Financing

Why SPACs have become so popular

This week’s episode of the RB podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Andy Pforzheimer, the Barteca founder and SPAC co-CEO, who tells us all about blank-check investment companies.

Why have SPACs suddenly become so popular among investors?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Andy Pforzheimer, the longtime industry executive who helped create the Tastemaker SPAC with former Jamba CEO Dave Pace.

A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company. It is a shell company that takes money from public investors and uses it to invest in another company—usually a privately held company that then goes public as a result. Some of the most notable restaurant companies that have gone public this way include Burger King—now Restaurant Brands International—along with Del Taco and Burgerfi. SPACs have been all the rage over the past year.

They have been quite popular, both among equity investors and among celebrities, sports figures and former executives, along with a bunch of investment bankers.

Pforzheimer founded Barteca Restaurant Group and was its CEO before its 2017 sale to Del Frisco’s. He discusses the details of SPACs, what it takes to find a company willing to make a deal, and why so many are targeting restaurants—and whether that will make the process for acquiring a restaurant chain more difficult.

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