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Former Credit Suisse bankers have helped Santander win lead roles on a series of high-profile blank-cheque company deals, underscoring the Spanish lender’s ambitions to become a more serious player on Wall Street.
Santander has in recent months been announced as the sole bookrunner on listings for several special purpose acquisition companies, or Spacs.
The backers behind the investment vehicles are familiar faces who rode the huge Spac boom in 2020 and 2021, including billionaire investors Alec Gores, Bill Foley and most recently Chamath Palihapitiya.
The mandates reflect the impact of bankers hired from Credit Suisse following the 2023 takeover of the Swiss lender by rival UBS. They include Niron Stabinsky, one of Wall Street’s best-known Spac bankers, and David Hermer, Santander’s head of corporate and investment banking.
Under executive chair Ana Botín, Santander has embarked on a significant expansion of its corporate and investment bank in recent years. The division reported revenues of €4.4bn during the first six months of 2025, an increase of nearly two-thirds on the same period in 2020.
Santander acted as sole bookrunner on five Spac listings during the first six months of the year, according to company disclosures.
Spacs are investment vehicles that raise money in an initial public offering and search for a private company with which to merge, thereby taking it public through what is often referred to as a backdoor listing.
For years an obscure corner of the capital markets world, the practice boomed during the coronavirus pandemic when Spac issuance hit record highs as central banks lowered interest rates. Stabinsky became known as “Mr Spac” in 2021 when the craze for the investment vehicles was at its peak.
The market has cooled significantly since then, with the majority of companies that listed through Spacs trading below the $10 a share at which investors bought in. Many Spacs that were still searching for targets went on to return the money to investors after they failed to find a company with which to merge.
Most mainstream investment banks have also retreated from underwriting Spac IPOs, leaving opportunities for the likes of Santander and smaller firms, including Cantor Fitzgerald — which has led a number of large deals in the crypto space — as well as Cohen & Co and BTIG.
Palihapitiya in particular was a longtime Credit Suisse client, regularly using the bank for Spac deals that included mergers with commercial space flight company Virgin Galactic, real estate group Opendoor and Clover Health.
While these companies are now trading well below their listing prices, a merger with online lender SoFi has proved more successful for Palihapitiya.
Santander stands to earn 6 per cent of the total funds raised by Palihapitiya’s latest listing, American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp A, according to a regulatory filing. At the fundraising target this would be approximately $15mn.
But the Spac has to complete a deal for Santander to earn the fees, a feature that is likely to further incentivise banks to find a target company. From the initial Spac IPO itself, Santander will earn a modest $250,000 fee.
Santander said in a statement that it had made hires in recent years aimed at strengthening its investment banking offering to “continue generating consistent, profitable growth, utilising Santander’s network and disciplined risk management”.
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