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).
Copley Acquisition Corp has filed to raise a $150 million SPAC to hunt for a technology or lifestyle target in either the Asia Pacific or North America regions. The new S-1 also advances underwriter Clear Street in the league tables as it has backed two of the three latest SPACs to file in December, and...
Translational Development Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: TDACU) announced the pricing of its $150 million IPO and its units are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “TDACU”, Monday, December 23, 2024. The new SPAC intends to take a generalist approach in searching for a business combination, but intend to focus on industries that...
At the SPAC of Dawn SPACs have set to have a busy holiday week with three business combination approval votes and eight special meetings for extensions. Teams are trying to get eight of these in the books today, including all three completion votes ahead of Christmas Eve tomorrow. As noted last week, the theme of...
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending December 20, 2024 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. * We will be skipping next week’s Terms Tracker post while we work on putting together our “2024 Year End Review”. You can find 2023’s...
Four Leaf Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:FORL) has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Chinese technology firm Xiaoyu Dida for undisclosed terms. The Guangzhou, China-based firm produces software and hardware for smart car washing systems. The parties have set December 31, 2025 as the initial outside date and the combined company is expected to trade...