Morgan Stanley becomes substantial shareholder of Vertex Tech

MORGAN Stanley picked up an additional 603,363 shares of Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation (VTAC) on Nov 23 and became the latest substantial shareholder of Singapore’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with a deemed interest of just over 6 per cent. 

A filing on Friday (Nov 25) showed that Morgan Stanley now has a deemed interest of about 2.5 million VTAC shares, up from 1.9 million shares or a stake of about 4.6 per cent prior to the transaction. 

The deemed interest is because it is the controlling interest in Morgan Stanley’s body corporate which is interested in such shares, the filing said. 

Morgan Stanley may, following the acquisition which was due to an “aggregation of global position”, exercise the right to “rehypothecate or dispose of” the shares.

Units of VTAC closed unchanged at S$4.53 on Friday.