out of interest, did you consider a SPAC at any point and if so, what were the reasons for/against?
For people (like me) with a very negative perception of SPACs (a vehicle through which a company that can’t go public the “proper” way goes public) it would be very interesting to hear whether you weighed up the relative benefits of IPO vs. SPAC, or if it was obvious to you that an IPO was the right way to go from the start.
The only reason we would consider a SPAC is to decrease time, but you do take a reputation hit. You also aren't building relationships with banks, which is very positive, again because it provides future financing needs which could be very useful during acquisitions.
Also, while the IPO process does take about a year, from start to finish, give or take a quarter, the conversation about an IPO starts well in advance. I think the the first time we met with Goldman Sachs was probably in 2017 or 2018 (don't quote me) to discuss IPO planning, and the company went public in 2021.
So while it does take longer through a traditional IPO, the conversation starts much, much earlier, and because it's a year long process, that's part of the planning as well, so it doesn't really come up as a year delay in the roadmap.
So we were already well in to our planning phase as the whole SPAC craze was hitting, and so there were only downsides to it, not real benefit or saving a quarter or two in terms of timing.
For people (like me) with a very negative perception of SPACs (a vehicle through which a company that can’t go public the “proper” way goes public) it would be very interesting to hear whether you weighed up the relative benefits of IPO vs. SPAC, or if it was obvious to you that an IPO was the right way to go from the start.
Thanks!