Billionaire real estate investor Sam Zell expects that 80% of recent sponsors of SPACS will disappear.
"I think that 80% of people who have sponsored SPACs in the last year and a half will disappears and will go do something else," Zell, the chairman of $Equity Commonwealth(EQC.US)$ , said at Invest for Kids charity conference on Thursday. "I think SPACS will jus become another tool in the toolkit of the capital markets."
Zell's own SPAC, $Equity Distribution Acquisition Corp(EQD.US)$ , last September raised $360M in an initial public offering, though it has yet to find its target company.
"Like everything else when people do things to excess the margins decrease and clearly that's occurred," Zell said. "I think we'll still find the right answer for the investment for us."
SPACs, which have had a rough since months since the U.S. Securities and Exchange began to regulate more, may be gaining some traction again. A total of 57 SPACs had their IPOs in October, the highest since March when a record 109 SPACs were issued, according to SPACInsider and CNBC calculation.
Zell said that he's less concerned about the SEC's focus on SPACs and their efforts to curb some of their practices this year.
"I think what they've done so far is trying to get the excesses out of it," Zell added. "I think that's healthy for everybody."
Neil Bluhm, chairman of Rush Street Interactive Inc. (NYSE:RSI), the Internet gaming and sports betting company that went public through a SPAC deal about 10 months ago, believes that SPACs are here to stay.
"I think SPACs will be around," said Bluhm, who spoke alongside Zell at the virtual Invest for Kids event. "They've been around a long time. I think they'll survive, but it just won't be the frenzy that we saw six, eight months ago."
Bluhm said its become much harder to raise money through PIPEs than it was 10 months ago.
"It's very hard to raise money for PIPEs now," Bluhm said. "Now SPACs are somewhat out of style. I think that will turn around. But also the economics are changing, so if you are going to invest in a PIPE you are going to get a better deal today than you were than when we took our company public."
Also see on Tuesday $Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp II(NGAB.US)$ shareholders meet to vote on the SPAC deal with Embark Trucks. Shares of Embark Trucks are likely to begin trading by the end of the week.
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