Mark Yusko: Are SPACs in a Bubble?

The Interview ·
Featuring Mark W. Yusko and Ash Bennington

Published on: February 16th, 2021 • Duration: 61 minutes

What are SPACs? What role do they play in the current investment landscape? What opportunities do they offer investors? And, perhaps most importantly, are they in a bubble? Mark Yusko, CEO and CIO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, joins Real Vision senior editor Ash Bennington to answer these questions and more. Yusko argues that SPACs offer exposure to the growth areas of the future—from online gaming and e-sports to electric vehicles and space exploration—and that SPACs present the path forward for early-stage companies to go public. Yusko traces the different stages in the SPAC capital formation process, which includes pre-IPO, private investment in public equity (PIPE), and post-merger, and he depicts the various opportunities they offer investors, noting that many stages offer bond-like risk but equity-like returns. Yusko describes his latest venture, the Morgan Creek and EXOS Launch SPAC Originated ETF, which seeks to deploy active management and long-term holding periods as a way to navigate a promising space that is nevertheless frothy like so many other pockets of the market. Filmed on February 10, 2021.

Key learnings:
Yusko explains that SPACs are just a regulatory wrapping—saying that SPACs are in a bubble is like saying hedge funds are in a bubble. Yusko argues that SPACs offer exposure to the companies of the future and that, due to the dispersion between different SPACs, active management and diversification is the best way for investors to play the space.