India’s Startups Worth Billions Sidelined From Global SPAC Hunt

Companies in India remain almost completely locked out of being acquired by special-purpose acquisition companies nearly a year after India’s finance minister promised to relax foreign investment rules and let SPACs buy and list its companies.

The number of SPAC deals that have taken Indian companies public on the U.S. stock exchanges remains stuck at exactly three—even as an estimated $120 billion in capital seeks deals in Asia.

Rules aimed at protecting investors from unvetted shell companies have essentially barred SPAC investments, and any workaround involves convoluted cross-border structures that India has tried to thwart with punishing tax consequences that ...