Deals
SPAC Listings Slow to a Crawl With Bankers Buried in Paperwork
- The SEC is expanding the unit that reviews such transactions
- Investors are becoming ‘increasingly discerning,’ lawyer says
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Anxiety is growing that the wellspring of special-purpose acquisition companies, a 2020s echo of the dot-com mania of the 1990s, is bumping up against the limits of both Wall Street and Washington.
The pipeline of SPACs rushing to market is getting so clogged that bankers, lawyers and auditors are turning away business as they struggle to keep pace, according to people familiar with the matter. As founders of blank-check companies wait in line, the deep-pocketed investors needed to take them public have grown squeamish.
About 300 SPACs launched this quarter on U.S. exchanges, raising almost $100 billion -- more than all of last year.