Futu News reported on June 10 that a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) was initiated by Fu Wei, founder of Kangqiao Capital, Tan Bo, former president and chief financial officer of Sansheng Pharmaceutical, and Ken Poon, former president of Citigroup Asia Pacific and former president of Merrill Lynch Securities Asia Equities Capital Markets ——$Summit Healthcare Acquisition Corp. (SMIHU.US) $(Summit Healthcare) has officially landed on the NASDAQ.

The company's cornerstone investors include Xuehu Capital, a well-known alternative investment management company in Asia, and Purin Capital.Bank of America is the bookkeeper and Futu is the lead manager for the current listing in the US.

According to the prospectus, Summit Healthcare plans to issue 20 million units at an issue price of $10 per unit, and is expected to raise about 200 million US dollars. Each unit includes 1 share of common stock and 1/2 of the warrants.

In terms of investment targets, Summit Healthcare will focus on potential merger targets in the three major segments of the healthcare industry, namely pharmaceuticals, medical technology, and diagnostics. The SPAC will seek high-quality targets for merger and listing on a global scale. It is worth noting that it will prioritize the search for high-quality assets in China.

After the pandemic, the life and health industry achieved explosive growth on a global scale, especially in the Asian region represented by China. This explosive development required a large amount of capital, and SPAC, as an emerging capital tool, provided a new rapid development channel for the entire industry.

Endorsed by a well-known management team

The intrinsic logic behind SPAC being able to go public and finance as a shell company is because investors trust the SPAC's sponsors and management. Generally speaking, SPAC sponsors and management teams are usually composed of veterans or business elites with professional experience in investment, investment banking, or specific industries.

The management team behind Summit Healthcare is also quite luxurious. The company's honorary chairman and senior advisor is Fu Wei, founder and CEO of Kangqiao Capital. Mr. Fu has about 17 years of experience investing in top private equity funds. He has worked in Temasek, Macquarie Bank Investment Department, Standard Chartered Private Equity Fund and Goldman Sachs, and has rich investment experience.

According to data, Kangqiao Capital is one of the largest and most active private equity funds in the healthcare industry in Asia, focusing on platform construction and acquisition opportunities in the three core fields of biomedicine, medical technology, and medical services.

It is worth mentioning that in the past few years, Kangqiao Capital was deeply involved in the establishment of 10 platform-based medical companies. Today, it already owns 2 listed biomedical companies — Tianjing Biotech and Genting Xinyao, and has successfully incubated many life and health companies.

Tan Bo, the company's CEO and co-chief investment officer, has more than 20 years of experience in the financial and pharmaceutical industry, and has always worked in corporate activities, private equity investment, and stock research.

Mr. Tan was the president and chief financial officer of Sansheng Pharmaceutical. During his tenure, he led the privatization of Sansheng Pharmaceutical and successfully landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2015, as well as the acquisition or integration of well-known targets such as SaiPaul, Wansheng Pharmaceutical, and CITIC Guojian Pharmaceutical.

Ken Poon, the company's president and co-chief investment officer, has nearly 30 years of experience in capital markets and has extensive trading experience in various active markets in Asia.

Mr. Pan has worked for Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and participated in the listing of many of the world's largest IPOs, including Alibaba (BABA), Xinhao Boya Entertainment (MLCO) AIA (01299.HK), Sands China (01928.HK), and China Railway Construction (01186.HK).

With the management team's excellent project discovery ability, deep understanding of the healthcare industry, outstanding past performance, and deep understanding and trading experience in capital markets, Summit Healthcare's future growth space has added many points of interest.

SPAC's rapid listing took the world by storm

SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company, Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is a backdoor listing method for the US stock market. Unlike a shell listing, a SPAC is for investors to create their own shell and establish a SPAC company for listing. The purpose is to raise capital from investors to acquire a target company within a limited period of time (usually 24 months), so that it can quickly become a US stock listed company.

In 2020, SPAC rose to prominence in the US capital market against the backdrop of the expansion of financial markets due to large-scale economic stimulus under the pandemic and the increasing difficulty of traditional IPOs. Compared with traditional IPOs, SPAC listing financing methods combine the advantages of convenient listing process, low cost, low threshold, and short time.

A total of 248 SPACs were listed in 2020, accounting for 55% of the number of US stock IPOs that year, raising US$83.341 billion. According to data provided by SPAC Analytics, as of June 1, 330 SPACs have conducted IPOs this year, accounting for 71% of the total number of US stock IPOs during the same period, raising a total of 104.8 billion US dollars, exceeding last year's SPAC fund-raising record.