Alternative Acquisition Models and Financial Innovation: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, and the Italian Legal Framework

This is the first book written in English on special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in the context of European and Italian financial law, introducing the topic with a general overview on the European stage. It is also the first book on European financial regulations of SPACs. As such, it is a groundbreaking reference text for SPAC studies at the international level. Alternative Acquisition Models and Financial Innovation: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, and the Italian Legal Framework offers the most comprehensive overview of the current international financial regulations of SPACs in the EU and UK compared to the main legal system where SPACs originated—the US. This edited book is focused on finding a European legal framework for SPACs by discovering whether the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) or the Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS) are applicable to them and why, as well as identifying the objectives of financial regulation of SPACs in the EU, US and UK.Essentially, the edited collection explores soft law and self-regulation instances against the state-based Westphalian approaches centred on hard law instances; describes practical examples of SPACs in Italy and Europe; and analyses the limits and perspectives of such investment vehicles on the Italian capital market as well as their possible uses as forms of shadow banking and venture companies at international levels.

About the Author

Daniele D’Alvia is a Lecturer in Banking and Finance Law at CCLS – Queen Mary University of London, an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London, and an Associate Researcher at the European Banking Institute in Frankfurt.

Ettore Maria Lombardi is Professor of Private Law and International Business Law at the University of Florence School of Law and of counsel at Lombardi & Hage-Chahine Law Firm.

Yochanan Shachmurove is Professor of Economics and Business at the City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), affiliated with the Department of Economics at New York University, USA, and is the Economic MA Program Director at the City College of CUNY.