Joseph R. Perella’s Perella Weinberg Partners Announced a Deal to Go Public via a Merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. IV
Investors saw 2020 come to a close with plenty of SPACs under the Christmas tree. The question is what it bodes for 2021.
The record-shattering year for SPACs has been well documented. But even in the normally-quiet weeks of late December, the list of firsts managed to get longer.
An astounding six SPAC IPOs priced during the same calendar week as Christmas, with $1.5 billion of new securities hitting the market, according to data from Dealogic. That week – which has never seen such extraordinary deal volume – was also a coup for Nasdaq, which welcomed five out of the six new listings while just one went to the New York Stock Exchange.
And even on December 30, when many investors were on the beach or ski slopes, the SPAC world got yet another surprise. Boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners, which was founded by Wall Street veterans Joseph R. Perella, Peter Weinberg and Terry Meguid, announced it would go public through a merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. IV (NASDAQ: FTIV).
Looking to January, investors would normally expect a quiet month for traditional IPOs. Any yet SPACs are already creating more action on the IPO front next week. Light Jump Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: LJAQU) is set to price Monday or Tuesday in a $100 million offering led by EarlyBirdCapital, Inc.
What might 2021 look like? If recent history is a guide, the strong SPAC market likely bodes well for traditional IPOs and direct listings. Back in April, SPACs came roaring back from a very brief COVID-related slowdown and regular-way IPOs followed suit in surprisingly short order.
“We expect the IPO market to remain robust right out of the gate in early January,” Steve Parish, Co Head of Capital Markets for ICR Capital, which has advised on the lions’s share of SPAC transactions in 2020, told IPO Edge. “There are a number of high profile traditional IPOs geared up to launch after the holiday, and the frenzied pace of SPAC IPO issuance should continue as well.”
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