Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)
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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
or
☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 001-41161
Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Cayman Islands | N/A | |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation) |
(IRS Employer Identification No.) | |
Century Yard, Cricket Square Elgin Avenue P.O. Box 1111, George Town Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands |
KY1-1102 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) |
Registrants telephone number, including area code: +1 (345) 949-5122
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class |
Trading Symbol(s) |
Name of each exchange on which registered | ||
Units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant | IVCBU | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC | ||
Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share | IVCB | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC | ||
Redeemable warrants, each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50 | IVCBW | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ☐ NO ☒
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.
YES ☐ NO ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. YES ☒ NO ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). YES ☒ NO ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definition of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, and smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.:
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||
Non- accelerated filer | ☒ | Smaller reporting company | ☒ | |||
Emerging growth company | ☒ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by the check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its managements assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C.7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ☒ NO ☐
As of March 31, 2022, there were 34,500,000 Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, and 8,625,000 Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, issued and outstanding.
Documents Incorporated by Reference: None.
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this report may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management teams expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words anticipate, believe, continue, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, might, plan, possible, potential, predict, project, should, would and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this report may include, for example, statements about:
| our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses; |
| our ability to complete our initial business combination; |
| our expectations around the performance of the prospective target business or businesses; |
| our expectations and forecasts around the performance and trends of markets and industries; |
| our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination; |
| our directors and officers allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination; |
| our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination; |
| our pool of prospective target businesses; |
| our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic; |
| the ability of our directors and officers to generate a number of potential business combination opportunities; |
| our public securities potential liquidity and trading; |
| the lack of a market for our securities; |
| the use of proceeds not held in the trust account or available to us from interest income on the trust account balance; |
| the trust account not being subject to claims of third parties; |
| our financial performance following our initial public offering of units; and |
| the other risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading Risk Factors and elsewhere in this report. |
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, those factors described under the heading Risk Factors. 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.
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Unless otherwise stated in this report or the context otherwise requires, references to:
| amended and restated memorandum and articles of association are to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association; |
| board of directors or our directors are to our directors; |
| Companies Act are to the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands as the same may be amended from time to time; |
| founder shares are to our Class B ordinary shares initially purchased by our sponsor in a private placement prior to our IPO and our Class A ordinary shares that will be issued upon the automatic conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination as described herein (for the avoidance of doubt, such Class A ordinary shares will not be public shares); |
| initial shareholders are to holders of our founder shares prior to to our IPO (including certain of our directors and officers who have received 1,287,917 founder shares from our sponsor); |
| Investcorp are to Investcorp Holdings B.S.C.; |
| Investcorp Group are to Investcorp and its consolidated subsidiaries; |
| IPO refers to our initial public offering of units, which closed on December 17, 2021; |
| leadership team are to our officers and directors; |
| letter agreement refer to the letter agreement, the form of which is filed as an exhibit to our IPO registration statement; |
| management or our management team are to our officers; |
| ordinary shares are to our Class A ordinary shares and our Class B ordinary shares; |
| private placement warrants are to the warrants issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our IPO; |
| promote schedule are to the schedule upon which the founder shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares following the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to the adjustments described herein in accordance with the following schedule: (i) 50% on the trading day following the consummation of our initial business combination, and (ii) 50% if, post consummation of our initial business combination and prior to the ten year anniversary of our initial business combination, the volume weighted average trading price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 10 trading days within a 15 trading day period exceeds $12.00, on the trading day following such trading period; |
| public shareholders are to the holders of our public shares, including our initial shareholders and management team to the extent our initial shareholders and/or members of our management team purchase public shares in the open market, provided that each initial shareholders and member of our management teams status as a public shareholder will only exist with respect to such public shares purchased in the open market; |
| public shares are to our Class A ordinary shares sold as part of the units in our IPO (whether purchased in our IPO or in the open market); |
| public warrants are to the warrants sold as part of the units in our IPO (whether purchased in our IPO or in the open market); |
| sponsor are to Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited, an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and a consolidated subsidiary of Investcorp; and |
| warrants are to our public warrants and private placement warrants. |
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References in this annual report to we, us, Company or our company are to Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I, an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Item 1. | Business |
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated on March 22, 2021 under the name Investcorp Asia Acquisition Corp I. On October 7, 2021, we changed our name to Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I. We were formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or assets (the business combination). We are an emerging growth company and, as such, we are subject to all of the risks associated with emerging growth companies. We have reviewed a number of opportunities to enter into a business combination. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the Company is a shell company as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act) because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.
Our executive offices are located at Century Yard, Cricket Square, Elgin Avenue, P.O. Box 1111, George Town Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KY1-1102, and our telephone number is +1 (345) 949-5122. Our corporate website address is https://investcorp.prod-use1.investis.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this annual report. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.
Company History
Our sponsor is Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company (the sponsor). The registration statement for our IPO was declared effective on December 14, 2021. On December 17, 2021, we consummated our IPO of 34,500,000 units (including the full exercise of the underwriters option to purchase an additional 4,500,000 units) (the units and, with respect to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units being offered, the public shares), at $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds of $345 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $20.1 million, of which $12.075 million was for deferred underwriting commissions.
Simultaneously with the closing of our IPO, we consummated the private placement (private placement) of 16,700,000 warrants (each, a private placement warrant and collectively, the private placement warrants), at a price of $1.00 per private placement warrant with our sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $16.7 million.
Upon the closing of our IPO and the private placement, $351.9 million ($10.20 per unit) of the net proceeds of our IPO and certain of the proceeds of the private placement were placed in a trust account (trust account), located in the United States at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and invested only in U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the Investment Company Act), with a maturity of 185 days or less or in any open-ended investment company that holds itself out as a money market fund selected by us meeting the conditions of paragraphs (d)(2), (d)(3) and (d)(4) of Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act, as determined by the Company, until the earlier of: (i) the completion of a business combination and (ii) the distribution of the trust account as described below.
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Market Opportunity
While we may pursue a business combination target in any business or industry, we intend to capitalize on the experience and ability of our team to focus on opportunities in Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, or Northern Europe and, opportunistically, in Turkey (the Target Area) and businesses focusing on business services, consumer and lifestyle, niche manufacturing and technology (the Specific Sectors).
We believe that the Western European and Northern European markets present a very attractive investment opportunity for the following reasons:
| Significant number of investment opportunities: We believe that there are numerous business combination opportunities with a compelling industry backdrop and growth outlook in Europe. We find the European markets especially attractive as there are a significant number of corporates with potential for ownership change, including both privately-owned corporates as well as spin-offs/carve-outs from larger conglomerates; and |
| Stable institutional framework: Europe offers a stable market environment sustained by strong political and regulatory institutions which provides investors with a supportive and well-established framework. As a result of these reassuring market dynamics, we believe that Europe will continue to attract increasing attention from both domestic and international investors. |
Furthermore, we believe that the current market environment in Turkey, while characterized by a degree of political and macroeconomic instability, may result in more attractive business combination opportunities becoming actionable in the near and medium term. We could opportunistically benefit from this current dislocated market environment in Turkey by capitalizing on both Investcorp and our leadership teams unique network and investment experience within this geography.
We are aware of businesses with principal business operations in the Target Area. All of these potential target businesses are based in the Specific Sectors. We have defined these sub-sectors as follows:
| Business services: |
| providers of services to businesses including but not limited to advertising, marketing, consultation, logistics, waste handling, staffing services, shipping, administration and security services; |
| uniquely positioned to benefit from changing landscapes and shifting business needs; and |
| offer differentiated and valued solutions to the many challenges facing traditional businesses across a broad range of industries. |
| Consumer and lifestyle: |
| strong branded consumer products/retail with established proof of concept including specialty consumer, consumable goods, online/internet and consumer retail and healthcare; and |
| defined branded/differentiated product or service that has the ability to disrupt large categories. |
| Niche manufacturing: |
| manufacturers of precision-manufactured custom products that are not mass produced and sold on the premise of product quality; and |
| characterized by focus on product quality and customer service. |
| Technology: |
| businesses revolving around the manufacturing of electronics, creation of software, computers, or products and services relating to information technology; and |
| technology companies which provide a mission critical product/service with a scalable platform and a defensible market position. |
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Competitive Strengths
In pursuing an attractive business combination, our competitive strengths include the following:
| Seasoned, Pan-European Leadership Team: We believe that our ability to leverage the experience, network and complementary skillsets of our board of directors and management team and the broader Investcorp Group across the Specific Sectors should provide us with a competitive advantage in sourcing, evaluating and completing an attractive initial business combination. Our leadership team has deep experience in leading global private equity investments, including chairing investment committees for European acquisitions and direct management of companies, as well as extensive relevant networks with management teams, third party professional services firms and regulators. In particular, our leadership team has experience in developing strong operating knowledge of and management relationships with companies in the Specific Sectors through past executed investments; |
| Leading global private equity investor, with high credibility and multi-sector focus: Our sponsor is an affiliate of Investcorp Group, a global provider and manager of alternative investments, with approximately $40.4 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2021, including approximately $6.3 billion of assets under management in private equity investments, providing potential synergies for and immediate credibility with potential targets. Since its founding in 1982, the Investcorp Group has executed over 219 private equity investments, with a disciplined approach to growth designed to promote resilient performance during macroeconomic disruptions. Investcorp Group has consistently seen increases in its levels of investing activity and made $3.3 billion of aggregate investment in 2021; |
| Unique resources for value creation in the Specific Sectors: We capitalize on Investcorp Groups and our leadership teams extensive operational, investment and strategic experience in the Specific Sectors. Our board of directors believes this experience enables it to identify a target with appropriate value characteristics and, in partnership with management, create a comprehensive business plan to realize this value. Our view is the Investcorp Groups dedicated investment professionals have the relevant backgrounds and requisite experience needed to develop and implement effective strategic operating plans, through both operational performance improvement and topline growth (organically and through synergistic add-on acquisitions, as appropriate). We also believe our board of directors experience with and access to debt and equity capital markets enhances value creation opportunities for our initial business combination through efficient capital structure management, which is further supported via third party advisors. We believe that, in todays investing environment, relevant sector experience is critical to identifying an appropriate target, structuring the transaction and effecting a value-enhancing business plan for the initial business combination; |
| Proven track-record of investing in Europe evidenced by industry leading returns: In the past 39 years, Investcorp Group has invested over $14.4 billion in capital in the Target Area, with 22 current portfolio companies in the region and 35 realized European investments. In addition, members of our board of directors and management team are strategically located in Europe. The combination of investment experience in the region and on-the-ground presence will enhance our endeavors to source relevant potential target businesses across the Target Area, as well as optimize opportunities to expand a potential targets pan-European presence. Across Europe, Investcorp Group has deployed over 6 billion in more than 50 investments in 14 countries since inception. The depth of its experience and network in the region is underpinned by 28 private equity professionals in the region; |
| Strong sourcing capabilities through deep global network and relationships: Investcorp Group and our leadership team have an extensive investment track record in Europe supported by a large global network developed via Investcorp Groups 219 executed private equity deals. In addition to Investcorp Group and our leadership teams private equity sourcing network, we anticipate that target business candidates may also be brought to its attention from various unaffiliated sources, including executives of investment banking, strategic consultancy and other professional services firms, which we believe assists it in sourcing potential initial business combination targets; and |
| Demonstrable commitment to embracing Diversity and ESG values: Investcorp Group has developed a systemic and integral approach to ESG. Investcorp Groups commitment to ESG is visible across all activities, from the initial due diligence of the businesses to the management of its portfolio companies. The implementation of ESG practices in the last few years has resulted in significant value creation. As for diversity, Investcorp Group is proud of its achievements in this area so far. Investcorp Group continues working to enhance the geographic and gender diversity of its workforce. |
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Business Strategy
We will conduct an initial business combination with a business that can benefit from one or more of the following: (i) the deal execution capabilities of Investcorp Group and leadership team, including their experience in private equity investments in the Specified Sectors across the Target Area; (ii) additional capital to support its business and growth strategy; and (iii) access to public securities markets.
Our investment and business development strategy searches for the following qualitative and quantitative features under three different filters: (1) industry, (2) our strategy and positioning, and (3) our financial profile:
Industry
| High barriers to entry or other significant competitive advantages that can be sustained in the long run. These factors will help to maintain and the grow the market position and profitability of the target; and |
| Potential to participate in sector consolidation and/or ability to carry out bolt-ons to add further capabilities or expand geographically. These factors include but are not limited to, opportunities which allow the target to enhance its strategic position through external growth opportunities and which have further upside potential. |
Our strategy and positioning
| Seasoned management team with a successful track-record. Potential target companies in the defined Specified Sectors with outstanding management teams, which have demonstrated their capacity to develop their company successfully. We believe that the founders, investors and management of potential targets should be attracted by our investment philosophy and our leadership teams historical track record of working closely with strong management teams; |
| Scalable and tech-driven business models. Potential target companies in the defined Target Area with scalable and tech-driven business models; |
| Market leaders in their respective markets. Potential target companies in the defined Target Sectors that are market leaders in their respective markets. The key factors we will consider on deciding the target include the targets growth prospects, the competitive dynamics in the targets key markets, the level of industry consolidation and the need for capital investment; |
| Resilient characteristics throughout macroeconomic cycles with strong downside protection. Resilient nature of the business allows the target to sustain performance through any current / future disruption in the economy; |
| Can operate successfully under the scrutiny of public markets. History of strong internal and external reporting and robust corporate governance framework; and |
| Companies in which the specific background of our sponsor and leadership team can add further value. Potential targets with similar backgrounds of our sponsor and leadership team, in order to apply knowledge and best practices from prior experience with similar companies. |
Our financial profile
| Strong unit economics and highly variable cost structure, leading to higher profitability in the mid- term. The factors we will consider are the attractiveness and business profitability of unit economics in the targets core market, the level of transferability of the unit economics to other markets as the targets business expands and/or enters new markets and the level of the variability of the targets cost structure; and |
| Primarily equity financed. Potential target companies which are primarily equity financed with a founders or top-tier investor base. |
In order to implement our strategy, we utilize the deal sourcing capabilities and investment experience of our board of directors, management team and Investcorp Group in order to identify and analyze appropriate target businesses for an initial business combination. Given our board of directors investment track record in the Specified Sectors, we expect that attractive initial business combination candidates will be sourced via discussions with Investcorp Groups existing sourcing network, management teams of portfolio assets held in the Specified Sectors, and various unaffiliated sources such as third party advisors, investment banking executives or other professional services firms.
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Business Combination Criteria
We seek to identify companies that we believe have significant growth potential and a combination of the following characteristics. We use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We expect that no individual criteria will entirely determine a decision to pursue a particular target.
| size and equity value of the target above $1.0 billion up to $2.0 billion; |
| scalable business model with strong unit economics; |
| compatibility with high corporate responsibility standards for sustainable and environmentally and socially responsible investments; |
| leadership in the Specific Sectors and proven track record; |
| brand recognition and potential; |
| size, secular growth rate, and strategic fundamentals of the target; |
| competitive dynamics, including barriers to entry, future competitive threats and the target business competitive position; |
| product positioning and life cycle; |
| development of detailed projections, quantification of sensitivity of drivers of growth and profit enhancement; |
| attractiveness of the target business cash flow generation capability and return on capital employed; |
| readiness to become a listed company and enter the public markets; |
| quality and depth of the management team as it relates to current operations, as well as the envisioned operations in the future; |
| proprietary aspects of products and the extent of intellectual property or other protection for products or formulas; |
| costs and time associated with effecting the business combination; and |
| market leadership, sustainability of market share and attractiveness of market sectors, in which the target business operates within the Specific Sectors. |
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based 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 a business combination with a target business that does not meet some or all of the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this report, would be in the form of proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we would file with the SEC.
Our Business Combination Process
We have up to 15 months from the closing of our IPO to consummate an initial business combination (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association). In evaluating a prospective target business, we conduct a thorough due diligence review that encompasses, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees,
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document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as well as reviewing financial and other information which will be made available to us. We also utilize our operational and capital allocation experience. Our acquisition criteria, due diligence processes and value creation methods are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination 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 initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, 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. Our search for a business combination, ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by factors beyond our control. For example, see Item 1a. Risk FactorsThe COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on business and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately complete a business combination.
The rules of Nasdaq and our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association require that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts and commissions held in the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. Our board of directors will make the determination as to the fair market value of our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of our initial business combination (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it likely that our board of directors will be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of our initial business combination, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the targets assets or prospects. Additionally, pursuant to Nasdaqs rules, any initial business combination must be approved by a majority of our independent directors. If we intend to close any business combination with a company with headquarters or significant operations in a country with secrecy laws that limit foreign access to business books and records and/or audit work papers or where the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) cannot freely inspect auditors, we must obtain Nasdaqs approval prior to closing.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses 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 taken into account for purposes of the 80% of net assets test described above. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses.
To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
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The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. If we ultimately do not complete a specific initial business combination, any such costs incurred will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
Investcorp Group, our sponsor and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. As a result, Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers and directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other special purpose acquisition company with which they may become involved. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, our sponsor, officers, and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence.
Other Acquisition Considerations
Notwithstanding the past performance of our management team or Investcorp Group, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or we will be successful with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of managements, Investcorp Groups or their respective affiliates performance as indicative of our future performance.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity, or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm, another independent firm that commonly renders valuation opinions for the type of company we are seeking to acquire or from an independent accounting firm that the price we are paying for a target is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our shareholders will be relying on the business judgment of our board of directors, which will have significant discretion in choosing the standard used to establish the fair market value of the target or targets, and different methods of valuation may vary greatly in outcome from one another. Such standards used will be disclosed in our tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
Members of our management team and our independent directors own, directly or indirectly, founder shares and/or private placement warrants and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. Our sponsor and members of our board of directors acquired founder shares for approximately $0.003 and $0.12 per share, respectively, and we sold units at a price of $10.00 per unit in our IPO; as a result, our sponsor and members of our board of directors could make a substantial profit after the initial business combination even if public investors experience substantial losses and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
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Each of our directors and officers presently has, and in the future may further have, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including Investcorp and its affiliates pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present acquisition opportunities to such entity. Accordingly, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of an acquisition opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will need to honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such acquisition opportunity to such entity, and only present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity. However, we do not expect these duties to materially affect our ability to identify targets for our initial business combination. Also, while Investcorp and its affiliates will not have any duty to offer acquisition opportunities to us, Investcorp or its affiliates may become aware of a potential transaction that is not a fit for Investcorp or its affiliates but that is an attractive opportunity for us, which they may decide to share with us. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. Moreover, certain of our officers and directors may have time and attention requirements for Investcorp or its affiliates; and, in addition, the compensation arrangements between such individuals and Investcorp or its affiliates (e.g., potential for such individuals to receive bonuses or payments of carried interest based on performance or investment results) may result in certain of such individuals prioritizing the interests of Investcorp or its affiliates over our interests. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, Investcorp and its affiliates, including our officers and directors who are affiliated with Investcorp Group, may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Currently, the equity interests in our sponsor are owned by Investcorp Group. Investcorp Group may transfer the equity interests in our sponsor to one or more investment funds or accounts managed by Investcorp Group for such consideration as Investcorp Group deems appropriate. Shareholders will not have the right to approve or receive notice of any such transfer.
An investment in us is not an investment in Investcorp Group or any fund managed by Investcorp Group. The past performance of Investcorp Group, funds managed by Investcorp Group, our management team or their respective affiliates, is not a guarantee of success with respect to a business combination that may be completed or the ability to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination. You should not rely on the historical record of Investcorp Group, management or their respective affiliates as indicative of the companys future performance. See Item 1a. Risk FactorsPast performance by our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the Company.
We have filed a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we are subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure will make us an attractive business combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we offer a target business an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger or other business combination with us. In a business combination transaction with us, the owners of the target business may, for example, exchange their capital stock, shares or other equity securities in the target business
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for our Class A ordinary shares (or shares of a new holding company) or for a combination of our Class A ordinary shares and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. We believe target businesses 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 business combination transaction process, and there are significant expenses, 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 business combination with us.
Furthermore, once a proposed business combination is completed, the target business will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriters 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 an initial business combination, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital, an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with shareholders interests and the ability to use its shares as currency for acquisitions. Being a public company can offer further benefits by augmenting a companys profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
While we believe that our structure and our management teams backgrounds makes us an attractive business partner, some potential target businesses may view our status as a blank check company, such as our lack of an operating history and our ability to seek shareholder approval of any proposed initial business combination, negatively.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our IPO, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A ordinary shares that is held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
Additionally, we are a smaller reporting company as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company for each fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues are less than $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter.
Financial Position
With funds available for a business combination initially in the amount of approximately $339,825,000 (assuming no redemptions) after payment of $12,075,000 of deferred underwriting fees, we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our initial business combination 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 target business 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.
Effecting Our Initial Business Combination
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our IPO and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination, shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing. We may seek to complete our initial business combination 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.
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If our initial business combination 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 initial business combination or used for redemptions of our Class A ordinary shares, we may use the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account following the closing of the initial business combination 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 initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We have not selected any specific business combination target. While we may pursue a business combination target in any business or industry, we intend to capitalize on the experience and ability of our team to focus on opportunities in Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, or Northern Europe and, opportunistically, in Turkey, and businesses focusing on business services, consumer and lifestyle, niche manufacturing and technology. Accordingly, there is no current basis for investors to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the target business with which we may ultimately complete our initial business combination. Although our management assesses the risks inherent in a particular target business with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a target business 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 target business.
We may seek to raise additional funds through a private offering of debt or equity securities in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and we may effectuate our initial business combination using the proceeds of such offering rather than using the amounts held in the trust account. In addition, we intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, and, as a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemptions by public shareholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would expect to complete such financing only simultaneously with the completion of our initial business combination. In the case of an initial business combination funded with assets other than the trust account assets, our proxy materials or tender offer documents disclosing the initial business combination would disclose the terms of the financing and, only if required by law, we would seek shareholder approval of such financing. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination. 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 or otherwise. None of our sponsors, officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Sources of Target Businesses
Target business candidates may be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment bankers and private investment funds. Target businesses may be brought to our attention by such unaffiliated sources as a result of being solicited by us through calls or mailings. These sources may also introduce us to target businesses in which they think we may be interested on an unsolicited basis, since many of these sources will have read our prospectus and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates, may also bring to our attention target business candidates of which they become aware through their business contacts as a result of formal or informal inquiries or discussions they may have, as well as attending trade shows or conventions. In addition, we expect to receive a number of proprietary deal flow opportunities that would not otherwise necessarily be available to us as a result of the track record and business relationships of our officers and directors. While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arms length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management
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determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finders fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. We may also engage our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor for advisory or other services in connection with our initial business combination and may pay such person or entity a salary or fee in an amount that constitutes a market standard fee for comparable transactions. Any such payments prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than the foregoing, there will be no finders fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or directors, or any affiliate of our sponsor or officers prior to, or in connection with any services rendered in order to effectuate, the consummation of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is).
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with Investcorp Group. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. Our shareholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion and they may not be able to rely upon such opinion.
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, including entities that are affiliates of our sponsor, pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination 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 business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. See Item 1. BusinessConflicts of Interest.
Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination
In evaluating a prospective target business, we 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 target, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the business combination transaction.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. If we ultimately do not complete a specific initial business combination, any such costs incurred will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination. 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 initial business combination.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, 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 business combinations 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 initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:
| subject us to negative economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact on the particular industry in which we operate after our initial business combination, and |
| cause us to depend on the marketing and sale of a single product or limited number of products or services. |
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Limited Ability to Evaluate the Targets Management Team
Although we closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target businesss 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 target business 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 initial business combination. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
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 initial business combination.
Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. 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.
Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, we will seek shareholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
Under Nasdaqs listing rules, shareholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
| We issue ordinary shares that will be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of our ordinary shares then outstanding (other than in a public offering); |
| Any of our directors, officers or substantial shareholders (as defined by Nasdaq rules) has a 5% or greater interest earned on the trust account (or such persons collectively have a 10% or greater interest), directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired or otherwise and the present or potential issuance of ordinary shares could result in an increase in outstanding ordinary shares or voting power of 5% or more; or |
| The issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares will result in our undergoing a change of control. |
Permitted Purchases of Our Securities
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, any other initial shareholders, directors, 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 initial business combination. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and Nasdaq rules. However, 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. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
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In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders 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 business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination or (ii) to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, 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 initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public float of our Class A ordinary shares 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.
Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the shareholders with whom our initial shareholders, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated purchases by either the shareholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by shareholders (in the case of Class A ordinary shares) following our mailing of proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates enter into a private purchase, they would identify and contact only potential selling shareholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our initial business combination, whether or not such shareholder has already submitted a proxy with respect to our initial business combination but only if such shares have not already been voted at the general meeting related to our initial business combination. Our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase shares from based on a negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will only purchase shares if such purchases comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws. Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will not make purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. 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.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
Our public shareholders may redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. The amount in the trust account is anticipated to be $10.20 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we paid to the underwriters at the closing of our IPO. Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they may hold in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
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Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide 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 initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target 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 Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed initial business combination exceeds the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the initial business combination or redeem any shares, and all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof. We may, however, raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination to, among other reasons, satisfy such net tangible assets or minimum cash requirements.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
Our public shareholders may redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a general meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) without a shareholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination 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 shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or whether we were deemed to be a foreign private issuer (which would require a tender offer rather than seeking shareholder approval under SEC rules). Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while direct mergers with our company and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would require shareholder approval. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on Nasdaq, we will be required to comply with Nasdaqs shareholder approval rules.
The requirement that we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above will be contained in provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and will apply whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on Nasdaq. Such provisions may be amended if approved by the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company, so long as we offer redemption in connection with such amendment.
If we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a shareholder meeting, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
| conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules; and |
| file proxy materials with the SEC. |
In the event that we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public shareholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we obtain an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, being the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company. A quorum for such meeting will be present if the holders of a majority of issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote at the meeting are represented in person or by proxy. Our sponsor, officers and directors will count toward this quorum and, pursuant to the letter agreement, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote their founder shares, private placement shares and any public shares purchased during or after the IPO (including in open market and privately-negotiated transactions) in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval
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of an ordinary resolution, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders founder shares, we would need 12,937,501, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 2,156,251, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 34,500,000 public shares sold in our IPO to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination (other than a statutory merger or consolidation with another company) approved (assuming all outstanding shares are voted). However, if our initial business combination is structured as a statutory merger or consolidation with another company under Cayman Islands law, the approval of our initial business combination will require a special resolution passed by the affirmative vote shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreement of our sponsor, officers and directors, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or whether they were a public shareholder on the record date for the general meeting held to approve the proposed transaction.
If a shareholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, we will:
| conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers; and |
| file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies. |
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public shareholders not tendering more than the number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public shareholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemption pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase our Class A ordinary shares in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
We will require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to, at the holders option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using the Depository Trust Companys 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 scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, we intend to require a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled 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 initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public shareholders 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 shareholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed initial business combination is not approved and we continue to search for a target company, we will promptly return any certificates or shares delivered by public shareholders who elected to redeem their shares.
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Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination if We Seek Shareholder Approval
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder 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 without our prior consent. We believe this restriction will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination 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 shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our IPO could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holders 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 shareholders ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in our IPO, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target 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 shareholders ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Delivering Share Certificates in Connection with the Exercise of Redemption Rights
As described above, we will require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to, at the holders option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using the Depository Trust Companys 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 scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, we intend to require a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled 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 initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public shareholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. Accordingly, a public shareholder would have up to two business days prior to the scheduled vote on the initial business combination 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 shareholder 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 shareholders 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 initial business combination.
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If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public shareholders 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 business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a business combination with a different target until 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association).
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that we will have only 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) to complete our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination within such 15-month period (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii) to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the 15-month time period (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association).
Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association). However, if our sponsor or management team acquire public shares, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the allotted 15-month time period (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association).
Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time.
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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 proceeds held outside the trust account, 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 income taxes on interest income earned on the trust account balance, 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.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account, the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.20. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public shareholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by shareholders will not be substantially less than $10.20. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors claims.
Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business 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 shareholders, 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 consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third partys engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. 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. Marcum LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriters of our IPO 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 target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.20 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 $10.20 per 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 target business 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 underwriters of our IPO 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 sponsors 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 initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.20 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, 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 target businesses.
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In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.20 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 $10.20 per 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 indemnification 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 may choose not to do so in any particular instance if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption price will not be less than $10.20 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 target businesses or other entities with which we do business 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 underwriters of our IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have access to up to approximately $2.6 million from the proceeds of our IPO 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, shareholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.
If we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency 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 shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.20 per share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders 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 shareholders. 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 shareholders 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.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to (A) modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of our initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a shareholders voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholders redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote.
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Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association
The Business Combination Article of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contains provisions designed to provide certain rights and protections that will apply to us until the completion of our initial business combination. These provisions cannot be amended without a special resolution. As a matter of Cayman Islands law, a special resolution must be approved by either (i) the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares (or any higher threshold specified in a companys articles of association) which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company for which notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution has been given; or (ii) if so authorized by a companys articles of association, by a unanimous written resolution of all of the companys shareholders. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that special resolutions must be approved either by the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company (i.e., the lowest threshold permissible under Cayman Islands law), or by a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders.
Our initial shareholders, who collectively beneficially own 20% of the sum of our ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Specifically, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that:
| If we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii) to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law; |
| Prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional securities that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on our initial business combination; |
| Although we do not intend to enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, our directors or our officers, we are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. Our shareholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion and they may not be able to rely upon such opinion; |
| If a shareholder vote on our initial business combination is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, we will offer to redeem our public shares pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act; |
| We must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination; |
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| If our shareholders approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity, we will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon such approval at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein; and |
| We will not effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations. |
In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide we will not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. We may, however, raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination to, among other reasons, satisfy such net tangible assets requirement.
The Companies Act permits a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands to amend its memorandum and articles of association with the approval of a special resolution. A companys articles of association may specify that the approval of a higher majority is required but, provided the approval of the required majority is obtained, any Cayman Islands exempted company may amend its memorandum and articles of association regardless of whether its memorandum and articles of association provide otherwise. Accordingly, although we could amend any of the provisions relating to our structure and business plan which are contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we view all of these provisions as binding obligations to our shareholders and neither we, nor our officers or directors, will take any action to amend or waive any of these provisions unless we provide dissenting public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
(i) | duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole; |
(ii) | duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose; |
(iii) | directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion; |
(iv) | duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders; |
(v) | duty not to put themselves in a position in which there is a conflict between their duty to the company and their personal interests; and |
(vi) | duty to exercise independent judgment. |
In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge skill and experience of that director.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.
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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 other special purpose acquisition companies) pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination 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 business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide 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 it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
| Our 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 business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. |
| Our initial shareholders purchased founder shares prior to our IPO and purchased private placement warrants in a transaction that closed simultaneously with the closing of our IPO. Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Furthermore, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion thereof until the earlier to occur of: (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (ii) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 120 days after our initial business combination, the founder shares will be released from the lockup. The private placement warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) are not transferable until 30 days following the completion of our initial business combination. Because each of our officers and directors own ordinary shares or warrants directly or indirectly, they may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. |
| Our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination. In addition, Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers and directors may sponsor, form or participate in other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target, particularly in the event there is overlap among investment mandates. |
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We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with Investcorp Group, our sponsor, officers, or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. Our shareholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion and they may not be able to rely upon such opinion. 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 finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination.
We cannot assure you that any of the above mentioned conflicts will be resolved in our favor.
In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote their founder shares, and they and the other members of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares and any shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination.
Facilities
We currently utilize office space at Century Yard, Cricket Square, Elgin Avenue, PO Box 1111, George Town Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KY1-1102 from our sponsor and the members of our management team as our executive offices. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have three executive officers. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the business combination process we are in. We may plan to have full time employees other than the executive officers prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants have been registered 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 have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
We will provide shareholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents sent to shareholders to assist them in assessing the target business. 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 target businesses we may conduct an initial business combination with because some targets may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. We cannot assure you that any particular target business identified by us as a potential business combination candidate will have financial statements prepared in accordance with the requirements outlined above, or that the potential target business 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 target business. While this may limit the pool of potential business combination candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
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We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 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 target business 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 business combination.
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company incorporated on March 22, 2021. Exempted companies are Cayman Islands companies conducting business mainly outside the Cayman Islands and, as such, are exempted from complying with certain provisions of the Companies Act. As an exempted company, we have applied for and received a tax exemption undertaking from the government of the Cayman Islands that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Act (2018 Revision) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 30 years from April 6, 2021, no law which is thereafter enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations will apply to us or our operations and, in addition, that no tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations or which is in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax will be payable (i) on or in respect of our shares, debentures or other obligations or (ii) by way of the withholding in whole or in part of any relevant payment as defined in the Tax Concessions Act (2018 Revision).
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
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.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our IPO, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A ordinary shares that are held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
Additionally, we are a smaller reporting company as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company for each fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues are less than $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter.
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Legal Proceedings
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such, and we and the members of our management team have not been subject to any such proceeding in the 12 months preceding the date of this report.
Item 1A. | Risk Factors |
Summary Risk Factors
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this report before making a decision to purchase our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. These risks are more fully described in the section titled Risk Factors immediately following this risk factors summary. These risks include, among others, the following:
| We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective. |
| Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination. |
| Your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash. |
| The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on business and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately complete a business combination. |
| If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote. |
| The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target. |
| The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure. |
| The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares. |
| The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders. |
| Affiliates of our sponsor have similar or overlapping investment objectives and guidelines, and we may not be presented investment opportunities that may otherwise be suitable for us. |
| Our independent registered public accounting firms report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability continue as a going concern. |
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| If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us. |
| Corporate governance standards in non-U.S. countries may not be as strict or developed as in the United States and such weakness may hide issues and operational practices that are detrimental to a target business. If the government of the country in which we effect our initial business combination finds that the agreements we entered into to acquire control of a target business through contractual arrangements with one or more operating businesses do not comply with local governmental restrictions on foreign investment, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to significant penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations. |
| Our ability to identify a target and to consummate an initial business combination may be adversely affected by economic uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets, including as a result of the military conflict in Ukraine. |
Risks Relating to our Search for, Consummation of, or Ability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks
We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results, and we did not commence operations until obtaining funding through the IPO. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. In such case, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow shareholders 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 shareholder approval. Even if we seek shareholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our ordinary shares do not approve of the business combination we complete. See Item 1. BusinessShareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination.
Your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
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 initial business combination. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding our initial business combination 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 shareholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on business and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately complete a business combination.
Since late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruption to global economies and markets and the virus has continued to spread on a global scale. A significant outbreak of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, including the resurgence or variants thereof, could result in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, business operations and the conduct of commerce generally and could have a material adverse effect on the business of any potential target business with which we complete a business combination. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target companys personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and complete a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which the outbreak of COVID-19 impacts our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, the possibility of its resurgence, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to complete a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately complete a business combination.
In addition, our ability to complete a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing and the COVID-19 pandemic and other related events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise adequate financing.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our initial shareholders own 20% of the sum of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Our initial shareholders and management team also may from time to time purchase Class A ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, if we seek shareholder approval of an initial business combination (other than a statutory merger or consolidation with another company), such initial business combination will be approved if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, including the founder shares. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders founder shares, we would need 12,937,501, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 2,156,251, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 34,500,000 public shares sold in our IPO to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all outstanding shares are voted). However, if our initial business combination is structured as a statutory merger or consolidation with another company under Cayman Islands law, the approval of our initial business combination will require a special resolution passed by the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or by a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial shareholders and management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholder approval for such initial business combination.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. If too many public shareholders 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 business combination. 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
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redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders 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 initial business combination 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 are 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. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B ordinary shares results in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The per share amount we will distribute to shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination 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 initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of 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.
The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association). Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. 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 initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
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As the number of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to find a target or to consummate an initial business combination.
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 an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies preparing for an initial public offering, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available to consummate an initial business combination.
In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may only receive $10.20 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association). Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic could limit our ability to complete our initial business combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the outbreak of COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law, in which case our public shareholders may only receive $10.20 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or public warrants from public shareholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public float of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, any other initial shareholders, directors, 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 initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and Nasdaq rules. However, 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. Such purchases may include a contractual acknowledgment that such shareholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights.
In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights or submitted a proxy to vote against our initial business combination, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares and any proxy to vote against our initial business combination. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, 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 initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. 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 ordinary shares 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.
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for submitting or tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such shareholder 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 initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or submit public shares for redemption. For example, we will require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to, at the holders option, either deliver their share 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 scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, we will require a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a shareholder 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.
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You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders are entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. We cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be, listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum amount in shareholders equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders). Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaqs initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaqs continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our shareholders 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.
If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
| a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; |
| reduced liquidity for our securities; |
| a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a penny stock which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; |
| a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and |
| a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
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 units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are currently listed on Nasdaq, our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants qualify as 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 Nasdaq, 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.
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Since only holders of our founder shares have the right to vote on the election of directors prior to our initial business combination, Nasdaq may consider us to be a controlled company within the meaning of Nasdaqs rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements that would otherwise provide protection to shareholders of other companies.
Only holders of our founder shares have the right to vote on the election of directors. As a result, Nasdaq may consider us to be a controlled company within the meaning of Nasdaqs corporate governance standards. Under Nasdaq corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power for the election of directors is held by an individual, a group or another company is a controlled company and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:
| we have a board that includes a majority of independent directors, as defined under Nasdaq rules; |
| we have a compensation committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committees purpose and responsibilities; and |
| we have independent director oversight of our director nominations. |
We do not intend to utilize these exemptions and intend to comply with the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq, subject to applicable phase-in rules. However, if we determine in the future to utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of Nasdaqs corporate governance requirements.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a group of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder 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 IPO without our prior consent, which we refer to as the Excess Shares. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination, 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 initial business combination. 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.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect 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 will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of
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these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses 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 target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Affiliates of our sponsor have similar or overlapping investment objectives and guidelines, and we may not be presented investment opportunities that may otherwise be suitable for us.
Affiliates of our sponsor currently invest and plan to continue to invest in, incubate, and grow successful businesses in sectors such as business services, consumer and lifestyle, niche manufacturing and technology. There may be overlap of investment opportunities with affiliates of our sponsor that are actively investing and similar overlap with future affiliates. This overlap could create conflicts of interest. In particular, investment opportunities that may otherwise be suitable for us may not be presented to us by our sponsor. This overlap could also create conflicts in determining to which entity a particular investment opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us.
Certain members of our management team may be involved in and have a greater financial interest in the performance of other entities affiliated with our sponsor, and such activities may create conflicts of interest in making decisions on our behalf.
Certain members of our management team may be subject to a variety of conflicts of interest relating to their responsibilities to our sponsor and its other affiliates. Such individuals may serve as members of management or a board of directors (or in similar such capacity) to various other affiliated entities. Such positions may create a conflict between the advice and investment opportunities provided to such entities and the responsibilities owed to us. The other entities in which such individuals may become involved may have investment objectives that overlap with ours. Furthermore, certain of our principals and employees may have a greater financial interest in the performance of such other affiliated entities than our performance. Such involvement may create conflicts of interest in sourcing investment opportunities on our behalf and on behalf of such other entities. See Item 1. Business Conflict of Interest.
If the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least 15 months from the closing of our IPO, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Managements plans to address this need for capital and potential loans from certain of our affiliates are discussed in Item 7. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. However, our affiliates are not obligated to make loans to us in the future, and we may not be able to raise additional financing from unaffiliated parties necessary to fund our expenses. Any such event in the future may negatively impact the analysis regarding our ability to continue as a going concern at such time.
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Of the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, only $2.9 million was available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least 15 months from the closing of our IPO; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a no-shop provision (a provision in letters of intent or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from shopping around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business.
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 initial business combination. Up to $2,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, 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 initial business combination 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 shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.20 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Because our trust account is expected to contain approximately $10.20 per Class A ordinary share at the time of our initial business combination, our public shareholders may be more incentivized to redeem their public shares at the time of our initial business combination.
Our trust account initially contains $10.20 per Class A ordinary share. This is different than some other similarly structured blank check companies for which the trust account will only contain $10.00 per Class A ordinary share. As a result of the additional funds receivable by public shareholders upon redemption of public shares, our public shareholders may be more incentivized to redeem their public shares.
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and our share price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present within a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining debt financing to partially finance the initial business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, any shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders 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 business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
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If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.20 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 target businesses and other entities with which we do business 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 shareholders, 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 consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third partys engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. Marcum LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriters of our IPO 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 initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, 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. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.20 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement, 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 target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.20 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 $10.20 per 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 target business 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 underwriters of our IPO 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 sponsors 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 initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.20 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, 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 target businesses.
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The securities in which we invest the funds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.20 per share.
The proceeds held in the trust account are invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government 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 that we do not to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial business combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.20 per share.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.20 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 $10.20 per 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, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. 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 shareholders may be reduced below $10.20 per share.
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholders investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders 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 shareholders. 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, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency 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 shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including restrictions on the nature of our investments and restrictions on the issuance of securities, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
| registration as an investment company; |
| adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and |
| reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations. |
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 will be to identify and complete a business combination 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.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in United States government securities within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments, and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we intend to avoid being deemed an investment company within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity; or (iii) absent an initial business combination within
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15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public shareholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
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 initial business combination, and results of operations.
If we do not consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such to 15 months (or up to 21 months, as applicable) before redemption from our trust account.
If we do not consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account will be effected by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind-up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public shareholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond 15 months (or up to 21 months, as applicable) from the closing of our IPO before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless we consummate our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their Class A ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we do not complete our initial business combination.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business or if the distribution was found to have been made in a manner that was not in compliance with our memorandum and articles of association or otherwise was not in compliance with Cayman Islands law. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders 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. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offence and may be liable to a fine of approximately $18,300 and to imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
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Our initial shareholders will control the appointment of our board of directors until consummation of our initial business combination and will hold a substantial interest in us. As a result, they will appoint all of our directors prior to our initial business combination and may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial shareholders own 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, holders of the founder shares have the right to appoint all of our directors and may remove members of the board of directors for any reason in any general meeting held prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. Holders of our public shares have no right to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares attending and voting in a general meeting. As a result, you will not have any influence over the appointment of directors prior to our initial business combination.
In addition, as a result of their substantial ownership in our company, our initial shareholders may exert a substantial influence on other actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of major corporate transactions.
We may not hold an annual general meeting of shareholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our shareholders to appoint directors.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to elect directors. Until we hold an annual general meeting, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to appoint directors and to discuss company affairs with management. Directors are appointed for a term of two years. In addition, as holders of our Class A ordinary shares, our public shareholders do not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors until after the consummation of our initial business combination.
A registration of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
If the issuance of the Class A ordinary shares 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 units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units.
While we have registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act, we do not plan on keeping a prospectus current until required to do so pursuant to the warrant agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed to maintain a current prospectus relating to the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. 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 our 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.
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If the Class A ordinary shares 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 Class A ordinary shares 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 commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available. Exercising the warrants on a cashless basis could have the effect of reducing the potential upside of the holders investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of Class A ordinary shares upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold than they would have upon a cash exercise.
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 and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants included as part of units sold in our IPO. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying ordinary shares. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
You may only be able to exercise your public warrants on a cashless basis under certain circumstances, and if you do so, you will receive fewer Class A ordinary shares from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
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 Class A ordinary shares 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 Class A ordinary shares 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; 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 Class A ordinary shares equal to the lesser of (A) the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares (as defined in the next sentence) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value and (B) 0.361. The fair market value is the volume-weighted average price of the Class A ordinary shares 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 Class A ordinary shares from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
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The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders and holders of our private placement warrants may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to a registration rights agreement, our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the Class A ordinary shares into which founder shares are convertible, holders of our private placement warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, and holders of securities that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such units, shares, warrants or the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such warrants. We bear the costs 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 ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business 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 Class A ordinary shares that is expected when the ordinary shares owned by our initial shareholders, holders of our private placement warrants or holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target businesss operations.
Our efforts to identify a prospective initial business combination target will not be limited to a particular industry, sector or geographic region. While we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any industry or any region, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify and acquire a business or businesses that can benefit from our management teams 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 the business services, consumer and lifestyle, niche manufacturing and technology sectors. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prohibits us from effectuating a business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target businesss operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, 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 target business, 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 target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders 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 business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
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Past performance by our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the Company.
Information regarding our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance by our management team and their affiliates and the businesses with which they have been associated, is not a guarantee that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination, that we will be able to provide positive returns to our shareholders, or of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical experience of our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or as indicative of every prior investment by each of the members of our management team, our sponsor or their affiliates. The market price of our securities may be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, and our shareholders may experience losses on their investment in our securities.
The prior investment track records of our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates may not be available on publicly available sources or may be subject to confidentiality agreements.
As the prior investment track records of our management team, our sponsor and their affiliates, including the investments and transactions in which they have participated in and businesses with which they have been associated with, are primarily private transactions, information regarding their involvement with such transactions may not be publicly available or is subject to confidentiality terms. This may limit the availability of information to our investors and potential target businesses pertaining to our teams past track record which in turn may adversely affect our marketing efforts and ability to generate attractive business combination opportunities for our company.
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our managements areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside of our managements areas of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive business combination opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination 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 units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue a business combination outside of the areas of our managements expertise, our managements expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained herein regarding the areas of our managements expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to ascertain or assess adequately all of the relevant risk factors. Accordingly, any shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target 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 business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public shareholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the redemption of their shares.
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We may seek acquisition opportunities with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings.
To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. These risks include investing in a business without a proven business model and with limited historical financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors. 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 target business.
With limited exceptions, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm that the price we are paying is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our shareholders 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 materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the founder shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained therein. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorizes the issuance of up to 400,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 40,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. Immediately after our IPO, there were 365,500,000 and 31,375,000 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares following the consummation of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment and in accordance with the promote schedule as set forth herein and in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, including in certain circumstances in which we issue Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities related to our initial business combination; provided that such conversion of Class B ordinary shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis. There are no preference shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares to redeem the warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00 or upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth therein. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders
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thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote. The issuance of additional ordinary or preference shares:
| may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our IPO, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares; |
| may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A ordinary shares; |
| could cause a change in control if a substantial number of Class A ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and |
| may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants. |
Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies, our initial shareholders will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue certain shares to consummate an initial business combination.
In accordance with the promote schedule, the founder shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares following the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein and in accordance with the promote schedule. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with our initial business combination, the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding, plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding, plus (iii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the Company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination (including securities issued or issuable pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop arrangements we may enter into but excluding the forward purchase warrants), excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor, officers or directors upon conversion of working capital loans, minus (iv) the number of Class A ordinary shares redeemed by public shareholders; provided that such conversion of founder shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis.
Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business 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, consultants and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, 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 target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination 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 initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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We may be a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. investor in our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. investor may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current and subsequent taxable years may depend on whether we qualify for the PFIC start-up exception. Depending on the particular circumstances, the application of the start-up exception may be subject to uncertainty, and there cannot be any assurance that we will qualify for the start-up exception. Accordingly, there can be no assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for any taxable year, however, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year (and, in the case of the start-up exception, potentially not until after the two taxable years following our current taxable year). Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. investor a PFIC Annual Information Statement in order to enable the U.S. investor to make and maintain a qualified electing fund election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. U.S. investors should consult their tax advisers regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules.
Our initial business combination or transactions relating thereto may result in taxes imposed on us and our shareholders or warrant holders.
We may, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval by special resolution under the Companies Act and the articles of association, merge with and into another company (including the target company), or reincorporate or redomicile in or transfer our tax residence to, the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction or merge into a new entity in such jurisdiction.
Tax structuring considerations are complex, the relevant facts and law are uncertain and may change, and we may prioritize commercial and other considerations over tax considerations. A shareholder or warrant holder may be required to recognize taxable income with respect to our business combination or transactions relating thereto in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder or warrant holder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. In the event of a reincorporation or merger, any tax liability may attach prior to any consummation of redemptions of our Class A ordinary shares. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant holders to pay taxes in connection with our initial business combination or thereafter. Shareholders and warrant holders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after our initial business combination. In addition, we could be treated as tax resident in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located, which could result in adverse tax consequences to us (e.g., taxation on our worldwide income in such jurisdiction) and to our shareholders or warrant holders (e.g., withholding taxes on dividends and taxation of disposition gains).
We intend that the Company will operate so as to be treated exclusively as a resident of the Cayman Islands for tax purposes until the initial business combination is consummated, but the tax authorities of other jurisdictions may treat it as also being a resident of, or as having a taxable presence in, another jurisdiction for tax purposes.
We intend that the Company, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, will have its residence for tax purposes exclusively in the Cayman Islands and that the Company will have no taxable presence in the form of a fixed place of business or permanent establishment in any other jurisdiction, prior to the initial business combination and related transactions.
Because the Company is incorporated under Cayman Islands law and has its registered office in the Cayman Islands, it is considered to be resident in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes. In addition, we intend that the Company will maintain its management, organizational and operational structures in such a manner that the Company should not be regarded as a tax resident of any other jurisdiction either for domestic law purposes and that we should not have a fixed place of business or permanent establishment outside the Cayman Islands (subject to the consummation of the initial business combination).
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However, the determination of the Companys tax residence, which primarily depends upon our place of effective management, as well as the characterization of fixed places of business or permanent establishments outside of our jurisdiction of incorporation, are questions of fact based on all circumstances. Because such determinations are highly fact-sensitive, we give no assurances regarding the outcome.
A failure to maintain exclusive tax residency in the Cayman Islands and / or not to maintain a fixed place of business or permanent establishment outside the Cayman Islands could result in significant adverse tax consequences to the Company. A failure to maintain exclusive tax residency in the Cayman Islands could also result in significant adverse tax consequences for the Companys shareholders and warrant holders. The impact of this risk would differ based on the views taken by each relevant tax authority and, in respect of the taxation of the Companys shareholders and warrant holders, on their specific situation.
Changes in tax law or accounting policies may reduce any net returns for investors.
The tax treatment of shareholders, the Company, any special purpose vehicle that the Company may establish and any target company or business which the Company may acquire are all subject to changes in tax laws or practices in the Cayman Islands or any other relevant jurisdiction. The accounting policies of the Company relating to the Class A ordinary shares and the warrants are also subject to change. Any change may reduce any net return derived by investors from a shareholding in the Company.
We make no assurances that the Company will be able to make returns for the shareholders in a tax-efficient manner.
The Company takes reasonable steps to generate returns for shareholders in a tax-efficient manner wherever practicable. Certain assumptions have been made in this regard, which may prove incorrect, or taxes may be imposed with respect to any of the Companys assets, or the Company may be subject to tax on its income, profits, gains or distributions in a particular jurisdiction or jurisdictions in excess of taxes that were anticipated. This could alter the post-tax returns for the shareholders (or the shareholders in certain jurisdictions). The level of post-tax returns for the shareholders may also be adversely affected. Any change in laws or tax authority practices could also adversely affect any post-tax returns of capital to the shareholders or payments of dividends (if any, which the Company does not envisage making in the short to medium term). In addition, the Company may incur costs in taking steps to mitigate any such adverse effect on the post-tax returns for the shareholders.
A majority of our directors and officer live outside the United States, and after our initial business combination, it is possible that all or a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all of our assets will be located outside the United States; therefore, investors may not be able to enforce federal securities laws or their other legal rights.
A majority of our directors and officers live outside of the United States, and it is possible that after our initial business combination, a majority of our directors and officers will reside outside of the United States and all of our assets will be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights, to effect service of process upon all of our directors or officers or to enforce judgments of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors and officers under United States laws.
Members of our management team and board of directors have significant experience as founders, board members, officers or executives of other companies. As a result, certain of those persons may have been, and may become, involved in proceedings, investigations and litigation relating to the business affairs of the companies with which they were, are, or may in the future be, affiliated. This may have an adverse effect on us, which may impede our ability to consummate an initial business combination.
During the course of their careers, members of our management team and board of directors have had significant experience as founders, board members, officers or executives of other companies. As a result of their involvement and positions in these companies, certain persons may have been, and may become, involved in litigation, investigations or other proceedings arising out of or relating to the business affairs of such companies or transactions entered into by such companies. Any such litigation, investigations or other proceedings may divert our management teams and boards attention and resources away from identifying and selecting a target business or businesses for our initial business combination and may negatively affect our reputation, which may impede our ability to complete an initial business combination.
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We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our key personnel, at least until we have consummated our initial business combination. None of our officers are required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, they have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. If our officers and directors other business affairs require them to devote more substantial amounts of time to their other business activities, or if they elect to prioritize their other business affairs over our companys activities, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs and could have a negative impact on our ability to consummate our initial business combination. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, 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.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination 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 business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnels 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 target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands or other relevant law.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
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When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target businesss management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target businesss management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target businesss 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 shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such shareholders 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 business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination targets key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidates key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidates management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that key personnel, including members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our 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 business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our 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 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 initial business combination. For a complete discussion of our officers and directors other business affairs, please see Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate GovernanceDirectors and Officers.
Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend 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 business combination 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 target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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In addition, Investcorp Group, our sponsor and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to such other blank check companies prior to its presentation to us. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, 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 business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or officers, although we do not intend to do so. 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 target business and completing a business combination. Consequently, our directors and officers discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders best interest. In certain circumstances this may amount to a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. Our underwriters are entitled to receive deferred underwriting commissions that will be released from the trust account only upon a completion of an initial business combination. These financial incentives may cause them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing financial advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing. We may pay such underwriters or their respective affiliates fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arms length negotiation. The underwriters are also entitled to receive deferred underwriting commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial business combination. The fact that the underwriters or their respective affiliates financial interests are tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such additional services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
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We may engage our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as an advisor or otherwise with respect to our business combinations and certain other transactions. Any salary or fee in connection with such engagement may be conditioned upon the completion of such transactions. This financial interest in the completion of such transactions may influence the advice such entity provides.
We may engage our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as an advisor or otherwise in connection with our initial business combination and certain other transactions and pay such person or entity a salary or fee in an amount that constitutes a market standard for comparable transactions. Pursuant to any such engagement, such person or entity may earn its salary or fee upon closing of the initial business combination. The payment of such salary or fee would likely be conditioned upon the completion of the initial business combination. Therefore, such persons or entities may have additional financial interests in the completion of the initial business combination. These financial interests may influence the advice such entity provides us, which advice would contribute to our decision on whether to pursue a business combination with any particular target.
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described in Item 1. BusinessConflicts of Interest. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will 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 business combination as set forth in Item 1. BusinessEffecting our initial business combination 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 which is a member of FINRA regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public shareholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
The nominal purchase price paid by our sponsor for the founder shares may significantly dilute the implied value of your public shares in the event we consummate an initial business combination, and our sponsor is likely to make a substantial profit on its investment in us in the event we consummate an initial business combination, even if the business combination causes the trading price of our ordinary shares to materially decline.
Though our units were sold in our IPO at an offering price of $10.00 per unit and the amount in the trust account is anticipated to be $10.20 per public share, implying an initial value of $10.20 per public share, our sponsor paid only a nominal aggregate purchase price of $25,000 for the founder shares, or approximately $0.003 per share. As a result, the value of your public shares may be significantly diluted in the event we consummate an initial business combination.
Our sponsor invested an aggregate of $16,725,000 in us in connection with the our IPO, comprised of the $25,000 purchase price for the founder shares and the $16,700,000 purchase price for the private placement warrants. As a result, even if the trading price of our ordinary shares significantly declines, our sponsor will stand to make significant profit on its investment in us. In addition, our sponsor could potentially recoup its entire investment in us even if the trading price of our ordinary shares is less than $1.00 per share and even if the private placement warrants are worthless. As a result, our sponsor is likely to make a substantial profit on its investment in us even if we select and consummate an initial business combination that causes the trading price of our ordinary shares to decline, while our public shareholders who purchased their units in our IPO could lose significant value in their public shares. Our sponsor may therefore be economically incentivized to consummate an initial business combination with a riskier, weaker-performing or less-established target business than would be the case if our sponsor had paid the same per share price for the founder shares as our public shareholders paid for their public shares.
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Since our sponsor, officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they acquired during or after the closing of our IPO), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On April 1, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain of our expenses in exchange for 8,625,000 founder shares. On October 25, 2021, our sponsor effected a surrender of 1,437,500 founder shares to the company for no consideration, resulting in a decrease in the number of founder shares outstanding from 8,625,000 to 7,187,500, such that the total number of founder shares would represent 20% of the total number of ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of our IPO. On November 3, 2021, our sponsor transferred 718,750 founder shares to Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, 479,167 founder shares to Peter McKellar, and 30,000 founder shares to each of Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi, at approximately $0.12 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the initial shareholders, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of the IPO would be a maximum of 34,500,000 units, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the IPO, causing 937,500 of the founder shares to be surrendered for no consideration. On December 14, 2021, in connection with the increase in the size of our IPO, we effected a capitalization increasing the number of founder shares held by each initial shareholder by 20%, thereby increasing the aggregate number of issued and outstanding founder shares to 8,625,000. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. Our sponsor and members of our board of directors acquired founder shares for approximately $0.003 and $0.12 per share, respectively, and we sold units at a price of $10.00 per unit in our IPO; as a result, our sponsor and members of our board of directors could make a substantial profit after the initial business combination even if public investors experience substantial losses and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 16,700,000 private placement warrants for an aggregate purchase price of $16,700,000, or $1.00 per warrant. The private placement warrants will also be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination. The personal and financial interests of our officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the 15-month anniversary of our IPO nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination unless we extend the deadline pursuant to our amended and restated articles of incorporation.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders investment in us.
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 following the closing of our IPO, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. 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:
| default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; |
| acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant; |
| our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand; |
| our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares; |
| using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes; |
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| limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate; |
| increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and |
| limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from our IPO and the private placement of warrants provided us with approximately $339,825,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $12,075,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account).
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business 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 target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination 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 business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
| solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or |
| dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services. |
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 initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
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 business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, 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.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
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In pursuing our business combination strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination 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 initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority shareholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the companys shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain control of the target business. If this were to occur, we cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide 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 initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target 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 initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and accordingly do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, any other initial shareholders, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination that our shareholders may not support.
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In order to effectuate a business combination, 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 business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require a special resolution under the Companies Act, which requires the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company (and will need to comply with any other relevant requirements of our memorandum and articles of association), and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least a majority of the public warrants (except for provisions of the warrant agreement enabling amendments without shareholder or warrant holder approval that are necessary in the good faith determination of our board of directors (taking into account then existing market precedents) to allow for the warrants to be classified as equity in our financial statements). In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association require us to provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
The provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to our pre-business combination 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 not less than two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company (or 65% of the votes cast by our ordinary shares with respect to amendments to the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account), 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 memorandum and articles of association to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our IPO and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public shareholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by special resolution, under the Companies Act which requires the affirmative vote of shareholders holding a majority of not less than two-thirds of the shares which, being so entitled, are voted thereon in person or by proxy at a quorate general meeting of the company or a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the company, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of the votes cast by our ordinary shares. Our initial shareholders, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
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Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination) or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. Our shareholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, officers or directors for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our shareholders would need to pursue a shareholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
Certain agreements related to our IPO may be amended without shareholder approval.
Each of the agreements related to our IPO to which we are a party, other than the warrant agreement (except for provisions of the warrant agreement enabling amendments without shareholder or warrant holder approval that are necessary in the good faith determination of our board of directors (taking into account then existing market precedents) to allow for the warrants to be classified as equity in our financial statements) and the investment management trust agreement, may be amended without shareholder approval. Such agreements are: the underwriting agreement; the letter agreement among us and our initial shareholders, sponsor, officers and directors; the registration rights agreement among us and our initial shareholders; and the private placement warrants purchase agreement between us and our sponsor. These agreements contain various provisions that our public shareholders might deem to be material. For example, our letter agreement and the underwriting agreement contain certain lock-up provisions with respect to the founder shares, private placement warrants and other securities held by our initial shareholders, sponsor, officers and directors. Amendments to such agreements would require the consent of the applicable parties thereto and would need to be approved by our board of directors, which may do so for a variety of reasons, including to facilitate our initial business combination. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to any of these agreements prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board of directors, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to any such agreement. Any amendment entered into in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to such initial business combination, and any other material amendment to any of our material agreements will be disclosed in a filing with the SEC. Any such amendments would not require approval from our shareholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities. For example, amendments to the lock-up provision discussed above may result in our initial shareholders selling their securities earlier than they would otherwise be permitted, which may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.
We have not selected any specific business combination target but intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants. As a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemption by public shareholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. Further, we may be required to obtain additional financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, or to fund the purchase of other companies. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
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Our initial shareholders control a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial shareholders own 20% of the sum of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. If our initial shareholders purchase any additional Class A ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial shareholders 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 Class A ordinary shares. In addition, we may not hold an annual general meeting to appoint new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors are likely to continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual general meeting our initial shareholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination. Prior to the initial business combination, only holders of Class B ordinary shares will have the right to vote on any resolution of shareholders to appoint or remove directors.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants, or for amendments necessary for the warrants to be classified as equity. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
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 shareholder or warrant holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, or to make any amendments that are necessary in the good faith determination of our board of directors (taking into account then existing market precedents) to allow for the warrants to be classified as equity in our financial statements, but otherwise requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants 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 (i) in a manner adverse to a holder of public warrants if holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment or (ii) to the extent necessary for the warrants in the good faith determination of our board of directors (taking into account then existing market precedents) to allow for the warrants to be classified as equity in our financial statements without the consent of any shareholder or warrant holder. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least a majority 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 shares, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
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Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Accordingly, our exclusive forum provision will not relieve us of our duties to comply with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder, and holders of our warrants will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with these laws, rules and regulations. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope of the forum provisions of our warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a foreign action) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an enforcement action), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holders counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holders ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
If (i) we issue additional ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per Class A ordinary share, (ii) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value of our Class A ordinary shares is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices described adjacent to Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00 will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price and the $10.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under Description of SecuritiesWarrantsRedemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00 will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. This may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
Our warrants are expected to be accounted for as a warrant liability and will be recorded at fair value upon issuance with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings, which may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares or may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
We have issued an aggregate of 33,950,000 warrants in connection with the IPO (comprised of the 17,250,000 warrants included in the units and the 16,700,000 private placement warrants). We expect to account for these as a warrant liability and will record at fair value upon issuance any change in fair value during each period reported in earnings as determined by us based upon a valuation report obtained from an independent third party valuation firm. The impact of changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, potential targets may seek other special purpose acquisition company that does not have warrants that are accounted for as a warrant liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
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We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we give proper notice of such redemption to the warrants holders and provided certain other conditions are met. We will not redeem the warrants unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period, except if the warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We issued warrants to purchase 17,250,000 Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered in our IPO and, simultaneously with the closing of our IPO, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 16,700,000 warrants, at $1.00 per warrant. In addition, if the sponsor makes any working capital loans, it may convert those loans into up to an additional 2,000,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant. Our public warrants are also redeemable by us for Class A ordinary shares. To the extent we issue ordinary shares to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares 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 target business.
The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in our IPO except that, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by us (except in certain circumstances) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) they (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights.
Because each unit contains one-half of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other special purpose acquisition companies.
Each unit contains one-half of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number the number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one warrant to purchase one whole share. We have established the components of the units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination since the warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate for one-half of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if it included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
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Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that the proxy statement with respect to the vote on an initial business combination 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 target businesses we may acquire because some targets 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 initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a smaller reporting company as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company for each fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues are less than $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million as of the end of that years second fiscal quarter.
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Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an initial business combination.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2022. 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 comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination 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 business combination.
Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, you may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited.
We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs are governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. We are also subject to the federal securities laws of the United States. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary and other responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English (and other Commonwealth) common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary and other responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders derivative action in a Federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by Travers Thorp Alberga, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands Court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
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As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference shares, which may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
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.
Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries in General
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, 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 initial business combination 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:
| costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations; |
| rules and regulations regarding currency redemption; |
| complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals; |
| laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected; |
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| exchange listing and/or delisting requirements; |
| tariffs and trade barriers; |
| regulations related to customs and import/export matters; |
| local or regional economic policies and market conditions; |
| unexpected changes in regulatory requirements; |
| challenges in managing and staffing international operations; |
| longer payment cycles; |
| tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States; |
| currency fluctuations and exchange controls; |
| rates of inflation; |
| challenges in collecting accounts receivable; |
| cultural and language differences; |
| employment regulations; |
| underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems; |
| corruption; |
| protection of intellectual property; |
| social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances; |
| regime changes and political upheaval; |
| terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars; and |
| deterioration of political relations with the United States. |
Outbreaks of civil and political unrest and acts of terrorism have occurred in countries in Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, including countries close to or where we may seek an acquisition. Continued or escalated civil and political unrest and acts of terrorism in the countries in which we may operate could result in our curtailing operations or delays in project completions. In the event that countries in which we may operate experience civil or political unrest or acts of terrorism, especially in events where such unrest leads to an unseating of the established government, our operations could be materially impaired. Our potential international operations may also be adversely affected, directly or indirectly, by laws, policies, and regulations of the United States affecting foreign trade and taxation, including U.S. trade sanctions. Realization of any of the factors listed above could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows.
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 initial business combination, or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Corporate governance standards in non-US countries may not be as strict or developed as in the United States and such weakness may hide issues and operational practices that are detrimental to a target business.
General corporate governance standards in non-US countries are weaker than those in the United States. This could result in unfavorable related party transactions, over-leveraging, improper accounting, family company interconnectivity and poor management. Local laws often do not go far enough to prevent improper business practices. Therefore, shareholders may not be treated impartially and equally as a result of poor management practices, asset shifting, conglomerate structures that result in preferential treatment to some parts of the overall company, and cronyism. The lack of transparency and ambiguity in the regulatory process also may result in
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inadequate credit evaluation and weakness that may precipitate or encourage financial crisis. In our evaluation of a business combination we will have to evaluate the corporate governance of a target and the business environment, and in accordance with United States laws for reporting companies take steps to implement practices that will cause compliance with all applicable rules and accounting practices. Notwithstanding these intended efforts, there may be endemic practices and local laws that could add risk to an investment we ultimately make and that result in an adverse effect on our operations and financial results.
If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our initial business combination, our management may resign from their positions as officers or directors of the company and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination will remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue will be derived from our operations in such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and legal policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such countrys economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial business combination and if we effect our initial business combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target businesss ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the Cayman Islands to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements, including our memorandum and articles of association or equivalent constitutive document. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
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We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of non-compliance.
We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
We may be exposed to liabilities under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and any determination that we violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA) and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by U.S. persons and issuers as defined by the statute for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We will have operations, agreements with third parties and make sales in Europe, which may experience corruption. Our proposed activities in Europe create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by one of the employees, consultants, or sales agents of our Company, because these parties are not always subject to our control. It will be our policy to implement safeguards to discourage these practices by our employees. Also, our existing safeguards and any future improvements may prove to be less than effective, and the employees, consultants, or sales agents of our Company may engage in conduct for which we might be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, and we may be subject to other liabilities, which could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, the government may seek to hold our Company liable for successor liability FCPA violations committed by companies in which we invest or that we acquire.
We employ a mail forwarding service, which may delay or disrupt our ability to receive mail in a timely manner.
Mail addressed to the Company and received at its registered office will be forwarded unopened to the forwarding address supplied by Company to be dealt with. None of the Company, its directors, officers, advisors or service providers (including the organization which provides registered office services in the Cayman Islands) will bear any responsibility for any delay howsoever caused in mail reaching the forwarding address, which may impair your ability to communicate with us.
Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination.
In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. There can be no assurance that these trends will not continue.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense, accept less favorable terms or both. However, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combinations ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
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In addition, even after we were to complete an initial business combination, our directors and officers could still be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to the initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (run-off insurance). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity, and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.
Item 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments. |
None.
Item 2. | Properties. |
Our executive offices are located at Century Yard, Cricket Square, Elgin Avenue, PO Box 1111, George Town Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KY1-1102, our telephone number is +1 (345) 949-5122.
Item 3. | Legal Proceedings. |
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such.
Item 4. | Mine Safety Disclosures. |
None.
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Item 5. | Market for Registrants Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities. |
Market Information.
Our Units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol IVCBU, IVCB and IVCBW, respectively.
Holders
Although there are a larger number of beneficial owners, at March 31, 2022, there was 1 holder of record of our Units, 1 holder of record of our separately traded Class A ordinary shares and 2 holders of record of our separately traded warrants.
Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial business combination. 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 our initial business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any other stock dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
On December 17, 2021, we consummated the IPO of 34,500,000 units. The units sold in the IPO were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating total gross proceeds of $345,000,000. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as underwriters of the offering. The securities in the offering were registered under the Securities Act on a registration statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-261301). The registration statement was declared effective on December 14, 2021.
Substantially concurrently with the closing of the IPO, the Company completed the private sale of 16,700,000 warrants (the private placement warrants) at a purchase price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, to the Companys sponsor, Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited (the sponsor), generating gross proceeds to the Company of $16,700,000. The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in the IPO except that, so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by the Company (except in certain redemption scenarios when the price per Ordinary Share equals or exceeds $10.00 (as adjusted)); (2) they (including the Ordinary Shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the sponsor until 30 days after the completion of the Companys initial business combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) they (including the Ordinary Shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights.
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We paid a total of $6,900,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions and $1,103,227 for other costs and expenses related to the IPO. In addition, the underwriters agreed to defer $12,075,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions.
A total of $351,900,000 of the net proceeds from the sale of the units in the IPO and the private placements was placed in a trust account established for the benefit of the Companys public shareholders with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee.
The Company incurred approximately $20,078,227 of offering costs in connection with the IPO, including $6,900,000 of underwriting fees, $12,075,000 of deferred underwriting fees and $1,103,227 of other costs. There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from the IPO as described in our final prospectus dated December 17, 2021, which was filed with the SEC.
Item 7. | Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. |
All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Report including, without limitation, statements under Item 7. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations regarding the Companys financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this Report, words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, intend and similar expressions, as they relate to us or the Companys management, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Companys management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
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.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on March 22, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company and incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or assets. We have not selected any specific business combination target. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our IPO and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination, shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing.
The issuance of additional shares in connection with a business combination to the owners of the target or other investors:
| may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our IPO, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares; |
| may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A ordinary shares; |
| could cause a change in control if a substantial number of our Class A ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; |
| may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and |
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| may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants. Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant debt to bank or other lenders or the owners of a target, it could result in: |
| default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; |
| acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant; |
| our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand; |
| our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares; |
| using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes; |
| limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate; |
| increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and |
| limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
As indicated in the accompanying financial statements, at December 31, 2021, we had cash of $2,632,930. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete our initial business combination will be successful.
Results of Operations and Known Trends or Future Events
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for our IPO. Following our IPO, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents. There has been no significant change in our financial or trading position and no material adverse change has occurred since the date of our audited financial statements. After our IPO, we expect to incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses.
For the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had net income of $911,027 which was comprised of $135,804 in formation and operating expense, $854,057 in offering expense allocated to warrants offset by a $1,900,000 gain from change in warrant liability and $888 in interest earn on investment held in Trust Account.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our liquidity needs have been satisfied through receipt of $25,000 from the sale of the founder shares to our sponsor to cover for certain expenses on our behalf in exchange for the issuance of the 8,625,000 founder shares, and up to $300,000 in loans available from our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor.
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The net proceeds from the sale of the units in our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants for an aggregate purchase price of $16,700,000, after deducting offering expenses of $1,103,227 and underwriting commissions of $6,900,000 (excluding deferred underwriting commissions of $12,075,000), was $351,900,000, which is held in the trust account and includes the deferred underwriting commissions described above. The proceeds held in the trust account is invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. The remaining $2,632,930 is not held in the trust account.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (excluding deferred underwriting commissions) net of any redemptions, to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay our taxes, if any. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. We expect the interest earned on the amount in the trust account will be sufficient to pay our income taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, 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.
Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we will have available to us approximately $2,632,930 of proceeds held outside the trust account, as well as any funds from loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team. We will use these funds to primarily identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination other than funds available from loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our initial business combination. In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $2,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. The terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, 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.
We expect our primary liquidity requirements during that period to include approximately $1,100,000 for director and officer liability insurance; $600,000 for legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses associated with structuring, negotiating and documenting successful business combinations; $150,000 for legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting requirements; $100,000 for Nasdaq and other regulatory fees; $50,000 for consulting, travel and miscellaneous expenses incurred during the search for initial business combination target; and approximately $50,000 for general working capital that will be used for miscellaneous expenses and reserves.
These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a no-shop provision (a provision designed to keep target businesses from shopping around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a no-shop provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.
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Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, 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 business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. In addition, we intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, and, as a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemptions by public shareholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We may also obtain financing prior to the closing of our initial business combination to fund our working capital needs and transaction costs in connection with our search for and completion of our initial business combination. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In addition, following our initial business combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Controls and Procedures
We are not currently required to maintain an effective system of internal controls as defined by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will be required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer an emerging growth company would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement.
We expect to assess the internal controls of our target business or businesses prior to the completion of our initial business combination and, if necessary, to implement and test additional controls as we may determine are necessary in order to state that we maintain an effective system of internal controls. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the adequacy of internal controls. Many small and mid-sized target businesses we may consider for our initial business combination may have internal controls that need improvement in areas such as:
| staffing for financial, accounting and external reporting areas, including segregation of duties; |
| reconciliation of accounts; |
| proper recording of expenses and liabilities in the period to which they relate; |
| evidence of internal review and approval of accounting transactions; |
| documentation of processes, assumptions and conclusions underlying significant estimates; and |
| documentation of accounting policies and procedures. |
Because it will take time, management involvement and perhaps outside resources to determine what internal control improvements are necessary for us to meet regulatory requirements and market expectations for our operation of a target business, we may incur significant expenses in meeting our public reporting responsibilities, particularly in the areas of designing, enhancing, or remediating internal and disclosure controls. Doing so effectively may also take longer than we expect, thus increasing our exposure to financial fraud or erroneous financing reporting.
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Once our managements report on internal controls is complete, we will retain our independent registered public accounting firm to audit and render an opinion on such report when required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The independent registered public accounting firm may identify additional issues concerning a target businesss internal controls while performing their audit of internal control over financial reporting.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of December 31, 2021, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K.
Commitments and Contractual Obligations
Registration Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans and upon conversion of the Founder Shares) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights and shareholder agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of the IPO, requiring the Company to register such securities for resale (in the case of the Founder Shares, only after conversion to Class A ordinary shares). The holders of these securities will be entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company register such securities. In addition, the holders will have certain piggy-back registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of a Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Underwriting Agreement
The underwriter will be entitled to a deferred fee of $0.35 per Unit, or $12,075,000 in the aggregate. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriter from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
JOBS Act
The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an emerging growth company and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an emerging growth company, we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an independent registered public accounting firms attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the report of the independent registered public accounting firm providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis), and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the CEOs compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our IPO or until we are no longer an emerging growth company, whichever is earlier.
Critical Accounting Policies
Managements discussion and analysis of our results of operations and liquidity and capital resources are based on our audited financial statements. We describe our significant accounting policies in Note 2 Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, of the Notes to Financial Statements included in this report. Our audited financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Certain of our accounting policies require that management apply significant judgments in defining the appropriate assumptions integral to financial estimates. On an ongoing basis, management reviews the accounting policies, assumptions, estimates and judgments to ensure that our financial statements are presented fairly and in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Judgments are based on historical experience, terms of existing contracts, industry trends and information available from outside sources, as appropriate. However, by their nature, judgments are subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty, and, therefore, actual results could differ from our estimates.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt with Conversion and other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging Contracts in Entitys Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40). The new guidance eliminates the beneficial conversion and cash conversion accounting models for convertible instruments. It also amends the accounting for certain contracts in an entitys own equity that are currently accounted for as derivatives because of specific settlement provisions. In addition, the new guidance modifies how particular convertible instruments and certain contracts that may be settled in cash or shares impact the diluted EPS computation. This guidance is effective as of January 1, 2024 for smaller reporting companies (early adoption is permitted effective January 1, 2021). The Company is currently evaluating the effect the updated standard will have on its financial position, results of operations or financial statement disclosure.
We have considered all new accounting pronouncements and have concluded that there are no new pronouncements that may have a material impact on our results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows, based on the current information.
Factors That May Adversely Affect Our Results of Operations
Our results of operations and our ability to complete an initial business combination may be adversely affected by various factors that could cause economic uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets, many of which are beyond our control. Our business could be impacted by, among other things, downturns in the financial markets or in economic conditions, increases in oil prices, inflation, increases in interest rates, supply chain disruptions, declines in consumer confidence and spending, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including resurgences and the emergence of new variants, and geopolitical instability, such as the military conflict in the Ukraine. We cannot at this time fully predict the likelihood of one or more of the above events, their duration or magnitude or the extent to which they may negatively impact our business and our ability to complete an initial business combination.
Item 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk |
The net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be invested in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
Item 8. | Financial Statements and Supplementary Data |
This information appears following Item 15 of this annual report and is included herein by reference.
Item 9. | Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
None.
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Item 9A. | Controls and Procedures. |
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures are designed with the objective of ensuring that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act, such as this annual report, is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time period specified in the SECs rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures are also designed with the objective of ensuring that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our principal executive officer and principal financial and accounting officer (our Certifying Officers) evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021, pursuant to Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based upon that evaluation, our Certifying Officers concluded that, as of December 31, 2021, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.
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.
Managements Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
This annual report on Form 10-K does not include a report of managements assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Item 9B. | Other Information. |
None.
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Item 10. | Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance. |
Directors and Officers
Our current directors and executive officers are as follows:
Name |
Age |
Title | ||
Hazem Ben-Gacem | 51 | Chairman | ||
Peter McKellar | 56 | Vice-Chairman | ||
Pam Jackson | 63 | Director | ||
Laurence Ponchaut | 51 | Director | ||
Adah Almutairi | 45 | Director | ||
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith | 59 | Chief Executive Officer | ||
Alptekin Diler | 44 | Chief Investment Officer | ||
Craig Sinfield-Hain | 49 | Chief Financial Officer |
Our current directors and officers are as follows:
Hazem Ben-Gacem. Hazem Ben-Gacem has been our Chairman of the board of directors since October 19, 2021. Hazem is Investcorps Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Executive Officer of CP Holdings Limited with over 25 years of experience in successfully leading private equity investments across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Prior to Hazems appointment as Co-Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp and CP Holdings Limited in 2018, Hazem was previously the head of the European and Technology Private Equity platforms at Investcorp International Ltd from 2014 through 2018 and, prior to joining Investcorp International Ltd in 1994, worked at Credit Suisse First Bostons M&A team from 1992 through 1994. Today, Hazem chairs the investment committees of the firms Private Equity activities in Europe, Middle East and Asia and is involved in multiple board directorships of reputable companies. Hazem is well-qualified to serve as our Chairman due to his extensive experience in private equity along with his leadership experience.
Peter McKellar. Peter McKellar has been our Vice-Chairman of the board of directors since October 27, 2021. Peter McKellar is Deputy Chairman of AssetCo plc, a FTSE AIM listed company, since January 2021, a Non-Executive Director of 3i Group plc, a FTSE 100 listed company, since June 2021, a Non-Executive Director of Concession Infrastructure Investments Manager Limited, a joint venture infrastructure manager for a Gulf Cooperation Council social infrastructure fund, jointly managed with Investcorp, since February 2019, and a member of the Board of Scottish Enterprise since February 2021. He is a director of a number of other privately held companies. Previously, Peter held roles as Executive Chairman and Global Head of Private Markets at Standard Life Aberdeen plc, the international asset and wealth manager, from 2017 through 2020 and Head of Private Equity and Infrastructure at Standard Life plc, from 2012 through 2017. Peter was also lead manager of Standard Life Private Equity Trust, a London-listed investment company, from 2001 through 2015. Peter is well-qualified to serve as our Vice-Chairman due to his extensive experience in private equity, along with his leadership experience.
Pam Jackson. Pam Jackson serves as a member of our board of directors. Pam is CEO and Director of WPEI Ltd (trading as Level 20), a not-for-profit organization focused on improving gender diversity in the private equity industry. Prior to Pams appointment to Level 20 in 2019, Pam was a Partner and supervisory board member at PwC where she held various roles including Middle East Deals leader, private equity and corporate M&A from 1990 through 2019. She is a chartered accountant and a chartered tax advisor. Pam is also a Non-Executive Director of ArtsEd International Ltd since 2019. Pam is well-qualified to serve as Director due to her extensive experience in private equity along with her leadership experience.
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Laurence Ponchaut. Laurence Ponchaut serves as a member of our board of directors. Laurence is the Founder and Managing Director of the consultancy firm Distinct Communication. Previously, Laurence was an economic expert for the European Commission (the Directorate-General for International Partnerships) (1993-1995), a Big4 strategy consultant and the Head of Corporate Reputation for ArcelorMittal (2004-2009). Laurence is involved in multiple board directorships including Letzpact (2021), ProRSE (2017) and was previously a Non-Executive Director of Merlux Maritime SA (2019-2020). Laurence is well-qualified to serve as Director due to her extensive business and leadership experience.
Adah Almutairi. Adah Almutairi serves as a member of our board of directors. Adah is a member of the board of directors of eLux Medical Inc., a medical technology company, since January 2013, a member of the board of trustees of Future Investment Initiative Institute, a non-profit organization focusing on startup technology investments, since January 2020, and a member of the board of directors of Pharmaceutical Investment Company, a pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company, since January 2021. Previously, Adah was founder and chief executive officer of eLux Medical Inc. from January 2013 through August 2016. Adah is a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, faculty in the departments of bioengineering and nanoengineering and director of the Center for Excellence in nanomedicine and engineering in the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Adahs work focuses on nanomedicine, nanotechnology, chemistry and polymer science. Adah is a 2016 Kavli Fellow and has received numerous honors and awards such as the NIH directors new innovator award in 2009 for her work on Chemically Amplified Response Strategies for Medical Sciences. Adahs work was highlighted by U.S. NIH director Francis Collins to Congress as one of the 4 most important American technology breakthroughs of the year 2012. Adah is well-qualified to serve as Director due to her extensive business and leadership experience.
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith. Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith has been our Chief Executive Officer since October 27, 2021. Ruby is currently the Chair of Mind Gym PLC and the President of the British Chambers of Commerce. Ruby also chairs the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education and the Airport Operators Association. She is a non-executive director for the Tideway Tunnel. Ruby was formerly the Chief Executive of the Mitie Group plc from 2007 through 2016, Business Ambassador for the UK Government from 2012 through 2019 and Senior Independent Director and Non-Executive Director at Page Group plc from 2007 through 2017.
Alptekin Diler. Alptekin Diler has been our Chief Investment Officer since October 27, 2021. Alptekin is a senior member of Investcorps Private Equity MENA team and its Investment Committee. Previously, Alptekin was a Director in Investcorps Global Capital Management team from 2011 through 2014, Investment Manager at ADM Capital from January 2011 through June 2011, FinansInvest from 2005 through 2008 and business development and M&A associate at Akenerji from 2002 through 2005. Alptekin is a Board member of Turkey-based Namet Gida Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., a meat producer, as of 2018 Arvento M2M Elektronik Sistemler Sanayi Ticaret A.S., as of 2015, and Arvento Mobil Sistemler A.S. (2015), a MENA telematics company, as of 2015.
Craig Sinfield-Hain. Craig Sinfield-Hain has been our Chief Financial Officer since October 27, 2021. Craig has been with Investcorp for 18 years. During his career at Investcorp he has held various roles within the Finance department including Group Financial Controller from 2009 through 2012. Craig is currently the Head of Business Analysis and Planning and also Head of Investment Structuring and Business Support in Europe. Craig joined Investcorp after completing an MBA with distinction at INSEAD in France in 2002. Prior to Investcorp he worked as an actuarial consultant for Watson Wyatt (now Willis Towers Watson) for nine years. Craig is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and holds a bachelor of sciences degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Illinois, from which he graduated summa cum laude with highest departmental distinction. Craig is also involved in multiple board directorships of Investcorp group companies and of holding companies for Investcorps investments in private equity and real estate.
Number, Terms of Office and Appointment of Directors and Officers
Our board of directors consists of five members. Each of our directors holds office for a two-year term. In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq.
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. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
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Director Independence
The rules of Nasdaq 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 other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the companys board of directors, would interfere with the directors exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We have three independent directors as defined in the Nasdaq rules and applicable SEC rules. Our board of directors has determined that each of Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi is an independent director as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has three standing committees: an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Both our audit committee and our compensation committee are composed solely of independent directors. Each committee operates under a charter that has been approved by our board and has the composition and responsibilities described below. The charter of each committee is available on our website.
Audit Committee
We have established an audit committee of the board of directors. Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi serve as members of our audit committee, and Pam Jackson chairs the audit committee. Under the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules, all the directors on the audit committee must be independent.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Pam Jackson qualifies as an audit committee financial expert as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent auditors qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent auditors; the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent auditors and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us; |
| pre-approving all audit and non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures; reviewing and discussing with the independent auditors all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence; |
| setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent auditors describing (1) the independent auditors internal quality-control procedures and (2) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities, within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues; |
| meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent auditor, including reviewing our specific disclosures under Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and |
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| reviewing with management, the independent auditors, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. |
Compensation Committee
We have established a compensation committee of the board of directors. Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi serve as members of our compensation committee. Adah Almutairi chairs the compensation committee. Under the Nasdaq listing standards, all the directors on the compensation committee must be independent.
We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
| reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our chief executive officers compensation, evaluating our chief executive officers performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our chief executive officers based on such evaluation; |
| reviewing and making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive compensation and equity based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers; |
| reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans; |
| implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees; |
| producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and |
| reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors. |
Notwithstanding the foregoing, as indicated above, other than reimbursement of expenses, no compensation of any kind, including finders, consulting or other similar fees, will be paid to any of our existing shareholders, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates, prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate the consummation of an initial business combination. Accordingly, it is likely that prior to the consummation of an initial business combination, the compensation committee will only be responsible for the review and recommendation of any compensation arrangements to be entered into in connection with such initial business combination.
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and will be 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 Nasdaq and the SEC.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
We have established a nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. The members of our nominating and corporate governance are Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi. Laurence Ponchaut serves as chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee. Under the Nasdaq listing standards, all the directors on the nominating and corporate governance committee must be independent.
We have adopted a nominating and corporate governance committee charter, which details the purpose and responsibilities of the nominating and corporate governance committee, including:
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| identifying, screening and reviewing individuals qualified to serve as directors, consistent with criteria approved by the board, and recommending to the board of directors candidates for nomination for appointment at the annual general meeting or to fill vacancies on the board of directors; |
| developing and recommending to the board of directors and overseeing implementation of our corporate governance guidelines; |
| coordinating and overseeing the annual self-evaluation of the board of directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the company; and |
| reviewing on a regular basis our overall corporate governance and recommending improvements as and when necessary. |
The charter also provides that the nominating and corporate governance committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of, and terminate, any search firm to be used to identify director candidates, and is directly responsible for approving the search firms fees and other retention terms.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, the board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our shareholders. Prior to our initial business combination, holders of our public shares will not have the right to recommend director candidates for nomination to our board of directors.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. You may review this document by accessing our public filings at the SECs web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and the charters of the committees of our board of directors will be provided without charge upon request from us. If we make any amendments to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics other than technical, administrative or other non-substantive amendments, or grant any waiver, including any implicit waiver, from a provision of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer principal accounting officer or controller or persons performing similar functions requiring disclosure under applicable SEC or Nasdaq rules, we will disclose the nature of such amendment or waiver on our website. The information included on our website is not incorporated by reference herein or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Conflicts of Interest
Please see Item 1. BusinessConflicts of Interest for a description of the potential conflicts of interests of our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Directors and Officers
Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a companys memorandum and articles of association may provide for indemnification of officers and directors, except to the extent any such provision may be held by the Cayman Islands courts to be contrary to public policy, such as to provide indemnification against willful default, fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide for exculpation and indemnification of our officers and directors to the maximum extent permitted by law, including for any liability incurred in their capacities as such, except through their own actual fraud, willful default or willful neglect. We entered into agreements with our directors and officers to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. We have 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. We have also entered into indemnity agreements with them.
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Our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any services provided to us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will only be able to be satisfied by us if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination.
Our indemnification obligations may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholders investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
Item 11. | Executive Compensation. |
None of our officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than quarterly audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and officers for their out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with our activities on our behalf in connection with identifying and consummating an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finders and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
On November 3, 2021, our sponsor transferred 718,750 founder shares to Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, 479,167 founder shares to Peter McKellar, and 30,000 founder shares to each of Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi, at approximately $0.12 per share. On December 14, 2021, in connection with the increase in the size of our IPO, we effected a capitalization increasing the number of founder shares held by each initial shareholder by 20%, thereby increasing the aggregate number of issued and outstanding founder shares to 8,625,000.
After the completion of our initial business combination, 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 shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed initial business combination. 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 initial business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our 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 initial business combination, although it is possible that some or all of our officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our initial business combination. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their
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positions with us may influence our managements motivation in identifying or selecting a target business but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination. We are not party to any agreements with our officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
Item 12. | Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters. |
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of March 31, 2022, and assuming:
| each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares; |
| each of our officers and directors; and |
| all our officers and directors as a group. |
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the private placement warrants as these warrants are not exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
The percentages in the following table assume that there are 43,125,000 ordinary shares issued and outstanding, of which 34,500,000 are Class A ordinary shares and 8,625,000 are Class B ordinary shares.
Class A Ordinary Shares | Class B Ordinary Shares | |||||||||||||||||||
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned |
Approximate Percentage Class |
Number of Shares Beneficially Owned |
Approximate Percentage Class |
Approximate Percentage Total Shares |
|||||||||||||||
Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited(2)(3) |
7,079,500 | 20.5 | % | 7,079,500 | 82.1 | % | 16.4 | % | ||||||||||||
Saba Capital Management, L.P.(4) |
1,799,908 | 2.5 | % | | | 4.2 | % | |||||||||||||
Adage Capital Partners, L.P.(5) |
2,000,000 | 5.8 | % | | | 4.6 | % | |||||||||||||
Hazem Ben-Gacem(2) |
| | | | | |||||||||||||||
Peter McKellar(2)(6) |
575,000 | 1.7 | % | 575,000 | 6.7 | % | 1.3 | % | ||||||||||||
Pam Jackson(2)(6) |
36,000 | * | 36,000 | * | * | |||||||||||||||
Laurence Ponchaut(2)(6) |
36,000 | * | 36,000 | * | * | |||||||||||||||
Adah Almutairi(2)(6) |
36,000 | * | 36,000 | * | * | |||||||||||||||
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith(2)(6) |
862,500 | 2.5 | % | 862,500 | 10.0 | % | 2.0 | % | ||||||||||||
Alptekin Diler |
| | | | | |||||||||||||||
Craig Sinfield-Hain |
| | | | | |||||||||||||||
All officers and directors as a group (8 individuals) |
1,545,500 | 4.5 | % | 1,545,500 | 17.9 | % | 3.6 | % |
* | Less than one percent. |
(1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the beneficial owners named in the table below is Century Yard, Cricket Square, Elgin Avenue, PO Box 1111, George Town Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KY1-1102. |
(2) | Interests shown consist solely of founder shares, classified as Class B ordinary shares. Such shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares following the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment and in accordance with the promote schedule. |
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(3) | Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited, our sponsor, is the record holder of the shares reported herein. Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited is a consolidated subsidiary of Investcorp Holdings B.S.C., which is domiciled in Bahrain as a holding company. Based on a Schedule 13G filed on February 11, 2022, the shares are beneficially owned by Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited, Investcorp Investment Holdings Limited, Investcorp S.A., Investcorp Holdings Limited and SIPCO Holdings Limited. |
(4) | Based on a Schedule 13G filed on December 23, 2021, the shares are beneficially owned by Saba Capital Management, L.P., Saba Capital Management GP, LLC and Boaz R. Weinstein, whose business address is 405 Lexington Avenue, 58th Floor, New York, New York 10174. |
(5) | Based on a Schedule 13G filed on December 27, 2021, the shares are beneficially owned by Adage Capital Partners, L.P., Adage Capital Partners GP, L.L.C., Adage Capital Advisors, L.L.C., Robert Atchinson and Phillip Gross, whose business address is 200 Clarendon Street, 52nd Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02116. |
(6) | Such shares shall vest and the forfeiture restrictions with respect to such shares shall lapse, upon the successful completion of our initial business combination. |
Our shareholders beneficially own 20% of the then issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Only holders of Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on any resolution of shareholders to appoint or remove directors prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. Holders of our public shares will not have the right to vote on the appointment of any directors to our board of directors prior to our initial business combination. Because of this ownership block, our initial shareholders may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all other matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of significant corporate transactions including our initial business combination.
Our sponsor has purchased an aggregate of 16,700,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $16,700,000 in the aggregate. The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold in our IPO except that the private placement warrants, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, (i) will not be redeemable by us, (ii) may not (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holders until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) will be entitled to registration rights. The private placement warrants may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder. A portion of the purchase price of the private placement warrants was added to the proceeds from the IPO to be held in the trust account such that at the time of closing of our IPO, $351,900,000 was held in the trust account. If we do not complete our initial business combination within 15 months from the closing of our IPO (or up to 21 months, if we extend the time to complete a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association), the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The private placement warrants are subject to the transfer restrictions described below.
Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited, our sponsor, and our officers and directors are deemed to be our promoters as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants
The founder shares, private placement warrants and any Class A ordinary shares issued upon conversion or exercise thereof are each subject to transfer restrictions pursuant to lock-up provisions in the agreement entered into by our sponsor and management team. Those lock-up provisions provide that such securities are not transferable or salable (i) in the case of the founder shares, until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our initial business combination, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 120 days after our initial business combination and (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property and (ii) in the case of the private placement warrants and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion or exercise thereof, until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination except in each case (a) to our officers or directors, any affiliate or family member of any of our officers or directors, any affiliate of our sponsor or to any member of the sponsor or any of their affiliates, (b) in the case of an individual, as a gift to such persons immediate family or to a trust, the beneficiary of which is a member of such persons immediate family, an affiliate of such person or to a charitable organization; (c) in the case of an individual, by virtue of laws of descent and distribution upon death of such person; (d) in the case of an individual, pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order; (e) by private sales or transfers made in connection with any forward purchase agreement or similar arrangement or in connection with the consummation of a business combination at prices no greater than the price at which the shares or warrants were originally purchased; (f) by virtue of the laws of the
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Cayman Islands or our sponsors articles of association upon dissolution of our sponsor, (g) in the event of our liquidation prior to our consummation of our initial business combination; or (h) in the event that, subsequent to our consummation of an initial business combination, we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction which results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property; provided, however, that in the case of clauses (a) through (f) these permitted transferees must enter into a written agreement agreeing to be bound by these transfer restrictions and the other restrictions contained in the letter agreements.
Registration Rights
The holders of the (i) founder shares, which were issued in a private placement prior to our IPO, (ii) private placement warrants, which were issued in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our IPO and the Class A ordinary shares underlying such private placement warrants and (iii) private placement warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans have registration rights to require us to register a sale of any of our securities held by them pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed prior to or on the effective date of our IPO. Pursuant to the registration rights agreement and assuming $2,000,000 of working capital loans are converted into private placement warrants, we will be obligated to register up to 27,325,000 Class A ordinary shares and 18,700,000 warrants. The number of Class A ordinary shares includes (i) 8,625,000 Class A ordinary shares to be issued upon conversion of the founder shares, (ii) 16,700,000 Class A ordinary shares underlying the private placement warrants and (iii) 2,000,000 Class A ordinary shares underlying the private placement warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans. The number of warrants includes (i) 16,700,000 private placement warrants and (ii) 2,000,000 private placement warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans. 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 our completion of our initial business combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Item 13. | Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence. |
On April 1, 2021, our sponsor purchased 8,625,000 shares of the Companys Class B ordinary shares (the founder shares) for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On October 25, 2021, our sponsor effected a surrender of 1,437,500 founder shares to the Company for no consideration, resulting in a decrease in the number of founder shares outstanding from 8,625,000 to 7,187,500, such that the total number of founder shares would represent 20% of the total number of ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of our IPO. On November 3, 2021, our sponsor transferred 718,750 founder shares to Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, 479,167 founder shares to Peter McKellar, and 30,000 founder shares to each of Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi, at approximately $0.12 per share. On December 14, 2021, in connection with the increase in the size of our IPO, we effected a capitalization increasing the number of founder shares held by each initial shareholder by 20%, thereby increasing the aggregate number of issued and outstanding founder shares to 8,625,000.
The sponsor and the Companys directors and executive officers have agreed, subject to certain limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of the founder shares until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of a business combination and (B) subsequent to a business combination, (x) if the last reported sale price of the Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 120 days after a business combination, or (y) if the Company consummates a transaction after the initial business combination which results in shareholders having the right to exchange their shares for cash, securities or other property.
On April 1, 2021, the sponsor issued an unsecured promissory note to the Company (the Promissory Note), pursuant to which the Company may borrow up to an aggregate principal amount of $300,000. The Promissory Note is non-interest bearing and payable on the earlier of December 31, 2021 (which was amended to March 31, 2022 on November 3, 2021) or the consummation of the Public Offering. On December 23, 2021, we paid the remaining balance on the Promissory Note.
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In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with a business combination, the sponsor or an affiliate of the sponsor may, but is not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required (Working Capital Loans). If the Company completes a business combination, the Company may repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the trust account released to the Company. In the event that a business combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of proceeds held outside the trust account to repay the Working Capital Loans, but no proceeds held in the trust account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. At the lenders discretion, up to $2,000,000 of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant. The terms of the warrants would be identical to the terms of the private placement warrants. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had no outstanding borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.
Related Party Policy
The audit committee of our board of directors adopted 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 companys 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 includes: (i) our directors, nominees for director or 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 S-K under the Exchange Act. Pursuant to the policy, the audit committee considers (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 arms-length dealings with an unrelated third party, (ii) the extent of the related partys interest in the transaction, (iii) whether the transaction contravenes our code of ethics or other policies, (iv) whether the audit committee believes the relationship underlying the transaction to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders and (v) the effect that the transaction may have on a directors status as an independent member of the board and on his or her eligibility to serve on the boards committees. Management presents to the audit committee each proposed related party transaction, including all relevant facts and circumstances relating thereto. Under the policy, we may consummate related party transactions only if our audit committee approves or ratifies the transaction in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the policy. The policy does not permit any director or officer to participate in the discussion of, or decision concerning, a related person transaction in which he or she is the related party.
Item 14. | Principal Accountant Fees and Services. |
The following is a summary of fees paid or to be paid to Marcum LLP (Marcum) for services rendered.
Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end financial statements and services that are normally provided by Marcum in connection with regulatory filings. The aggregate fees billed by Marcum for professional services rendered for the audit of our annual financial statements, review of the financial information included in our Forms 10-Q for the respective periods and other required filings with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2021 totaled $176,645. The above amounts include interim procedures and audit fees, as well as attendance at audit committee meetings.
Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related services 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 consultations concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay Marcum for audit related fees for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Tax Fees. We did not pay Marcum for tax fees for the year ended December 31, 2021.
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All Other Fees. We did not pay Marcum for other services for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Pre-Approval Policy
Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of our IPO. As a result, the audit committee did not pre-approve 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 pre-approve all auditing services and permitted non-audit services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit).
Item 15. | Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules. |
(a) | The following documents are filed as part of this annual report on Form 10-K: |
1. | Financial Statements: See Index to Financial Statements at page F-1. |
(b) | Financial Statement Schedules. All schedules are omitted for the reason that the information is included in the financial statements or the notes thereto or that they are not required or are not applicable. |
(c) | Exhibits: The exhibits listed in the accompanying index to exhibits are filed or incorporated by reference as part of this annual report on Form 10-K. |
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Item 16. | Form 10K Summary. |
Not applicable.
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Pursuant to the requirements of the Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this annual report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in New York City, New York, on this 1st day of April, 2022.
INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I | ||
By: | /s/ Craig Sinfield-Hain | |
Name: Craig Sinfield-Hain | ||
Title: Chief Financial Officer |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated:
Name |
Position |
Date | ||
/s/ Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith |
Chief Executive Officer | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Craig Sinfield-Hain Craig Sinfield-Hain |
Chief Financial Officer | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Hazem Ben-Gacem Hazem Ben-Gacem |
Chairman | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Peter McKellar Peter McKellar |
Vice-Chairman | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Pamela Jackson Pamela Jackson |
Director | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Laurence Ponchaut Laurence Ponchaut |
Director | April 1, 2022 | ||
/s/ Adah Almutairi Adah Almutairi |
Director | April 1, 2022 |
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INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID Number 688) |
F-2 | |||
Financial Statements: |
||||
F-3 | ||||
Statement of Operation for the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 |
F-4 | |||
F-5 | ||||
F-6 | ||||
F-7 to F-19 |
F-1
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of
Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I (the Company) as of December 31, 2021, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders deficit and cash flows for the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, 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 the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Companys management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Companys financial statements based on our audit. 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 audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit 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 audit 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 Companys internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit 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 audit 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 audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ Marcum LLP
Marcum LLP
We have served as the Companys auditor since 2021.
West Palm Beach, FL
April 1, 2022
F-2
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INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
DECEMBER 31, 2021
Assets |
||||
Current Assets |
||||
Cash |
$ | 2,632,930 | ||
Prepaid Expenses |
570,838 | |||
|
|
|||
Total Current Assets |
3,203,768 | |||
Prepaid Expenses |
498,702 | |||
Marketable securities held in Trust Account |
351,900,888 | |||
|
|
|||
Total Assets |
$ | 355,603,358 | ||
|
|
|||
Liabilities and Shareholders Deficit |
||||
Current Liabilities: |
||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses |
$ | 1,316,814 | ||
Accrued offering costs |
299,686 | |||
|
|
|||
Total Current Liabilities |
1,616,500 | |||
Warrant liabilities |
25,839,000 | |||
Deferred Underwriting fee payable |
12,075,000 | |||
|
|
|||
Total Liabilities |
$ | 39,530,500 | ||
|
|
|||
Commitments and Contingencies |
||||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, 34,500,000 issued and outstanding at a redemption value of $10.20 per share |
351,900,000 | |||
Shareholders Deficit: |
||||
Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding |
| |||
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 400,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding |
| |||
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 40,000,000 shares authorized; 8,625,000 issued and outstanding |
863 | |||
Additional paid-in capital |
| |||
Accumulated deficit |
(35,828,005 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Total Shareholders Deficit |
(35,827,142 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Total Liabilities and Shareholders Deficit |
$ | 355,603,358 | ||
|
|
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-3
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INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 22, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Formation and operating costs |
$ | (135,804 | ) | |
|
|
|||
Loss from operations |
(135,804 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Other Income (Expense) |
||||
Interest earned on Investments held in Trust Account |
888 | |||
Offering expense charged to warrant liabilities |
(854,057 | ) | ||
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities |
1,900,000 | |||
|
|
|||
Total Other Income |
1,046,831 | |||
|
|
|||
Net Income |
$ | 911,027 | ||
|
|
|||
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, redeemable Class A ordinary shares |
1,815,789 | |||
|
|
|||
Basic and diluted net income per redeemable Class A ordinary share |
$ | 0.09 | ||
|
|
|||
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, non-redeemable Class B ordinary shares |
8,322,368 | |||
|
|
|||
Basic and diluted net income per non-redeemable Class B ordinary share |
$ | 0.09 | ||
|
|
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-4
Table of Contents
INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS DEFICIT
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 22, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Class B | ||||||||||||||||||||
Ordinary Shares | Additional | Deficit | Total | |||||||||||||||||
No. of | Amount | Paid-in | Accumulated | Shareholders | ||||||||||||||||
Shares | Capital | Deficit | Deficit | |||||||||||||||||
Balance as of March 22, 2021 (inception) |
| $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||||||||||
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor |
8,625,000 | 863 | 24,137 | | 25,000 | |||||||||||||||
Proceeds received in excess of fair value of $13,749,000 for Private Placement Warrants, net of offering costs |
| | 3,805,057 | | 3,805,057 | |||||||||||||||
Accretion of Class A ordinary shares to redemption value |
| | (3,829,194 | ) | (36,739,032 | ) | (40,568,226 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net income |
| | | 911,027 | 911,027 | |||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2021 |
8,625,000 | $ | 863 | $ | | $ | (35,828,005 | ) | $ | (35,827,142 | ) |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-5
Table of Contents
INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 22, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Cash flows from operating activities: |
||||
Net income |
$ | 911,027 | ||
Adjustments to reconcile cash used in operating activities: |
||||
Offering costs allocated to warrant liabilities |
854,057 | |||
Interest earned on investment held in Trust Account |
(888 | ) | ||
Change in fair value of warrant liability |
(1,900,000 | ) | ||
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: |
||||
Prepaid expenses |
(1,069,540 | ) | ||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses |
1,316,814 | |||
|
|
|||
Net cash provided by operating activities |
111,470 | |||
|
|
|||
Cash Flows from Investing Activities: |
||||
Investments of cash in Trust Account |
(351,900,000 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Net cash used in investing activities |
(351,900,000 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Cash Flows from Financing Activities: |
||||
Proceeds from issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor |
25,000 | |||
Proceeds from sale of Units, net of underwriting discounts paid |
338,100,000 | |||
Proceeds from promissory note |
265,911 | |||
Proceeds from sale of Private Placement Warrants |
16,700,000 | |||
Repayment of promissory note |
(265,911 | ) | ||
Payment of offering costs |
(403,540 | ) | ||
|
|
|||
Net cash provided by financing activities |
354,421,460 | |||
|
|
|||
Net change in cash |
2,632,930 | |||
Cash at beginning of period |
| |||
|
|
|||
Cash at end of period |
$ | 2,632,930 | ||
|
|
|||
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information: |
||||
Deferred underwriting fee payable |
$ | 12,075,000 | ||
|
|
|||
Accretion of Ordinary Shares to redemption value |
$ | 40,926,291 | ||
|
|
|||
Deferred offering costs included in accrued offering costs |
$ | 299,687 | ||
|
|
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-6
Table of Contents
INVESTCORP EUROPE ACQUISITION CORP I
Note 1Organization, Business Operation and Liquidity
Investcorp Asia Acquisition Corp I was incorporated in the Cayman Islands on March 22, 2021. On October 7, 2021, the Company changed its name to Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I (the Company). The Company was formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or assets (the Business Combination).
The Company is not limited to a particular industry or sector for purposes of consummating a Business Combination but is focused on identifying a Business Combination target with operations or prospective operations in Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, or Northern Europe and, opportunistically, in Turkey, and businesses focusing on business services, consumer and lifestyle, niche manufacturing and technology. The Company is an early stage and emerging growth company and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risks associated with early stage and emerging growth companies.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not commenced any operations. All activity for the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 relates to the Companys formation and Initial Public Offering of units (the IPO) described below, and since the IPO, the search for a target business. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company expects to generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents from the proceeds expected to be derived from the IPO. The Company has selected December 31 as its fiscal year end.
The registration statement for the Companys IPO was declared effective on December 14, 2021 (the Effective Date). On December 17, 2021, the Company consummated its IPO of 34,500,000 units, which included the full exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option of 4,500,000 units (the Units and, with respect to the ordinary shares included in the Units being offered, the Public Shares) at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $345,000,000, which is discussed further in Note 3. Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the Company consummated the sale of 16,700,000 warrants (the Private Placement Warrants), at a price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant in a private placement to Europe Acquisition Holdings Limited (the Sponsor) generating proceeds of $16,700,000.
Following the closing of the IPO on December 17, 2021, $351,900,000 ($10.20 per Unit) from the net proceeds of the sale of the Units in the IPO and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants was placed in a Trust Account (Trust Account), located in the United States at a nationally recognized financial institution, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and invested only in United States government securities within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee will not be permitted to invest in other securities or assets. The Trust Account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of the initial Business Combination; (ii) the redemption of any Public Shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend the Companys amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to (A) modify the substance or timing of the Companys obligation to allow redemption in connection with the initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of the Public Shares if the Company does not complete the initial Business Combination within 15 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders rights or pre-Business Combination activity; and (iii) absent an initial Business Combination within 15 months from the closing of the initial public offering, the return of the funds held in the Trust Account to the Companys public shareholders as part of the redemption of the Public Shares. If the Company does not invest the proceeds as discussed above, the Company may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act.
F-7
Table of Contents
If the Company were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory obligations would require additional expenses for which the Company has not allotted funds and may hinder the ability to complete a Business Combination. If the Company has not consummated the initial Business Combination within the required time period, the public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.20 per Public Share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of the Trust Account and the warrants will expire worthless.
The Company will proceed with a Business Combination only if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 either prior to or upon such consummation of a Business Combination and, if the Company seeks stockholder approval, a majority of the shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a stockholder vote is not required by law and the Company does not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons, the Company will, pursuant to its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation), conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or the Company decides to obtain stockholder approval for business or other reasons, the Company will offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If the Company seeks stockholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor has agreed to vote its Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5) and any Public Shares purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of approving a Business Combination. Additionally, each public stockholder may elect to redeem their Public Shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or dont vote at all.
Notwithstanding the above, if the Company seeks stockholder approval of a Business Combination and it does not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, the 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% or more of the Public Shares, without the prior consent of the Company.
The Sponsor has agreed (a) to waive its redemption rights with respect to its Founder Shares and Public Shares held by it in connection with the completion of a Business Combination, (b) to waive its liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within 15 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering and (c) not to propose an amendment to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of the Companys obligation to allow redemption in connection with the Companys initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if the Company does not complete a Business Combination or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless the Company provides the public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their Public Shares in conjunction with any such amendment.
The Sponsor has agreed to waive its liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the Sponsor acquires Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, such Public Shares will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriters have agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission (see Note 6) held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within in the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the other funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the assets remaining available for distribution will be less than $10.20 per Public Share
In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsor has agreed to be liable to the Company if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to the Company, or a prospective target business with which the Company has discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below the lesser of (1) $10.20 per Public Share or (2) 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 $10.20 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 under the Companys indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act). Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, the Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. The Company will seek to reduce the possibility that the Sponsor will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (except the Companys independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which the Company does business, execute agreements with the Company waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had $2,632,930 in its operating bank accounts, and working capital of $1,587,268, which excludes taxes payable as such amounts can be paid from the interest earned in the Trust Acount. As of December 31, 2021, approximately $888 of the amount on deposit in marketable securities held in the Trust Account represented interest income, which is available to pay the Companys tax obligations, if any.
The Companys liquidity needs up to December 17, 2021 had been satisfied through a payment from the Sponsor of $25,000 (see Note 5) for the Founder Shares to cover certain offering costs and the loan under an unsecured promissory note from the Sponsor of up to $300,000 (see Note 5). In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with the Business Combination, the Companys Sponsor, an affiliate of the Sponsor or certain of the Companys officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide the Company Working Capital Loans, as defined below (see Note 5). As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loans.
Based on the foregoing, management believes that the Company will have sufficient working capital and borrowing capacity to meet its needs through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or one year from this filing. Over this time period, the Company will be using these funds for paying existing accounts payable, identifying and evaluating prospective initial Business Combination candidates, performing due diligence on prospective target businesses, paying for travel expenditures, selecting the target business to merge with or acquire, and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
Risk and Uncertainties
Management is currently evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry and has concluded that while it is reasonably possible that the virus could have a negative effect on the Companys planned results of its operations and/or search for a target Company, the specific impact is not readily determinable as of the date of these financial statements. These financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Note 2Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying financial statements of the Company is presented in U.S. dollars in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Emerging Growth Company Status
The Company is an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the Securities Act), as modified by the Jumpstart our Business Start-ups Act of 2012, (the JOBS Act), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
F-8
Table of Contents
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth Company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Companys financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of these financial statements in conformity with US GAAP requires the Companys management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period.
Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all highly liquid investments, which include short-term bank deposits that are not restricted as to withdrawal or use, and short-term debentures, with original periods to maturity not exceeding three months, to be cash equivalents. The Company had cash of $2,632,930 and no cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021.
Marketable Securities Held in Trust Account
The Company considers all highly liquid investments, which include short-term bank deposits that are not restricted as to withdrawal or use, and short-term debentures, with original periods to maturity not exceeding three months, to be cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2021, the assets held in the Trust Account consisted of cash and money market mutual funds in the amount of $351,900,888.
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of a cash account in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the Federal Depository Insurance Coverage of $250,000.
F-9
Table of Contents
As of December 31, 2021, the Company has not experienced losses on this account.
Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from those estimates.
Offering Costs Associated with Initial Public Offering
The Company complies with the requirements of the ASC 340-10-S99-1 and SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) Topic 5A Expenses of Offering. Offering costs consist principally of professional and registration fees incurred through the balance sheet date that are related to the IPO. Offering costs are charged to shareholders equity or the statement of operations based on the relative value of the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants to the proceeds received from the Units sold upon the completion of the IPO. Accordingly, on December 17, 2021 offering costs totaling $20,078,227 (consisting of $6,900,000 of underwriting fee, $12,075,000 of deferred underwriting fee and $1,103,227 of other offering costs) were recognized with $854,057 included in accumulated deficit as an allocation for the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants.
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
The Companys statements of operations include a presentation of net income per share for ordinary shares subject to possible redemption and applies the two-class method in calculating net income per share. Net income per ordinary share, basic and diluted, is calculated by dividing the pro-rata allocation of net income for each class, by the weighted average number of Class A and Class B non-redeemable ordinary shares outstanding for the period. Net income is allocated pro-rata between Class A redeemable and Class B non-redeemable shares based on their respective weighted average shares outstanding for the period. As of December 31, 2021, the potential ordinary shares for outstanding Public and Private Warrants to purchase the Companys ordinary shares were excluded from diluted earnings per share for the period ended December 31, 2021 because they are contingently exercisable, and the contingencies have not yet been met. As a result, diluted net income per ordinary share is the same as basic net income per ordinary share for the period.
The following table reflects the calculation of basic and diluted net income per ordinary share (in dollars, except per share amounts):
For the Period from March 22, 2021 (inception) Through December 31, 2021 |
||||||||
Redeemable Class A ordinary shares |
Non-Redeemable Class B ordinary shares |
|||||||
Basic and diluted net income per |
||||||||
Numerator: |
||||||||
Allocation of net income |
$ | 163,169 | $ | 747,858 | ||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Denominator: |
||||||||
Weighted-average shares outstanding |
1,815,789 | 8,322,368 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Basic and diluted net income per share |
$ | 0.09 | 0.09 | |||||
|
|
|
|
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The fair value of the Companys assets and liabilities approximates the carrying amounts represented in the accompanying balance sheet, primarily due to their short-term nature.
Fair Value Measurements
The Company applies ASC 820, which establishes a framework for measuring fair value and clarifies the definition of fair value within that framework. ASC 820 defines fair value as an exit price, which is the price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability in the Companys principal or most advantageous market in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. The fair value hierarchy established in ASC 820 generally requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. Observable inputs reflect the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability and are developed based on market data obtained from sources independent of the reporting entity. Unobservable inputs reflect the entitys own assumptions based on market data and the entitys judgments about the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability and are to be developed based on the best information available in the circumstances.
Level 1Assets and liabilities with unadjusted, quoted prices listed on active market exchanges. Inputs to the fair value measurement are observable inputs, such as quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2Inputs to the fair value measurement are determined using prices for recently traded assets and liabilities with similar underlying terms, as well as direct or indirect observable inputs, such as interest rates and yield curves that are observable at commonly quoted intervals.
Level 3Inputs to the fair value measurement are unobservable inputs, such as estimates, assumptions, and valuation techniques when little or no market data exists for the assets or liabilities.
In some circumstances, the inputs used to measure fair value might be categorized within different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In those instances, the fair value measurement is categorized in its entirety in the fair value hierarchy based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.
F-10
Table of Contents
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company evaluates its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging. For derivative financial instruments that are accounted for as liabilities, the derivative instrument is initially recorded at its fair value on the issuance date and is then re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statement of operations. The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is evaluated at the end of each reporting period. Derivative liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date.
Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 480 Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity. Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption are classified as a liability instrument and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable ordinary shares (including ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Companys control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, ordinary shares are classified as shareholders equity. The Companys Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Companys control and subject to occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2021, Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders deficit section of the Companys balance sheet.
Immediately upon the closing of the IPO, the Company recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount. Increases or decreases in the carrying amount of redeemable ordinary shares are affected by charges against additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit.
As of December 31, 2021, the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption reflected in the balance sheet are reconciled in the following table:
Gross Proceeds |
$ | 345,000,000 | ||
Less: |
||||
Class A ordinary share issuance costs |
(13,990,000 | ) | ||
Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants |
(20,036,291 | ) | ||
Plus: |
||||
Remeasurement of carrying value to redemption value |
40,926,291 | |||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption |
$ | 351,900,000 |
Income taxes
The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with the provisions of ASC Topic 740, Income Taxes (ASC 740). Under the asset and liability, method as required by this accounting standard, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial statements and their respective tax basis. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted income tax rates expected to apply to the period when assets are realized or liabilities are settled. Any effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in the statement of operations in the period that includes the enactment date. Deferred tax assets are reduced by a valuation allowance when, in the opinion of management, it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. Current income taxes are provided for in accordance with the laws of the relevant taxing authorities.
F-11
Table of Contents
ASC 740 prescribes a comprehensive model for how companies should recognize, measure, present, and disclose in their financial statements uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken on a tax return. Under ASC 740, tax positions must initially be recognized in the financial statements when it is more likely than not the position will be sustained upon examination by the tax authorities. Such tax positions must initially and subsequently be measured as the largest amount of tax benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement with the tax authority assuming full knowledge of the position and relevant facts.
There were no unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2021. The Companys management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Companys only major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. As of December 31, 2021, there were no unrecognized tax benefits and no amounts were accrued for the payment of interest and penalties.
There is currently no taxation imposed by the Government of the Cayman Islands. In accordance with Cayman income tax regulations, income taxes are not levied on the Company. Consequently, income taxes are not reflected in the Companys financial statements. The Companys management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entitys Own Equity. The update simplifies the accounting for convertible instruments by removing certain separation models in Subtopic 470-20, DebtDebt with Conversion and Other Options for convertible instruments and introducing other changes. As a result of ASU No. 2020-06, more convertible debt instruments will be accounted for as a single liability measured at amortized cost and more convertible preference shares will be accounted for as a single equity instrument measured at historical cost, as long as no features require bifurcation and recognition as derivatives. The amendments are effective for smaller reporting companies for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted, but no earlier than fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company adopted ASU No. 2020-06 upon its incorporation. The impact to the balance sheet, statement of operations and cash flows was not material.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Companys financial statements.
Note 3 Initial Public Offering
On December 17, 2021 the Company sold 34,500,000 Units, which included 4,500,000 units from the underwriters full exercise of their over-allotment option, at a price of $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds to the Company of $345,000,000. Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant (Public Warrant). Each whole Public Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment (see Note 7).
Following the closing of the IPO on December 17, 2021 an aggregate of $351,900,000 ($10.20 per Unit) from the net proceeds of the sale of the Units in the IPO and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants was deposited into the Trust Account. The net proceeds deposited into the Trust Account will be invested in U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less or in any open-ended investment company that holds itself out as a money market fund meeting the conditions of Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act, as determined by the Company.
F-12
Table of Contents
Transaction costs of the IPO amounted to $20,078,227 consisting of $6,900,000 of underwriting fee, $12,075,000 of deferred underwriting fee and $1,103,227 of other offering costs. Of the transaction costs, $19,224,170 was included in Additional Paid-in Capital and $854,057 was included in accumulated deficit.
Note 4Private Placement Warrants
Simultaneously with consummation of the IPO, the Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 16,700,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant ($16,700,000 in the aggregate). Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants to the Sponsor were added to the proceeds from the IPO to be held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants held in the Trust Account will be used to fund the redemption of the Public Shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law), and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless.
Note 5Related Party Transactions
Founder Shares
On April 1, 2021, the Sponsor purchased 8,625,000 shares of the Companys Class B ordinary shares (the Founder Shares) for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On November 3, 2021, the Sponsor transferred 718,750 Founder Shares to Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, 479,167 Founder Shares to Peter McKellar, and 30,000 Founder Shares to each of Pam Jackson, Laurence Ponchaut and Adah Almutairi, at approximately $0.12 per share. This resulted in a benefit to the Company from the excess fair value of shares issued over the nominal purchase price. The excess fair value of the Founder Shares over their nominal purchase price is estimated to be $5,292,600 and will be recorded as compensation expense upon closing of the Business Combination.
The Sponsor and the Companys directors and executive officers have agreed, subject to certain limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Founder Shares until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of a Business Combination and (B) subsequent to a Business Combination, (x) if the last reported sale price of the Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 120 days after a Business Combination, or (y) if the Company consummates a transaction after the initial Business Combination which results in shareholders having the right to exchange their shares for cash, securities or other property.
Promissory NoteRelated Party
On April 1, 2021, the Sponsor issued an unsecured non-interest bearing Promissory Note to the Company (the Promissory Note), pursuant to which the Company was permitted to borrow an aggregate principal amount of $300,000. The Promissory Note was payable on the earlier of March 31, 2022 or the consummation of the IPO. As of December 17, 2021, the date of the IPO, there was $265,911 outstanding under the Promissory Note. This amount was repaid on December 23, 2021, and there are no borrowing outstanding under the Promissory Note as of December 31, 2021.
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Related Party Loans
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor may, but is not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required (Working Capital Loans). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company may repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to the Company. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans, but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. At the lenders discretion, up to $2,000,000 of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-Business Combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant. The terms of the warrants would be identical to the terms of the Private Placement Warrants. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had no outstanding borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.
Note 6Shareholders Deficit
Preference SharesThe Company is authorized to issue 1,000,000 preference shares, with a par value of $0.0001 per share, with such designations, voting and other rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by the Companys board of directors. As of December 31, 2021, there were no preference shares issued or outstanding.
Class A Ordinary SharesThe Company is authorized to issue 400,000,000 Class A ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders of Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each share. As of December 31, 2021, there were no Class A ordinary shares issued or outstanding (excluding 34,500,000 shares subject to possible redemption).
Class B Ordinary SharesThe Company is authorized to issue 40,000,000 Class B ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. As of December 31, 2021, there were 8,625,000 shares of Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding.
Holders of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of shareholders except as required by law.
Class B ordinary shares (the Founder Shares) will convert into Class A ordinary shares following the consummation of the initial Business Combination on a one-for-one basis, in accordance with the following schedule: (i) 50% on the trading day following the consummation of a Business Combination, and (ii) 50% if, post consummation of a Business Combination and prior to the ten year anniversary of the initial Business Combination, the volume weighted average trading price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 10 trading days within a 15 trading day period exceeds $12.00, on the trading day following such trading period, subject to adjustment. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares, or equity-linked securities, are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts offered in the initial public offering and related to the closing of a Business Combination, the ratio at which Class B ordinary shares shall convert into Class A ordinary shares will be adjusted (unless the holders of a majority of the outstanding Class B ordinary shares agree to waive such adjustment with respect to any such issuance or deemed issuance) so that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Class B ordinary shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of the total number of all ordinary shares outstanding upon the completion of the initial public offering plus all Class A ordinary shares and equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with a Business Combination (excluding any shares or equity-linked securities issued, or to be issued, to any seller in a Business Combination).
Note 7Warrant Liabilities
Public Warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of shares. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the Units and only whole warrants will trade. The Public Warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination.
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The Company will not be obligated to deliver any Class A ordinary shares pursuant to the exercise of a warrant and will have no obligation to settle such warrant exercise unless a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants is then effective and a prospectus relating thereto is current, subject to the Company satisfying its obligations with respect to registration, or a valid exemption from registration is available. No warrant will be exercisable, and the Company will not be obligated to issue any Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of a warrant unless the Class A ordinary share issuable upon such warrant exercise has been registered, qualified or deemed to be exempt under the securities laws of the state of residence of the registered holder of the warrants.
The Company has agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days after the closing of a Business Combination, it will use its commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a post-effective amendment to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part or a new registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants, and the Company will use its commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of a Business Combination, and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement; provided that if the Class A ordinary share is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a covered security under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, the Company may, at its option, require holders of Public Warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event the Company so elects, the Company will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but it will use its commercially reasonably efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. If a registration statement covering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th day after the closing of a Business Combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when the Company will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption, but the Company will use its commercially reasonably efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00. Once the Public Warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the Public Warrants:
| in whole and not in part; |
| at a price of $0.01 per warrant; |
| upon not less than 30 days prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder; and |
| if, and only if, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending three trading days before the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
If and when the Public Warrants become redeemable by the Company, it may exercise its redemption right even if the Company is unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00. Once the Public Warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the Public Warrants:
| in whole and not in part; |
| at a price of $0.10 per warrant; |
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| upon a minimum of 30 days prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares based on the redemption date and the fair market value of the Class A ordinary shares; |
| if, and only if, the Reference Value (as defined above under Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00) equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like); and |
| if the Reference Value is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like), the private placement warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding public warrants, as described above. |
In addition, if (x) the Company issues additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of the initial Business Combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per Class A ordinary share (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by the Companys board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to the Sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any Founder Shares held by the Sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance) (the Newly Issued Price), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of a Business Combination on the date of the consummation of a Business Combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume weighted average trading price of Class A ordinary shares during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which the Company consummates a Business Combination (such price, the Market Value) is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 and $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices described adjacent to Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00 and Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00 will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 100% and 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, respectively.
The Private Placement Warrants will be identical to the Public Warrants underlying the Units being sold in the IPO, except that the Private Placement Warrants and Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants will not be transferable, assignable or saleable until 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination, subject to certain limited exceptions. Additionally, the Private Placement Warrants will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, at the holders option, and be non-redeemable so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees (except for a number of Class A ordinary shares as described above under Redemption of warrants for Class A ordinary shares). If the Private Placement Warrants are held by someone other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by the Company in all redemption scenarios and exercisable by such holders on the same basis as the Public Warrants.
The Company will account for the 33,950,000 warrants to be issued in connection with the IPO (including 17,250,000 Public Warrants and 16,700,000 Private Placement Warrants) in accordance with the guidance contained in ASC 815-40. Such guidance provides that because the warrants do not meet the criteria for equity treatment thereunder, each warrant must be recorded as a liability. The warrant agreement contains an Alternative Issuance provision that if less than 70% of the consideration receivable by the holders of the Class A ordinary shares in the Business Combination is payable in the form of equity in the successor entity, and if the holders of the warrants properly exercises the warrants within thirty days following the public disclosure of the consummation of Business Combination by the Company, the warrant price shall be reduced by an amount equal to the difference.
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Note 8Commitments & Contingencies
Registration Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans and upon conversion of the Founder Shares) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights and shareholder agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of the IPO, requiring the Company to register such securities for resale (in the case of the Founder Shares, only after conversion to Class A ordinary shares). The holders of these securities will be entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company register such securities. In addition, the holders will have certain piggy-back registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of a Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Underwriting Agreement
The underwriters were granted the option to purchase up to 4,500,000 additional units at the IPO price of $10.00 within 45 days of the consummation of the IPO. The underwriters fully exercised this option at the time of the IPO.
The underwriters earned a cash underwriting discount of $0.20 per Unit, or $6,900,000 in the aggregate, which was paid upon the closing of the IPO.
In addition, the underwriter will be entitled to a deferred fee of $0.35 per Unit, or $12,075,000 in the aggregate. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriter from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Note 9Recurring Fair Value Measurements
The following table sets forth by level within the fair value hierarchy the Companys assets and liabilities that were accounted for at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2021:
(Level 1) | (Level 2) | (Level 3) | ||||||||||
Assets |
||||||||||||
Marketable securities held in Trust Account |
$ | 351,900,888 | $ | | $ | | ||||||
Liabilities |
||||||||||||
Public Warrants |
$ | | $ | | $ | 13,064,000 | ||||||
Private Placement Warrants |
$ | | $ | | $ | 12,775,000 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Total |
$ | 351,900,888 | $ | | $ | 25,839,000 |
Marketable Securities held in Trust Account
As of December 31, 2021, the assets held in the Trust Account were held in a money market mutual fund. During the period from March 22, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, the Company did not withdraw any of the interest income from the Trust Account to pay its tax obligations.
The composition of the Companys fair value of held to maturity securities on December 31, 2021 is as follows:
Fair Value as of December 31, 2021 |
||||
Money Market Mutual Fund |
$ | 351,900,591 | ||
Cash held in Trust Account |
297 | |||
|
|
|||
$351,900,888 | ||||
|
|
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Warrant Liabilities
As of December 31, 2021, the Companys warrant liabilities were valued at $25,839,000. Under the guidance in ASC 815-40, the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants do not meet the criteria for equity treatment. As such, the Public Warrants and the Private Warrants must be recorded on the balance sheet at fair value. This valuation is subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date. With each re-measurement, the valuations will be adjusted to fair value, with the change in fair value recognized in the Companys statement of operations.
The Companys warrant liability is based on a valuation model utilizing management judgment and pricing inputs from observable and unobservable markets with less volume and transaction frequency than active markets. Significant deviations from these estimates and inputs could result in a material change in fair value. The fair value of the warrant liabilities is classified within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy.
The Company established the initial fair value for the warrants on December 17, 2021, the date of the consummation of the Companys IPO. The fair value of the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants were measured using a Monte Carlo simulation model. The estimated fair value of the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants were determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in a Monte Carlo simulation model are assumptions related to expected share-price volatility, expected life(term) and the risk-free rate of interest rate. The Company estimates the volatility of its warrants based on implied volatility from the historical volatility of Public Warrants for SPACs which have recently had an IPO and have not yet consummated a merger. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury curve. The expected life of the instruments are assumed to be equivalent to their remaining contractual term plus one year.
The following table presents a summary of the changes in the fair value of the Warrants liabilities classified as Level 3, measured on a recurring basis.
Private Warrant Liability |
Public Warrant Liability |
Total Warrant Liability |
||||||||||
Fair Value as of March 22, 2021 (inception) |
$ | | $ | | $ | | ||||||
Initial measurement as of December 17, 2021 (IPO date) |
13,749,000 | 13,990,000 | 27,739,000 | |||||||||
Change in fair value |
(974,000 | ) | (926,000 | ) | (1,900,000 | ) | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Fair Value as of December 31, 2021 |
$ | 12,775,000 | $ | 13,064,000 | $ | 25,839,000 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following table provides the significant inputs into the Monte Carlo method for the fair value of the Public and Private Warrants:
Input |
December 31, 2021 |
December 17, 2021 |
||||||
Share price |
$ | 9.7063 | $ | 9.6545 | ||||
Exercise price |
$ | 11.50 | $ | 11.50 | ||||
Risk-free rate of interest |
1.34 | % | 1.27 | % | ||||
Volatility |
13.24 | % | 14.31 | % | ||||
Term (in years) |
5.96 | 5.99 | ||||||
Dividend yield |
| % | | % |
Transfers to/from Levels 1, 2 and 3 are recognized at the end of the reporting period in which a change in valuation technique or methodology occurs. There were no transfers in or out of Level 3 from other levels in the fair value hierarchy for the period from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021.
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In accordance with ASC Topic 855, Subsequent Events, which establishes general standards of accounting for and disclosure of events that occur after the balance sheet date but before the financial statements are issued. The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Based upon this review, the Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
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