Executive Network Partnering Corp - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule of the Exchange Act.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ii

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iii

This Report, including without limitation, statements under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. There can be no assurance that actual results will not materially differ from expectations. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our ability to consummate any acquisition or other partnering transaction and any other statements that are not statements of current or historical facts.

The forward-looking statements contained in this Report are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward- looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following risks, uncertainties and other factors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iv

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. These risks and others described under “Risk Factors” may not be exhaustive.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this Report. In addition, even if our results or operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this Report, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.

 

v

The following is a summary of the principal risks described below in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Report. We believe that the risks described in the “Risk Factors” section are material to investors, but other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also adversely affect us. The following summary should not be considered an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing us, and it should be read in conjunction with the “Risk Factors” section and the other information contained in this Report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

We were incorporated as a Delaware corporation on June 22, 2020, for the purpose of effectuating a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar partnering transaction with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Report as our “partnering transaction.” We may pursue a partnering transaction in any business or industry but expect to focus on a partnering candidate where we believe our strong network, operational background, and aligned economic structure provides us with a competitive advantage.

Executive Network Partnering Corporation (“ENPC”) was formed as a partnership among Paul Ryan, our Chairman, who has served as the 54th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Solamere Capital, LLC (“Solamere”), a private equity firm anchored by its network of leading business executives, and Alex Dunn, who has served in various senior operating roles at several businesses where he helped grow shareholder value, most recently as President of Vivint Smart Home, Inc. (NYSE: VVNT) (“Vivint”).

12-year

We also anticipate that the CAPS structure provides excellent economic alignment with, and hence appeal to, the existing ownership and management teams of potential partnering candidates. The nature of the structure is driven by long-term value creation rather than simply closing a merger transaction. The sponsors of ENPC will derive economics only if the sponsor can drive long-term and sustainable share price appreciation as opposed to typical special purpose acquisition companies where most of the sponsor economics (i) are derived upon deal consummation and for simply closing a transaction or (ii) are restructured at the time of merger with price thresholds which may not be reflective of actual long-term sustainable value creation.

We believe our Company is well positioned due to our strength in three areas: a) opportunity identification / sourcing, b) opportunity evaluation, and c) post-closing operational excellence. The principals at ENPC have a long history of working together and leveraging their existing network of relationships, in sourcing proprietary acquisition opportunities, evaluating those opportunities, and executing operationally to grow equity value.

Solamere was founded in 2008 in partnership with a collection of influential business leaders to leverage their broad networks and industry expertise to source, evaluate, and add value to private investments. Solamere allows CEOs and other industry leaders to pool their capital and networks together in order to generate attractive risk-adjusted

 

2

returns. Solamere’s strategic network of investors provides many advantages, including a differentiated and proprietary source of deal opportunities, the patience to invest for the long term, the ability to quickly access industry experts, customers, and suppliers during diligence and post-closing, the willingness to work closely with existing management teams and build a reputation for being fair and founder-friendly, as well as a willingness to structure transactions either as minority or majority transactions.

co-lead

value-add

We expect to engage the Solamere Network, including CEOs and operating executives in that network, during our partnering transaction. The Solamere Network is expected to provide access to investment opportunities, assist in the evaluation of potential investments, and help drive value creation post-closing.

The composition of Solamere’s limited partners includes a group of over 150 individuals, including well-respected public and private company CEOs, senior operating executives from a wide variety of industries, successful entrepreneurs and business-builders, leading investors from premier private equity and venture capital firms, senior finance and banking professionals, leaders of industry and trade associations and top academic minds, business consultants and lawyers. Solamere engages these limited partners as part of its normal course of investment activities and would look to engage these limited partners as part of the partnering transaction process.

Solamere also utilizes a group of over 20 executives (called the “Executive Partner Group”) which is a select group of Solamere limited partners and other members of the Solamere Network who are reputable former CEOs and industry leaders, including former CEOs of S&P 500 companies, across various sectors and industries. Given the breadth of the Solamere Network and its deep operational expertise, it will allow us to evaluate opportunities and situations across the broadest range of sectors and retain the flexibility to match an executive partner with the right capabilities and experience to a specific situation. Many of the members of our Executive Partner Group have held senior leadership positions with companies where they have a proven strong track record of creating shareholder value, organically and through transformational acquisitions or corporate restructurings, as well as extensive relationships with owners and operators of companies within their respective industries. We expect members of the Executive Partner Group to actively participate in deal sourcing, evaluation and value creation post-closing of the partnering transaction. A member of our Executive Partner Group may join the acquired company as an executive chairman, board member or in another senior executive capacity in order to further stockholder value. Our existing board of directors represents a small cross section of our relationships and our Executive Partner Group.

 

 

3

In addition, Mr. Paul Ryan, Mr. Dick Boyce, Mr. Michael M. Calbert, and Ms. Gisel Ruiz serve as members of our board of directors.

 

 

 

The Managing Partners have a history of success as investors, advisors, operators, and entrepreneurs within private equity, government and various other industries. The Managing Partners have been working together since Solamere’s inception. Each of the Managing Partners will play an active role in sourcing, diligencing, executing, and creating value in our partnering transaction. The Managing Partners are supported by a senior group of investment professionals.

co-founding

Spencer Zwick founded Solamere with Tagg Romney and Eric Scheuermann. Spencer has spent over a decade building the Solamere Network while working in the public and private sectors. Spencer previously served as the National Finance Chairman and senior advisor for the 2008 and 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaigns. Likewise, he served as the National Finance Chairman for Speaker Paul Ryan. Spencer previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer in the Office of Governor Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. Spencer also worked in the Executive Office of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympic Games of 2002. Spencer is a current member of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Campaign Cabinet Board. He also serves on the board of the Lupus Research Alliance as well as the Salt Lake Tribune. Having spent many years growing up outside the United States, Spencer is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Thai. Spencer studied Economics and International Studies at Brigham Young University.

 

 

4

co-founded

co-founder

On January 17, 2020, Vivint announced that it had completed its $4.2 billion merger with Mosaic Acquisition Corp in one of the largest merger transactions with a special purpose acquisition company. During that process, Mr. Dunn gained significant experience in the transaction process involving a special purpose acquisition company.

We also believe that Mr. Dunn’s experience in leading a company which was majority owned by a large private equity sponsor for multiple years, experience in evaluating transactions from a corporate perspective, capital markets experience and history of long-term operational value creation from an early stage company to a merger with a special purpose acquisition company will be valuable in communicating with management teams and existing owners who may be contemplating a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and our competitive strengths.

We believe that the combination of Solamere, its Executive Partner Group, our management team, and our board of directors, including Mr. Ryan’s deep network of business relationships, is an innovative approach to identifying potential high-quality partnering transactions and aligns incentives with our stockholders, providing us with distinctive and differentiated capabilities to create stockholder value.

With respect to the foregoing experiences of our management and board members, Solamere and its Executive Partner Group, past performance is not a guarantee (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our partner transaction or (ii) of success with respect to any partner transaction that we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management’s, Solamere, its Managing Partners, and its Executive Partner Group as indicative of our future performance.

Certain of our officers and directors may have fiduciary and contractual duties to Solamere and to certain companies in which Solamere has invested. As a result, certain of our officers and directors may have a duty to offer acquisition opportunities to certain Solamere funds before we can pursue such opportunities. However, we do not expect these duties to present a significant conflict of interest with our search for a partnering transaction. We believe this conflict of interest will be naturally mitigated, to some extent, by the differing nature of the investments Solamere typically considers most attractive for Solamere funds and the types of transactions we expect to find most attractive. Solamere’s private equity activities typically involve making smaller investments directly in private companies, and while Solamere may take companies public, it typically invests in those entities several years prior to an initial public offering, not at the time of such offering. As a result, we may become aware of a potential transaction that is not a fit for the traditional private equity activities of Solamere but that is an attractive opportunity for ENPC. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential partnering transactions and monitoring the related due diligence.

Our objective is to generate attractive returns to common shareholders post-closing of the merger transaction by partnering with a company which does not need substantial operational improvement or professionalized management. We are focused on working with companies that are high-quality, public-company ready and could leverage the strategic experience of our management team, Solamere, and its Executive Partner Group as well as our differentiated structure.

 

 

5

Our selection process leverages our management team’s, Solamere’s and its Executive Partner Group’s network of industry, private equity sponsor, credit fund sponsor and lending community relationships as well as relationships with management teams of public and private companies, investment bankers, restructuring advisers, attorneys and accountants, which we believe should provide us with a number of partnering transaction opportunities. We deploy a proactive, thematic sourcing strategy and to focus on companies where we believe the combination of our operating experience, relationships, capital, and capital markets expertise can be catalysts to transform a partnering candidate and can help accelerate their growth and performance. Members of our management team, Solamere, and its Executive Partner Group communicate with their network of relationships to articulate our partnering criteria, including the parameters of our search for a company to partner with, and have begun the disciplined process of pursuing and reviewing promising leads.

We expect to drive value to common shareholders through our ability to:

The sourcing, valuation, diligence and execution capabilities of our management team, Solamere team and its Executive Partner Group provides us with a significant pipeline of opportunities from which to evaluate and select a business that will benefit from our expertise. Our competitive strengths include the following core principles by which we govern ourselves:

TM

 

 

6

TM

 

 

7

non-exclusive

These criteria are guidelines and not intended to be exhaustive, and the partnering transaction we deem most attractive may not satisfy certain of these criteria. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular partnering transaction may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the partnering candidate does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our partnering transaction, which, as discussed in this Report, would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.

We are not prohibited from pursuing a partnering transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, our officers, or our directors. In the event we seek to complete our partnering transaction with a business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our officers or our directors, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting firm, that such a partnering transaction is fair to our Company from a financial point of view.

Members of our management team may directly or indirectly own our securities following our initial public offering and, accordingly, they may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a partnering candidate is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our partnering transaction. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular partnering transaction if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a partnering candidate as a condition to any agreement with respect to our partnering transaction.

Solamere manages several investment vehicles. Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity, including public and private funds under the management of Solamere and its respective portfolio companies, pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a partnering transaction opportunity to such entity. In addition, existing and future funds managed by Solamere and its respective portfolio companies may compete with us for partnering transaction opportunities and, if such opportunities are pursued by such entities, we may be precluded from pursuing such opportunities. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a partnering transaction

 

8

opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such partnering transaction opportunity to such entity, and may only decide to present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the same would not violate any restrictive covenants to which such officers and directors are subject.

While our sponsor and its affiliates do not have any duty to offer acquisition opportunities to us, our sponsor and its affiliates may become aware of a potential transaction that is an attractive opportunity for us, which it may decide to share with us. Conflicts may arise from Solamere’s involvement with our Company, as well as from actions undertaken by Solamere or any of its affiliates for their own account. When acting for their own account, Solamere or any of its affiliates may take commercial steps, which may have an adverse effect on us. Any of Solamere’s or its affiliates’ other activities may, individually or in the aggregate, have an adverse effect on us, and the interests of Solamere or any of its affiliates may at times be averse to ours.

We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary, contractual, or other obligations or duties of our officers or directors, or our sponsor and its affiliates, materially affect our ability to complete our partnering transaction.

The NYSE rules require that our initial partnering transaction must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (net of amounts disbursed to management for working capital purposes, if permitted). We refer to this as the 80% of net assets test. If our board of directors is not able independently to determine the fair market value of the partnering candidate or candidates, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. As any such opinion, if obtained, would only state that the fair market value meets the 80% of net assets threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of the partnering candidate or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will not be able to make such independent determination of fair market value, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular partnering candidate or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the partnering candidate’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board of directors determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. As any such opinion, if obtained, would only state that the fair market value meets the 80% of net assets threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of the partnering candidate or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders.

We anticipate structuring our partnering transaction so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders’ own shares will own or acquire 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of the partnering candidate or candidates. We may, however, structure our partnering transaction such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the partnering candidate in order to meet certain objectives of the partnering candidate management team or stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such partnering transaction if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the partnering candidate or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the partnering candidate sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the under the Investment Company Act (the “Investment Company Act”). Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the partnering candidate, our stockholders prior to our partnering transaction may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the partnering candidate and us in our partnering transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all the outstanding capital stock of a partnering candidate. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the partnering candidate. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our stockholders immediately prior to our partnering transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares subsequent to our partnering transaction. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a partnering candidate or candidates are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. If our partnering transaction involves more than one partnering candidate, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all the partnering candidates.

 

 

9

8-A

co-invest

as-converted

We believe our structure makes us an attractive partnering transaction partner to partnering candidates. As an existing public company, we offer a partnering candidate an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger or other partnering transaction with us. In a partnering transaction with us, the owners of the partnering candidate may, for example, exchange their shares of stock in the partnering candidate for shares of our Class A common stock (or shares of a new holding company) or for a combination of shares of our Class A common stock and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. We believe partnering candidates will find this method a more expeditious and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. The typical initial public offering process takes a significantly longer period of time than the typical partnering transaction process, and there are significant expenses and market and other uncertainties in the initial public offering process, including underwriting discounts and commissions, marketing and road show efforts that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a partnering transaction with us.

Furthermore, once a proposed partnering transaction is completed, the partnering candidate will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriter’s ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring or could have negative valuation consequences. Following a partnering transaction, we believe the partnering candidate would then have greater access to capital, an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with stockholders’ interests and the ability to use its shares as currency for acquisitions. Being a public company can offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.

While we believe that our structure and our management team’s backgrounds makes us an attractive business partner, some potential partnering candidates may view our status as a blank check company, such as our lack of an operating history and our ability to seek stockholder approval of any proposed partnering transaction, negatively.

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $414,053,000 available to consummate the initial partnering transaction, after payment of the estimated expenses of our initial public offering. With funds available, we offer a partnering candidate a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the

 

10

potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our partnering transaction using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the partnering candidate to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available to us.

We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following our initial public offering. We intend to effectuate our partnering transaction using cash from the proceeds of our initial public offering and the private placement of the private placement CAPS, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our partnering transaction (and pursuant to backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of our initial public offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the partnering candidate, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the partnering candidate, or a combination of the foregoing. We may seek to complete our partnering transaction with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.

If our partnering transaction is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our partnering transaction or used for redemptions of our shares of Class A common stock, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our partnering transaction, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.

We may need to obtain additional financing to complete our partnering transaction, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the partnering transaction, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such partnering transaction. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our partnering transaction. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities, the incurrence of debt or otherwise.

Although our management will assess the risks inherent in a particular partnering candidate with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a partnering candidate may encounter. Furthermore, some of those risks may be outside of our control, meaning that we can do nothing to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely affect a partnering candidate.

We are not prohibited from pursuing a partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors, or from completing the partnering transaction through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or an independent accounting firm, that such a partnering transaction is fair to our Company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.

In evaluating a prospective partnering candidate, we will continue to conduct a due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as applicable, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us. If we determine to move forward with a particular partnering candidate, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the partnering transaction.

 

11

The time required to select and evaluate a partnering candidate and to structure and complete our partnering transaction, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of, and negotiation with, a prospective partnering candidate with which our partnering transaction is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another partnering transaction. The Company will not pay any consulting fees to members of our management team, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered to or in connection with our partnering transaction.

For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our partnering transaction, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete a partnering transaction with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our partnering transaction with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:

 

 

Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective partnering candidate when evaluating the desirability of effecting our partnering transaction with that business, our assessment of the partnering candidate’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications, or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the partnering candidate cannot presently be stated with any certainty. The determination as to whether any of the members of our management team will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our partnering transaction. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our partnering transaction, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our partnering transaction. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular partnering candidate.

We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our partnering transaction.

Following a partnering transaction, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the partnering candidate. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.

We may conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, we will seek stockholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons.

 

12

Presented in the table below is a graphic explanation of the types of partnering transactions we may consider and whether stockholder approval is currently required under Delaware law for each such transaction.

 

Under the NYSE’s listing rules, stockholder approval would be required for our partnering transaction if, for example:

 

 

 

non-public

In the event that our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.

The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the partnering transaction and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the partnering transaction or (ii) to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a partnering candidate that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our partnering transaction, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrantholders for approval in connection with our partnering transaction. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our partnering transaction that may not otherwise have been possible.

 

13

In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our shares of Class A common stock or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.

10b-5

per-share

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed partnering transaction may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the partnering candidate or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed partnering transaction exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the partnering transaction or redeem any shares in connection with such partnering transaction, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our partnering transaction either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the partnering transaction or (ii) without a stockholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed partnering transaction or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our Company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on the NYSE, we will be required to comply with the NYSE’s shareholder approval rules.

 

14

The requirement that we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above is contained in provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and applies whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on the NYSE. Such provisions may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon.

If we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting, we will:

 

 

non-votes

TM

If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will:

 

 

14e-1(a)

 

15

10b5-1

14e-5

We intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the date on which the vote on the proposal to approve the partnering transaction is to be held. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our partnering transaction will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. We believe that this will allow our transfer agent to efficiently process any redemptions without the need for further communication or action from the redeeming public stockholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed partnering transaction is not approved and we continue to search for a partnering candidate, we will promptly return any certificates or shares delivered by public stockholders who elected to redeem their shares.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed partnering transaction may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the partnering candidate or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed partnering transaction exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the partnering transaction or redeem any shares in connection with such partnering transaction, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

If we seek stockholder approval of our partnering transaction and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our partnering transaction pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed partnering transaction as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering without our prior consent, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our partnering transaction, particularly in connection with a partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.

However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our partnering transaction.

 

16

As described above, we intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the date on which the scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the partnering transaction is to be held. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our partnering transaction will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have up to two business days prior to the vote on the partnering transaction if we distribute proxy materials, or from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, as applicable, to submit or tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.

There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC system. The transfer agent will typically charge the broker submitting or tendering shares a fee of approximately $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to submit or tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.

Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our partnering transaction.

If our partnering transaction is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.

If our initial proposed partnering transaction is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a partnering transaction with a different partnering candidate by 24 months (or 27 months, as applicable) from the closing of our initial public offering.

per-share

24-month

 

17

24-month

pre-partnering

per-share

We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the approximately $94,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account (as of December 31, 2021), although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay taxes, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.

TM

per-share

per-share

Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective partnering candidates and other entities with which we do business (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.

 

18

Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. The underwriter of our initial public offering will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective partnering candidate with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or partnering transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective partnering candidate who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our Company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our partnering transaction and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our partnering transaction, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective partnering candidates.

per-share

We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers, prospective partnering candidates or other entities with which we do business (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to approximately $94,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account (as of December 31, 2021) with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, stockholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.

60-day

 

19

150-day

per-share

Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the subsequent 10 years. However, because we are a recently organized company established for the purpose of identifying a company to partner with in order to effectuate a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar partnering transaction, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective partnering candidates to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective partnering candidates. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective partnering candidates or other entities with which we do business (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account. As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust account is remote. Further, our sponsor may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest withdrawn to pay taxes and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims.

If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders.

 

20

Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our Company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.

pre-partnering

In identifying, evaluating, and selecting a partnering candidate for our partnering transaction, we may encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other special purpose acquisition companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies and operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting partnering transactions directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human, and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger partnering candidates will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a partnering candidate. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our partnering transaction and our outstanding warrants, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain partnering candidates. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a partnering transaction.

sub-lease

We currently have one executive officer, Alex J. Dunn. Mr. Dunn is not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but he intends to devote as much of his time as he deems necessary to our affairs until we have completed our partnering transaction. The amount of time he will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a partnering candidate has been selected for our partnering transaction and the stage of the partnering transaction process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our partnering transaction.

 

21

We registered our CAPS, shares of Class A common stock and warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.

We will provide stockholders with audited financial statements of the prospective partnering candidate as part of the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents sent to stockholders to assist them in assessing the partnering candidate. In all likelihood, these financial statements will need to be prepared in accordance with, or reconciled to, GAAP, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances, and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential partnering candidates we may conduct a partnering transaction with because some partnering candidates may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our partnering transaction within the prescribed time frame. We cannot assure you that any particular partnering candidate identified by us as a potential partnering transaction candidate will have financial statements prepared in accordance with the requirements outlined above, or that the potential partnering candidate will be able to prepare its financial statements in accordance with the requirements outlined above. To the extent that these requirements cannot be met, we may not be able to acquire the proposed partnering candidate. While this may limit the pool of potential partnering transaction candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.

We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer, and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A partnering candidate may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such partnering transaction.

8-A

non-binding

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.

non-affiliates

non-convertible

 

 

22

S-K.

non-affiliates

non-affiliates

 

You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Report, including the financial statements. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition or results of operation may be materially and adversely affected. The risks described below are not necessarily exhaustive and you are encouraged to perform your own investigation with respect to us and our business.

We are a company, incorporated as a Delaware corporation, established for the purpose of identifying a company to partner with in order to effectuate a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar partnering transaction with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our partnering transaction. We may be unable to complete our partnering transaction. If we fail to complete our partnering transaction, we will never generate any operating revenues.

We may choose not to hold a stockholder vote to approve our partnering transaction if the partnering transaction would not require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Except for as required by applicable law or stock exchange requirements, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed partnering transaction or will allow stockholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek stockholder approval. Accordingly, we may complete our partnering transaction even if holders of a majority of our common stock do not approve of the partnering transaction we complete.

At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of our partnering transaction. Since our board of directors may complete a partnering transaction without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the partnering transaction, unless we seek such stockholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding our partnering transaction may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our partnering transaction.

 

 

23

Our initial stockholders holds 20% of the outstanding voting power of our common stock (not including the private placement shares) following our initial public offering. Our initial stockholders and management team also may from time to time purchase shares of Class A common stock prior to our partnering transaction. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, if we seek stockholder approval of a partnering transaction, such partnering transaction will be approved if we receive the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares voted at such meeting, including the founder shares and the performance shares. As a result, in addition to the founder shares, private placement shares and performance shares, we would need 15,218,001, or approximately 36.8%, of the 41,400,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of a partnering transaction in order to have our partnering transaction approved Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our partnering transaction, the agreement by our initial stockholders and management team to vote their founder shares, performance shares, private placement shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our partnering transaction will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite stockholder approval for such partnering transaction.

pre-partnering

We may seek to enter into a partnering transaction agreement with a prospective partnering candidate that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the partnering transaction. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or make us unable to satisfy a minimum cash condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related partnering transaction and may instead search for an alternate partnering transaction.

Prospective partnering candidates will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a partnering transaction with us.

 

 

24

At the time we enter into an agreement for our partnering transaction, we will not know how many stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our partnering transaction agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third party financing. Raising additional third party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable partnering transaction available to us or optimize our capital structure.

If our partnering transaction agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our partnering transaction would be unsuccessful is increased. If our partnering transaction is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with your exercise of redemption rights until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.

Any potential partnering candidate with which we enter into negotiations concerning a partnering transaction will be aware that we must complete our partnering transaction within 24 months (or 27 months, as applicable) from the closing of our initial public offering. Consequently, such partnering candidate may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a partnering transaction, knowing that if we do not complete our partnering transaction with that particular partnering candidate, we may be unable to complete our partnering transaction with any partnering candidate. This risk will increase as we get closer to the timeframe described above. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our partnering transaction on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.

Our search for a partnering transaction, and any partnering candidate with which we ultimately consummate a partnering transaction, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

 

25

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

per-share

If we seek stockholder approval of our partnering transaction and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our partnering transaction pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our partnering transaction, although they are under no obligation to do so. However, other than as expressly stated herein, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions.

In the event that our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the partnering transaction and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the partnering transaction or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a partnering candidate that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain

 

26

amount of cash at the closing of our partnering transaction, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our partnering transaction. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our partnering transaction that may not otherwise have been possible. We expect any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.

In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock or public warrants and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.

We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our partnering transaction. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our partnering transaction will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or submit public shares for redemption. For example, we intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent, or to deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the date on which the vote on the proposal to approve the partnering transaction is to be held. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed.

In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into a partnering transaction, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their partnering transaction, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, more effort, and more resources to identify a suitable target and to consummate a partnering transaction. In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into a partnering transaction with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China or between Russia and the Ukraine or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close partnering transactions or operate targets post- partnering transaction. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate a partnering transaction, and may result in our inability to consummate a partnering transaction on terms favorable to our investors altogether.

 

 

27

We have encountered and expect to continue to encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well-established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess similar or greater technical, human and other resources to ours or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources are relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous partnering candidates we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement CAPS, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain partnering candidates that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain partnering candidates. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our partnering transaction in conjunction with a stockholder vote or via a tender offer. Partnering candidates will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our partnering transaction. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a partnering transaction. If we do not complete our partnering transaction, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.

“no-shop”

If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our partnering transaction. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement CAPS of the post- partnering transaction entity at a price of $10.00 per private placement CAPS at the option of the lender (which CAPS will immediately split into Class A shares and warrants). The warrants would be identical to the private placement CAPS. Prior to the completion of our partnering transaction, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account. If we do not complete our partnering transaction because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public stockholders may only receive an estimated $10.00 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

 

28

60-day

90-day

150-day

Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time, that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a recently organized company established for the purpose of identifying a company to partner with in order to effectuate a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar partnering transaction, rather than an operating company, and our operations are limited to searching for prospective partnering candidates to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective partnering candidates. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281 (b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of the funds in our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our partnering transaction within 24 months (or 27 months, as applicable) from the closing of our initial public offering is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful (potentially due to the imposition of legal proceedings that a party may bring or due to other circumstances that are currently unknown), then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.

In accordance with the NYSE corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE. Under Section 211(b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our partnering transaction, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our partnering transaction, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.

 

 

29

We will consider a partnering transaction outside of our management’s areas of expertise if a partnering transaction candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive partnering transaction opportunity for our Company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular partnering transaction candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our CAPS will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors in our initial public offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a partnering transaction candidate.

one-half

as-converted

as-converted

one-half

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed partnering transaction may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the partnering candidate or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. As a result, we may be able to complete our partnering transaction even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our partnering transaction and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our partnering transaction pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed partnering transaction exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the partnering transaction or redeem any shares in connection with such partnering transaction, all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate partnering transaction.

In order to effectuate a partnering transaction, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, special purpose acquisition companies have amended the definition of partnering transaction, increased

 

30

TM

TM

TM

pre-partnering

Our initial stockholders, with their founder shares and their performance shares, hold approximately 20% of the voting power of our common stock (not including the private placement shares) prior to the completion of a partnering transaction. Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Further, pursuant to a letter agreement with our sponsor, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding a partnering transaction without the prior written consent of our sponsor. As a result, we may not be permitted to enter into a partnering transaction that our Board believes to be in the stockholders’ best interests. Further, for so long as any performance shares remain outstanding, we may not, without the prior or written consent of the holders of a majority of the performance shares then outstanding take certain actions such as to (i) change our fiscal year, (ii) increase the number of directors on the Board, (iii) pay any dividends or effect any split on any of our capital stock, (iv) adopt any stockholder rights plan, (v) acquire any entity or business with assets at a purchase price greater than 10% or more of our total assets measured in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States or the accounting standards then used by us in the preparation of our financial statements or (vi) issue any Class A shares in excess of 20% of our then outstanding Class A shares or that would otherwise require a stockholder vote pursuant to the rules of the stock exchange on which the Class A shares are then listed. As a result, the holders of the performance shares may be able to prevent us from taking such actions that the Board believes is in our interest.

If our initial stockholders purchase any CAPS any additional shares of Class A common stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial stockholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our shares of Class A common stock. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were elected by our sponsor, is divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a terms for three years with only one class of directors being elected in each year. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the completion of our partnering transaction, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the partnering transaction. If there is an annual meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for election and our initial stockholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our partnering transaction.

 

 

31

Since the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement CAPS are intended to be used to complete a partnering transaction with a partnering candidate, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means that we have a longer period of time to complete our partnering transaction than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of a partnering transaction.

write-off

non-cash

pre-existing

If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.

Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective partnering candidates and other entities with which we do business (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. The underwriter of our initial public offering will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account.

Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we do not complete our partnering transaction within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our partnering transaction, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption.

 

 

32

per-share

However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our Company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our partnering transaction and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our partnering transaction, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective partnering candidates.

In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.

 

 

33

If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our stockholders and the amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.

per-share

Our efforts to identify a prospective partnering transaction candidate will not be limited to a particular industry, sector, or geographic region. While we may pursue a partnering transaction opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify, acquire, and operate a business or businesses that can benefit from our management team’s established global relationships and operating experience. Our management team has extensive experience in identifying and executing strategic investments globally and has done so successfully in a number of sectors, including financial services. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits us from effectuating a partnering transaction solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have entered into a definitive agreement with any specific partnering candidate with respect to a partnering transaction, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular partnering candidate’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our partnering transaction, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular partnering candidate, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a partnering candidate. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our CAPS will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a partnering candidate. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain stockholders or warrant holders following the partnering transaction could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the partnering transaction contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.

Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective partnering candidates, it is possible that a partnering candidate with which we enter into our partnering transaction will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a partnering

 

34

candidate that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our partnering transaction if the partnering candidate does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we do not complete our partnering transaction, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.

Unless we complete our partnering transaction with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting firm or independent investment banking firm that the price we are paying is fair to our stockholders from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, related to our partnering transaction.

We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or shares of preferred stock to complete our partnering transaction or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our partnering transaction. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon the conversion of the founder shares at a ratio greater than and at the time of our partnering transaction as a result of the anti- dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.

one-half

 

 

35

 

 

We anticipate that the investigation of each specific partnering candidate and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents, and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific partnering transaction, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific partnering candidate, we may fail to complete our partnering transaction for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we do not complete our partnering transaction, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.

10-K

The fact that we are a recently organized company established for the purpose of identifying a company to partner with in order to effectuate a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar partnering transaction makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a partnering candidate with which we seek to complete our partnering transaction may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such partnering transaction.

Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our partnering transaction. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:

 

 

36

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The net proceeds from our initial public offering and the private placement of CAPS provides us with $414,000,000 that we may use to complete our partnering transaction.

We may effectuate our partnering transaction with a single partnering candidate or multiple partnering candidates simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our partnering transaction with more than one partnering candidate because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several partnering candidates as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our partnering transaction with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several partnering transactions in different industries or different areas of a single industry.

Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:

 

 

37

This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our partnering transaction.

If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other partnering transactions, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our partnering transaction. With multiple partnering transactions, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.

In pursuing our partnering transaction strategy, we may seek to effectuate our partnering transaction with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential partnering transaction on the basis of limited information, which may result in a partnering transaction with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.

The federal proxy rules require that the proxy statement with respect to the vote on a partnering transaction include historical and pro forma financial statement disclosure. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”).

These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential partnering candidates we may acquire because some partnering candidates may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our partnering transaction within the prescribed time frame.

Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier to occur of: (i) our completion of a partnering transaction, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated

 

38

pre-partnering

If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:

 

 

each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our partnering transaction. In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:

 

 

 

In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business is to identify and complete a partnering transaction and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.

2a-7

 

39

pre-partnering

The provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our transaction activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of 65% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other special purpose acquisition companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to facilitate the completion of a partnering transaction that some of our stockholders may not support.

pre-partnering

pre-partnering

Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

pre-partnering

per-share

 

40

TM

TM

lock-up

In addition, pursuant to the terms of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the powers, preferences or relative, participating, optional or other special rights of the performance shares may be amended only with the prior vote or written consent of the holders of a majority of the performance shares then outstanding, voting separately as a single class, without the need to seek approval from any other class of capital stock, even in situations where the amendment to the terms of the performance shares may adversely impact such other class of capital stock.

Although we believe that the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement CAPS will be sufficient to allow us to complete our partnering transaction, because we have not yet selected any specific partnering candidate we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement CAPS prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our partnering transaction, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a partnering candidate, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our partnering transaction or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our partnering transaction, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed partnering transaction. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The current economic environment has made it especially difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our partnering transaction, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular partnering transaction and seek an alternative partnering candidate. If we do not complete our partnering transaction, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our partnering transaction, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the partnering candidate. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the partnering candidate. None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our partnering transaction.

 

41

Our warrants were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or to correct any defective provision or mistake, (ii) adjusting the provisions relating to cash dividends on shares of common stock as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement or (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder provided 50% of the holders of the then outstanding public warrants that vote on such amendment approve of such amendment, after at least 10 days’ notice that an amendment is being sought. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash or stock (at a ratio different than initially provided), shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of Class A common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.

If we pursue a partnering candidate with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our partnering transaction, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such partnering transaction, and if we effect such partnering transaction, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.

If we pursue a partnering candidate with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our partnering transaction, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border partnering transactions, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our partnering transaction, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

If we effect our partnering transaction with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such partnering transaction, or, if we complete such partnering transaction, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we seek stockholder approval of our partnering transaction and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our partnering transaction pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to Excess Shares. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our partnering transaction. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our partnering transaction and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our partnering transaction. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.

 

43

Our CAPS, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are currently listed on the NYSE. Although after giving effect to our initial public offering we expect to continue to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the NYSE listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on the NYSE in the future or prior to our partnering transaction. In order to continue listing our securities on the NYSE prior to our partnering transaction, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum average global market capitalization and a minimum number of holders of our securities. Additionally, in connection with our partnering transaction, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the NYSE’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the NYSE’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our stockholder’s equity would generally be required to be at least $5.0 million. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.

 

 

 

 

 

The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our CAPS, Class A common stock and warrants are currently listed on the NYSE, our CAPS, Class A common stock and warrants are covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on The NYSE, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors, the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred stock, and potential payments owed with respect to our performance shares, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.

The net proceeds of our initial public offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement CAPS , in the amount of $414,000,000, are held in an interest-bearing trust account. The proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in direct U.S. Treasury obligations having a maturity of 185 days or less, or in certain money market funds which invest only in direct U.S. Treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. Treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event of very low or negative yields, the amount of interest income (net of permitted withdrawals) would be reduced. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial partnering transaction, our public stockholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income. If the balance of the trust account is reduced below $414,000,000 as a result of negative interest rates, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.

 

44

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, except any claim

(A) as to which the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction, or (D) any action arising under the Securities Act, as to which the U.S. federal district courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction, unless we consent otherwise. If an action is brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, a court may determine that this provision is unenforceable, and to the extent it is enforceable, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers. Unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

If the issuance of the shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of the warrants is not registered, qualified or exempt from registration or qualification under the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, holders of warrants will not be entitled to exercise such warrants and such warrants may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of CAPS will have paid the full CAPS purchase price solely for the shares of Class A common stock included in the CAPS.

We are not registering the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days, after the closing of our partnering transaction, we will use our best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the registration under the Securities Act of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and thereafter will use our best efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following our partnering transaction and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement.

 

45

We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current or correct or the SEC issues a stop order.

If the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, under the terms of the warrant agreement, holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do so for cash and, instead, will be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption.

In no event will warrants be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration or qualification is available.

If our shares of Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, not permit holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants to do so for cash and, instead, require them to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act; in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available.

In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities (other than upon a cashless exercise as described above) or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws.

The warrant agreement provides that in the following circumstances holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do for cash and will, instead, be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act: (i) if the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the terms of the warrant agreement; (ii) if we have so elected and the shares of Class A common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act; and (iii) if we have so elected and we call the public warrants for redemption. If you exercise your public warrants on a cashless basis, you would pay the warrant exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of our shares of Class A common stock (as defined in the next sentence) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” is the average reported closing price of the shares of Class A common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent or on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, as applicable. As a result, you would receive fewer shares of Class A common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.

30-trading

 

46

30-day

TM

We issued warrants to purchase 4,140,000 after giving effect to the underwriter’s full exercise of their over-allotment option (10,350,000 after giving effect to the Stock Split) shares of our Class A common stock as part of the CAPS offered by our initial public offering and, simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 245,600 private placement CAPS (614,000 private placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), with 61,400 warrants (153,500 warrants after giving effect to the Stock Split) underlying such private placement CAPS, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $28.75 per share ($11.50 after giving effect to the Stock Split). In addition, if our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors makes any working capital loans, such lender may convert those loans into up to an additional 60,000 private placement CAPS (150,000 private placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), at the price of $25.00 per private placement CAPS ($10.00 per private placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), with 15,000 (37,500 warrants after giving effect to the Stock Split) underlying such private placement CAPS. To the extent we issue common stock to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a partnering candidate. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock and reduce the value of the shares of Class A common stock issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the partnering candidate.

Because each CAPS contains of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the CAPS may be worth less than CAPS of other special purpose acquisition companies.

TM

one-fourth

TM

TM

TM

TM

one-fourth

TM

TM

TM

Pursuant to an agreement entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in our initial public offering, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the founder shares, the performance shares and the Class A common stock into which such founder shares and performance shares are

 

47

convertible, holders of our private placement CAPS and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the shares of Class A common stock and the warrants (and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants) underlying such private placement CAPS, and holders of private placement CAPS that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register the shares of Class A common stock and the warrants (and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants) underlying such private placement CAPS. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our partnering transaction more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the stockholders of the partnering candidate may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our shares of Class A common stock that is expected when the shares of common stock owned by our initial stockholders, holders of our private placement CAPS, holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.

COVID-19

key-man

Our ability to successfully effect our partnering transaction is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the partnering candidate, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the partnering candidate in senior management or advisory positions following our partnering transaction, it is likely that some or all of the management of the partnering candidate will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our partnering transaction, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.

 

48

Our key personnel may be able to remain with our Company after the completion of our partnering transaction only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the partnering transaction. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the partnering transaction and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the partnering transaction. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a partnering candidate, subject to their fiduciary duties under Delaware law.

When evaluating the desirability of effecting our partnering transaction with a prospective partnering candidate, our ability to assess the partnering candidate’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the partnering candidate’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the partnering candidate’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain stockholders or warrant holders following the partnering transaction could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the partnering transaction contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.

The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our partnering transaction cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our partnering transaction, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.

Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a partnering transaction and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full- time employees prior to the completion of our partnering transaction. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our partnering transaction.

 

49

Until we consummate our partnering transaction, we will continue to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a partnering transaction opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential partnering candidate may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the Company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.

We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, executive officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers, although we do not intend to do so, or we may acquire a partnering candidate through an affiliated joint acquisition with one or more affiliates of Solamere and/or one or more investors in Solamere or one of its affiliates. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.

The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a partnering candidate and completing a partnering transaction. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable partnering candidate may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular partnering transaction are appropriate and in our stockholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Delaware law and we or our stockholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our stockholders’ rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.

In light of the involvement of our sponsor, executive officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation. Such entities may compete with us for partnering transaction opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our partnering transaction with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a partnering transaction with any such entity or entities. Although we are not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a partnering transaction and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or an independent accounting firm regarding the fairness to our Company from a financial point of view of a partnering transaction with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the partnering transaction may not be as advantageous to our public stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.

 

50

co-invest

TM

TM

TM

TM

24-month

re-evaluated

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our management is likewise required, on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls and to disclose any changes and material weaknesses identified through such evaluation of those internal controls. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. As a result of this material weakness, our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2021.

 

51

S-3,

re-evaluated

Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, our management team or businesses associated with them is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team is not a guarantee either (i) of success with respect to any partnering transaction we may consummate or (ii) that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our partnering transaction. You should not rely on the historical record of the performance of our management team or businesses associated with them as indicative of our future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or is likely to, generate going forward.

We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.

 

52

We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our partnering transaction, and results of operations.

non-affiliates

non-emerging

S-K.

non-affiliates

non-affiliates

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $94,000 in our operating bank account, and working capital deficit of approximately $896,000. If we are unable to raise additional capital, we may be required to take additional measures to conserve liquidity, which could include, but not necessarily be limited to, suspending the pursuit of a Partnering Transaction. We cannot provide any assurance that new financing will be available to us on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Further, our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial partnering transaction may not be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern through our liquidation date. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this Report do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate a Partnering Transaction or our inability to continue as a going concern.

 

53

None.

 

We currently maintain our executive offices are located at 137 Newbury Street, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02116. We pay an affiliate of our sponsor, for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team $20,000 per month. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.

 

We may be subject to legal proceedings, investigations, and claims incidental to the conduct of our business from time to time. To the knowledge of our management, there is no litigation currently pending or contemplated against us, any of our officers or directors in their capacity as such or against any of our property.

 

Not applicable.

 

54

 

 

Our CAPS, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are each traded on the NYSE under the symbol “ENPC.U,” “ENPC” and “ENPC WS” respectively. Our CAPS commenced public trading on September 16, 2020. Our shares of Class A common stock and warrants began separate trading on November 6, 2020.

 

As of March 28, 2022, there were two holders of record for our CAPS, two holder of record for our shares of Class A common stock, four holder of our shares of Class B common stock, and four holder of our shares of Class F common stock.

 

We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of a partnering transaction. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of a partnering transaction. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to a partnering transaction will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. Further, if we incur any indebtedness, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.

 

None.

 

Not applicable.

 

Not applicable.

 

None.

 

 

References to the “Company,” “our,” “us” or “we” refer to Executive Network Partnering Corporation. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.

 

55

We are a blank check company incorporated in Delaware on June 22, 2020 for the purpose of identifying a company to partner with in order to effectuate a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar partnering transaction with one or more businesses (“Partnering Transaction”). We may pursue a Partnering Transaction in any business or industry but expect to focus on a business where we believe our strong network, operational background, and aligned economic structure will provide us with a competitive advantage. Our sponsor is ENPC Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (our “Sponsor”).

Our registration statements for our initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”) became effective on September 15, 2020. On September 18, 2020, we consummated the Initial Public Offering of 16,560,000 (41,400,000 after giving effect to the Stock Split) CAPS (with respect to the Class A common stock included in the CAPS being offered, the “Public Shares”), which included 2,160,000 CAPS (5,400,000 CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split) issued as a result of the underwriters’ exercise in full of their over-allotment option, at $25.00 per CAPS ($10.00 per CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), generating gross proceeds of $414.0 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $4.8 million.

Concurrently with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we completed the private sale of 245,600 (614,000 after giving effect to the Stock Split) private placement CAPS (“Private Placement CAPS”), at a price of $25.00 per Private Placement CAPS ($10.00 per Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split) to the Sponsor (the “Private Placement”), generating gross proceeds to us of approximately $6.1 million.

TM

TM

TM

2a-7

per-share

 

56

non-operating

For the year ended December 31, 2021, we had net income of approximately $1.5 million, which consisted of an approximately $3.8 million gain from changes in fair value of warrant liabilities and approximately $41,000 in interest earned from investments held in the Trust Account, partially offset by approximately $2.0 million in general and administrative expenses, $240,000 of related party administrative fees and approximately 159,000 of franchise tax expense.

For the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, we had net income of approximately $2.3 million, which consisted of approximately $173,000 in general and administrative costs, $80,000 of related party administrative fees, approximately $104,000 of franchise tax expense and approximately $182,000 of offering costs associated with derivative warrant liabilities, partially offset by approximately $12,000 of interest income on investments held in Trust Account and approximately $2.8 million gain from changes in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities.

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $94,000 in our operating bank account and a working capital deficit of approximately $896,000. Interest income earned on investment held in the Trust Account may be used by us to pay our franchise and income tax obligations. We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the Trust Account to complete the initial Partnering Transaction and to pay our expenses relating thereto. To the extent that our capital stock or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete the initial Partnering Transaction, the remaining proceeds held in the Trust Account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.

Our liquidity needs up to the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement CAPS had been satisfied through a capital contribution of $25,000 from our Sponsor to purchase Class F and Class B common stock, a certain portion of the net proceeds from the consummation of the Private Placement not held in the Trust Account, and a loan under our note agreement with our Sponsor of approximately $171,000 (the “Note”) to cover for offering costs in connection with the Initial Public Offering, we fully repaid the Note on September 22, 2020. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Partnering Transaction, our officers, directors and initial stockholders may, but are not obligated to, provide us working capital loans (the “Working Capital Loans”). As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had $430,000 and $0 note outstanding under the Working Capital Loans.

2014-15,

 

57

COVID-19

On June 22, 2020, the Sponsor paid for certain offering costs on behalf of us in exchange for (i) 737,789 Class F common stock (the “Founder Shares”) in exchange for a capital contribution of $ 6,250, or approximately $0.008 per share and (ii) 1,200 shares of Class B common stock (the “Performance Shares”) for a capital contribution of $18,750, or $15.625 per share. On July 17, 2020 and March 24, 2021, we effected a 100:1 and a 2.5:1 forward stock split for each share of Class B common stock, respectively, resulting in an aggregate of 300,000 Performance Shares outstanding. On July 29, 2020, we effected a reverse stock split for Class F common stock, resulting in an aggregate of 690,000 shares of Class F common stock. On September 17, 2020, we effected a 1 for 1.2 forward stock split that increased the outstanding Class F common stock from 690,000 shares to 828,000 shares. All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock split. Of the 828,000 Founder Shares outstanding, up to 108,000 of the Founder Shares would be forfeited depending on the extent to which the underwriter’s over-allotment is exercised, so that such Founder Shares would represent 5% of the outstanding shares issued in the Initial Public Offering. The underwriters fully exercised their over-allotment option on September 18, 2020; thus, these 108,000 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture. The Founder Shares are entitled to (together with the Performance Shares) a number of votes representing 20% of our outstanding common stock (not including the private placement shares) prior to the completion of the Partnering Transaction. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, after giving effect to the 2.5:1 forward stock split for each share of Class B common stock, which was effective on March 24, 2021, we had an aggregate of 828,000 and 300,000 shares of Class F common stock and Class B common stock, respectively, issued and outstanding.

The Initial Stockholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of: (i) 180 days after the completion of the Partnering Transaction and (ii) the date on which we completes a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction after the Partnering Transaction that results in all of the stockholders having the right to exchange their Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property; except to certain permitted transferees.

Substantially concurrently with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we completed the private sale of 245,600 Private Placement CAPS (614,000 Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), at a price of $25.00 per Private Placement CAPS ($10.00 per Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split) to the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds to us of approximately $6.1 million.

TM

one-quarter

TM

On June 22, 2020, the Sponsor agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $300,000 pursuant to an unsecured promissory note to cover expenses related to the Initial Public Offering. This loan was payable without interest upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering. We borrowed $171,000 under the Note and fully repaid the Note on September 22, 2020.

 

58

In order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial Partnering Transaction, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required (the “Working Capital Loans”). Up to $1.5 million of such loans may be convertible into Private Placement CAPS at a price of $25.00 per Private Placement CAPS ($10.00 per Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split) at the option of the lender. The Working Capital CAPS would be identical to the Private Placement CAPS issued to the Sponsor. Except as described below, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans.

On September 23, 2021, the Company issued a Working Capital Loan to the Sponsor, pursuant to which the Company borrowed $180,000 for ongoing expenses reasonably related to the business of the Company and the consummation of the Partnering Transaction. On October 27, 2021, the Company issued a Working Capital Loan to the Sponsor, pursuant to which the Company borrowed $180,000 for ongoing expenses reasonably related to the business of the Company and the consummation of the Partnering Transaction. The Working Capital Loans do not bear any interest. All unpaid principal under the Working Capital Loans will be due and payable in full on the earlier of (i) January 11, 2023 and (ii) the effective date of the Partnering Transaction (such earlier date, the “Maturity Date”). The Sponsor will have the option, at the time of consummation of a Partnering Transaction, to convert any amounts outstanding under the Working Capital Loans into Working Capital CAPS.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we borrowed from Sponsor total of $430,000 pursuant to the Working Capital Loans for ongoing expenses reasonably related to the business of us and the consummation of the Partnering Transaction. The Working Capital Loans do not bear any interest. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, $430,000 and $0 note outstanding under the Working Capital Loans.

Commencing on the date that our securities were first listed on the New York Stock Exchange through the earlier of consummation of the Partnering Transaction and our liquidation, we will pay an affiliate of the Sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team $20,000 per month. We incurred $240,000 and $80,000 in expenses in connection with such services during year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, as reflected in related party general and administrative expenses in the accompanying statements of operations. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had approximately $0 and $80,000 in accounts payable in connection with such services as reflected in the accompanying balance sheets.

The holders of the Founder Shares, Performance Shares, private placement warrants and private placement shares underlying Private Placement CAPS and private placement CAPS that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any shares of Class A common stock into which such securities may convert and that may be issued upon exercise of private placement warrants) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement, requiring us to register such securities for resale. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the Partnering Transaction. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.

In September 2020, we engaged Evercore as a capital markets advisor in connection with the Partnering Transaction, to assist us with the potential Partnering Transaction. We agreed to pay Evercore for such services upon the consummation of the Partnering Transaction a cash fee in an amount equal to 2.25% of the gross proceeds of the Initial Public Offering (exclusive of any applicable finders’ fees which might become payable), which equates to approximately $9.3 million. Pursuant to the terms of the capital markets advisory agreement, no fee will be due if we do not complete a Partnering Transaction.

This management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The preparation of our financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to fair value of financial instruments and accrued expenses. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We has identified the following as its critical accounting policies:

 

59

Class A Common Stock Subject to Possible Redemption Class A common stock subject to mandatory redemption (if any) is classified as a liability instrument and is measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A common stock (including Class A common stock that features redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within our control) is classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A common stock is classified as stockholders’ equity. Our Class A common stock features certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of our control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, 41,400,000 shares of Class A common stock subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the stockholders’ equity section of our balance sheets.

paid-in

We comply with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” We have three classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A common stock, Class B common stock and Class F common stock. Income and losses are shared pro rata among the three classes of shares. Net income (loss) per share of common stock is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) by the weighted average number of common stock outstanding for the respective period. The calculation of diluted net income per share of common stock does not consider the effect of the warrants underlying the CAPS sold in the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement Warrants to purchase 10,503,500 shares of Class A common stock in the calculation of diluted income per share, because their inclusion would be anti-dilutive under the treasury stock method. As a result, diluted net income per share of common stock is the same as basic net income per share of common stock for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020. Accretion associated with the redeemable Class A common stock is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.

815-15.

re-assessed

815-40.

re-measurement

non-current

In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging -Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. We adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of the ASU did not impact our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material impact on our financial statements.

Sheet Arrangements

off-balance

S-K

 

60

non-emerging

non-emerging

 

12b-2

 

10-K

F-1.

F-1.

 

None.

 

13a-15(e)

15d-15(e)

 

61

10-K

We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.

As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that: (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. In making these assessments, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013). Based on our assessments and those criteria, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer determined that our internal controls over financial reporting were not effective as of December 31, 2021, because of material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. Specifically, our management has concluded that our control around the interpretation and accounting for certain complex equity and equity-linked financial instruments issued by us was not effectively designed or maintained. This material weakness resulted in the restatement of our audited balance sheet as of September 18, 2020, audited annual financial statements as of and for the period ended December 31, 2020, and our interim financial statements and notes for the quarters ended September 30, 2020, March 31, 2021, June 30, 2021, and September 30, 2021.

10-K

During the most recently completed fiscal quarter, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial

 

62

10-K/A

The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer performed additional accounting and financial analyses and other post-closing procedures including consulting with subject matter experts related to the accounting for certain complex equity and equity-linked financial instruments issued by us. Our management has expended, and will continue to expend, a substantial amount of effort and resources for the remediation and improvement of our internal control over financial reporting. While we have processes to properly identify and evaluate the appropriate accounting technical pronouncements and other literature for all significant or unusual transactions, we have expanded and will continue to improve these processes to ensure that the nuances of such transactions are effectively evaluated in the context of the increasingly complex accounting standards.

 

None.

 

Not applicable.

 

63

 

As of the date of this Report, our directors and officers are as follows:

 

co-founded

co-founder

Mr. Dunn’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his success in building early stage companies into significant businesses and his significant executive leadership and board of directors experience.

Mr. Ryan’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his extensive experience as a leader and policy expert, as well as his ability to offer perspectives on strategy and operations in regulated industries.

Mr. Boyce has run the office of Schafer Meadows, an organization focused on tech-enabled investing, since 2015. He also currently serves as senior advisor to Solamere and Altamont Capital, roles he has held since 2015 and 2016, respectively. Throughout his career, Mr. Boyce has served on numerous private and public company boards of directors, including the J. Crew Group, Inc., Burger King Corporation, and Del Monte Foods, Inc. Since 2016, he

 

64

has served on the board of directors of Allbirds, Inc., a footwear manufacturing company, and Spyce Food Co., an innovative tech- enabled restaurant. In addition, he served on the Mitt Romney 2012 National Board and currently serves on the National Council of AEI. For the last five years, Mr. Boyce has been an advisor for The COMMIT Foundation, a Veterans career transition mentoring group. Mr. Boyce holds a B.S.E. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Boyce’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his leadership abilities and his experience driving performance improvement in various public and private companies.

Prior to KKR, Mr. Calbert was Chief Financial Officer of Randall’s Food Markets, a $2.5 billion revenue retailer based in Texas. While at Randall’s, Michael took the company private through a buyout with KKR. Mr. Calbert has a bachelor’s degree in business from Stephen F. Austin State University and an MBA from University of Houston.

Mr. Calbert’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his success in identifying opportunities and fostering growth in the long term, as well as his significant leadership and board of directors experience.

Ms. Ruiz’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include her breadth and depth of experience in management-level roles across the operations and human resources disciplines.

Our board of directors consists of five members and is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of stockholders) serving a three-year term. In accordance with the NYSE corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Dick Boyce and Gisel Ruiz, will expire at our first annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Alex Dunn and Michael M. Calbert, will expire at the second annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Paul Ryan, will expire at the third annual meeting of stockholders.

Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office.

 

65

Pursuant to registration and stockholder rights agreement dated as of September 15, 2020 between the Company, the Sponsor and certain other security holders named therein, our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial partnering transaction, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for election to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.

Our board of directors is authorized to appoint officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

The NYSE rules require that a majority of our board of directors be independent within one year of our initial public offering. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person who, in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, has no material relationship with the listed company (either directly or as a partner, stockholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the company). Our board of directors has determined that Paul Ryan, Dick Boyce, Michael M. Calbert and Gisel Ruiz are “independent directors” as defined in the NYSE listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.

phase-in

10A-3

phase-in

We established an audit committee of our board of directors. Dick Boyce, Michael M. Calbert and Gisel Ruiz serves as members of our audit committee. Under the NYSE listing standards and applicable SEC rules, we are required to have three members of the audit committee, all of whom must be independent. Michael M. Calbert serves as the chairman of the audit committee. Our board of directors has determined that Dick Boyce, Michael M. Calbert and Gisel Ruiz are independent under the NYSE listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Michael M. Calbert qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules.

The audit committee is responsible for:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

66

 

 

The audit committee is a separately designated standing committee established in accordance with Section 3 (a)(58)(A) of the Exchange Act.

We have established a compensation committee of our board of directors. The members of our compensation committee are Paul Ryan, Dick Boyce, and Gisel Ruiz. Dick Boyce serves as chairman of the compensation committee. Under the NYSE listing standards and applicable SEC rules, we are required to have a compensation committee comprised entirely of independent directors. Paul Ryan, Dick Boyce, and Gisel Ruiz are independent. We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other adviser and is directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser.

However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by the NYSE and the SEC.

 

67

We have established a corporate governance and nominating committee of our board of directors. The members of our corporate governance and nominating committee are Paul Ryan, Michael M. Calbert and Gisel Ruiz, and Paul Ryan serves as chairman of the corporate governance and nominating committee. Under the NYSE listing standards, we are required to have a corporate governance and nominating committee composed entirely of independent directors. Our board of directors has determined that each of Paul Ryan, Michael M. Calbert and Gisel Ruiz are independent.

The primary function of the corporate governance and nominating committee include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guidelines for selecting nominees, which are specified in the charter, generally provide that persons to be nominated:

 

 

 

 

 

68

 

None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.

Prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, we adopted a code of ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees (“Code of Ethics”).

8-K.

In general, officers and directors of a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware are required to present business opportunities to a corporation if:

 

 

 

co-invest

 

69

Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations:

 

Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:

 

 

 

We are not prohibited from pursuing a partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors or completing the partnering transaction through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our partnering transaction with a partnering candidate that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking or an independent accounting firm, that such partnering transaction is fair to our Company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context. Furthermore, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid by the Company any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our partnering transaction. Further, we also pay an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, secretarial, and administrative services provided to members of our management team $20,000 per month.

 

70

We cannot assure you that any of the above-mentioned conflicts will be resolved in our favor.

In the event that we submit our partnering transaction to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and performance shares, and they and the other members of our management team have agreed to vote any founder shares they hold and any shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our partnering transaction.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our officers and directors will be indemnified by us to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law, as it now exists or may in the future be amended. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors will not be personally liable for monetary damages to us or our stockholders for breaches of their fiduciary duty as directors, unless they violated their duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders, acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized unlawful payments of dividends, unlawful stock purchases or unlawful redemptions, or derived an improper personal benefit from their actions as directors.

We entered into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Our bylaws also permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director, or employee for any liability arising out of his or her actions, regardless of whether Delaware law would permit such indemnification. We purchased a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors. Except with respect to any public shares they may acquire in our initial public offering or thereafter (in the event we do not consummate a partnering transaction), our officers and directors have agreed to waive (and any other persons who may become an officer or director prior to the partnering transaction will also be required to waive) any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and not to seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever, including with respect to such indemnification.

These provisions may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.

We believe that these provisions, the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.

 

 

 

71

After the completion of our partnering transaction, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to stockholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our stockholders in connection with a proposed partnering transaction. We have not established any limit on the amount of such fees that may be paid by the combined company to our directors or members of management. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of the proposed partnering transaction, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.

We do not intend to take any action to ensure that members of our management team maintain their positions with us after the consummation of our partnering transaction, although it is possible that some or all of our executive officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our partnering transaction. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their positions with us may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a partnering candidate but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our partnering transaction will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential partnering transaction. We are not party to any agreements with our executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.

 

The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our shares of common stock as of March 28, 2022 based on information obtained from the persons named below, with respect to the beneficial ownership of our shares of common stock, by:

 

 

 

one-half

 

72

 

 

 

73

ENPC Holdings, LLC, our sponsor, and our executive officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoters” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.

None.

 

On June 22, 2020, the Sponsor paid for certain offering costs on behalf of us in exchange for (i) 737,789 Class F common stock in exchange for a capital contribution of $6,250, or approximately $0.008 per share and (ii) 1,200 shares of Class B common stock (the “Performance Shares”) for a capital contribution of $18,750, or $15.625 per share. On July 17, 2020 and March 24, 2021, we effected a 100:1 and a 2.5:1 forward stock split for each share of Class B common stock, respectively, resulting in an aggregate of 300,000 Performance Shares outstanding. On July 29, 2020, we effected a reverse stock split for Class F common stock, resulting in an aggregate of 690,000 shares of Class F common stock. On September 17, 2020, we effected a 1 for 1.2 forward stock split that increased the outstanding Class F common stock from 690,000 shares to 828,000 shares. All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock split. Of the 828,000 founder shares outstanding, up to 108,000 of the founder shares would be forfeited depending on the extent to which the underwriter’s over-allotment is exercised, so

 

74

that such founder shares would represent 5% of the outstanding shares issued in the initial public offering. The underwriters fully exercised their over-allotment option on September 18, 2020; thus, these 108,000 founder shares were no longer subject to forfeiture. The founder shares are entitled to (together with the Performance Shares) a number of votes representing 20% of our outstanding common stock (not including the private placement shares) prior to the completion of the Partnering Transaction. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, after giving effect to the 2.5:1 forward stock split for each share of Class B common stock, which was effective on March 24, 2021, we had an aggregate of 828,000 and 300,000 shares of Class F common stock and Class B common stock, respectively, issued and outstanding.

The Initial Stockholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of: (i) 180 days after the completion of the Partnering Transaction and (ii) the date on which we completes a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction after the Partnering Transaction that results in all of the stockholders having the right to exchange their Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property; except to certain permitted transferees.

Substantially concurrently with the closing of the initial public offering, we completed the private sale of 245,600 Private Placement CAPS (614,000 Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split), at a price of $25.00 per Private Placement CAPS ($10.00 per Private Placement CAPS after giving effect to the Stock Split) to the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds to us of approximately $6.1 million.

TM

one-quarter

TM

co-invest

Pursuant to a letter agreement with our sponsor, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding a partnering transaction without the prior written consent of our sponsor.

On June 22, 2020, the Sponsor agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $300,000 pursuant to an unsecured promissory note (the “Note”) to cover expenses related to the initial public offering. This loan was payable without interest upon the completion of the initial public offering. We borrowed $171,000 under the Note and fully repaid the Note on September 22, 2020.

 

75

In addition, the Sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any expenses incurred in connection with activities on the Company’s behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Partnering Transactions. The Company’s audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to the Sponsor, executive officers or directors, or their affiliates.

The audit committee of our board of directors will adopt a policy setting forth the policies and procedures for its review and approval or ratification of “related party transactions.” A “related party transaction” is any consummated or proposed transaction or series of transactions: (i) in which the Company was or is to be a participant; (ii) the amount of which exceeds (or is reasonably expected to exceed) the lesser of $120,000 or 1% of the average of the Company’s total assets at year end for the prior two completed fiscal years in the aggregate over the duration of the transaction (without regard to profit or loss); and (iii) in which a “related party” had, has or will have a direct or indirect material interest. “Related parties” under this policy will include: (i) our directors, nominees for director or executive officers; (ii) any record or beneficial owner of more than 5% of any class of our voting securities; (iii) any immediate family member of any of the foregoing if the foregoing person is a natural person; and (iv) any other person who maybe a “related person” pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation under the Exchange Act. Pursuant to the policy, the audit committee will consider (i) the relevant facts and circumstances of each related party transaction, including if the transaction is on terms comparable to those that could be obtained in dealings with an unrelated third party, (ii) the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction, (iii) whether the transaction contravenes our code of ethics or other policies, (iv) whether the audit committee believes the

. Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our financial statements, reviews of our quarterly financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings. The aggregate fees billed by Withum for audit fees, inclusive of required filings with the SEC for the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, and of services rendered in connection with our initial public offering, totaled $117,000 and $86,000, respectively.

. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. During the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, we did not pay Withum any audit-related fees.

. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice. During the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, we paid WithumSmith+Brown, PC approximately $8,000 and $0 in tax fees.

. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. During the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, we did not pay Withum any other fees.

. Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of our Initial Public Offering. As a result, the audit committee did not all of the foregoing services, although any services rendered prior to the formation of our audit committee were approved by our board of directors. Since the formation of our audit committee, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will all auditing services and permitted services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit).

The financial statements are found in a separate section of this Report starting on pages See the “Index to Financial Statements” on Page

10-K

March 30, 2022

 

10-K

 

 

 

81

 

 

F-1

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of

Executive Network Partnering Corporation

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Executive Network Partnering Corporation (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders’ deficit and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from June 22, 2020 (inception) through December 2020, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the financial statements, if the Company is unable to raise additional funds to alleviate liquidity needs and complete a partnering transaction by September 18, 2022 then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The liquidity condition and date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

/s/ WithumSmith+Brown, PC

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020.

New York, New York

March 30, 2022

PCAOB ID Number 100

 

F-2