Their pullback follows an intense boom in the vehicles over the past couple of years, as financiers, politicians and celebrities piled into the deals. But new guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Commission have sucked air out of the balloon, which was already rapidly deflating thanks to souring markets, jittery regulators and dwindling returns for the deals.
“The SEC continues to spoil an already rather lame SPAC party,” said Oliver Scharping, a portfolio manager at Bantleon. “There’s virtually no money to be made with new issuances right now.”