Stefanie Yuen Thio quoted in LHZB: “新交所探讨SPAC管制框架 市场关注发起人或保荐人素质”

On 19 May 2021, TSMP Law Corporation joint managing partner Stefanie Yuen Thio was quoted in a LHZB article on SPACs. 

She said “If we think the SGX should be a ready market for this innovative product, how should it structure the regulatory framework to incentivise the best in class sponsors to list their SPACs here?”

“There are two general approaches to this: a tighter regulatory structure where the terms which are risky for the retail investor are curtailed, or one which adopts the US style SPACs and you police it by only allowing the most experienced sponsors with good track records to list. From what I understand, sponsors are happy to have their past deals examined under a microscope but would prefer minimal deviation from the accepted market norms. It would be disastrous if Singapore rolls out a hybrid and more restrictive set of rules that attracts only lousy sponsors who cannot get listed elsewhere,” she added.