European SPACs Data Hub

There have been no SPAC IPOs on European stock exchanges in Q3 2022. Historically the third quarter has been quieter for IPOs (including SPACs), as it straddles the summer period (Q3 2021 was the weakest quarter for EU SPAC IPOs last year), but the fact that no SPAC listings have progressed at all during Q3 this year is reflective of how difficult the environment has become.

The STOXX Europe 600 Index has shed close to a fifth of its value in 2022¹ and investors have been cautious around backing new IPO candidates generally. The weak SPAC IPO market in Q3 2022 means that EU SPAC IPO proceeds for this year are now more than 70 per cent below the levels seen over the first nine months of 2021.

There is some hope that sentiment will improve in Q4 2022.

The successful IPO of luxury carmaker Porsche in Frankfurt has shown that investors are still ready to back high-quality IPO opportunities² and early in October, Anglo-Russian mining executive Artem Volynets announced plans to list a US$125 million SPAC in London targeting deals in in the mining & metals sector.

If the Volynets SPAC proceeds as planned, it will consolidate London’s position as the most popular jurisdiction for IPOs by SPAC sponsors on European stock exchanges in 2022.

As things stand, the UK has secured the most EU SPAC IPOs with three listings, securing US$810.14 million for the year to the end of Q3 2022. The Netherlands, the go-to European jurisdiction for EU SPAC listings in 2021, has recorded two IPOs during the first three quarters of 2022 with proceeds of US$451.65 million. Germany has also recorded two IPOs raising US$363.02 million.

_{1 MarketWatch as of 7 October 2022
2 Financial Times}

European de-SPAC deal activity has felt the chill from cooling global M&A markets, with de-SPAC deal value for the first nine months of 2022 coming in at US$11.81 billion, some 83 per cent down year-on-year on de-SPAC deal value for the same period last year.

Year-on-year comparisons have been dented after Swiss-based lottery group Allwyn Entertainment and US SPAC Cohn Robbins Holding Corp., headed up by former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn³, called off a US$7.36 billion deal announced in January 2022, citing adverse market conditions⁴.

Deal value is also down on a quarterly basis, sliding from US$5.75 billion in Q2 2022 to US$1.87 billion in Q3 2022 this year. Deal count, however, has held up, with nine deals secured in Q2 2022 as well as in Q3 2022.

Even though EU de-SPAC deal value is running well short of the record levels observed last year, activity remains comfortably ahead of pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, quarterly deal value never exceeded US$700 million.

Even though the Allwyn Entertainment deal has been called off, media & entertainment remains the biggest sector for EU de-SPAC deal value by a significant margin, with deals to the tune of US$6.07 billion.

Entertainment has delivered the largest de-SPAC deal of the year Europe, with White & Case advising Pegasus Entrepreneurs — a SPAC sponsored by Tikehau Capital⁵ and Financière Agache — on a US$7.1 billion enterprise value and US$4.09 billion equity value transaction on the de-SPAC of global entertainment group operating in content production and distribution, and online sports betting.

Financials is the next biggest sector by value, followed by consumer staples and technology. Financials is also the joint most active by de-SPAC deal volume, tied with technology at five transactions apiece.

_{3 European lottery group Allwyn to list on NYSE with blank check firm Cohn Robbins
4 Allwyn scraps plans to list via SPAC merger with Cohn Robbins
5 Tikehau Capital sponsored SPAC Pegasus Entrepreneurs to combine with FL Entertainment}