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).
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending April 19, 2024 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. Passover and school spring break starts next week, which most likely means a slowdown in SPAC filing activity. Although Churchill IX is now rumored to...
Despite a week of general pull-backs in the market, fintech firm Ibotta (NYSE:IBTA) nonetheless took the dive and had a good week debuting via a traditional IPO in the choppy waters. The company, which provides app-based consumer cashback discounts on purchases, priced its IPO at $88, above its proposed range of $76 to $84, and...
At the SPAC of Dawn Happy Friday! SPACInsider has unveiled new presets on SPAC Performance accessible via the Data drop-down to easily sort for the highest and lowest performing active SPACs and de-SPACs. On the de-SPAC side, Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) continues to be well ahead of the pack, logging a 710% return by share price adjusted...
AGBA (NASDAQ:AGBA) stock is up over +90% this morning following a +211% premarket spike on news it has signed a definitive agreement to combine with social streaming video platform Triller. AGBA, the company itself, was formed by the $555 million combination between a SPAC of the same name and TAG Companies, a financial services firm...
At the SPAC of Dawn Since closing its combination with DHC last month, AI customer engagement firm BEN (NASDAQ:BNAI) has rolled out new partnerships with call center and healthcare clients. And, while it faces a fair bit of competition in the chatbot realm, several high-profile institutions have demonstrated that creating one that provides useful services...