Sports & Health Tech Acquisition Corp., the blank-check firm backed by professional golfer Tiger Woods, dropped its plans for a $150 million initial public offering.
The special purpose acquisition company asked to withdraw its registration for an IPO filing Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm said last year it was planning to seek a merger target in the sports or health tech sectors with an enterprise value of $600 million to $1 billion.
The SPAC was set to be led by Andrew White, who is chairman of LeAD Sports Ltd., a sports and health technology business with Christopher Hubman slated to fill the role of finance chief. Hubman has been the CFO of Tiger Woods Ventures since 2000.
The Woods-backed venture’s management team boasted athletes including tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and former National Basketball Association player David Lee in the January 2022 filing.
The once-hot blank-check industry has withered after a crackdown by regulators soured investor sentiment toward the market. It’s been a painful fallout for an industry that attracted legions of retail investors for projects tied to celebrities, politicians and athletes at the height of its mania before fizzling.
The SPAC market’s choppy performance has driven the most-seasoned sponsors to pull the plug on offerings, including those backed by industry titan Alec Gores, while others with ties to former athletes like Colin Kaepernick, the former National Football League quarterback-turned activist, throwing in the towel.
Shares of SPACs that completed deals have mostly fizzled with the De-SPAC Index, a basket of former blank checks, down 67% in the past year.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.