特殊目的併購公司制度之引進研究──以新加坡與香港為核心

Abstract

在2020年，全世界與各產業皆受到新型冠狀病毒疫情的影響，不過美國資本市場卻出現了特殊目的併購公司（special purpose acquisition company, SPAC）之熱潮，而SPAC熱潮帶動了龐大之資金流與商機，更使SPAC制度迅速成為各國證券交易所關注之重點項目，因此紛紛投入引進研究，其中亞洲的新加坡與香港分別在2021年底與2022年初引進。對此，不禁令人好奇的是SPAC與其制度究竟為何？為什麼能吸引投資人的關注？關於第一個問題，SPAC是沒有實際營業業務並純粹只為完成企業併購的公司，而其制度則是指此種公司如何進行首次公開發行程序(initial public offering, IPO)上市與企業併購之規範。至於第二個問題則是牽涉SPAC制度其中的機制設計，以大眾印象而言，一方面因贖回權之設計使投資人得以將股份返還公司並取回當初所投入的資金，另一方面則是因IPO所發行之證券為普通股與認股權所組成之可分離權益組合，而此二機制降低了投資人所承受的投資風險，不過最重要的是SPAC成為一般投資人能夠參與私人股權投資的管道。然而，美國SEC在2021年陸續發出多項關於SPAC制度之修正與提醒，這是否暗示SPAC制度並非如大眾印象般地美好，甚至是更為複雜與高風險的「金融遊戲」？本文將透過文獻整理以釐清SPAC制度的全貌。

將焦點回到我國，面對國外相當火熱的SPAC制度，我國政府不得不開始評估關於引進的問題。對此，儘管政府在2021年已表達拒絕引進，不過並非完全禁止，在疑慮之處解決後仍有引進可能，因此關於引進工作上仍有研究價值。首先，本文以我國商事法制與立法政策為標的進行政策分析，以探討政府未來可能採取之態度與SPAC是否有存在我國的可能，而在我國法制中沒有SPAC明文的情況下，確實存有修法之必要；其後則是關於引進時需要特別注意的事項，此部分將身處亞洲的新加坡與香港進行比較法研究，以探討如何立法、重視投資人保護之政策能否與SPAC制度共存、一般投資人是否有參與的可能等問題，最後給予一個大方向之立法建議。惟需要特別澄清的是，本文並不是以「是否應該引進」為主題，本文所研究的主題為「如何引進」，因此關注重點在如何使SPAC制度得以運作。

In 2020, the world and every industries were affected by COVID-19. However, there was an upsurge of special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) in the USA’s capital market, and it was known as “the SPAC Boom”. The SPAC Boom not only drived huge capital flows and business opportunities, but also made the framework of SPAC become the main issue of every stock exchanges. As the main issue, stock exchanges started to research of introducing the framework of SPAC, and among them, Singapore and Hong Kong introduced at the end of 2021 and early 2022 respectively.

To the SPAC Boom, we can’t help but wonder what is SPAC and it’s framework? Why can SPACs attract the attention of investors? For the first question, SPAC is a company that has no actual business activities and is purely for the completion of acquisition, and it’s framework refers to how does SPAC list by initial public offering (IPO) and the acquisitions after IPO. The next is for the second question, it involves the design of the mechanism of the SPAC framework. In the public impression about SPAC, the design of the redemption right enables investors to get back their money by returning SPACs’ share, also the unit issued by SPACs is combined with a share and warrant, and these two mechanism decrease investors’ risk, but the most important reason is SPAC allow general investors to participate in private equity investments. However, SEC of the USA had successively issued a number of amendments and reminders about the SPAC system in 2021. Did this imply that the SPAC framework is not as good as the public impression, or even a more complicated and high-risk“financial game”? This thesis will analyze the literature to clarify the overall of the SPAC framework.

Turning the focus back to Taiwan, facing the hot issue as SPAC, Taiwan’s government must has to start evaluating for it’s introduction. Although the government had expressed refusing of introduction in 2021, it wasn’t completely prohibited. It is still possible to introduce after the doubts are resolved, so there is still research value on the introduction work. First of all, this thesis starts with the policy analysis which is based on Taiwan’s commercial law and legislative policies to explore the possibility of the attitude that the government may adopt in the future and the existion of SPACs. However, in the absence of SPAC express provisions in Taiwan’s law, it is indeed the necessary to amend the law. Followed by matters is the issues which should pay special attention of introducing, this part will conduct a comparative study between Singapore and Hong Kong to explore that how to legislate, whether policies that emphasize investor protection can coexist with the SPAC system, and general investment whether people have the possibility to participate etc., after that, the thesis will give a general direction of legislative suggestions in the end. However, it needs to be clarified that the theme of this thesis is not about“whether should be introduced”, this thesis is focus on “how to introduce it”and how to make the SPAC system work.