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Singapore SPACs still draw investor interest despite ‘challenging’ environment, says exchange executive

  • SPACs face a ‘more challenging’ environment as global fundraising for the investment vehicles slows
  • Three SPACs have listed in Singapore this year since new rules were introduced

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A person uses the escalator at the Singapore Exchange’s headquarters. Photo: Bloomberg
Chad Bray

Investors still have an appetite for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) listed in Singapore despite a “more challenging” environment for the investment vehicles this year, according to the head of the Singapore Exchange’s regulatory arm.

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Singapore and Hong Kong both introduced new rules last year to allow the so-called blank cheque companies to go public on their bourses amid a fervour for the listings among investors and sponsors that saw more than US$162 billion raised by the vehicles globally in 2021.

However, the uptake on both exchanges has been somewhat muted this year as fundraising globally has slipped to less atmospheric levels. There have been only three SPAC IPOs in Singapore – the biggest being Temasek Holdings-backed Vertex Technology Acquisition Corp – and one Hong Kong-listed SPAC, Aquila Acquisition, to debut since the beginning of the year.

“For us, it’s never been about a numbers game. We always knew that we were not going to be a SPAC market in the same way the [United] States was going to be a SPAC market,” Tan Boon Gin, the CEO of Singapore Exchange Regulation, told the Post.

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