The rise in blank-check companies a boon to private equity firms looking to cash out from their deals is worrying some managers.
“It feels a little bit like a gold rush to me,” said James Andersen, co-founder of private equity firm Clearview Capital, during a virtual event hosted on Tuesday by the New York Alternative Investment Roundtable. “Gold rushes almost never end well.”
The boom in special purpose acquisition companies is a “symptom” of the Federal Reserve injecting massive capital into the market, prompting investors to search for returns in areas like SPACs, according to Andersen. Against the backdrop of the resulting high valuations, he said he worries that many SPACs will overpay for companies and fail to perform for investors.