Morning Roundup: December 7, 2023

At the SPAC of Dawn

The latter half of 2023 has largely told a story of retrenchment in the SPAC market as much of the excess in the domain has found itself terminating and liquidating. But, the increase in outgoing has not completely canceled out the boom in incoming as three new SPACs filed to IPO yesterday alone.

Other bellwethers of a rebound have so far stayed away like deeper involvement of bulge bracket underwriters and veteran SPAC sponsors jumping back in with both feet. But, the impressive amount of fresh grass on the meadow does break from the gloomy fog of much of the year.

It also doesn’t hurt that 2023 is going out with two transactions that price de-SPACs above their combination valuation in successive weeks – well above in Cerevel’s case, without even a need to adjust for stock split changes.

News and Rumors

• PR: AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) has agreed to acquire neuroscience drug developer Cerevel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CERE) for $45 per share at a $8.7 billion in one of the most lucrative de-SPAC exits of all time. The deal may well vault the Arya team up the serial sponsor leader board where it already sits as the sixth-most successful team having completed three biotech deals between 2020 and 2021.
• Axios: X-energy, which canceled a combination with Ares virtually at the altar in October, has now raised $80 million in a private Series C for yet undisclosed terms.

Liquidations