{"id":547180,"date":"2022-06-12T04:10:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T04:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/06\/12\/time-to-call-time-on-spacs\/"},"modified":"2022-06-12T04:10:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T04:10:59","slug":"time-to-call-time-on-spacs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/06\/12\/time-to-call-time-on-spacs\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to call time on SPACs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> SPACs are dead. Interest rates and regulators killed them:<\/strong> It\u2019s looking increasingly like the SPAC boom fueled by the pandemic\u2019s heyday of \u201ceasy money\u201d is over, with Wall Street banks reluctant to co-sign new blank-check companies and some rejecting them entirely, the Financial Times<\/a> reports. Goldman Sachs, which was among the largest SPAC underwriters in 2021, has paused new SPAC offerings and is no longer working with many of those that it helped take public. Bank of America is doing \u201cselective work\u201d with existing clients while Citigroup is also stepping back from the market. \u201cThe product is dead. There\u2019s no more SPACs,\u201d<\/strong> one lawyer told the salmon-colored paper.<\/p>\n

In numbers:<\/strong> Monetary tightening and increased scrutiny from regulators have hampered the market for SPAC mergers this year. Blank-check firms have raised just USD 12.7 bn, a fraction of the USD 166 bn raised in 2021, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group, with only 50 SPAC mergers completed, down from 226 in 2021. More than 600 listed SPACs globally have raised money from investors but have yet to find a private company to merge with, according to the LSE.<\/p>\n

Analysts say it\u2019s all for the best:<\/strong> \u201cThere were too many SPACs and they really piled into the speculative part of the market,\u201d said a senior banker with experience in the market. \u201cWhat will emerge out of that is a significantly smaller but healthy market for SPACs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Regional VC funding cools off<\/strong>: MENA startups raised USD 176 mn last month \u2014 the lowest monthly figure so far this year, according to Wamda<\/a>. The figure was down 40% on the month before, but some 62.7% more than in May 2021. We led the pack, with local startups raising USD 81 mn in 11 transactions \u2014 most of which was accounted for by Paymob\u2019s massive USD 50 mn series B<\/a> round.<\/p>\n

Also worth noting:<\/strong><\/p>\n