Initial public offerings of special purpose acquisition companies backed by private equity or venture capital are heading for the slowest year since 2021.

In the year to Sept. 4, only six private equity-backed SPACs — also known as blank-check companies — filed for an IPO globally, compared with 15 in 2023, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

IPOs of blank-check companies, which are created for the purpose of acquiring a private company, peaked in 2021 with 772 market debuts across the globe. About 5.1% of the total, or 39 deals, involved SPACs backed by private equity.

Private equity-backed SPACs debuting in public markets continue to decrease for a variety of reasons, including "reduced investor appetite for risk, overall decline in IPOs, softening in performance in risky private markets" and global stock market corrections, Victoria Chernykh, assistant vice president for Preqin's Research Insights, said in an emailed statement.

Of the six private equity-backed SPACs that filed for IPO in 2024, four listed in South Korea: Mirae Asset Vision Special Purpose Acquisition 4 Co., Daishin Balance No.18 Special Purpose Acquisition Co. Ltd., Daishin Balance No.17 Special Purpose Acquisition Co. and Hana 31 Special Purpose Acquisition Co. The remaining two listed in the US: GP-Act III Acquisition Corp. and Perceptive Capital Solutions Corp.

Largest private equity-backed SPACs

As of Sept. 3, a GP Investments Ltd.-backed entity led the largest private equity-backed SPACs by market capitalization at $359.7 million. GP-Act III Acquisition Corp. completed its IPO on Nasdaq in May. Haymaker Acquisition Corp. 4, backed by financial technology investor Haymaker Ventures LLC, followed with a market cap of $313.6 million. It completed its NYSE listing in July 2023.

The third-largest was Atlas Merchant Capital LLC's Slam Corp. with a market cap of $259.6 million. It debuted on Nasdaq in February 2021. Slam is under an agreement to merge with Lynk Global Inc., which offers satellite-based telecommunication services to mobile phone users.

SPACs that listed in 2021 dominate the list. Each of these 14 companies is in a deal with a potential buyer, Market Intelligence data shows.

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SPAC acquisitions

A total of 40 SPACs launched with private equity backing in the past two years have not yet announced an M&A agreement, according to Market Intelligence data. Seventy percent remain active, while the rest have passed their deadline to announce a deal.

SPAC transactions are heading toward normalization to the levels seen pre-2020, according to Don Duffy, president of SPAC advisory firm ICR.

"[There were too many deals in 2021] because there were too many SPACs chasing too few good companies. A lot of the companies that ultimately chose to go public through the SPAC structure were earlier-stage companies, and it was the intent of many of those SPACs to try to find emerging companies."

"The problem with that is when the markets got tough and rates went up, people were a lot less interested in speculative assets, and those didn't trade very well," Duffy said.