You wait three months for a European special purpose acquisition company (Spac) listing and then, like London buses, two turn up in quick succession.
On October 7, shares in Disruptive Capital Acquisition Corp (DCAC) – which is led by Edmund 'Edi' Truell and targets legacy pensions, insurance, asset management or related financial business in Europe – began trading on Amsterdam.
On October 14, GFJ ESG Acquisition SE, led by Gisbert Rühl, former chief executive of steel company Klöckner & Co, launched a €150 million placement of shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and began hunting for a European tech company focused on supporting decarbonization.
The two are taking different investment approaches.
Rühl, who was behind the digital transformation of Klöckner from a traditional steel company to more of a platform business, is now joining a number of Spacs searching for growth in clean-tech.
The sponsor team points out that the path to net zero may trigger more than $130 trillion-worth of investments by 2050, with technology acting as a key enabler.
Almost 60% of publicly listed clean-energy companies are based in Europe. It sees a large opportunity set of European established-stage companies that want to be listed.
Truell
