(Reuters) – Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc has delayed its quarterly results by about a week to May 10, following the accounting guidance issued for blank check companies by the U.S. securities regulator, the space tourism company said on Friday.
The guidance, issued earlier this month, called into question whether warrants issued by hundreds of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, could be considered equity instruments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also suggested that many SPACs may potentially have to refile their financial statements to account for the warrants as a liability.
The SEC guidelines are the latest addition to its move to clamp down on Wall Street’s biggest gold rush in recent years, with SPACs announcing deals worth $286.9 billion so far this year globally, Refinitiv data showed.
SPACs are listed shell companies that raise funds to acquire a private company with the purpose of taking it public, allowing such targets to sidestep a traditional initial public offering.
Virgin Galactic was scheduled to report on May 4, but will now report its first-quarter results after market close on May 10.
The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, said it will restate its financial statements and annual report for the last fiscal year, which could result in some incremental non-operating expense for 2020 and 2019.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
