How the SPAC Model Has Matured, What Still Gets Misunderstood

Andrejka Bernatova explains how the SPAC model has evolved since the boom years and why many misconceptions still persist. 

She shares why SPACs should be viewed as a long-standing capital markets tool, not a short-term trend, and why the structure only works for companies that are truly ready to be public and operating in high-growth, high-interest sectors.

Disclaimers:

The views, opinions, and statements expressed by the guest are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The SPAC Podcast, its hosts, or affiliated organizations. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice.

Michael J. Blankenship is a licensed attorney and is a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. Joshua Wilson is a licensed Florida real estate broker and holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licensure. The content of this podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal, financial, or compliance advice. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of any regulatory agency, law firm, employer, or organization.

Listeners are encouraged to consult their own legal counsel, compliance professionals, or financial advisors to ensure adherence to applicable laws and regulations, including those enforced by the SEC, FINRA, and other regulatory bodies. This podcast does not constitute a solicitation, offer, or recommendation of any financial products, securities transactions, or legal services.

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Transcript

Mike B: Let's dig in here. So how do you think the SPAC model has evolved since the boom years, and and what misconceptions do you still see in the market that need to be corrected for sponsors, investors, uh, to succeed today? 

Andrejka B: Yeah, Mike, it's interesting because, uh, you know, we, uh, we have to take the SPAC product and SPAC market into a longer term perspective.

I mean, the product has been around for 30 years. I know a lot of the times people refer to. Uh, kind of the two thousands, early 2000, you know, 2020s, call it as, uh, you know, SPAC version one, that's not SPAC version one. There were a couple of decades prior to that for SPACs that evolved to where, you know, they are today.

Uh, but, um, the, the differences that we see, so, so first of all, I often say the SPAC product is similar to leverage. If you use it from the wrong business, it's uh, not gonna work out well for that business. But if you use it in the right situation, if you use leverage for a company that's cash flowing, high quality business, or if you use SPAC product for a company that should be public in the first place.

Uh, it's not sort of the, you know, capital of lastly resort. It can truly supercharge the business to the next arena. So when we look at the kind of the 2020s, 20 21, 20 22 vintage, obviously we had about a thousand SPACs outstanding at that time. A lot of the companies that were taking public were very premature.

They probably should have gone through a number of. VC rounds and then private equity rounds later. And then consider public exit or public, you know, uh, uh, uh, debut. Um, so I would say, um, you know, we are seeing, obviously the market is more normalized now. We now have about 150 specs. That's a very healthy number here.

Um, we have repeat high quality issuers. There are a lot of repeat issuers that, that have not done, you know, high quality deals in the past. And so I, I do think it's, it's, it is really refreshing to see number of players that have done serial high quality deals over, you know, long periods of times across different industries and, um, who've taken the companies public that should have been public in the first place.

So our criteria always says Mike. Um, SPAC only works for business that should be public, and it needs to be in an industry where you see high appetite from investors, meaning there's gonna be high growth or some transformational changes. Um, where investors are I investing in industries that, that have, you know, high potential to grow, uh, over the next five to 10 years.