly filed for a traditional IPO two-and-half years after nixing its SPAC combination and its renewed thrust to the public markets could provide a useful demonstration of where things sit for SPACs in 2025. For one, eToro is reportedly making its IPO move at a valuation of $5...