Latham & Watkins has advised Banca IMI and Credit Suisse, as Joint Global Coordinators, and Equita SIM, as Joint Bookrunner, in connection with the creation of Spaxs, a new Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) listed on AIM Italia. The offering received orders for €760 million and closed at €600 million.

Founded by former Italian Government Minister and CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo and Poste Italiane Corrado Passera, together with former head of non-performing loans (NPLs) at Banca Ifis Andrea Clamer, Spaxs is the first Italian SPAC with an investment strategy focusing solely on the financial services sector. Spaxs will use the net proceeds from the offering to fund the combination with, and subsequent capitalization of, a target company operating in the financial services sector. The company is aiming to create a new financial services provider for small and medium-sized enterprises in the NPL and digital financial services sectors.

The Latham & Watkins team was led by Milan corporate partners Antonio Coletti and Ryan Benedict, with associates Irene Pistotnik, Guido Bartolomei, and Marta Negro.