Big news in SPAC Land….Morgan Stanley has decided to jump into the SPAC underwriting pool with both feet by hiring Bennett Schachter away from Goldman Sachs. That’s quite a splash. Morgan Stanley has, until now, sort of tip-toed around SPACs having only been an underwriter on three deals since 2009 (Hunter Maritime, Leisure and Boxwood). You always got the sense that they were never fully committed to their SPAC program. Well that’s changed now.
Bennett Schachter had been Goldman Sach’s head SPAC banker, getting Goldman involved in a number of high profile transactions. Most recently, Goldman was the left lead underwriter on the $305.6 million Acamar Partners Acquisition Corp. IPO. By hiring Bennett away from Goldman, Morgan Stanley just signaled that they are very serious about committing to SPACs going forward.
SPACs just got a whole lot more competitive (As if they weren’t already).
At the SPAC of Dawn Choppy trading can be expected today as the market prepares itself for the Fed’s rate decision this afternoon. But, at least one SPAC, Welsbach Technology Metals (OTC:WTMA), has had an unusual summer already. It sent out a proxy to shareholders yesterday asking them to approve its combination with battery materials...
A Paradise Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:APADU) announced the pricing of its $200 million IPO and its units are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “APADU”, Wednesday, July 30, 2025. The new SPAC plans to identify a prospective target company in the leisure and entertainment sector that it believes has an optimistic growth...
As the SPAC market reset began last summer, many attributes of what constituted the typical SPAC template began to change. For one, rights came back in a big way. During the previous cycle, SPACs with warrants heavily outnumbered those with rights. Rights tended to be more commonly found in the units of smaller, Asia-based SPACs...
At the SPAC of Dawn Although last week was busy for new S-1 filings and deal announcements, it did mark a slowing of the pace in fresh IPOs. July had been producing a SPAC IPOs at a pace of essentially one per trading day, but that came to an abrupt halt after July 17. It...
Caedryn I (NASDAQ:CAEAU) has filed for a $60 million SPAC hunting for innovation with a repeat sponsor team from China. The new SPAC is offering investors one right to a 1/7 share in each unit and it has not overfunded its trust, but it will be contributing to shareholders if its target search reaches beyond...