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.
FG Merger III Corp. filed for a $150 million IPO yesterday afternoon, marking the third SPAC to file on Wednesday. Similar to Blue Room (NASDAQ:IBLUU), which filed its $200 million IPO yesterday morning, FG Merger III intends to focus its search for a target business in the financial services industry in North America. Notably, FG...
10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:VCXA) announced that it has completed its business combination with African Agriculture after shareholders approved the deal at a special meeting held on December 5. In connection with the meeting, 10X II received redemption requests for 1,857,033 Class A ordinary shares, representing 98.7% in aggregate redemptions since 10X II’s...
At the SPAC of Dawn The latter half of 2023 has largely told a story of retrenchment in the SPAC market as much of the excess in the domain has found itself terminating and liquidating. But, the increase in outgoing has not completely canceled out the boom in incoming as three new SPACs filed to...
TechyBird Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:TKBD) filed for a $60 million IPO today, putting it in line to become the second 2023 IPO from an underwriter that is relatively new to the SPAC space. That underwriter, Spartan Capital Securities, brought Aimei Health Technology (NASDAQ:AFJK) to market last week with similar terms as this new member to its...
Blue Room Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:IBLUU) submitted its S-1 filing this morning for a $200 million IPO. The new SPAC has set its sights on targets in the financial sector, ranging in market value between $250 million and $500 million, and primarily situated in the U.S. Its primary objective is to identify an innovative company leveraging...