Gerstner explains SPAC costs are borne by SPAC shareholders through share dilution, not by the company going public.
“All the costs are borne by the shareholders of the SPAC who gave us part of their shares when we set up the SPAC as a finder's fee for helping them invest in a world class company.”
Gerstner argues traditional IPO bank fees of 6-7% plus historical-only financials leave investors unable to evaluate high-growth companies.
“And on top of that, of course, you can only give historical financials, which leaves most investors in the dark about a high growth company's future prospects.”
Gerstner calculates over $1 billion in cost savings for Grab employees and shareholders.
“And so if you say it's 30 percent on a $4,000,000,000 raise, that's over a billion dollars of savings. Right? Over $1,000,000,000 of indirect cost savings to the employees and the shareholders.”
Gerstner says traditional IPO costs include upfront fees and structural underpricing as the larger expense.
“There's the upfront fee, five and a half, 6%, whatever they're paying on the amount of capital raised. But he would argue the much bigger expense, right, is the indirect cost of the structural underpricing.”
Gerstner calculates Invest America would cost $3.7 billion annually, less than one-hundredth of one percent of budget.
“There are 3,700,000 kids born every year in America. If we just put a thousand dollars in the S and P 500, it's only 3,700,000,000, less than one one hundredth of 1% of the national budget, less than the cost of a single weapon system.”
Gerstner highlights US fission reactors cost four to five times more and none are being built.
“Why does it cost us four to five times to build a fission reactor in this country? Why are we building no nuclear reactors in this country?”