Singapore ushers in new era of SPAC in Asia with listing link

On Thursday, Vertex Technology Acquisition Corp. began trading after raising 200 million Singapore dollars, the equivalent of $148 million. The company is the first special purpose acquisition company to be listed in a Southeast Asian city-state since such listing was allowed in September last year. It is sponsored by Vertex Venture Holdings Limited, the venture-capital arm of state investment company Temasek Holdings.

Vertex will be followed by Pegasus Asia, an entity sponsored by a group of European investors that begins trading Friday. A third SPAC, sponsored by local private-equity firm Novo Telus, is likely to launch later this month. Both Pegasus Asia and the third vehicle aim to raise the equivalent of about $111 million. All three listings include so-called green-shoe options that allow underwriters to increase the size of the final deal.

SPACs are shell companies that first raise money from public investors and are listed on stock exchanges, then seek mergers with private companies, a process known as a D-SPAC deal. They are touted as a more streamlined alternative to initial public offerings and were all the rage on Wall Street in 2020 and early 2021, until the market cooled down and regulators began to implement more scrutiny.

Asia has become a source of targets for US-listed blank-check companies and sponsors – shell-company managers who seek merger targets. To boost their attraction to global investors and startups in the region, both Singapore and Hong Kong last year rolled out new frameworks for SPAC listings.

“Vertex listings usher in a new era for fundraising and investment opportunities in Asia and Singapore,” said Pol de Vin, Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Sales and Origins, Singapore Exchange Ltd., speaking at a listing ceremony on Thursday. Is. Striking an hour and a half of a confetti shower.

“We are confident that SPACs will succeed as a platform to unlock more investment opportunities in this area and certainly wider than SPACs,” said Mr. de Vin.

Shares of Vertex closed up 1% on Thursday at $5.05 a share.

For Tikehau Capital, a Paris-based investment firm and one of the sponsors of Pegasus Asia, launching a blanc-check company in Asia is one way to stand out. Tikehau, along with Financière Agache—the family office of the French billionaire and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE boss Bernard Arnault—and two other European investors, launched two SPACs on Euronext Amsterdam last year, before the third in Singapore.

“When we decided to launch a series of SPACs, we said at the time that if there is a window to launch in Asia before the US, we will continue to pursue it,” said Antoine Flammerian, co-founder of Tikehau Capital. Will try.” Manages 31.8 billion euros, which is equivalent to $36.1 billion. “You have thousands of SPACs in the US. It’s very different in Asia to begin with,” he said.

Pegasus Asia says it seeks to merge with businesses in “technology-enabled, disruptive, new-economy regions” in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore’s stock market has long lagged regional rival Hong Kong in attracting IPOs and trading activity, and the blank-check listing could help boost its listing volume.

“We believe that the primary objective of SGX is not simply to achieve a significant amount of new SPAC listings, as we saw in the US early last year. Instead, the ultimate measure of success is ultimately through D-SPAC. Listed companies will have quality and quantity.” — and Novo Telus-sponsored deals.

Temasek is involved in all three SPACs. The state-backed investment powerhouse is a minority shareholder of Tikehau Capital, and a cornerstone investor in both the Vertex and Novo Telus deals.

Corner investors are common in Asian IPOs, and help signal confidence in a deal to buy a substantial portion of the shares before the rest are offered for sale to other investors. Cornerstones will buy more than half of the shares being sold in both Vertex and Novo Tellus deals.

Hong Kong began allowing SPACs to file for listing earlier this year. This week, Aquila Acquisition Corp, sponsored by the international asset-management arm of China Merchants Bank Co., filed a listing document.