You’re not gonna like it, but given how things are going for blank-check companies, IPOs, and NFTs, hear ARS out.
Yesterday, Amazon’s British food-delivery app went public, selling its shares at the bottom of an already much-reduced price range. Even this, alas, was far too much, given how little interest there was in a voiceless take in a company operating in the battered food-delivery space at a moment when more and more people no longer forced to take their restaurant meals in plastic containers from the back of a bike.
Shares in the food delivery business had been offered to investors at 390p each, but dived in early London trading to 275p at one stage, a 30% fall…. Shares later recovered some earlier losses to trade down about 10%....
"Deliveroo has gone from hero to zero as the much-hyped stock market debut falls flat on its face," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
The impending end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and with it the end of the attendant boredom and government handouts, isn’t just bad for food delivery apps and IPOs. Lots of other lockdown-based bubbles are preparing to pop, if they haven’t already.
“Say you’re 22 and you’re single and you kept your job and now you’ve got $3,200 over the last year. That’s a lot of money to play with. You can’t go to bars, so you’re online. You’re on Reddit and Discord,” said Caroline Fohlin, a professor of financial market history at Emory University.
Many expect vaccinations and business reopenings could sap demand for NFTs once people are spending less time at home and can shop and travel normally. That could send prices sharply lower…. “Collectibles rallies often end up being short-term crazes and bubbles,” [financial adviser Chris Clepp] said.
In a sign of how the frenzy has calmed, SPACs are rising an average 0.1% on their first day of trading so far this month. That is down from average gains north of 5% in January and February…. From November to February, 231 consecutive SPACs went public without dropping below their IPO price on their opening trading day, a historic stretch that saw investors pile into the vehicles. Now, it is common for SPACs to dip below their debut price—typically set at $10—and gyrate around that level until a SPAC announces what company it is taking public.
There may be a way to save some of these bubble from themselves. But Izzy Englander isn’t going to like Andrew Ross Sorkin’s SPAC solution.
Investors and celebrities who put their names behind the next big headline-grabbing merger can exit long before any of those projections are ever realized or, in many cases, missed…. What if sponsors were required to hold their shares, including any investments they made at the time of a deal, for the full duration of the financial projections that helped sell the merger?...
Lynn E. Turner, a former chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission, called the proposed fix “an excellent idea.” Because sponsors are the ones advertising “here’s what we’re going to do in this time period,” he said, “they should be locked into that.”
Deliveroo shares drop 30% on stock market debut [BBC]
After NFT Surge, Traders Worry Reopening Will Stifle Rally [WSJ]
SPAC Excitement Fades as Historic Quarter Ends [WSJ]
How to Fix SPACs: Keep Their Backers Locked in Longer [DealBook]