Following years of subdued activity, the SPAC market has rebounded in 2025. Established sponsors are driving new blank check issuance to a four-year high, and now two notable mergers have bucked the trend of high redemptions to raise more than $100 million apiece. Kyivstar (KYIV) and BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics (BBOT), both spun out of publicly-traded parents, posted de-SPAC redemption rates of less than 40% when they closed their mergers last week, well below the 90%+ average of recent years.
Kyivstar: The first Ukrainian company to list in the US
Kyivstar Group (KYIV) became the first Ukrainian company to list on a major US exchange last week when it merged with SPAC veteran Betsy Cohen’s 2024 blank check, Cohen Circle Acquisition I. Cohen was a repeat sponsor during the 2020-2021 SPAC boom, taking public a fintech, Payoneer (PAYO), and a capital markets advisory firm, Perella Weinberg (PWP); more recently, another Cohen-led SPAC merged with crypto financial services venture Fold (FLD).
Kyivstar, a subsidiary of Dubai-headquartered telecommunications group VEON (VEON), serves as Ukraine’s dominant mobile platform with 24 million subscribers, and had been assigned a pro-forma valuation of $2 billion. After its merger, holders of only 25% of shares exercised their redemption rights, leaving the company with $178 million in proceeds. For the year ended December 31, 2024, the company generated revenue of $919 million (+0.4% y/y) with an adj. EBITDA margin of 56% and a net margin of 31%; growth re-accelerated in the 1H25 (+37% y/y constant currency).
BridgeBio Oncology: Institutional backing drives biotech success
Clinical-stage biotech BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics (BBOT) also...
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