Concerns under Law on Mergers & Acquisition

the fair market value of the De- SPAC exceeds the cap limit.25 The third major issue which exists is the lengthy compliance requirements which are prescribed which include obtaining approvals for amalgamation or merging with foreign entities that often seems to be a challenge since the time taken to obtain these approvals and the rate of approvals given are frankly, quite low.26

Concerns under Law on Mergers & Acquisition

The fundamental nature of mergers happening through SPACs is different from the traditional method of mergers and acquisitions taking place. Presently, India does not provide for a legal recognition of SPAC except those permitted by the International Financial Services Centre Authority through its regulations. Since SPACs situated in other jurisdictions can still acquire Indian companies through mergers and acquisitions, it would be pertinent to state that the concerns or challenges that could arise are similar to any cross border mergers and acquisitions. In the view of the same, it would be important to consider a paradigm of the regulatory challenges that India may face if SPACs are given legal recognition. In order to correctly highlight the merger and acquisition concerns of SPACs in India, it is important to analyse and discuss concerns from other nations as well, where SPACs have been successfully implemented. In the United States of America, SPACs have to identify the target company and complete acquisition within two years from the inception. This throws out different challenges as far as valuations, harmonising the accounts and conforming to the standards of disclosure inter alia are concerned.27 The detailed

25 Soumya Kanti De Mallik, Prithviraj Chauhan and Kshitij Gupta, ‘Statutory & Regulatory Amendments in India to Make SPAC Effective’ (Mondaq, 11 August 2021) <https://www.mondaq.com/india/shareholders/1101002/statutoryregulatory-amendments-in-india-to-make-spac-effective> accessed 03 October 2021. 26 Ajay Kumar and Himanshu Dubey, ‘Creating Regulatory Eco- System for SPACs in India’ 18 August 2021 <https://vinodkothari.com/2021/08/regulatory-eco-system-for-spacs/> accessed 03 October 2021. 27 Mark Maurer, ‘Companies Merging With SPACs Face Challenges Around Valuations, Controls’ (The Wall Street Journal, 13 April 2021) <https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-merging-with-spacs-face-