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At Dealflow Media's SPAC Conference 2008, Phil Goldstein, founder of hedge fund Bulldog Investors, sank his teeth into the question of whether "SPACs have jumped the shark."
"It's difficult to tell if SPACs have jumped the shark," Goldstein said, "but the days of announcing the deal and the vote being a fait complete are over." After reviewing the massive slowdown in SPAC IPOs activity this year, Goldstein traced many of the problems SPACs have faced in 2008 back to tight credit markets. "The one problem that's not been talked about, but that's vital to the health of this industry, is the credit problem," Goldstein commented. "It's very hard to get credit from prime brokers on what I consider the safest investment I've ever seen." "The ironic thing is that a lot of prime brokers will give you more credit on a deal that's done, where the stock could go down on company performance, than they will when you've got a lot of money just sitting in the bank," he continued. Goldstein felt the problem to be severe enough that he implored the audience to lend a hand, saying, "I would urge anyone who has access to these people to do everything you can to loosen up these credit restraints." Still he was confident that SPACs would be around for the long term, although he thinks that major changes will come to the industry overall. "I don't see the demise of SPACs happening," Goldstein said. "The one positive for this industry is that there are talented, creative minds within it. There are smart people out there; they will tinker with it; the structure may change, and I think that 10 years from now there will still be SPACs. It's been a lousy market in general, but if the credit loosens up, [SPACs] can come back." - George White Categories Deal Video
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