Transactions by special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, exploded in 2020, resulting in a 320% increase in the number of SPAC initial public offerings (IPOs) compared to 2019..
By Huw Jones and Rachel Armstrong
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain should replicate New York’s “blank cheque” listings to boost London’s appeal as a global financial centre after Brexit, London Stock Exchange Chief Executive David Schwimmer said.
After cementing its $27 billion acquisition of data and analytics company Refinitiv on Friday, the LSE is likely to play a central role in keeping Britain’s huge financial services sector competitive after its departure from the European Union.
This has cut the City of London adrift from its biggest customer and facing listings competition from Amsterdam, where the bulk of euro share trading in London moved on January 4.
LSE chief executive says blank cheque companies could boost post-Brexit London
Staff writer
London Stock Exchange Chief Executive David Schwimmer said today: “Britain should replicate New York’s success in listing “blank cheque” companies to boost the City of London’s attractiveness as a global financial centre after Brexit.”
“SPACs clearly have taken off in the U.S. markets. There is increasing curiosity and potential interest in seeing more of them here,” Schwimmer told Reuters.
“We do think there are opportunities in the UK listings regime to make some changes that would make us a more attractive listing regime while maintaining high standards of corporate governance.”
1 Introduction
1.1 Listings of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies
( SPACs ) have been popular in the US
for a long time, including in the last decade. Despite high
activity in the Swedish IPO market, with record breaking numbers of
transaction and great demand for new IPOs (also for companies that
are in early phase and not yet profitable), SPACs have yet to be
introduced in Sweden. We have, however, noted an increased interest
from clients around the possibility to launch a Swedish SPAC and in
this memorandum, we outline the basic concept of a SPAC and
describe key issues/hurdles to be considered in relation to Swedish
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