Now that is a match made in heaven.
A relatively opaque investment vehicle afloat in a complex/chaotic system (the market) built on a complex/chaotic system (weather). Let's go!!
From OilPrice:
Investors are increasingly piling into clean energy start-ups to take them public and help them raise funds to develop their low-carbon solutions.
Many of those investors opt to do so via the hottest Wall Street trend of last year—SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, commonly known as blank-check companies.
SPACs are public companies, and in recent years, they have become a popular vehicle for taking a private company public after a merger or an acquisition.
Blank-check companies are an opportunity for start-ups in the clean energy sector to access funding to develop their concept technology. For investors, setting up a SPAC and picking an alternative energy firm to help it list on the market is part of addressing the growing pressure on Wall Street for more capital and investments into renewable energy sources in the energy transition.
Start-ups See SPAC Advantages
Blank-check companies could be a new investment opportunity for the energy sector, as well as a much-needed and more streamlined listing process for a start-up than the traditional initial public offering (IPO), analysts say. SPACs also give early-stage start-ups, such that haven’t commercialized their product yet, access to funding.
Moreover, the target company and the SPAC have more control over the valuation of the business, unlike in the typical IPO process where the market usually dictates how much the market valuation should be.
Sure, there were some notorious flops after SPACs took start-ups public. The most notorious of all is the case of Nikola Motors, whose founder Trevor Milton was indicted last month by a grand jury with three counts of criminal fraud for lying about “nearly all aspects of the business.”
Milton maintains he is innocent and that “this is a new low in the government’s efforts to criminalize lawful business conduct. Every executive in America should be horrified.”
Lordstown Motors, which went public after a SPAC takeover last year, warned in June that it was running out of cash and could collapse by year’s end. The SEC has started an investigation into Lordstown Motors’ vehicle pre-orders and its merger with SPAC DiamondPeak Holdings.
The SEC has also reportedly opened a general inquiry into SPAC deals over potential conflicts of interest, with banks acting as underwriters and advisers at the same time.
SPACs Targeting Clean Energy Are Booming
Despite these potential red flags about the SPAC boom on Wall Street, the blank-check company frenzy continues, including with green energy start-ups.
SPAC managers need to perform careful due diligence to pick the clean energy firms that could make it big and disrupt their sector, analysts say.
“Energy companies with a technology aspect to their business or a focus on renewable energy may be best placed to take advantage on the SPAC boom,” Jack Mason-Jebb, corporate solicitor, and Brad Isaac, corporate partner, at European law firm Fieldfisher wrote in May....
....MUCH MORE
This will be the last, best bubble of our lifetimes.
And for an encore, here's Joe Kennedy: "French Oil Traders Sell Non-Existent 'Carbon Neutral' Natural Gas To China"
With the right attitude, opportunity is everywhere.
