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Finance & economics
財(cái)經(jīng)板塊
Company buyouts
公司收購
Frenemies
亦敵亦友
The uneasy partnership between private equity and SPACS
私人股本和SPACS之間不穩(wěn)定的合作關(guān)系
The spectacle of the SPAC, or "special-purpose acquisition company", has preoccupied bankers on Wall Street over the past year. This is in part because the vehicles, which list a shell company on stockmarkets and raise a pot of capital before hunting for a private company to merge with, are often touted by their backers as an alternative to an initial public offering (IPO). Big banks make meaty fees from their IPO businesses. For some, the fact that SPACS have muscled in is an unwelcome development. As voracious buyers of private firms, though, SPACS are attracting as much attention among the private-equity (PE) barons on New York's Park Avenue as on Wall Street.
SPAC(或“特殊目的收購公司”)的壯觀景象在過去一年里讓華爾街的銀行家們憂心忡忡。部分原因是這些投資工具經(jīng)常被其支持者吹捧為首次公開募股(IPO)之外的另一種選擇。這些投資工具將空殼公司上市，并在尋找私人公司合并之前籌集大量資金。大銀行從IPO業(yè)務(wù)中賺取豐厚的傭金。對(duì)一些人來說，SPACS強(qiáng)行介入是一種不受歡迎的發(fā)展。盡管如此，作為對(duì)私人公司如癡如渴的買家，SPACS在紐約公園大道和華爾街的私募股本(PE)巨頭中吸引了同樣多的關(guān)注。
Since the start of 2020 SPACS have gobbled up almost $200bn in capital. The way they are constructed makes them prone to overpaying for firms. Creators see no compensation unless they strike a deal with a mergertarget, which must often be done within two years. The founders' payoff is usually 20% of the shares the SPAC helps issue in the newly public firm, which are given to them for a nominal fee. This means that even if the shares plunge afterthe shell company merges with its target, the founders are still well compensated. Their incentive is thus to do any deal they can, at lofty prices if necessary.
自2020年初以來，SPACS已經(jīng)吸納了近2000億美元的資本。它們的構(gòu)造方式使得它們傾向于為公司支付過高的價(jià)格。創(chuàng)造者看不到任何補(bǔ)償，除非他們與并購目標(biāo)達(dá)成協(xié)議，而這通常必須在兩年內(nèi)完成。創(chuàng)始人的回報(bào)通常是SPAC幫助新上市公司發(fā)行股份的20%，這些股份以象征性的費(fèi)用給予他們。這意味著，即使空殼公司與其目標(biāo)公司合并后股價(jià)暴跌，創(chuàng)始人仍能獲得豐厚的報(bào)酬。因此，他們的動(dòng)機(jī)是盡其所能達(dá)成交易，如果必要的話，以高昂的價(jià)格成交。
This tendency to overpay is both a blessing and a curse for PE. If a PE firm is looking to offload one of its portfolio companies, then finding a SPAC to buy it is an attractive prospect. In March Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners, two PE shops, tripled their money when they sold Paysafe, a payments platform, through a SPAC mergerled by Bill Foley, an insurance executive. After Blackstone achieved record first-quarter earnings of $1.75bn Jon Gray, its president, noted on an earnings call that SPACS had emerged as a new exit option.
這種支付過高的傾向?qū)E來說是福也是禍。如果一家私人股本公司希望將其投資組合中的某家公司的資產(chǎn)剝離，那么找到SPAC來收購是一個(gè)很有吸引力的前景。今年3月，兩家私募股權(quán)投資公司黑石集團(tuán)和CVC資本合伙公司通過一家由保險(xiǎn)公司高管比爾·弗利合并的SPAC公司出售了支付平臺(tái)Paysafe，使其收益翻了三倍。在黑石實(shí)現(xiàn)創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的17.5億美元首季度盈利后，該公司總裁喬恩·格雷在一次業(yè)績電話會(huì)議上指出SPACS已成為新的退出選擇。
But PE firms also need to purchase private companies fortheir new funds, ideally at low valuations if they are to make the juicy returns theirinvestors have come to expect. Little is known publicly about the deals that PE firms miss out on, but reports abound of SPACS bidding 20-50% more for companies than the most optimistic valuations by analysts in PE shops.
但如果想獲得投資者期望的豐厚回報(bào)，私人股本公司也需要為其新基金收購私人公司，且最好以較低的估值收購。公眾對(duì)私募股權(quán)公司錯(cuò)過的交易知之甚少，但有大量報(bào)道稱SPACS對(duì)公司的出價(jià)比私募股權(quán)投資公司分析師最樂觀的估值高出20-50%。
A further complication in the relationship between blank-cheque vehicles and PE is that some PE giants are setting up SPACS themselves. Apollo, for instance, has launched five in recent years. That could pose a dilemma: should a target firm be bought through the private arm, to the benefit of the investors in the PE fund, or by the public arm, to the benefit of the investors in the SPAC? The SPAC frenzy might yield juicy returns for PE investors who bought into a fund a decade ago. But tricky choices loom.
空白支票公司和私募股權(quán)公司之間的關(guān)系更加復(fù)雜的是，一些私募股權(quán)巨頭正在自己建立SPACS。例如，阿波羅近年來已經(jīng)發(fā)起了5次。這可能會(huì)造成一個(gè)困境：目標(biāo)公司是應(yīng)該通過私人部門(為PE基金投資者的利益)收購，還是通過公共部門(為SPAC投資者的利益)收購？SPAC的狂熱可能會(huì)給十年前買入一只基金的私人股本投資者帶來豐厚的回報(bào)。但棘手的選擇近在眼前。
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