Hong Kong struggles to attract SPACs

Careful approach: Pedestrians walking outside the Exchange Square complex which houses the HKEX. The bourse has proposed that SPACs raise at least US$128mil when listing.— Bloomberg

HONG KONG: Hong Kong could have a hard time attracting blank cheque or special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) after it proposed a high threshold to list in the city.

In a consultation paper, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) proposed that SPACs would need to raise at least HK$1bil (US$128mil or RM536mil) when listing and that retail investors would be barred from participating.