Special purpose acquisition companies: are football clubs going (back) to the stock market?
Published: Friday, 13 November 2020 Written by Jeffrey Cohen, Pierre-Emmanuel Perais, Tom Thorne, Mark Warren No Comments
Stock markets this year, most notably in the U.S., have been boosted by the return of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) as a popular means to fundraise public M&A and bring private companies onto the public markets. Having seen an uptick in fundraising by SPACs since 2017, previous records have been shattered in 2020 as more than $36 billion[1] had been raised on Wall Street as of mid-September. This comes at a time when football clubs and leagues are looking for investors and financiers to help steer their balance sheets through the Covid-19 pandemic[2]. It is no longer only high-net-worth individuals and private equity funds[3] looking to invest in football[4].
This article reviews the trend, examining:
- What is a SPAC?
- Which rules and regulations apply to acquisitions?
- How does this apply to football clubs?
- Current activity in the market