Below is a daily summary of links to the latest SPAC news and rumors gathered across the web.
Latest SPAC News: Hong Kong market regulator urges city to uphold rule of law, IPO market freeze sparks 80% drop in Nasdaq listings, and Grab takes cost-cutting measures
Top Hong Kong Market Regulator Urges City to Uphold Rule of Law
Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center hinges on ensuring investors have confidence that the city follows the “conventional” rule of law in place in other global hubs and maintaining its special role as a bridge between the world and China, according to Ashley Alder, the outgoing top market regulator.
Alder noted that “SPACs were one of the phenomena which basically signaled the final bit of bull market. We were very aware of that. Given that there seemed to be an inevitable, unstoppable drive to create a SPAC regime, we ended up with one that was deliberately designed to detoxify it. Because the incentives and other features of SPACs, without that sort of framework, in my view, broadly works against public investors.”
READIPO market freeze sparks 80% drop in Nasdaq listings
Equity listings on the Nasdaq fell about 80% this year, as the appetite for new issues took a hit from extreme volatility in the stock market, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s war on inflation.
A total of 156 companies listed their shares on the bourse this year, raising nearly $15 billion in initial public offerings, a far cry from 743 firms that raised $180 billion in what was a blockbuster 2021, data from the exchange operator showed.
The year also saw a big drop in the listings of blank-check companies, as regulatory concerns and their free-falling share price seemed to have cooled Wall Street’s hottest investment trend of 2021. In total, 68 SPACs listed on the exchange in 2022, compared with 110 a year earlier.
READGrab cost-cutting measures necessary but uncertainties continue to loom, say analysts
The recent round of cost-cutting measures undertaken by super app company Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB), coming two-and-a-half years since it last executed a major retrenchment exercise, was a necessary move given the firm’s financial situation, said analysts.
Its move was the latest in a spate of cost-cutting measures by high-profile tech firms, some of which have laid off workers, with one analyst describing Grab’s decision as a “matter of survival”.
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Terms Tracker for the Week Ending March 31, 2023 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. Filings continue to remain quiet, but SPACs did manage to price two more IPOs this week with TMT Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: TMTCU) and Trailblazer Merger...
Hudson Acquisition I Corp. (NASDAQ:HUDA) announced that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to combine with a pre-clinical-stage biotechnology company. The SPAC did not provide many details on the unnamed target, but disclosed that the biotech company is focused on developing intranasal preventives for major disease-causing respiratory viruses. As a condition to the target...
Heading into April, SPACs are to see eight sponsors and 11 de-SPAC’d companies freed from lock-ups and ready to trade. Most of these lock-up expirations are loaded into the final week of the month, but those hitting this milestone already next week include some of the more interesting transactions of the crop. In particular, MoonLake...
Below is a daily summary of links to the latest SPAC news and rumors gathered across the web. Latest SPAC News: Shares of Digital World jump after Trump’s indictment, and pair of Delaware Chancery court decisions deny motions to dismiss SPAC shareholder’s fiduciary breach claims Trump-Tied SPAC’s Shares Jump After Historic New York Charge The...
Ares Acquisition Corporation II (NYSE:AACT) filed its S-1 yesterday afternoon for a $400 million IPO, marking the second SPAC to file for an IPO in March and the largest since December 20, 2021, when Gores Holdings X Inc. filed for a $725 million SPAC. Ares II intends to focus its search on an established target...