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. READ MORE