Spotlight on Spacs: Mobility sector ready to ride

US-based scooter firm Bird was the latest to hop aboard the Spac train, completing a merger with Switchback II Corporation earlier this week at an implied USD 2.3bn valuation. Also this week, Israeli-founded, London-based mobility platform Gett announced plans to merge with Spac Rosecliff Acquisition Corp I at an implied USD 1bn enterprise value. The company, which has focused on the corporate ground transportation segment, had been eyeing the US exchanges since as early as 2017, sources at the time told Mergermarket, but it seems to have found a Spac the fastest route to market.

So who is next, investors may wonder? In Europe, there is no shortage of mobility-focused fast-growing companies that could seem appealing to cash shells. Estonian Bolt Technology is thought to be already expanding its investor relations team ahead of a potential listing in 2022. The mobility platform is getting IPO-ready but would consider a Spac should the PIPE market stabilise, sources said.

According to Dealogic's LTI (Likely to Issue) predictive algorithm platform, Bolt ranks as the fifth most likely company to exit within the tech sector. Other names likely to come to market at the intersection of transportation and technology include French car sharing app BlaBlaCar, Spanish taxi-hailing Cabify, German scooter firm Tier and Swedish peer Voi.

Mobility players likely to issue

Company	Country	Amount raised	Estimated valuation
Bolt Technology	Estonia	USD 1bn	USD 4.75bn
BlaBlaCar	France	USD 364m	USD 1.8bn
Cabify	Spain	USD 304m	USD 1.4bn
Tier	Germany	USD 540m	USD 2bn
Voi	Sweden	USD 350m	USD 1bn

Source: Dealogic

E-scooters and bicycles in particular are a competitive field, with other players such as Beryl, Lime, Dott and Zeus vying for market share. Voi, which was reportedly in talks with Spacs in February, could easily pursue that avenue should it find appetite for a PIPE – and assuming it addresses potential ESG concerns related to the longevity of its scooters, noted an adviser. Improving the lifespan of sharing vehicles is a key sticking point if issuers are to take ESG seriously, he added.

Some of these targets may want to stick to a European listing. If so, the partners' pool is significantly smaller; with 34 Spac IPOs in EMEA this year worth USD 7.2bn in deal value, there are only 24 out there looking for targets. But many have boasted of their ESG credentials, such as the recent EUR 175m listing in Amsterdam by Spear Investments, which emphasised its interest in themes such as the circular economy and decarbonisation.

Spear's sponsors, alongside Spanish bank AZ Capital and UK equity capital markets adviser STJ Advisors, decided to go for the slim market window given that the strong interest they had received would guarantee books were covered at launch, and the fact that they are already seeing opportunities out in the market, said a source close to the deal. Although many cash shell hopefuls have fallen by the wayside, the regulatory backlog in Amsterdam has cleared and there is room for maybe a couple more blank cheques in Europe before the year wraps up, the source ventured.

With investors pressing for shorter merger deadlines (Spear, for example, has an initial 15-month deadline to close a deal), mobility-focused targets may fit the bill just fine.

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• SPACs