Structure
Blank-check company
The SEC's own term for a development-stage company with no specific business plan, which is how SPACs are classified and found.
Also written: blank check, SIC 6770
A blank-check company is one that has no defined business other than to acquire an unidentified one. The label carries a specific regulatory meaning, and it is the reason the SPAC universe can be enumerated at all: registrants are assigned SIC code 6770 at registration.
Not every blank-check registrant becomes a tradeable SPAC. Many file a registration statement and never price an offering, then withdraw it.
Related terms
SPAC
A shell company that raises cash in an IPO and then has a fixed window to merge with a private business, or return the money.
Form S-1
The registration statement for the IPO, and the first public sighting of a new SPAC.
SIC code
The SEC's industry classification. Code 6770, blank checks, is how the SPAC universe is enumerated.
See the term in the wild: the screener shows trust size, per-share value and deadlines for every U.S. SPAC, and each profile links to the filings the numbers came from.
Definitions describe market practice and are not investment, legal or tax advice.