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Latest SPAC News: NYSE president says IPO proceeds fall more than 90% while Nasdaq president remains hopeful for 2023, and Giuliani brothers sell pharma stocks as they invest in biotech SPACs
NYSE president says IPO proceeds fall more than 90%
Volatility and market uncertainty have taken a big hit on the number of companies going public, driving down initial public offering proceeds by 93% this year, Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange said on Wednesday.
“There is a lot of uncertainty and there’s a lot of different forces that are impacting markets,” said Martin during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference.
Last year was a record for IPOs at the NYSE, fueled in large part by the boom in special purpose acquisition companies, but that activity has slowed to a trickle as high inflation and rising interest rates have soured market sentiment and SPACs have drawn regulatory scrutiny.
READNasdaq CEO hopeful IPOs will pick up in 2023, calls for more crypto regulation
Adena Friedman, chief executive officer of Nasdaq Inc., said on Wednesday she expects a quiet first half of 2023 for initial public offerings as investors remain cautious, but is hopeful activity will pick up in the second half of the year.
There are currently about 200 companies in the pipeline for initial public offerings on the Nasdaq, which is below the range of the last few years of 250 to 300, Friedman said during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference.
Last year was a banner year for IPOs at Nasdaq with over 750 new listings, fueled in large part by the boom in special purpose acquisition companies, but that activity has slowed to a trickle as high inflation and rising interest rates have soured market sentiment and SPACs have drawn regulatory scrutiny.
READBrothers Who Made Billions on US Pharma Firm Revamp Health Bets
The Giulianis are selling Royalty Pharma stock as they invest in other health-focused firms, including a SPAC that merged with biotech business ProKidney (Nasdaq: PROK).
The brothers have started cutting their roughly $2.4 billion stake in Royalty Pharma for the first time since its New York listing more than two years ago. Their investment funds have filed to sell up to almost $100 million of stock in the company, which buys pharmaceutical royalties, after offloading about $150 million — or roughly 6% of the holding — in recent months.
Germano, 50, and Giammaria, 44, have meanwhile made more than a dozen investments worldwide this year, mostly in health-related companies. They poured at least $22 million into a blank-check firm co-founded by Chamath Palihapitiya that merged in July with biotech business ProKidney Corp., as well as $16 million into biotech startup ReNAgade Therapeutics and nutrition company BioLumen.
Despite a week of general pull-backs in the market, fintech firm Ibotta (NYSE:IBTA) nonetheless took the dive and had a good week debuting via a traditional IPO in the choppy waters. The company, which provides app-based consumer cashback discounts on purchases, priced its IPO at $88, above its proposed range of $76 to $84, and...
At the SPAC of Dawn Happy Friday! SPACInsider has unveiled new presets on SPAC Performance accessible via the Data drop-down to easily sort for the highest and lowest performing active SPACs and de-SPACs. On the de-SPAC side, Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) continues to be well ahead of the pack, logging a 710% return by share price adjusted...
AGBA (NASDAQ:AGBA) stock is up over +90% this morning following a +211% premarket spike on news it has signed a definitive agreement to combine with social streaming video platform Triller. AGBA, the company itself, was formed by the $555 million combination between a SPAC of the same name and TAG Companies, a financial services firm...
At the SPAC of Dawn Since closing its combination with DHC last month, AI customer engagement firm BEN (NASDAQ:BNAI) has rolled out new partnerships with call center and healthcare clients. And, while it faces a fair bit of competition in the chatbot realm, several high-profile institutions have demonstrated that creating one that provides useful services...
Blue Ocean (NASDAQ:BOCN) provided significantly more texture today in the presentation for its $275 million combination with Asian digital media group TNL Mediagene, which it expects to hit profitability in the second half of the year despite a slight shakeup in financing for the transaction. The first big update in the first investor deck is...