Special purpose buyout firm (SPAC) has so far made a record $100 billion in an initial public offering of (IPO) in 2021, the biggest gold rush on Wall Street in recent years, according to data from Refinitiv. 

Data show that since the beginning of this year, there are about 341 SPAC listings around the world, of which SPAC listed in the United States occupies a dominant position. 

"among the uncertainties brought about by a global pandemic, SPAC is a good choice for access to the public market compared to the more difficult and longer-lasting traditional IPO approach," said Lucille Jones (Lucille Jones), an analyst at Refinitiv transaction intelligence. . 

SPAC is a shell company that buys a private company by raising money through an IPO, with the aim of taking it public, thus allowing these target companies to avoid the traditional IPO. 

However, as SPAC and shell companies grow in popularity, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (SEC) is stepping up its scrutiny of them and investigating Wall Street's buying spree of bad checks. 

Since the peak in March, the pace of new listings has slowed considerably. Regulators warned investors and pushed for more disclosure and transparency around SPAC, which dampened market sentiment and led to a sharp drop in market activity in April to the lowest monthly total since June 2020, "Mr Jones added. 

Last month, regulators issued SPAC accounting guidelines that questioned whether warrants issued by hundreds of SPAC could be considered equity instruments and hinted that many SPAC might have to resubmit financial statements to record warrants as liabilities.