Gores Taking Sonder Public + Hidden SPAC Volatility

Gores is taking Sonder public. Plus, can SPAC investors take advantage of the big moves that are hidden in SPACs with announced deals?

Author:
David Pogemiller
Publish date:
Apr 30, 2021

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Gores taking Sonder Public

With several deal announcements and IPOs showing disappointing results this week, today's Gores Metropoulos II (GMII) deal to take Sonder public will be closely watched. By any measure Gores is one of the leading SPAC sponsors in the market with 13 SPACs total, in various stages.

This will become their 3rd in the "announced deal" stage joining GHVI, which is taking Matterport public, and GRSV which is taking Ardagh Metal Packaging public. Both those deals are trading with solid premiums as of Thursday's close -- though GHVI dropped ~3.4% yesterday and closed at $13.12.

GMII closed Thursday with a slight discount at $9.94 and is trading up around +1.6% pre-market on the news.

After a week where we saw more SPAC activity, but little market enthusiasm for that activity, this deal could either turn the narrative to a more positive one or reinforce the gloom.

Hidden SPAC Volatility

As we've been watching the daily biggest movers -- both winners and losers -- we saw a lot of daily volatility. This is especially true within the market for SPACs with announced deals vs the more steady part of the market in which pre-deal transactions aren't moving much daily as they float around NAV (usually a bit below these days).

So we took a quick look at how SPACs with announced deals have been trading in April. Below you'll see 32 SPACs all with a standard deviation of over 2% for their daily moves within April. SPAC investors will see opportunities to take gains after big upward moves prior to the air being let out as well as potential to add to positions by buying the dip.

SPACs with Announced Transactions showing plenty of volatility in April

SPAC investors that are in their SPAC stocks for the long-haul will see that they'll have to have strong stomachs as the journey from IPO to de-SPAC will likely come with a lot of ups and downs for them to ride out.

SPAC Opportunities

Buy the Dip? Thursday's Biggest Decliners
-5.68% ~ $ 39.71 | BRPA - Big Rock Partners Acquisition Corp (Announced)
-5.44% ~ $ 8.87 | GIK - GigCapital3 Inc (Announced)
-4.29% ~ $ 12.73 | SRAC - Stable Road Acquisition Corp. (Announced)
-4.21% ~ $ 22.07 | CCIV - Churchill Capital Corp IV (Announced)
-3.85% ~ $ 12.50 | DFHT - Deerfield Healthcare Technology Acquisitions Corp.(Announced)
-3.80% ~ $ 13.18 | CLII - Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corp (Announced)
-3.63% ~ $ 17.24 | SSPK - Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. (Announced)
-3.46% ~ $ 13.12 | GHVI - Gores Holdings VI Inc (Announced)
-2.84% ~ $ 12.99 | AGC - ALTIMETER GROWTH CORP (Announced)

Take the Gains? Thursday's Biggest Gainers
7.65% ~ $ 11.12 | ROCC - Roth CH Acquisition II Co. (Announced)
5.50% ~ $ 12.09 | BOWX - BowX Acquisition Corp (Announced)
3.74% ~ $ 11.92 | THCB - Tuscan Holdings Corp. (Announced)
3.16% ~ $ 13.72 | FSRV - FinServ Acquisition Corp (Announced)
2.97% ~ $ 12.48 | FST - FAST ACQ CP (Announced)
2.83% ~ $ 10.19 | WPCA - Warburg Pincus Capital Corporation I—A (Pre-Deal)
2.82% ~ $ 10.92 | HSAQ - Health Sciences Acquisitions Corporation 2 (Pre-Deal)
2.50% ~ $ 13.94 | CMLF - CM Life Sciences Inc (Announced)
2.24% ~ $ 10.05 | FTAA - FTAC Athena Acquisition Corp. (Pre-Deal)
2.15% ~ $ 9.97 | LIII - Leo Holdings III Corp (Pre-Deal)