The SEC’s warning shot to the blank-check industry is reverberating throughout the complex, prompting the first of what could be hundreds of restatement filings, Bloomberg reports.
At least six SPACs submitted filings last week, including one of venture-capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings SPACs and Northern Genesis Acquisition, addressing the SEC’s accounting guidance.
The regulatory body said that SPACs may need to account for warrants — securities issued to early SPAC investors — as liabilities, rather than as equity. To the chagrin of the industry that guidance ran counter to common practice. Filings from several SPACs all included the message that previously audited financial statements “should no longer be relied upon.” Read more.
