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).
Quartzsea (NASDAQ:QSEAU) has filed for a $60 million SPAC and is the latest to include contingencies on its underwriter fees to better align its interests with the target of a potential business combination. Underwriter SPAC Advisory Partners, which is a division of Kingswood Capital Partners, has capped its entire 4.0% deferred commission to any amounts...
At the SPAC of Dawn The shortest month of the year has sped past and is slated to host three SPAC completion votes before its conclusion. Several de-SPACs that have recently been darlings of retail investors are also set to report earnings before the month is through, beginning with digital health brand Hims & Hers...
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending February 21, 2025 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. It was a shortened holiday week due to President’s Day, which meant no new IPOs priced. However, the market remained active with two new SPAC...
Part of the fun of the SPAC market is seeing the constantly evolving terms and approaches of teams in both securing their IPOs and their later business combinations. But, there are nonetheless a few hard rules to set the state of play among sponsors and investors, including sacrosanct deadlines for dispersing of trust funds back...
At the SPAC of Dawn Car-sharing networks had their moment in the sun as hot items in the tech scene, with some hopes that the companies could grow to the same scale as vacation rental disrupters like AirBnB (NASDAQ:ABNB). But, signs are showing that this startup category may not be ready for the public markets....