People
Underwriter
The bank or banks that market and place the IPO, credited on the prospectus cover.
Also written: bookrunner, book-running manager, syndicate
The book-running managers run the process and take the economics. Co-managers and syndicate members are credited on the cover but play a smaller role.
The underwriting section of the prospectus lists each house and the units allocated to it, which is the only disclosed measure of how much of a deal each bank actually took.
Why it matters
The syndicate does not control whether a sponsor finds a target, but the quality of the book at pricing shapes who ends up holding the units, and that affects how the shares trade.
Related terms
See the term in the wild: the screener shows trust size, per-share value and deadlines for every U.S. SPAC, and each profile links to the filings the numbers came from.
Definitions describe market practice and are not investment, legal or tax advice.