ANALYSIS: Time Pressure Builds on De-SPAC Deals

Last year, before the latest slowdown in SPAC activity, many in the deals universe had already begun to express concern about the pace of de-SPAC deals: Hundreds of post-IPO SPACs were searching for private targets with which to merge.

In May 2021 (prompted by University of Florida Professor Jay Ritter’s prediction that half of SPACs would need to return money to shareholders), I asked “What If Half the SPACs Don’t De-SPAC?” Well, it seems that more than half of them still haven’t.

SPACs typically have a limited time period (between 18 and 24 months) in which to find ...