SPACInsider

This week, SPACInsider founder Kristi Marvin speaks with a panel spanning the banking, investing and advisory sides of SPAC transactions.

She is joined by Ed Kovary, Head of SPAC Capital Markets at BTIG, Nick Skibo, Managing Partner at Gritstone Asset Management, and Dimitre Genov, a Managing Director at Brookline Capital Markets advising SPAC sponsors on IPOs and de-SPAC transactions.

Kristi checks in on how recent trends like the resurgence of anchor investors is perceived by the various participants in a SPAC transaction through to close, and what the SPAC landscape looks like now with the previous cycle winding to a close and a new one beginning.

SPAC targets in the healthcare space typically are a few years away from full commercialization, but shareholders in Exelfin Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:XFIN) will get to vote this week on a combination with a medical device company that is already churning out positive EBITDA.

This week, we speak with Brian Sun, Chief Operating Officer of Excelfin and David Kaysen, Senior Advisor and Chief Marketing Officer for Baird Medical.

The two announced a $279 million dollar combination in June 2023. Brian explains why Excelfin diverted its initial focus from fintech to medical devices.

David lays out how Baird has gotten this far through commercialization in China and why it expects successful adoption in the US. With the prospect of tariffs potentially increasing between those two jurisdictions, they also explain how Baird and Excelfin have a plan for that as well.

The world has a long way to go to meet climate goals, especially airlines. There is currently no alternative to jet fuel-powered passenger planes on the horizon, which puts the focus on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

This week, we speak with Mihir Dange, CEO of XCF Global and Wray Thorn, co-CEO of Focus Impact BH3 Acquisition Company (NASDAQ:BHAC). The two signed a $1.8 billion combination in March and aim to create one of the only pureplay SAF producers on the public markets.

XCF is in the process of converting existing diesel facilities to produce SAF and Mihir explains why this approach is key to bringing production online faster.

Wray also lays out the financial case for backing SAF production and how a SPAC deal plays into XCF’s future funding mix.

This week, in a special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we speak with David Cote, Executive Chairman of Vertiv, and Tom Knott, who was previously Head of Permanent Capital at Goldman Sachs, who joined forces in 2019 on GS Acquisition Holdings Corp.

GS I combined with Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) in what has become the most successful SPAC deal of all time.

We discuss what were the critical ingredients to the transaction's success and what is needed to achieve solid returns in SPAC deals under the current conditions.

However, it wasn’t all roses from the start, with the deal closing right as the pandemic shocks were beginning to hit the system. But, the two explain how their team weathered the storm with both preparation and a plan for the company’s post-transaction future.

Give it a listen.

Providing dedicated power to industrial facilities is a task that has drawn in a variety of different energy technologies and, increasingly, a variety of SPAC transactions.

This week I speak with Jereme Kent, founder and CEO of One Energy. One Energy provides dedicated clean power generation to industrial clients allowing them to lock in cheaper energy, sell power back to the grid or turn their operations into net zero facilities.

Jereme explains One Energy’s 20-year vision for how this work will stack and why the time was right for it to ink a $384 million combination with TortoiseEcofin Acquisition Corp. III (NYSE:TRTL). He also gets into how this deal is structured to provide some unique benefits to public shareholders.

SPACs have brought a number of sustainability companies to market, but the economics of carbon credits have always been on the edge of those specific opportunities.

Focus Impact Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FIAC) aims to change that with its $213 million combination with DevvStream, a Canadian company focused on generating carbon credits with proprietary technology-based approaches.

This week, we speak with Sunny Trinh, co-founder and CEO of DevvStream and Carl Stanton, CEO of Focus Impact.

Sunny explains how DevvStream has worked to build confidence in carbon assets by consulting its wide pipeline of clients on getting better and more measurable impacts out of projects.

And Carl tells us why he believes DevvStream’s operational efficiencies and capital-light model make it a unique play on the carbon market and a more stable fit for the current market conditions.

SPAC deals have provided a variety of ways to try and ride the growth in the private aviation space. One of the most successful so far has been to approach it not through the aircraft or sales of flights, but as an infrastructure play.

This week, we speak with Francisco Gonzalez, CFO of private hangar operator Sky Harbour (NYSE:SKYH).

Francisco explains why he believes Sky Harbour has traded consistently up from its valuation in its $777 million combination with Yellowstone two years ago.

Why are hangars such a high-demand and profitable part of the aviation space? And how has Sky Harbour gained investor confidence in its plans yet to come while much of the industry faces skepticism?

Spot lithium prices may be down, but Stardust Power believes that makes now an even more important time to build new US-based lithium refineries.

This week, we speak with Roshan Pujari, Co-founder and CEO of Stardust Power and Chandra Patel, CEO and Chairman of Global Partner Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:GPAC).

The two announced a $490 million business combination in November of 2023.

Roshan explains how its plans to build its lithium refinery in Oklahoma are progressing and why he believes the company’s methods should command a premium for its resources.

Chandra meanwhile tells us how his team is working through a dealmaking playbook involving both SPAC IPOs and those that they can take over post-IPO like Global Partner II.

Developing new medical treatments takes time and money, which is generally where investors come in. But, Abpro has managed to resolve many of those questions before SPAC investors will join the show.

This week, we speak with Abpro Chairman and CEO Ian Chan and Shahraab Ahmad, Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Coastal Acquisition Corp II (Nasdaq: ACAB). The two announced a $500 million combination in January.

Shahraab explains how Abpro came onto Atlantic Coastal II’s radar after the SPAC had originally been fishing in the mobility space, and why the particularities of its capital needs could be a fit for the current market conditions.

Ian also walks through Abpro’s clinical path moving forward and how it can use a mix of its internal discovery engines and M&A to expand its portfolio.

Ian also walks through Abpro’s clinical path moving forward and how it can use a mix of its internal discovery engines and M&A to expand its portfolio.

Not all SPAC officers get involved in order to ride the process all the way to a seat as CEO of the combined company, but Jaymes Winters walks us through his journey of how he started Nubia Brand International Corp as a newcomer to the asset class and why he is now leading its target company, Solidion (Nasdaq: STI).

This week we’ll speak with Jaymes about the changing set of options SPACs have at their disposal to raise funding and find a deal the market can appreciate in the current climate.

And, how Solidion has the potential to bring greener, US-based materials to the EV battery space after its SPAC-led spinoff from the Global Graphene Group.