“The Great SPAC Scam”

Jun 23, 2021 | Companies

No, me neither. A ‘Special Purchase Acquisition Company’ is apparently also known as a “blank check company”, ‘a shell corporation listed to acquire a private company, making it public without going through the usual initial public offering process’. In other words, a tricksy way to get your business’s shares listed on a stock market without the worry that no-one will buy them. Sound dodgy? Do the words ‘Cayman Islands’, amongst others, come to mind? Well, it’s a route some of our tech and fintech company owners are considering, I guess to make their fortunes while the going (seems) good. And before the bubble bursts. Or they burst it.

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“FCA: Good advisers have ‘nothing to fear’ from redress scheme”

“FCA: Good advisers have ‘nothing to fear’ from redress scheme”

A firm with whom we work did advise British Steel workers, was as a result given a thorough going-over and thankfully a clean bill of health by the regulator. Then the FCA were themselves given a thorough going-over by MPs and in the press, over their inaction while the bad advice that was given was being given.

“European PE investor buys Ascot Lloyd”

“European PE investor buys Ascot Lloyd”

Some more venture-capital-buys-advice-firm action. The firm in question, Ascot Lloyd, has been a retirement home (ie they’ve bought their businesses) for many smaller advisers in recent years, and is now a national mini-giant.