(Reuters) -Israel’s online brokerage eToro and Betsy Cohen-backed blank-check company FinTech Acquisition Corp have mutually agreed to terminate their merger deal more than a year after it was announced, the companies said on Tuesday.
Decades-high inflation and worries over a recession have drained U.S. markets and dried up new stock listings, as the Federal Reserve continues with aggressive rate hikes to tame sky-high prices.
Dealmaking in the SPAC market has also been stifled by tightening regulatory scrutiny and high investor redemptions, while a steep decline in share prices of companies such as Grab Holdings Ltd and BuzzFeed Inc that went public through SPACs mergers has also soured sentiment.
The companies entered into a termination agreement on July 1, according to a filing on Tuesday, but did not specify any reason for ending the deal. They said neither party will be required to pay a termination fee.
The deal announced in March last year was amended in December to lower eToro’s valuation by more than 15% to $8.8 billion. The companies had also agreed to extend the deadline to close the deal by June 30.
Several firms this year have scrapped their agreements to go public via special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), including telecom services provider Syniverse Technologies, 3D printing company Essentium Inc and travel technology platform HotelPlanner.
Last week, digital identity verification and fraud prevention company TeleSign terminated its SPAC deal, while hospitality firm Panera Brands said it had called off its investment agreement with its former SPAC partner.
SPACs, which exploded in popularity in 2020, are shell firms that merge with private companies to take them public.
(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru;Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
