An article on Bloomberg yesterday announced what many in SPAC Land have been wondering after UBS acquired Credit Suisse – where was Niron Stabinsky, the Head of SPACs at Credit Suisse, going to land?
The answer is Banco Santander SA, in what appears to be a massive lift of most (or nearly all) of Credit Suisse’s banking team. Included in the group heading to Santander is David Hermer, who was Credit Suisse’s global head of equity and debt capital markets, and Steve Geller, who was head of mergers and acquisitions.
As for SPACs, Credit Suisse has always been a powerhouse SPAC bank, topping or ranking near the top of the league tables. More importantly, Niron Stabinsky and Credit Suisse underwrote and advised some of the biggest sponsor teams names which included Bill Foley, Chinh Chu, Barry Sternlicht, Tom Farley, and of course, Chamath Palihapitya, who is arguably the most recognizable name. All were guided by Stabinsky and the Credit Suisse team.
Meanwhile, Santander presents a unique opportunity for the former Credit Suisse team in that by being off the well worn path of the usual bulge bracket banks, they can move the entire banking group over without any of the usual conflicts of incumbent star bankers with existing franchises. That would be nearly impossible at any of the other more obvious banks.
This is a big win for Santander, which should be a big SPAC player going forward. Naturally, everyone will be on “garden leave” for a few months, but you can be sure to see the Santander name crop up in at least a few de-SPACs come this Fall.
Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:ACAQ) announced this afternoon that its stockholders approved its combination with German EV-maker e.GO at a special meeting held earlier today. Additionally, Athena Consumer’s warrant proposal to convert all outstanding warrants to 0.175 shares in the combined company was also approved. A total of 884,880 shares of Athena Class A Common...
October is set to be a quiet month for lock-up expirations with only four de-SPACs and four sponsors now open to trade their shares for the first time. The first customer is Bitdeer Technologies. Its shareholders and the Blue Safari sponsor both stand to gain the most out of this group from moving some of...
Graf Acquisition Corp. IV (NYSE:GFOR) announced in an 8-K this afternoon that its shareholders approved its combination with NKGen Biotech at a special meeting September 25. A total of 3,386,528 shares were redeemed in connection with the vote, leaving Graf IV with about $27.6 million in the tank and a final redemption rate of 84.3%....
Anzu Special Acquisition Corp I (NASDAQ:ANZU) has closed its combination with Envoy Medical and its shares and warrants are to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbols “COCH” and “COCHW” on October 2. The SPAC secured shareholder approval on September 27 and still has not divulged redemption figures. But, it went into the vote...
Mercato Partners (NASDAQ:MPRA) closed its combination with Brazilian software firm Nuvini this afternoon and its shares and warrants are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbols “NVNI” and “NVNIW” on October 2. The combined company will continue to be led by its existing CEO and a seven-member Board including Mercato CEO Dr....