Investors are cooling off to one of the most popular bets on Wall Street as new regulatory investigations of specialty acquisition companies squeeze the flow of new issues as stock prices plummet.
SPACs have raised about $ 100 billion so far this year, more than last year’s record of $ 83.4 billion, which in itself was more than the amount raised in the nearly 30-year history of these blank check companies .
The market set another record Tuesday when Grab Holdings Inc., the Southeast Asian food, delivery and digital wallet group, said it would go public through a nearly $ 40 billion SPAC deal.
Critical comments from regulators seem to deter some investors and new offerings. Until last month, about five new SPACs entered the stock market every business day in 2021. In the past 14 days, 12 new SPACs have started trading, data from SPAC Research shows.
The slowdown is because other assets, such as stocks and cryptocurrencies, are on or near records. SPACs have been some of the worst performers in the market lately.