Maples Group Assists on First-Ever SPAC Listing in Singapore
Maples and Calder, the Maples Group’s law firm, is pleased to have acted as Cayman Islands counsel on the first-ever special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) listing in Singapore. Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation Ltd (“VTAC”) completed its initial public offering on 20 January 2022 and raised US$148 million in proceeds. Notably, the listing was the debut of SPAC listings in Asia, following the roll-out of the new framework allowing blank-check companies to list on the Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX). The cornerstone investors include Temasek-backed entities, Venezio Investments and Fullerton Fund Management.
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VTAC intends to identify, acquire and manage a business with a core technology focus, highly differentiated products and scalable business models, with the aim to improve people’s lives by transforming businesses, markets and economies.
A team based in the international law firm’s Singapore office acted as Cayman Islands counsel to VTAC, and was led by Partner and head of the Asia Corporate practice, Matt Roberts and assisted by Associate, Adrienne Lai.
Commenting on the transaction, Matt said, “We are delighted to have supported on the first SPAC listing in Singapore which marks another milestone in the Asian financial markets. We look forward to providing our depth and breadth of experience to Asia-based sponsors as they bring their IPOs to market.”
Impressively, the firm acted for over half of all SPAC deals recorded in Asia1 during 2020 and 2021 and was also recently listed as the leading offshore SPAC adviser by Asia Business Law Journal2. The team continue to be selected to act as Cayman Islands counsel on SPAC IPOs as a result of the firm’s market-leading experience and comprehensive capabilities in this area.
Eng & Co acted as local counsel to the issuer while WongPartnership and Baker McKenzie represented the joint issue managers and the joint global coordinators, joint bookrunners and joint underwriters.
1 Source: HKEX: Market Statistics 2020
2 Source: ABLJ SPAC League Table