* Crickets*
This week has been kind of slow on news. Not a whole lot getting filed and nothing to price….yet. However, next week should see EdTechX make their debut with their $55 million education technology SPAC.
The other five SPACs on file to IPO (Arya, Collier Creek, ChaSerg, Graf Industrial and DD3) should price the weeks of October 8th and 15th, but as of today, a definitive week for each is not clear. However, the good news is, we’re about to IPO six more SPACs! And if we’re lucky, maybe…just maybe, we see some new filings and break the June and August record of seven SPAC IPOs in one month. Crazy, right?
League Tables
But the most immediate big news to coming down the pike will be the League Tables, which we have been working hard preparing for Monday morning’s publication. Get ready folks…it’s going to be good. Plus, in addition to the Q3 League Tables (for both the underwriting and legal categories), as an added bonus we went back and calculated a year-to-date (YTD) table. The YTD table will show totals in aggregate for all of Q1, Q2 and Q3 and it will be calculated using both our standard methodology as well as our new methodology. (Read below to understand the methodology used)
Methodology
In the past, the methodology we have used to calculate our League Tables has followed the methodology other League Table providers have used. That is, any underwriter that is a book-runner or lead manager gets full credit for the IPO size and this calculates Deal Volume for each underwriter.
However, starting with the Q3 tables to be published Monday, you will see a new column next to Deal Volume, called Deal Volume Units Sold. What does this mean? Well, it means we carved up each SPAC IPO to see how many units each underwriter actually sold.
As an example, If SPAC-XYZ raised $500 million at IPO, and underwriter A sold $400 million of the same deal and underwriter B sold only $100 million, that’s how they will be credited. This methodology gives a more accurate window into the actual deal volume.
You can find the summary League Tables here, but we will also be providing a write-up for each category (underwriting and legal) and will be publishing all tables on Monday, October 1st.
I can tell you right now….it’s going to be interesting reading. STAY TUNED.
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