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Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp. - Annual Report: 2022 (Form 10-K)

 

 

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, 2022

 

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from          to          

 

ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Cayman Islands   001-40410   98-1583924
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
  (Commission File Number)   (I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)

 

One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor

New York, NY

  10017
(Address of principal executive offices)   (Zip Code)

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (212) 303-1650

 

Not Applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of Each Class:   Trading Symbol:   Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered:
Units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share, $0.0001 par value, and one-fifth of one redeemable warrant   ORIAU   The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Class A ordinary shares included as a part of the units   ORIA   The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Redeemable warrants included as part of the Units, each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50   ORIAW   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 Section 15(d) of the Exchange 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 and post 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 definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth 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 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 management’s 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. ☐

 

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☒   No ☐

 

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant, as of June 30, 2022, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $194,700,000. Solely for purposes of this disclosure, ordinary shares held by executive officers and directors of the Registrant as of such date have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of executive officers and directors as affiliates is not necessarily a conclusive determination for any other purposes.

 

As of March 29, 2023, 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, and 5,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class B ordinary shares”), were issued and outstanding.

 

Documents Incorporated by Reference: None.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

TABLE  OF CONTENTS

 

    Page
CERTAIN TERMS   ii
     
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS   iv
     
SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS   v
     
PART I     1
Item 1. Business   1
Item 1A. Risk Factors   19
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments   54
Item 2. Properties   54
Item 3. Legal Proceedings   54
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures   54
       
PART II     55
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities   55
Item 6. [Reserved]   56
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations   57
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk   63
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data   63
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure   63
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures   63
Item 9B. Other Information   64
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.   64
       
PART III     65
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance   65
Item 11. Executive Compensation   74
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters   75
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence   77
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services   79
       
PART IV     80
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statements Schedules   80
Item 16. Form 10-K Summary   80

 

i

 

 

CERTAIN TERMS

 

Unless otherwise stated in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”), or the context otherwise requires, references to:

 

  “amended and restated memorandum and articles of association” are to the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association of the company, adopted on May 12, 2021.

 

  “Companies Act” are to the Companies Act (as amended) of the Cayman Islands as the same may be amended from time to time;

 

  “equity-linked securities” are to any debt or equity securities that are convertible, exercisable or exchangeable for our Class A ordinary shares issued in a financing transaction in connection with our initial business combination, including but not limited to a private placement of equity or debt;

 

  “forward purchase agreement” are to the agreement between the company and the sponsor, pursuant to which the sponsor agreed to purchase up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share and will be sold at a purchase price of $10.00 per forward purchase unit in a private placement concurrently with the closing of the initial Business Combination;

 

  “forward purchase investor” are to MSD Partners which entered into the forward purchase agreement;

 

  “forward purchase shares” are to Class A ordinary shares to be issued pursuant to the forward purchase agreement;

 

  “forward purchase securities” are to the forward purchase shares and forward purchase warrants;

 

  “forward purchase units” are to the units consisting of one forward purchase share and one-fifth of one forward purchase warrant to be issued pursuant to the forward purchase agreement;

 

  “forward purchase warrants” are to warrants to purchase Class A ordinary shares to be issued pursuant to the forward purchase agreement;

 

  “founders” are to James Huang and Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk;

 

  “founder shares” are to our Class B ordinary shares initially issued to our sponsor in a private placement prior to our initial public offering and the 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 (for the avoidance of doubt, such Class A ordinary shares will not be “public shares”);

 

  “initial public offering” are to the company’s offering on May 12, 2021 of 20,000,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit each consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one redeemable warrant.

 

ii

 

 

  “initial shareholders” are to our sponsor and each other holder of founder shares upon the consummation of our initial public offering;

 

  “management” or our “management team” are to our executive officers and directors;

 

  “MSD Capital” are to MSD Capital, L.P., the family office of Michael Dell and his family;

 

  “MSD Partners” are to MSD Partners, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser formed by partners of MSD Capital;

 

  “ordinary resolution” are to a resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the votes cast by the holders of the issued shares present in person or represented by proxy at a general meeting of the company and entitled to vote on such matter or a resolution approved in writing by all of the holders of the issued shares entitled to vote on such matter;

 

  “ordinary shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares and our Class B ordinary shares;

 

  “Panacea” are to Panacea Venture Healthcare, a venture capital firm focused on early and growth stage healthcare companies globally;

 

  “private placement warrants” are to the warrants issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering and to be issued upon conversion of working capital loans, if any;

 

  “public shareholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our sponsor and management team to the extent our sponsor and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that our sponsor’s and each member of our management team’s status as a “public shareholder” will only exist with respect to such public shares;

 

  “public shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares sold as part of the units in our initial public offering (whether they were purchased in our initial public offering or thereafter in the open market);

 

  “special resolution” are to a resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of at least a two-thirds (2/3) majority (or such higher threshold as specified in the company’s amended and restated articles of association) of the votes cast by the holders of the issued shares present in person or represented by proxy at a general meeting of the company and entitled to vote on such matter or a resolution approved in writing by all of the holders of the issued shares entitled to vote on such matter;

 

  “sponsor” are to Orion Sponsor Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company;

 

  “Strategic Advisors” are to John Phelan and Robert Platek. and

 

  “we,” “us,” “our,” “company,” “our company” or “Orion” are to Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company.

 

iii

 

 

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 team’s 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,” “intends,” “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 a prospective target business or businesses;

 

  our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination;

 

  our officers and directors allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination;

 

  the proceeds from the sale of the forward purchase units being available to us;

 

  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 recent COVID-19 pandemic;

 

  the ability of our officers and directors 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; or

 

  our financial performance following our initial public offering.

 

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) and 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. These risks and others described under “Risk Factors” may not be exhaustive.

 

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

 

iv

 

 

SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS

 

The following is a summary of the principal risks described below in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We believe that the risks described in the “Risk Factors” section are material to investors, but other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also adversely affect us. The following summary should not be considered an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing us, and it should be read in conjunction with the “Risk Factors” section and the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

Risks Relating to Our Securities

 

  We are a recently incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.

 

  Past performance by Mr. Huang and others on our management team, MSD Capital, MSD Partners, or Panacea or any of their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of the business we may acquire.

 

  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.

 

  You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.

 

Risks Relating to Our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks

 

  Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.

 

  Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.

 

  If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor and members of our 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 consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after our initial public offering 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.

 

  We may not be able to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after our initial public offering, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.

 

  If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants.

 

v

 

 

  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 within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

  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.

 

  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.

 

  We may engage our underwriter or one of its affiliates to provide additional services to us after this Report, 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 underwriter is entitled to receive deferred commissions that will be released from the trust only on 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 after our initial public offering, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.

 

  Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the status of debt and equity markets.

 

 

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 business combination and results of operations.

 

  Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the geopolitical conditions resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and additional sanctions against Russia, Belarus and related individuals and entities and the status of debt and equity markets, as well as protectionist legislation in markets around the world.

 

Risks Relating to Our Sponsor and Management

 

  Since our sponsor, executive 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 may acquire during or after our initial public offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.

 

  Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including another blank check company, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented

 

  Our executive officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.

 

  Our executive 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.

 

  The other risks and uncertainties discussed in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Report.

 

vi

 

 

PART I

 

Item 1. Business

 

Overview

 

We are a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Report as our initial business combination. We have not yet identified any potential business combination target, and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any potential business combination target.

  

Our Forward Purchase Agreement and Committed Capital

 

We believe our ability to complete our initial business combination will be enhanced by the additional security we bring by the forward purchase agreement we entered into with the forward purchase investor pursuant to which the forward purchase investor has agreed to purchase, in the aggregate, up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units. Each forward purchase unit will consist of one Class A ordinary share, or a forward purchase share, and one-fifth of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share, or a forward purchase warrant, at a purchase price of $10.00 per unit, and will be sold in a private placement concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. The amount of forward purchase units sold pursuant to the forward purchase agreement will be subject to the forward purchase investor’s sole discretion.

 

The forward purchase shares will generally be identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units sold in the initial public offering, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights. The forward purchase warrants will have the same terms as the private placement warrants so long as they are held by the forward purchase investor or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

We believe our committed capital ensures alignment with shareholders and will make us more attractive to a potential business combination target.

 

Competitive Advantages

 

We believe that Orion’s team has differentiated operational and investment experience that could be helpful in our pursuit of an initial business combination. We anticipate that this experience and our affiliation with MSD Partners will position us as a compelling partner to potential targets in the biotechnology and life sciences industries. We may also be able to offer value to a target business following the completion of an initial business combination by providing access to our management team’s extensive industry network, operational expertise, and capital markets resources.

 

Proven track record of value creation: Our team brings extensive industry experience and strong track records. Panacea has consistently performed in the top quartile among 2008-2018 vintage venture capital firms based on performance benchmarks, delivering over $1.2 billion ($910 million realized) of total value on $240 million invested over 31 different investments. MSD Partners and MSD Capital together have over two decades of investment experience and have generated billions of dollars of investment profits. We believe we will benefit from MSD Partners’ strong reputation in the marketplace and institutional platform with experienced investment, risk management, and infrastructure personnel.

 

1

 

 

Extensive public markets experience: Our team has extensive experience in helping companies successfully navigate the capital markets, particularly advising on and executing the transition from private to public markets for growth companies. MSD Partners has been investing in the public markets for many years and takes a long-term, “private equity-like” approach to the public markets, investing alongside high-quality management teams and striving to build positive working relationships. Our CEO James Huang is a biotechnology industry veteran, having previously held positions as Vice President of Business Development and Commercial Operations at Tularik Inc., which went public through an IPO on the Nasdaq in December 1999 and reached a billion dollar market capitalization shortly thereafter, becoming one of the first “billion dollar” biotechnology IPOs. Tularik was later acquired by Amgen for $1.3 billion. Mr. Huang was also President of Anesiva Inc. (formerly known as Corgentech) which had a successful IPO on the Nasdaq in 2004. Since becoming a venture capitalist in 2007, Mr. Huang has invested in 31 companies of which 10 subsequently listed on exchanges in the United States, Hong Kong and China, seven companies were exited through trade sale, and two have recently filed for public listings.

 

Robust transaction sourcing capabilities: Our team has a broad network of relationships in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors, including with venture capitalists, private and public investors, industry executives, key opinion leaders, and investment bankers. We expect these relationships to be helpful in our pursuit of an initial business combination. Our team’s investment experience spans the public, venture capital, and private equity markets in biotechnology and life sciences.

 

Deep relationships across the biotechnology ecosystem: Our team maintains relationships with senior executives throughout the biotechnology and life sciences industries. We believe this could provide access to deal flow and operational expertise. Many of our management team’s former companies have been acquired by strategic purchasers, including Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Actelion, Windtree, and PTC Therapeutics. Our team’s past employers and portfolio companies have also established strategic licensing and collaboration relationships with prominent biopharmaceutical companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and many biotechnology companies.

 

Underwriting and transactional capabilities across platforms: Our team has extensive underwriting and transactional expertise that we believe will be helpful in our pursuit of an initial business combination. Mr. Huang and Ms. Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk have a process of proactively identifying superior management teams with novel therapeutic platforms prior to their steepest value inflection points, providing the potential to generate significant value to investors. MSD Partners’ cross-asset platform and team-oriented culture have helped generate attractive investment opportunities across its investment platforms in the past. MSD Partners’ integrated, multi-strategy structure allows it to quickly understand business models and evaluate a diverse set of investment opportunities across industries and cycles. MSD Partners evaluates hundreds of private and public investments each year.

 

Ability to effect real business transformation and growth: Our team has unique capabilities to improve business operations following a combination. Our team’s experience will not only help to identify potential targets, but also to scale the business post-combination and deploy capital thoughtfully in the future. Through Panacea Advisory LLC, an organization made of ex-FDA staff, Panacea provides full regulatory consulting services encompassing CMC, IND, and NDA filings of products in development. We believe our team’s extensive operating network will be invaluable in furthering a company’s growth following the completion of our initial business combination. We will offer potential targets expertise, vision, and resources to help them grow their business. We intend to improve operations through our team’s network of relationships, including our board members, management team, and operational advisors’ expertise.

 

2

 

 

Acquisition Strategy

 

Investment Scope

 

Orion intends to target companies with transformational ideas that leverage science and business to develop innovative therapies or life sciences technologies. We expect these innovations to offer the potential to significantly advance the standard of care or diagnostic capability for the disease of focus and offer attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. We believe that Orion’s team is well positioned to identify attractive acquisition opportunities because of its reputation, experience, and track record of investing success. Over the years, our team has built significant domain knowledge, relationship networks, and experience in the biotechnology and life sciences industries. We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important when evaluating prospective target businesses, but these criteria and guidelines are not intended to be exhaustive or absolute. We may ultimately decide to enter into an initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these criteria and guidelines:

 

  A high probability of clinical and regulatory success

 

  The potential to transform or significantly enhance benefits to patients compared with the existing standard of care or technological capability

 

  A biomarker or other leading-edge method that increases the probability of commercial success for the company’s therapeutic or platform

 

  Significant embedded or underexploited growth opportunities that can be monetized

 

  Unique competitive positioning for developing therapies or technologies that can be first-in-class or best-in-class in their respective categories and are expected to maintain competitive advantage in the long term

 

  A management team that has the requisite expertise to execute on the program and ability to manage a publicly listed company

 

Unique Approach

 

We believe we are further differentiated by the following approach employed by Panacea Venture, which we believe will be helpful in sourcing and executing on an initial business combination:

 

  Identify and invest in highly innovative growth stage companies as well as successful teams/academic leaders with rich industry experience

 

  Predict and adapt to industry trends and regulatory policies, enabling the target company to maximize potential growth

 

  Employ the “4C” strategy: Intellectual Capital, Human Capital, Venture Capital, and Government Capital

 

  Adopt an operator-investor approach to help grow companies, providing critical resources and support

 

3

 

 

Market Opportunity

 

The biotechnology and life sciences industries are large and growing markets that we believe offer many attractive opportunities for a potential business combination.

 

Large addressable market with secular growth: Industry demand for innovative and effective therapies continues to drive long-term growth in the biopharmaceutical industry. According to EvaluatePharma, worldwide prescription drug sales are expected to grow at a 7.4% CAGR between 2020 and 2026, with sales expected to reach almost $1.4 trillion by 2026. A greater proportion of industry sales generating from oncology therapies, hundreds of anticipated approvals from the current clinical pipeline, and a larger amount of sales of biologic and orphan drugs underpin this growth.

 

Growth in research and development: Scientific breakthroughs and innovations in oncology, gene therapy, synthetic biology, personalized medicine, precision medicine, rare diseases, and other sub-sectors of the biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries, are creating new opportunities for investors in the sector. According to EvaluatePharma, worldwide pharmaceutical R&D spend is expected to reach over $230 billion by 2026, an approximately 50% increase over ten years.

 

Robust private market deal activity: Strong levels of venture capital activity in the biotechnology sector support our pursuit of an initial business combination. According to a recent Analyst note from Pitchbook, biotechnology and pharmaceutical start-ups raised over $23 billion in venture capital financing across 865 deals in 2020 as of November 18, 2020 breaking the deal value record set in 2018. Since 2015, biotechnology and pharmaceutical start-ups raised over $80 billion across over 4,000 deals. Many of these companies continue to grow and may view the public markets as an attractive alternative to support their growth.

 

Regulatory environment: The FDA continues to approve new drugs at a healthy pace. There were 228 novel drug approvals in the five-year period from 2016 to 2020. This represents a 44% increase over the number of novel drugs approved over the period from 2010 to 2014. The constructive regulatory environment is encouraging continued investment in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors.

 

Initial Business Combination

 

We must consummate our initial business combination with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting commissions held in trust and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. We do not currently intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial business combination, although there is no assurance that will be the case. 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, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, or an independent accounting firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.

 

4

 

 

We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own or acquire shares will own or acquire 100% of the outstanding 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 business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in our initial business combination transaction. 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 of a target, or issue a substantial number of new shares to third-parties in connection with financing our initial business combination. In such cases, 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 outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the outstanding 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 by us is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. If our initial 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.

 

We may, at our option, pursue an acquisition opportunity jointly with one or more entities affiliated with MSD Partners, MSD Capital, Panacea Ventures and/or one or more investors in funds managed by MSD Partners or Panacea Ventures, which we refer to as an “Affiliated Joint Acquisition.” Any such parties may co-invest with us in the target business at the time of our initial business combination, or we could raise additional proceeds to complete the acquisition by issuing to such parties a class of equity or equity-linked securities. We refer to this potential future issuance, or a similar issuance to other specified purchasers, as a “specified future issuance” throughout this Report. The amount and other terms and conditions of any such specified future issuance would be determined at the time thereof. We are not obligated to make any specified future issuance and may determine not to do so. This is not an offer for any specified future issuance. Pursuant to the anti-dilution provisions of our Class B ordinary shares, any such specified future issuance would result in an adjustment to the conversion ratio such that our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees, if any, would retain their aggregate percentage ownership at 20% of the sum of the total number of all ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of our initial public offering plus all shares issued in the specified future issuance, unless the holders of a majority of the then-outstanding Class B ordinary shares agreed to waive such adjustment with respect to the specified future issuance at the time thereof. We cannot determine at this time whether a majority of the holders of our Class B ordinary shares at the time of any such specified future issuance would agree to waive such adjustment to the conversion ratio. If such adjustment is not waived, the specified future issuance would not reduce the percentage ownership of holders of our Class B ordinary shares, but would reduce the percentage ownership of holders of our Class A ordinary shares. If such adjustment is waived, the specified future issuance would reduce the percentage ownership of holders of both classes of our ordinary shares.

 

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.

  

5

 

 

Corporate Information

 

Our executive offices are located at One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, New York 10017 and our telephone number is (212) 303-1650. Our corporate website address is www.orionbiotechopportunities.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 Report or the registration statement of which this Report forms a part. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.

 

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or 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 of 2002, or 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 initial public offering, (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 ordinary shares that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.

 

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 until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, and (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter.

 

We are a Cayman Islands exempted company. 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 Cayman Islands government that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 20 years from the date of the undertaking, no law which is 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 a payment of dividend or other distribution of income or capital by us to our shareholders or a payment of principal or interest or other sums due under a debenture or other obligation of us.

 

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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 shares of stock, shares or other equity interests in the target business 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 in the initial public offering process, including underwriting discounts and commissions, 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 underwriter’s ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring or have negative valuation consequences. Once public, 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 company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.

 

While we believe that our structure and our management team’s backgrounds will make 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 initial public offering, (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 $700,000,000 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 until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250,000,000 as of the prior June 30, and (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100,000,000 during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700,000,000 as of the prior June 30.

 

Financial Position

 

With funds available for a business combination initially in the amount of $194,000,000, after payment of the estimated expenses of our initial public offering and $7,000,000 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 or leverage 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.

 

7

 

 

Effecting Our Initial Business Combination General

 

We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following our initial public offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of the initial public offering, the sale of the private placements warrants, our equity, debt or a combination of these as the consideration to be paid in our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into). 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.

 

If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt, 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 apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-business combination 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 business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions with any business combination target. Additionally, we have not engaged or retained any agent or other representative to identify or locate any suitable acquisition candidate, to conduct any research or take any measures, directly or indirectly, to locate or contact a target business, other than our officers and directors. Accordingly, there is no current basis for our 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 will assess 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 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. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our initial business combination. We are not currently a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities, the incurrence of debt or otherwise.

 

Sources of Target Businesses

 

Our process of identifying acquisition targets will leverage our founders’ and our management team’s unique industry experiences, proven deal sourcing capabilities and broad and deep network of relationships in numerous industries, including executives and management teams, private equity groups and other institutional investors, large business enterprises, lenders, investment bankers and other investment market participants, restructuring advisers, consultants, attorneys and accountants, which we believe should provide us with a number of business combination opportunities. We expect that the collective experience, capability and network of our founders, directors and officers, combined with their individual and collective reputations in the investment community, will help to create prospective business combination opportunities.

 

In addition, we anticipate that 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 final 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.

 

8

 

 

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, including the underwriter or one of their affiliates, or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. In addition, the underwriter may provide these services without additional compensation. We will formally 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 determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s 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. In no event, however, will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by the company prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). None of our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, will be allowed to receive any compensation, finder’s fees or consulting fees from a prospective business combination target in connection with a contemplated acquisition of such target by us. We have agreed to pay our sponsor a total of up to $10,000 per month for office space, administrative support and other services and to reimburse our sponsor for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination. Some of our officers and directors may enter into employment or consulting agreements with the post-business combination company following our initial business combination.

 

We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, founders, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our founders, 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 or an independent valuation or accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.

 

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 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest.”

 

Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination

 

In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough 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 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 identify 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. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of, and negotiation with, a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed 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. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.

 

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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.

 

Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team

 

Although we intend to 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 business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the 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 applicable law or stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.

 

Under Nasdaq’s listing rules, shareholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:

 

  we issue (other than in a public offering for cash) ordinary shares that will either (a) be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of ordinary shares then issued and outstanding or (b) have voting power equal to or in excess of 20% of the voting power then issued and outstanding;

 

  any of our directors, officers or substantial shareholders (as defined by Nasdaq rules) has a 5% or greater interest (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.

 

10

 

 

The Companies Act and Cayman Islands law do not currently require, and we are not aware of any other applicable law that will require, shareholder approval of our initial business combination.

 

The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination in those instances in which shareholder approval is not required by law will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on business and legal reasons, which include a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:

 

  the timing of the transaction, including in the event we determine shareholder approval would require additional time and there is either not enough time to seek shareholder approval or doing so would place the company at a disadvantage in the transaction or result in other additional burdens on the company;

 

  the expected cost of holding a shareholder vote;

 

  the risk that the shareholders would fail to approve the proposed business combination;

 

  other time and budget constraints of the company; and

 

  additional legal complexities of a proposed business combination that would be time-consuming and burdensome to present to shareholders.

 

Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities

 

If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. 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 public shares or warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making 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.

 

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. 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 be required to comply with such rules.

 

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The purpose of any such transactions 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, (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 or (iii) reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or vote such warrants or any matter 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 sponsor, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated transactions 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 tender offer or 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 transaction, they would identify and contact only potential selling or redeeming 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, executive officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase shares from based on the negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will be restricted from purchasing shares if such purchases do not comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws.

 

Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will be restricted from making purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. We expect any such purchases would be reported by such person 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

 

We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to 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 income taxes, if any, divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 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 will pay to the underwriter. The redemption rights may include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Our sponsor and our management team have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in connection with (i) the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity.

 

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Limitations on Redemptions

 

Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). However, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. 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, and all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

 

Manner of Conducting Redemptions

 

We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to 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) 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 where we do not survive 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 typically require shareholder approval. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote unless shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange rule or we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other reasons.

 

If we held a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination, 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 the approval of an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy, who attend and vote at a general meeting of the Company. In such case, our sponsor and each member of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares and public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 7,500,001, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 1,250,001, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. In addition, our sponsor and our management team have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in connection with (i) the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity.

 

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If we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:

 

  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.

 

Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase Class A ordinary shares in the open market if we elect to redeem our public shares through a tender offer, to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.

 

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.

 

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 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 provides 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 initial public offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management team 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 initial public offering without our prior consent, 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.

 

Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights

 

Public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” will be required to either tender their certificates, if any, to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, mailed to such holders, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/ Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option, in each case up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote to approve the business combination. The proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate the applicable delivery requirements, which may include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Accordingly, a public shareholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Given the relatively short period in which to exercise redemption rights, it is advisable for shareholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.

 

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There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker 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 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.

 

The foregoing is different from the procedures used by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the shareholders’ vote on an initial business combination, and a holder could simply vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights. After the business combination was approved, the company would contact such shareholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the shareholder then had an “option window” after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the company’s shares in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her shares to the company for cancellation. As a result, the redemption rights, to which shareholders were aware they needed to commit before the general meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completion of the business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming shareholder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.

 

Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination, unless otherwise agreed to by us. 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.

 

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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering.

 

Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination

 

Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that we have only 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering to consummate an initial business combination. If we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, 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 and not previously released to us to pay our income taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the 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 each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.

 

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Our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares they hold if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering).

 

Our sponsor, executive 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) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares 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 income taxes, if any, divided by the number of the 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 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). 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. This redemption right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsor, any executive officer, director, or any other person.

 

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 $1,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account plus up to $100,000 of funds from the trust account available to us to pay dissolution expenses, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose.

 

If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of our initial public offering 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 $10.00. 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 less than $10.00. 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 (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm), 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 perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. The underwriter 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 vendor for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, 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 seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. 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) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, 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. 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 $10.00 per public 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 (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm), 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 underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to $1,000,000 from the proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants 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; however such liability will not be greater than the amount of funds from our trust account received by any such shareholder.

 

If we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency 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 or insolvency claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per public share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.”

 

As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency 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 consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, (ii) 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 provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity, and (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. Public shareholders who redeem their Class A ordinary shares in connection with a shareholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, with respect to such Class A ordinary shares so redeemed. 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 shareholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s 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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Competition

 

In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies, operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination and our outstanding warrants, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. In addition, potential target businesses may also consider whether undertaking their own registered public offering rather than a business combination with a blank check company would be preferable. Any of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.

 

Facilities

 

We currently maintain our executive offices at One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, New York 10017. The cost for our use of this space is included in the up to $10,000 per month fee we will pay to our sponsor for office space, administrative support and other services. 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 will 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 do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.

 

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.

 

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Item 1A. 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 and the prospectus associated with our initial public offering, before making a decision to invest in 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.

 

Risks Relating to Our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks

 

Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.

 

We may not hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require shareholder approval under applicable Cayman Islands law or stock exchange listing requirements or if we decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons. For instance, the Nasdaq rules currently allow us to engage in a tender offer in lieu of a general meeting but would still require us to obtain shareholder approval if we were seeking to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares to a target business as consideration in any business combination. Therefore, if we were structuring a business combination that required us to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares, we would seek shareholder approval of such business combination. However, except as required by applicable law or stock exchange rule, 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. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of the outstanding ordinary shares do not approve of the business combination we consummate. Please see the section entitled “Item 1. Business—Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination” for additional information.

 

Your only opportunity to affect the 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 any target businesses. 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 approval. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential 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.

 

If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor and members of our management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.

 

Our sponsor owns, on an as-converted basis, 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares. Our sponsor and members of our management team also may from time to time purchase Class A ordinary shares prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, if we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we obtain the approval of an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy, who attend and vote at a general meeting of the Company. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 7,500,001, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 1,250,001, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our sponsor and our 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.

 

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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 prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. 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 upon consummation of our initial business combination and payment of deferred underwriting commissions (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 upon consummation of our initial business combination and payment of deferred underwriting commissions or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing 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 large number of shares are submitted for redemption, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for additional 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 provisions of the Class B ordinary shares result 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 business combination. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the representative 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 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 funds in the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.

 

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The requirement that we consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering 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 consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. 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 within the required time period 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.

  

We may not be able to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.

 

We may not be able to find a suitable target business and consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering. 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 outbreak of COVID-19 continues both in the U.S. and globally and, while the extent of the impact of the outbreak on us will depend on future developments, it 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 COVID-19 outbreak may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire. If we have not consummated an initial business combination within such applicable 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 and not previously released to us to pay our income taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the 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 each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law. In either such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per public share, or less than $10.00 per public share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— 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 $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.

 

If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants.

 

If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or 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. However, other than as expressly stated herein, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or warrants in such transactions.

 

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In the event that our sponsor, directors, executive 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. The purpose of any such transaction could be to (1) vote in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (2) reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination or (3) 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. 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. 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. See “Item 1. Business — Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.

 

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 within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

We expect to encounter intense 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 greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering 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 have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— 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 $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.

 

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.

 

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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 including between the U.S. and China and between Russia and Ukraine, 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.

 

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 in ways adverse to us and our management team. 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. These trends may continue into the future.

 

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 combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.

 

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.

 

We may engage our underwriter or one of its 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 underwriter is entitled to receive deferred commissions that will be released from the trust only on 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 our underwriter or one of its affiliates to provide additional services to us after, 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 our underwriter or its affiliate fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation; provided that no agreement will be entered into with our underwriter or its affiliates and no fees or other compensation for such services were paid to our underwriter or its affiliates prior to the date that was 60 days from the date of our final prospectus, unless such payment would not be deemed underwriter’s compensation in connection with our initial public offering. The underwriter is also entitled to receive deferred commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial business combination. The underwriter’s or its affiliates’ financial interests 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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Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the status of debt and equity markets.

 

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization characterized the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a “pandemic”. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted, and a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases could result, in a widespread health crisis that adversely affects the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which 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 COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. While vaccines for COVID-19 are being, and have been developed, there is no guarantee that any such vaccine will be durable and effective consistent with current expectations. In addition, if any treatment of vaccine for COVID-19 is ineffective or underutilized, any impact on our business may be prolonged. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our 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. In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events, 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.

 

Finally, the outbreak of COVID-19 may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those related to the market for our securities and cross-border transactions.

 

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 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 the business, investments and results of our 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 business combination and results of operations.

 

On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules (the “2022 Proposed Rules”) relating to, among other items, enhancing disclosures in business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amending the financial statement requirements applicable to transactions involving shell companies; effectively limiting the use of projections in SEC filings in connection with proposed business combination transactions; increasing the potential liability of certain participants in proposed business combination transactions; and the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. The 2022 Proposed Rules, if adopted, whether in the form proposed or in revised form, and certain positions and legal conclusions expressed by the SEC in connection with the 2022 Proposed Rules may materially adversely affect our ability to negotiate and complete our business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.

 

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Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the geopolitical conditions resulting from the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Russia, Belarus and related individuals and entities and the status of debt and equity markets, as well as protectionist legislation in markets around the world.

 

United States and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions and the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. In response to such invasion, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”) deployed additional military forces to eastern Europe, and the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries have announced various sanctions and restrictive actions against Russia, Belarus and related individuals and entities, including the removal of certain financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system. Certain countries, including the United States, have also provided and may continue to provide military aid or other assistance to Ukraine during the ongoing military conflict, increasing geopolitical tensions with Russia. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the resulting measures that have been taken, and could be taken in the future, by NATO, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries have created global security concerns that could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine is highly unpredictable, the conflict could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions. Additionally, Russian military actions and the resulting sanctions could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets. 

 

Risks Relating to Our Sponsor and Management

 

Since our sponsor, executive 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 may acquire during or after our initial public offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.

 

On February 8, 2021, the sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain offering costs on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 7,187,500 founder shares, or approximately $0.004 per founder share. On February 25, 2021, the sponsor surrendered 1,437,500 Class B ordinary shares for no consideration, resulting in an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares outstanding. On February 25, 2021, the sponsor transferred 40,000 founder shares to each of the independent directors. The recipient will not be subject to the forfeiture provisions described above. On June 28, 2021, the over-allotment option expired, and the sponsor forfeited 750,000 founder shares. As a result, as of December 31, 2022, there were 5,000,000 founder shares outstanding, and our sponsor owned 4,880,000 founder shares.

 

Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,333,333 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.50 per warrant ($6,500,000 in the aggregate), in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. If we do not consummate an initial business within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The personal and financial interests of our executive 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 24-month anniversary of the closing of our initial public offering nears, which is the deadline for our consummation of an initial business combination.

 

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Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including another blank check company, 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, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. 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.

 

In addition, our founders and our directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates may in the future become affiliated with other blank check companies that may have acquisition objectives that are similar to ours. 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 such other blank check companies prior to its presentation to us, subject to our officers’ and directors’ fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides 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.

 

Our executive 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, executive officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive 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. If this were the case, it would be 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.

 

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Our executive 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 executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a 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 executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs.

 

Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.

 

Involvement of members of our management and companies with which they are affiliated in civil disputes and litigation, governmental investigations or negative publicity unrelated to our business affairs could materially impact our ability to consummate an initial business combination.

 

Members of our management team and companies with which they are affiliated have been, and in the future will continue to be, involved in a wide variety of business affairs, including transactions, such as sales and purchases of businesses, and ongoing operations. As a result of such involvement, members of our management and companies with which they are affiliated in have been, and may in the future be, involved in civil disputes, litigation, governmental investigations and negative publicity relating to their business affairs. Any such claims, investigations, lawsuits or negative publicity may be detrimental to our reputation and could negatively affect our ability to identify and complete an initial business combination in a material manner and may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.

 

Risks Relating to Our Securities

 

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 an exempted company under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination with one or more target businesses. 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.

 

Past performance by Mr. Huang and others on our management team, MSD Capital, or MSD Partners, or Panacea or any of their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of the business we may acquire.

 

Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, Mr. Huang and others on our management team or their respective affiliates, including MSD Partners, Panacea and MSD Capital, is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience of and performance by Mr. Huang and others on our management team or their respective affiliates, including MSD Partners, Panacea and MSD Capital, is not a guarantee either: (1) that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; or (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team or any of their respective affiliates’ performance, including the performance of Mr. Huang or MSD Partners or MSD Capital or Panacea, as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. Our management team has no experience in operating special purpose acquisition companies. An investment in us is not an investment in either MSD Partners or MSD Capital or Panacea.

 

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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 will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier 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 described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered 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 provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. Public shareholders who redeem their Class A ordinary shares in connection with a shareholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, with respect to such Class A ordinary shares so redeemed. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or 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.

 

You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.

 

Since the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we had net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the completion of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units were immediately tradable and we have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.

 

In evaluating a prospective target business for our initial business combination, our management will rely on the availability of the funds from the sale of the forward purchase units to be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination. If the sale of the forward purchase units does not close, we may lack sufficient funds to consummate our initial business combination.

 

Prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, we entered into a forward purchase agreement with the forward purchase investor providing for the purchase of up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units, at a purchase price of $10.00 per unit, in a private placement which occurred concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. However, if the sale of the forward purchase units does not close, we may lack sufficient funds to consummate our initial business combination. The number of forward purchase units to be purchased by the forward purchase investor will be subject to the forward purchase investor’s sole discretion. The obligation to purchase the forward purchase units is subject to customary closing conditions, including that our initial business combination must be consummated substantially concurrently with, and immediately following, the purchase of the forward purchase units. The obligations of the forward purchase investor under the forward purchase agreement do not depend on whether any Class A ordinary shares held by public shareholders are redeemed by the company and the amount of forward purchase units sold pursuant to the forward purchase agreement will be subject to the forward purchase investor’s sole discretion. The forward purchase shares will generally be identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units sold in our initial public offering, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights, as described herein. The forward purchase warrants will have the same terms as the private placement warrants so long as they are held by the forward purchase investor or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

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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 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 solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, 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 redeem or tender public shares. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. See “Item 1. Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights.”

 

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.

 

We were approved to list our units on Nasdaq on the date of our final prospectus and our Class A ordinary shares and warrants were also listed on Nasdaq promptly after their date of separation. Although after giving effect to our initial public offering we expect to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in Nasdaq’s listing standards, our securities may not be, or may not continue to be, listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to the completion of our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to the completion of 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, our units will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination and, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, the share price of our securities would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our shareholders’ equity would generally be required to be at least $4,000,000 and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders (with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500). We may not 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 and our Class A ordinary shares and warrants are 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 covered 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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If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and 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 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 provides 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 initial public offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. 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.

 

If the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for what remains of the 24 months following the closing of our initial public offering, 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.

 

Of the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, only $1,000,000 is 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, together with funds available from loans from our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates is still sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of our initial public offering; however, our estimate may not be accurate, and our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates are under no obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Of the funds available to us, we expect to 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 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 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, members of our management team or any of their affiliates 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 may 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 $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The 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, members of our management team or any of their affiliates 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 within the required time period 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 $10.00 per public share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— 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 $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.

 

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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 the share price of our securities, 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, this diligence may not surface all material issues with a particular target business. In addition, factors outside of the target business and outside of our control may 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 post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

 

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 $10.00 per public 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 (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm), 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 perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.

 

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 have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, 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 $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to that certain letter agreement among the company, the sponsor and the company’s executive officers and directors, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, 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 seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. 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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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) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per public share.

 

We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and executive 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 (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). 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 shareholder’s 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.

 

The securities in which we invest the proceeds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the interest income available for payment of taxes or reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.

 

The net proceeds of our initial public offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants, in the amount of $200,000,000 may only be invested in direct U.S. Treasury obligations having a maturity of 185 days or less, or in certain money market funds which invest only in direct U.S. Treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. Treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event of very low or negative yields, the amount of interest income (which we may withdraw to pay income taxes, if any) would be reduced. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income. If the balance of the trust account is reduced below $200,000,000 as a result of negative interest rates, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.

 

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency 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 winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency 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 winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up 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 winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or winding-up law, and may be included in our bankruptcy or insolvency estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy or insolvency 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 with the SEC;

 

  adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and

 

  reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.

 

In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business is to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-business combination 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 tendered 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 provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. 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 within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

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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 an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our trust account.

 

If we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, the proceeds 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 income taxes, if any (less 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 automatically 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering 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, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, 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 and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.

 

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. 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. Claims may 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 for a fine of $18,292.68 and imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.

 

We may not hold an annual general meeting until after the consummation of our initial business combination.

 

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. As an exempted company, there is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or general meetings to appoint 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. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term.

 

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Holders of Class A ordinary shares will not be entitled to vote on any appointment of directors we hold prior to the completion of our initial business combination.

 

Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, you may not have any say in the management of our company prior to the consummation of an initial business combination.

 

We did not register the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at the time of our initial public offering, and we are not registering such securities at this time. Furthermore, such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants and causing such warrants to expire worthless.

 

We did not register the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at the time of the initial public offering, and we are not registering such securities at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed to use our commercially reasonable efforts to file a registration statement under the Securities Act covering such shares and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration or redemption of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. We may not able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case, the number of Class A ordinary shares that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum amount of shares equal to 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment). However, no warrant will 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, unless an exemption is available. Notwithstanding the above, 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 a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our 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 we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our reasonable best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities 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. 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 will 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 warrants included as part of units sold in our initial public offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its transferees (which may include our management team) 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 securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.

 

The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.

 

In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to register the issuance of the security underlying the warrants within twenty business days of the closing of an initial business combination.

 

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Our warrants and units committed to be issued in connection with the forward purchase agreement are accounted for as a derivative liability and are 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 account for our warrants and the units committed to be issued in connection with the forward purchase agreement as a derivative liability and will record them at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value 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 a SPAC that does not have warrants or units that are accounted for as a derivative liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.

 

Our warrants are accounted for as a derivative liability and are 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 account for our warrants as a derivative liability and will record them at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value 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 a SPAC that does not have warrants that are accounted for as a derivative liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial Business Combination with a target business.

 

The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders, holders of our private placement warrants and the purchaser of the forward purchase units 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 the registration and shareholder 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, the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of such warrants. Further, pursuant to the forward purchase agreement, we have agreed to use our reasonable best efforts (i) to file within 30 days after the closing of the initial business combination a registration statement for a secondary offering of the forward purchase shares and the forward purchase warrants (and underlying Class A ordinary shares), (ii) to cause such registration statement to be declared effective promptly thereafter but in no event later than 60 days after the initial filing, and (iii) to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement until the earliest of (A) the date on which the holders of the forward purchase securities or their assignees cease to hold the securities covered thereby, and (B) the date all of the securities covered thereby can be sold publicly without restriction or limitation under Rule 144 under the Securities Act. After such registration statement is declared effective, the holders of the forward purchase securities may cause us to conduct firm commitment underwritten offerings, subject to certain limitations. In addition, the forward purchase agreement provides for certain “piggy-back” registration rights to the holders of forward purchase securities to include their securities in other registration statements filed by us. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A 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 securities that is expected when the securities owned by our initial shareholders or their permitted transferees are registered for resale.

 

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Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.

 

We may pursue business combination opportunities in any sector, except that we will not, under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, be permitted to effectuate our initial 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 business’s 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 may not 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. An investment in our units may not ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

 

We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors which may or may not be outside of our management’s area of expertise.

 

We will consider a business combination outside of our management’s area of expertise if a business combination target is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination target, we may not 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 target. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this Report regarding the areas of our management’s 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 adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

 

Although we have identified general criteria 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 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.

 

Although we have identified general criteria 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 criteria, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria, 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 applicable law or stock exchange rule, 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. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

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We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking 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, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting firm or independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA 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 solicitation or tender offer materials, 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 in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. 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 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 5,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. There are currently 480,000,000 and 45,000,000 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, if any. The Class B ordinary shares are automatically convertible into Class A ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination as described herein and in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Immediately after our initial public offering, there were 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 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 herein. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides, among other things, that prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination or on any other proposal presented to shareholders prior to or in connection with the completion of an 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 initial public offering, 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;

 

  may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants; and

 

  may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.

 

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Our initial shareholders may receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue shares to consummate an initial business combination.

 

The founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares on the first business day following the consummation of our initial business combination at a ratio such that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares issued and outstanding upon completion of our initial public offering, plus (ii) the sum of 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, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, deemed issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination, any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates upon conversion of working capital loans and the forward purchase securities. In no event will the Class B ordinary shares convert into Class A ordinary shares at a rate of less than one to one.

 

Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions 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 within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account 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 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 within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

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 “passive foreign investment company” (“PFIC”) within the meaning of Section 1297(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”) for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. Holder of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. Holder 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. Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. Holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, including a PFIC Annual Information Statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder 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. We urge U.S. investors to consult their tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules.

 

We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders.

 

We may, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval under the Companies Act, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a shareholder or warrantholder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder or warrantholder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrantholders to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrantholders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.

 

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After our initial business combination, it is possible that 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.

 

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.

 

In particular, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the Cayman Islands or any other applicable jurisdictions would recognize and enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States or entertain original actions brought in the Cayman Islands or any other applicable jurisdiction’s courts against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States.

 

We are dependent upon our executive 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 executive 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 executive officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will 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 executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive 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. 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 personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. In addition, pursuant to an agreement entered into on the closing of our initial public offering, our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for appointment to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.

 

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We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.

 

When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

 

The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.

 

The role of an acquisition candidate’s 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 candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.

 

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, executive officers, directors or initial shareholders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.

 

In light of the involvement of our sponsor, executive officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or initial shareholders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance Directors and Executive Officers— Conflicts of Interest.” 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. 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 Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of 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 or an independent valuation or accounting firm 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, executive officers, directors or initial shareholders, 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.

 

We may issue notes or other debt, 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, or to otherwise incur debt following our initial public offering, 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;

 

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  our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;

 

  our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt 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.

 

We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of our initial public offering 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 initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants provided us with up to $194,000,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account and the expenses of our initial public offering). In addition, prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, we entered into a forward purchase agreement with the forward purchase investor pursuant to which the forward purchase investor has agreed to purchase up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units in a private placement concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. The proceeds from the sale of forward purchase units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in our initial business combination, expenses in connection with our initial business combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company. The obligation to purchase the forward purchase units is subject to customary closing conditions, including that our initial business combination must be consummated substantially concurrently with, and immediately following, the purchase of forward purchase units. The number of forward purchase units to be purchased by the forward purchase investor will be subject to the forward purchase investor’s sole discretion. The obligations of the forward purchase investor under the forward purchase agreement do not depend on whether any Class A ordinary shares held by public shareholders are redeemed by us. The forward purchase shares will generally be identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units sold in our initial public offering, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights, as described herein. The forward purchase warrants will have the same terms as the private placement warrants so long as they are held by the forward purchase investor or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

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.

 

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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 (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.

 

In pursuing our acquisition 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. Upon the loss of control of a target business, new management may not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.

 

We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-business combination 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-business combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business 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-business combination company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the completion of our initial 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 interests 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 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 company’s 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.

 

We may seek business combination opportunities with a high degree of complexity that require significant operational improvements, which could delay or prevent us from achieving our desired results.

 

We may seek business combination opportunities with large, highly complex companies that we believe would benefit from operational improvements. While we intend to implement such improvements, to the extent that our efforts are delayed or we are unable to achieve the desired improvements, the business combination may not be as successful as we anticipate.

 

To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination.

 

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If we are not able to achieve our desired operational improvements, or the improvements take longer to implement than anticipated, we may not achieve the gains that we anticipate. Furthermore, some of these risks and complexities may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks and complexities will adversely impact a target business. Such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.

 

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 does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). 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 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, 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, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We may 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.

 

In order to effectuate a business combination, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds, extended the time to consummate a 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 require at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law, meaning the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the forward purchase warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the forward purchase warrants, 50% of the then-outstanding forward purchase warrants. 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) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any of the securities offered through our registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities.

 

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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 a special resolution which requires the approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check 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.

 

Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to a company’s pre-business combination activity, without approval by a certain percentage of the company’s shareholders. In those companies, amendment of these provisions typically requires approval by between 90% and 100% of the company’s shareholders. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement 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, meaning holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and 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 at least 65% of our ordinary shares; provided that the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association governing the appointment or removal of directors prior to our initial business combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by holders representing at least two-thirds of our outstanding Class B ordinary shares. Our initial shareholders, and their permitted transferees, if any, who collectively beneficially own, on an as-converted basis, 20% of our Class A ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and 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 blank check 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.

 

Our sponsor, executive 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) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares 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 income taxes, if any, divided by the number of the 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, executive officers and 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.

 

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. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

Although we believe that the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet selected any prospective target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed business combination. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The current economic environment may make difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. 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. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account 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, on an as-converted basis, 20% 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 sponsor nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Report. 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, our board of directors, whose members were elected by our sponsor, is and will be divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being elected in each year. We may not hold an annual general meeting to elect new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual general meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for appointment and our sponsor, because of its ownership position, will control the outcome, as only holders of our Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors and to remove directors prior to our initial business combination. Accordingly, our sponsor will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.

 

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 50% of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of our Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.

 

Our warrants are issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% 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 in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, 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) that 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.

 

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. 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 the forum provisions of the 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 holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.

 

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This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s 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.

 

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 closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share subdivisions, 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 proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met. 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. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. 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.

 

In addition, we may redeem your warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration at a price of $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of Class A ordinary shares determined based on the redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants. None of the private placement warrants or the forward purchase warrants are redeemable by us (except as described herein) so long as they are held by our sponsor or the forward purchase investor, as applicable, or their respective 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 public warrants to purchase 4,000,000 of our Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered by our initial public offering and, simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, we issued in a private placement 4,333,333 private placement warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant. We may also issue up to 1,000,000 forward purchase warrants pursuant to the forward purchase agreement. In addition, if the sponsor makes any working capital loans, it may convert up to $1,500,000 of such loans into up to an additional 1,000,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.50 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.

 

Because each unit contains one-fifth of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.

 

Each unit contains one-fifth of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants were issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units 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-fifth 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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A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.

 

Unlike most blank check companies, if (i) we issue additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination (other than the forward purchase securities) at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per 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 on the date of the consummation of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted 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 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 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.

 

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 a proxy statement with respect to a vote on our proposed business combination include historical and/or 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, or GAAP, or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or 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), or 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 statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering.

 

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 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 $700,000,000 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.

  

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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 until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250,000,000 as of the prior June 30, and (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100,000,000 during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700,000,000 as of the prior June 30. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.

 

Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate a business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.

 

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. 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 acquisition.

 

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 executive officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.

 

Our corporate affairs and the rights of shareholders 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 will also be 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 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 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 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.

 

Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like the company have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records or to obtain copies of the register of members of these companies. Our directors have discretion under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.

 

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We have been advised by Maples and Calder (Cayman) LLP, 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.

 

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 contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions will include a staggered board of directors, the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference shares, and the fact that prior to the completion of our initial business combination only holders of our Class B ordinary shares, which have been issued to our sponsor, are entitled to vote on the appointment of directors, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.

 

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.

 

Since only holders of our founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of Nasdaq rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

 

Only holders of our founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. As a result, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq corporate governance standards. Under the Nasdaq corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, 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 the rules of Nasdaq;

 

  we have a compensation committee of our board with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and

 

  we have a nominating and corporate governance committee of our board with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities.

 

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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 Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.

 

Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries

 

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 a 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;

 

  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;

 

  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;

 

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  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.

 

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 combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

  

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 may 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 social conditions and government 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 country’s 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.

 

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Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’ 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. 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.

 

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 SEC, 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 seeking a business combination target.

 

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.

 

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

 

None.

 

Item 2. Properties

 

We maintain our principal executive offices at One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10017, and our telephone number (212) 303-1650. The cost for our use of this space is included in the $10,000 per month fee we pay to an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, administrative and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.

 

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

 

To the knowledge of our management, there is no litigation currently pending or contemplated against us, any of our officers or directors in their capacity as such or against any of our property.

 

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

 

Not applicable.

 

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PART II

 

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

(a) Market Information

 

Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq under the symbols “ORIAU”, “ORIA” and “ORIAW” respectively. Our units commenced public trading on May 13, 2021. Our Class A ordinary shares and warrants began separate trading on July 1, 2021.

 

(b) Holders

 

As of March 29, 2023, there was one holder of record of our units, one holder of record of our Class A ordinary shares, one holder of record of our Class B ordinary shares and two holders of record of our warrants.

 

(c) 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 a 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 a business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to a 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 share dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.

 

(d) Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

 

None.

  

(e) Performance Graph

 

Not applicable.

 

(f) Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings.

 

On February 8, 2021, our sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain offering costs on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares. On February 25, 2021, our sponsor surrendered 1,437,500 Class B ordinary shares for no consideration, resulting in an aggregate of 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. On February 25, 2021 and on April 9, 2021, our sponsor transferred 40,000 founder shares to each of our independent directors. Furthermore, on June 28, 2021, upon receiving notification from the underwriter that it would not exercise its over-allotment option, our sponsor surrendered 750,000 Class B ordinary shares for no consideration. All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the share surrenders. As of December 31, 2022, there were 5,000,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding, and our sponsor held 4,880,000 Class B ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares were issued to our sponsor in connection with our organization pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.

 

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Concurrently with the closing of the initial public offering, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,333,333 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A Ordinary share at $11.50 per share ($6.5 million in the aggregate), in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants was added to the proceeds from the initial public offering held in the trust account. If the company does not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The private placement warrants are substantially similar to the warrants underlying the units issued in the initial public offering, except that they are non-redeemable and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees. The sponsor and the company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their private placement warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial business combination. The sale of the private placement warrants was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.

 

No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to such sales.

 

Use of Proceeds

 

In connection with the initial public offering, we incurred offering costs of approximately $11.6 million (including underwriting commissions of $4.6 million and deferred underwriting commissions of approximately $7 million). Other incurred offering costs consisted principally of preparation fees related to the initial public offering. After deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions (excluding the deferred portion, which amount will be payable upon consummation of the initial business combination, if consummated) and the initial public offering expenses, $200.0 million of the net proceeds from our initial public offering and certain of the proceeds from the private placement of the private placement warrants (or $10.00 per Unit sold in the initial public offering) was placed in the trust account. The net proceeds of the initial public offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants are held in the trust account and invested as described elsewhere in this Report.

 

There has been no material change in the planned use of the proceeds from the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants as is described herein related to the initial public offering.

 

(g) Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

 

None.

 

Item 6. [Reserved]

 

Not applicable.

 

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

 

References to the “Company,” “Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp.,” “Orion” “our,” “us” or “we” refer to Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp. The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s 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.

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “continue,” or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect management’s current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements.

 

Overview

 

The Company is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on February 5, 2021. The Company was incorporated for the purpose of effecting a Business Combination. 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, 2022, the Company had not yet commenced operations. All activity for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2022 relates to the Company’s formation and the Initial Public Offering, which is described below. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial business combination, at the earliest. The Company generates non-operating income in the form of interest income from the proceeds derived from the Initial Public Offering. The Company has selected December 31 as its fiscal year end.

 

The registration statement for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on April 28, 2021. On May 17, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering generating gross proceeds of $200.0 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $11.6 million, of which $7.0 million was for deferred underwriting commissions. The Company granted the underwriter a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 Units at the Initial Public Offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. On June 28, 2021, the over-allotment option expired and was not exercised.

 

Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant to the sponsor, generating proceeds of $6.5 million.

 

Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement, $200.0 million ($10.00 per Unit) of the net proceeds of the sale of the Units in the Initial Public Offering and of the Private Placement Warrants in the Private Placement were invested in Government Securities that were placed in the Trust Account with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, 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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The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of its Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. The Company’s initial Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time the Company signs a definitive agreement in connection with the initial Business Combination. However, the Company will only complete a Business Combination if the post-Business Combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target business or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

 

The Company will provide the “public shareholders” with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a general meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek shareholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company. The public shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially at $10.00 per share). The per-share amount to be distributed to public shareholders who redeem their Public Shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriter. These Public Shares were recorded at a redemption value and classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering, in accordance with ASC 480. In such case, the Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation of a Business Combination and a majority of the shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a shareholder vote is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements and the Company does not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, the Company will, pursuant to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, a shareholder approval of the transactions is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or the Company decides to obtain shareholder 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. Additionally, 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 the Company seeks shareholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the Initial Shareholders agreed to vote their Founder Shares and any Public Shares purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of a Business Combination. In addition, the Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and Public Shares in connection with the completion of a Business Combination. In addition, the Company agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial Business Combination without the prior consent of the sponsor.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association will 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 redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% or more of the Class A ordinary shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, without the prior consent of the Company.

 

The Company’s sponsor, officers, and directors agreed not to propose an amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association (A) to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to allow the redemption of its Public Shares in connection with a Business Combination or to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if the Company does not complete a Business Combination the Combination Period or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless the Company provides the public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares in conjunction with any such amendment.

 

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If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Company 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and 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 the remaining shareholders and the board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject, in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to the Company’s obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law.

 

In connection with the redemption of 100% of the Company’s outstanding Public Shares for a portion of the funds held in the Trust Account, each holder will receive a full pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay the Company’s taxes payable (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses).

 

The Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the Initial Shareholders should acquire Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriter agreed to waive its rights to its deferred underwriting commission held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Company’s Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the residual assets remaining available for distribution in the Trust Account will be less than the $10.00 per share initially held in the Trust Account. In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the sponsor agreed that it will 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 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) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account, if less than $10.00 per 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 the Company’s indemnity of the underwriter of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, 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 vendors, service providers (except the Company’s 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. There can be no guarantee that the Company will be successful in obtaining such waivers from its targeted vendors and service providers.

 

Liquidity and Going Concern

 

As of December 31, 2022, the Company had approximately $267,000 in its operating bank account and working capital of approximately $372,000.

 

The Company’s liquidity needs prior to the consummation of the Initial Public Offering were satisfied through the payment of $25,000 from the sponsor to cover certain expenses on the Company’s behalf in exchange for issuance of Founder Shares, a loan from the sponsor of approximately $120,000 under the Note. The Company repaid the Note in full upon closing of the Initial Public Offering. Subsequent to the consummation of the Initial Public Offering, the Company’s liquidity has been satisfied through the net proceeds from the Private Placement held outside of the Trust Account. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the sponsor or an affiliate of the sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide the Company Working Capital Loans (as defined in Note 4). As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loan.

 

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In connection with our assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with Financial Accounting Standard Board’s Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” we have until May 17, 2023 to consummate the proposed Business Combination. We do not have adequate liquidity to sustain operations, however, management believes that we have access to funds pursuant to a commitment letter from the Sponsor that will enable it to sustain operations until it completes its initial Business Combination. If a business combination is not consummated by this date, there will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution. Management has determined that the liquidity needs, mandatory liquidation (should a business combination not occur), and potential subsequent dissolution, raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should we be required to liquidate after May 17, 2023. We intend to complete the proposed Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to consummate any business combination by May 17, 2023.

 

Risk and Uncertainties

 

In February 2022, the Russian Federation and Belarus commenced a military action with the country of Ukraine. As a result of this action, various nations, including the United States, have instituted economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and Belarus. Further, the impact of this action and related sanctions on the world economy are not determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The specific impact on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows is also not determinable as of the date of these financial statements.

 

Results of Operations

 

Our entire activity from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2022 was in preparation for our formation and the Initial Public Offering and subsequent to the Initial Public Offering, search for an initial Business Combination. We will not be generating any operating revenues until the closing and completion of our initial Business Combination.

 

For the year ended December 31, 2022, we had a net income of approximately $8.8 million, which consisted of approximately $6.8 million in non-operating gain resulting from the change in fair value of derivative liabilities, and approximately $2.9 million of income from investments held in the Trust Account, offset by approximately $780,000 of general and administrative expenses, and approximately $120,000 of general and administrative expenses to related party.

 

For the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had a net loss of approximately $724,000, which consisted of approximately $554,000 of general and administrative expenses, and approximately $75,000 of general and administrative expenses to related party, approximately $239,000 in offering cost associated with derivative warrant liabilities, and approximately $107,000 loss on forward purchase agreement, offset by approximately $242,000 from change in fair value of derivative liabilities, and approximately $9,000 of income from investments held in the trust account.

 

Other Contractual Obligations

 

Registration and Shareholder Rights

 

The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants, Class A ordinary shares underlying the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to the registration and shareholder rights agreement. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.

 

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Pursuant to the forward purchase agreement, the Company has agreed to use reasonable best efforts (i) to file within 30 days after the closing of the initial business combination a registration statement with the SEC for a secondary offering of the forward purchase shares and the forward purchase warrants (and underlying Class A ordinary shares), (ii) to cause such registration statement to be declared effective promptly thereafter but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the initial filing, (iii) to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement until the earliest of (A) the date on which the sponsor or its assignees cease to hold the securities covered thereby and (B) the date all of the securities covered thereby can be sold publicly without restriction or limitation under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and (iv) after such registration statement is declared effective, causes the Company to conduct firm commitment underwritten offerings, subject to certain limitations. In addition, the forward purchase agreement provides for “piggy-back” registration rights to the holders of forward purchase securities to include their securities in other registration statements filed by the Company.

 

Underwriting Agreement

 

The Company granted the underwriter a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional Units at the Initial Public Offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On June 28, 2021, the over-allotment option expired and was not exercised.

 

The underwriter was entitled to an underwriting discount of $0.20 per unit, or $4.0 million in the aggregate, paid upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.35 per unit, or $7.0 million in the aggregate will be payable to the representative for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the representative 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.

 

Forward Purchase Agreement 

 

On May 12, 2021, the Company entered the Forward Purchase Agreement with the sponsor, pursuant to which the sponsor agreed to purchase up to $20,000,000 of Forward Purchase Units. Each Forward Purchase Unit will consist of one Forward Purchase Share and one-fifth of one Forward Purchase Warrant and will be sold at a purchase price of $10.00 per Forward Purchase Unit in a private placement concurrently with the closing of the initial Business Combination. The obligations of the sponsor under the Forward Purchase Agreement do not depend on whether any Class A ordinary shares held by public shareholders are redeemed by the Company and the amount of Forward Purchase Units sold pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreement will be subject to the sponsor’s sole discretion. The proceeds from the sale of the Forward Purchase Units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial Business Combination, expenses in connection with the initial Business Combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company. The Forward Purchase Shares will generally be identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units being sold in the Initial Public Offering, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights. The Forward Purchase Warrants will have the same terms as the Private Placement Warrants so long as they are held by MSD Partners or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

 

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

 

Derivative Liabilities

 

We do not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market, or foreign currency risks. We evaluate all of our financial instruments, including issued stock purchase warrants and forward purchase agreement, to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives, pursuant to ASC 480 and ASC 815. The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is re-assessed at the end of each reporting period.

 

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The Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants are recognized as derivative liabilities in accordance with ASC 815. Accordingly, we recognized the warrant instruments as liabilities at fair value and adjusts the carrying value of the instruments to fair value at each reporting period until they are exercised. The estimated fair value of the Public Warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering were initially estimated using a Monte Carlo simulation model. As the transfer of Private Placement Warrants to anyone who is not a permitted transferee would result in the Private Placement Warrants having substantially the same terms as the Public Warrants, we determined that the fair value of each Private Placement Warrant is equivalent to that of each Public Warrant. The fair value of the Warrants as of December 31, 2022 is based on observable listed prices for such warrants. The determination of the fair value of the warrant liability may be subject to change as more current information becomes available and accordingly the actual results could differ significantly. Derivative warrant liabilities are classified as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.

 

We entered into a forward purchase agreement with forward purchasers pursuant to which the forward purchasers will purchase up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units at a price equal to $10.00 per unit, in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Business Combination. Each forward purchase unit will consist of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share, with such warrants having the same terms as the Private Placement Warrants. The forward purchase agreement is recognized as a derivative liability in accordance with ASC 815. Accordingly, the Company recognizes the instrument as a liability at fair value and adjusts the instrument to fair value at each reporting period.

 

Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption

 

We account for our Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A 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 our control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. Our Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of our control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, as of Initial Public Offering, 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ deficit section of the Company’s balance sheets.

 

We recognized changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Effective with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount, which resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital (to the extent available) and accumulated deficit.

 

Net Income (Loss) Per Ordinary Share

 

We comply with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” We have two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. This presentation assumes a business combination as the most likely outcome. Net income (loss) per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period.

 

The calculation of diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share does not consider the effect of the warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement to purchase an aggregate of 8,333,333 Class A ordinary shares in the calculation of diluted income (loss) per share, because their exercise is contingent upon future events and their inclusion would be anti-dilutive under the treasury stock method. As a result, diluted net income (loss) per share is the same as basic net income (loss) per share for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021. Accretion associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.

 

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Recent Accounting Pronouncements

 

In June 2022, the FASB issued ASU 2022-03, ASC Subtopic 820 “Fair Value Measurement of Equity Securities Subject to Contractual Sale Restrictions”. The ASU amends ASC 820 to clarify that a contractual sales restriction is not considered in measuring an equity security at fair value and to introduce new disclosure requirements for equity securities subject to contractual sale restrictions that are measured at fair value. The ASU applies to both holders and issuers of equity and equity-linked securities measured at fair value. The amendments in this ASU are effective for the Company in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for both interim and annual financial statements that have not yet been issued or made available for issuance. The Company is still evaluating the impact of this pronouncement on the financial statements.

 

Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations.

 

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

 

We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this item.

 

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

 

Reference is made to Pages F-1 through F-21 comprising a portion of this Report.

 

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

 

None.

 

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

 

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

 

Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2022, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that during the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2022.

 

Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in our Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

 

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Management’s Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting

 

As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:

 

 

 

(1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company,
     
  (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and
     
  (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

 

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our consolidated financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. In making these assessments, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013). Based on our assessments and those criteria, management determined that our internal controls over financial reporting were effective as of December 31, 2022.

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include an attestation report of internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm due to our status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act.

 

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, as the circumstances that led to the restatement of our financial statements.

 

Item 9B. Other Information

 

None.

 

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.

 

Not applicable.

 

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PART III

 

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

 

Officers and Directors

 

Our officers and directors are as follows:

 

Name   Age   Position
James Huang   57   Chief Executive Officer and Director
Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk   60   Vice President
Mark Kayal   38   Chief Financial Officer and Secretary
Robert Simonds   49   General Counsel, Assistant Secretary, Vice President and Director
Samuel Broder   78   Director
James Collins   57   Director
Louisa Rodriguez   62   Director

 

James Huang is Orion’s Chief Executive Officer and serves on Orion’s board of directors. Mr. Huang is the Founding Managing Partner of Panacea and has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector as a successful entrepreneur, investor, and an opinion leader. Mr. Huang is also a managing partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers China. He has been involved in the formation, incubation and/or financed several innovative life sciences companies, including GenScript (HK:1548), Sutro Biopharma (NASDAQ: STRO), Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN), Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB), Kindstar Global (HK:9960) and Zhaoke Ophthalmology (HK:6622).

 

Mr. Huang joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers China in 2011 and focuses on the firm’s life sciences practice. Prior to this, Mr. Huang was a Managing Partner at Vivo Ventures, a Venture Capital firm specializing in life sciences investments. Before joining Vivo Ventures in 2007, Mr. Huang was president of Anesiva, a biopharmaceutical company focused on pain-management treatments. During his 20-year career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, he also held senior roles in business development, sales, marketing and R&D with Tularik Inc. (acquired by Amgen), GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and ALZA Corp. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Mr. Huang is Chairman of the Board at Chime Biologics, TriArm Therapeutics, XW Pharma, Alaunos Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TCRT), Windtree Therapeutics (NASDAQ: WINT) and serves as a director on the boards of CASI Pharma (NASDAQ: CASI), Tactiva Therapeutics and Kindstar Global. Mr. Huang invested in GenScript (HK: 1548), including its subsidiary Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN), when it was a small U.S. venture backed company, participating in its growth into a revenue-generating company with a multi-billion dollar valuation and public listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Mr. Huang received an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. We believe that Mr. Huang’s management experience, as well as his investing experience in the biotechnology sector make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

 

Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk is a Vice President of Orion. Ms. Bedrij Stecyk is a Co-Founder and Principal of Griffin Securities, an equity research and investment banking firm specializing in biotechnology, technology, and energy. She has over 20 years of experience in biotechnology as a research analyst, investment banker, business development professional, and incubator of new biotechnology companies. Her experience spans multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare disease, and the central nervous system across a wide range of modalities.

 

In 2013 she incubated and co-founded Agilis Therapeutics, which was purchased by PTC Therapeutics in 2018 for approximately $1 billion in cash, stock, and milestones, excluding royalties. She is also co-founder and manager of several new private companies focused on developing state-of-the-art therapeutics. Ms. Bedrij Stecyk has served on the board of directors of Vaccinex (NASDAQ: VCNX) since May 2020 and is a member of the audit committee. She has a Master of Business Administration in Finance from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Vassar College.

 

Mark Kayal is Orion’s Chief Financial Officer and Secretary. Mr. Kayal is a Managing Director in the Finance Group of BDT & MSD Partners. Prior to joining BDT & MSD Partners in 2011, Mr. Kayal was a Senior Auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Banking and Capital Markets Practice. Mr. Kayal holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting & Philosophy from the University of Scranton. Mr. Kayal is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

 

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Samuel Broder, M.D. serves on our board of directors. Prior to his retirement, Dr. Broder was Senior Vice President from 2012 to June 2016 and Head of the Health Sector from 2015 to June 2016 for Intrexon Corporation, a synthetic biology company. Prior to Intrexon, he served as the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Celera Corporation from 1998 to 2010. Prior to Celera, Dr. Broder served as Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at IVAX Corporation from 1995 to 1998.

 

Dr. Broder served as the director of the National Cancer Institute from 1989 to 1995 appointed by President Ronald Reagan, where he oversaw the development of numerous anti-cancer therapeutic agents. Dr. Broder has served as a member of the board of directors of Sensei Biotherapeutics since April 2019.

 

Dr. Broder received a B.S. from University of Michigan and an M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, with post-graduate training at Stanford University in Palo Alto. We believe that Dr. Broder’s experience in the biotechnology and medical fields make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

 

James Collins, Ph.D., serves on Orion’s board of Directors. Dr. Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a Member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty. He is also a Core Founding Faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, and his research group is focused on using synthetic biology to create next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics.

 

Dr. Collins has co-founded several biotechnology and life sciences companies, including Synlogic (NASDAQ: SYBX), Cellarity, Senti Biosciences, and Sherlock Biosciences. He serves on the Board of Directors of Cellarity, Sherlock Biosciences, and Fulcrum Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FULC). Dr. Collins also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of multiple biotechnology and life sciences companies, including Synlogic, Senti Biosciences, Shape Therapeutics, and Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR).

 

Dr. Collins has received numerous awards for his research in biotechnology, including a MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Dickson Prize in Medicine, and a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. He is an elected member of all three national academies — the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine — in addition to the American Academy of Arts & Science and the National Academy of Inventors.

 

Dr. Collins received a B.A. in physics from the College of the Holy Cross and a doctorate in medical engineering from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. We believe that Dr. Collins’ business experience in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

 

Louisa (Lucy) Rodriguez is Executive Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (“CEMEX”) (NYSE: CX). She has over 25 years of experience in international finance and capital markets. She joined CEMEX in 2006 in the Investor Relations Department where she has been involved in more than $15 billion of equity and fixed income fundraising efforts. She also represents CEMEX in the international financial community and works closely with equity and fixed income investors. She is also responsible for CEMEX’s global communications effort and plays an integral role in the development of their climate action strategy and works closely with equity and fixed income investors. She is also responsible for CEMEX’s global communications effort and plays an integral role in the development of their climate action strategy.

 

Prior to CEMEX, Ms. Rodriguez spent 15 years at Citibank where she worked in capital markets origination, debt syndicate and securitization financing for Emerging Market issuers. In her early career, she worked for KPMG in their Audit Department. She also sits on the board of MSD Investment Corp and previously sat on the board of Trinidad Cement Ltd. Ms. Rodriguez holds a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College, an MBA from New York University and a Masters from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She has been a Certified Public Accountant (lapsed). We believe Ms. Rodriguez’s experience in finance and capital markets makes her well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

 

Robert Simonds is the General Counsel, Assistant Secretary, Vice President and a member of our board of directors. Mr. Simonds is a Partner of BDT & MSD Partners. He joined BDT & MSD Partners in February 2015. Immediately prior to BDT & MSD Partners, he was the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Saba Capital Management. Prior to Saba, Mr. Simonds worked as the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and COO of Talpion Fund Management, L.P., as well as the Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Litigation and Corporate Counsel at Silver Point Capital. He began his legal career as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which he joined in 2003 after completing a federal clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

 

Mr. Simonds received a B.A. from Hamilton College, an Ed.M from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. We believe Mr. Simonds’ legal experience as well as his compliance experience make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

 

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Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors

 

Our board of directors is divided into three classes, with only one class of directors being elected in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Samuel Broder and James Collins, will expire at our first annual general meeting. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Louisa Rodriguez, will expire at our second annual general meeting. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of James Huang and Robert Simonds, will expire at our third annual general meeting.

 

Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.

 

Pursuant to an agreement entered into with our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial business combination will be entitled to nominate three individuals for appointment to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.

 

Our officers are appointed by the board of directors on such terms, to perform such duties, and subject to such provisions as to disqualification and removal as the board of directors may think fit, as provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.

 

Involvement in certain 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.

 

Director Independence

 

Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. 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 with the company which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, could interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We have “independent directors” as defined in Nasdaq’s listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.

 

Committees of the Board of Directors

 

We have three standing committees: an audit committee, a nominating committee and a compensation committee. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq and Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised 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. Samuel Broder, James Collins and Louisa Rodriguez serve as members of our audit committee. Louisa Rodriguez serves as the Chairperson of the audit committee. Each member of the audit committee meets the financial literacy requirements of Nasdaq and our board of directors has determined that Louisa Rodriguez qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.

 

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The audit committee is responsible for:

 

  meeting with our independent registered public accounting firm regarding, among other issues, audits, and adequacy of our accounting and control systems;

 

  monitoring the independence of the independent registered public accounting firm;

 

  verifying the rotation of the lead (or coordinating) audit partner having primary responsibility for the audit and the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit as required by law;

 

  inquiring and discussing with management our compliance with applicable laws and regulations;

 

  pre-approving all audit services and permitted non-audit services to be performed by our independent registered public accounting firm, including the fees and terms of the services to be performed;

 

  appointing or replacing the independent registered public accounting firm;

 

  determining the compensation and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm (including resolution of disagreements between management and the independent registered public accounting firm regarding financial reporting) for the purpose of preparing or issuing an audit report or related work;

 

  establishing procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by us regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or reports which raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies;

 

  monitoring compliance on a quarterly basis with the terms of our initial public offering and, if any noncompliance is identified, immediately taking all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise causing compliance with the terms of our initial public offering; and

 

  reviewing and approving all payments made to our existing shareholders, executive officers or directors and their respective affiliates. Any payments made to members of our audit committee will be reviewed and approved by our board of directors, with the interested director or directors abstaining from such review and approval.

 

Nominating Committee

 

We have established a nominating committee of our board of directors. The members of our nominating committee are Samuel Broder, James Collins and Louisa Rodriguez, and Samuel Broder serves as chairman of the nominating committee.

 

The nominating committee is responsible for overseeing the selection of persons to be nominated to serve on our board of directors. The nominating committee considers persons identified by its members, management, shareholders, investment bankers and others.

 

Guidelines for Selecting Directors

 

The guidelines for selecting directors, which are specified in a charter adopted by us, generally provide that persons to be nominated:

 

  should have demonstrated notable or significant achievements in business, education or public service;

 

  should possess the requisite intelligence, education and experience to make a significant contribution to the board of directors and bring a range of skills, diverse perspectives and backgrounds to its deliberations; and

 

  should have the highest ethical standards, a strong sense of professionalism and intense dedication to serving the interests of the shareholders.

 

The nominating committee will consider a number of qualifications relating to management and leadership experience, background and integrity and professionalism in evaluating a person’s candidacy for membership on the board of directors. The nominating committee may require certain skills or attributes, such as financial or accounting experience, to meet specific board needs that arise from time to time and will also consider the overall experience and makeup of its members to obtain a broad and diverse mix of board members. The nominating committee does not distinguish among nominees recommended by shareholders and other persons.

 

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Compensation Committee

 

We have established a compensation committee of our board of directors. The members of our compensation committee are Samuel Broder, James Collins, and Louisa Rodriguez, and James Collins serves as chairman of the compensation committee.

 

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 Officer’s compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration, if any, of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation;

 

  reviewing and approving the compensation of all of our other Section 16 executive 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 executive 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.

 

The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other adviser and is directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.

 

Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation

 

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

 

Code of Ethics

 

We have adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. A copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on Form 8-K.

 

Corporate Governance Guidelines

 

Our board of directors has adopted corporate governance guidelines in accordance with the corporate governance rules of the Nasdaq that serve as a flexible framework within which our board of directors and its committees operate. These guidelines cover a number of areas including board membership criteria and director qualifications, director responsibilities, board +agenda, roles of the chairman of the board, chief executive officer and presiding director, meetings of independent directors, committee responsibilities and assignments, board member access to management and independent advisors, director communications with third parties, director compensation, director orientation and continuing education, evaluation of senior management and management succession planning. A copy of our corporate governance guidelines is posted on our website.

 

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Conflicts of Interest

 

Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:

 

  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;

 

  duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose;

 

  directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion;

 

  duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders;

 

  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

 

  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 amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.

 

Certain of our officers and directors presently have, 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. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to identify and pursue business combination opportunities or to complete our initial business combination.

 

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

 

INDIVIDUAL   ENTITY   ENTITY’S BUSINESS   AFFILIATION
James Huang   Panacea   Biotechnology   Founding Manager Partner
    Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers   Biotechnology   Managing Partner
    Chime Biologics   Biotechnology   Board Chairman
    TriArm Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Chairman
    XW Pharma   Biotechnology   Board Chairman
    Alaunos Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Executive Chairman; Board Chairman
    Windtree Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Chairman
    CASI Pharma   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Tactiva Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Kindstar Global   Biotechnology   Board Member
             
Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk   Aletheia Biotherapeutics LLC   Biotechnology   Manager
    Griffin Securities   Investment Banking   Co-Founder; Principal and Board Member
    Healing Genes LLC   Biotechnology   Manager
    Maavrx Ltd.   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Myrtelle LLC   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Vaccinex   Biotechnology   Board Member
    OncXerna   Biotechnology   Board Member
             
Mark Kayal   BDT & MSD Partners, L.P.(1)   Asset Management   Managing Director, Finance
             
Robert Simonds   BDT & MSD Partners, L.P.(1)   Asset Management   Partner
             
Samuel Broder   Catalytic Data Science   Software/Life Sciences   Board Member
    Geneos Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Sensei Biotherapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Member
             
James Collins   Cellarity   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Fulcrum Therapeutics   Biotechnology   Board Member
    Sherlock Biosciences   Biotechnology   Board Member
             
Louisa Rodriguez   CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V.   Heavy Building Materials   Executive Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
    MSD Investment Corp.   Asset Management   Board Member

 

  (1) Includes all affiliates and portfolio companies.

 

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

 

  Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a 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 executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs.

 

  Our sponsor and our management team have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in connection with (i) the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed 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 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity. Additionally, our sponsor has agreed to waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to its founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the required time period. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Except as described herein, our sponsor and our management team have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earliest of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination and (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) 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 150 days after our initial business combination, or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. With certain limited exceptions, the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares underlying such warrants, will not be transferable until 30 days following the completion of our initial business combination. Because each of our executive 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.

 

  Our sponsor, officers or directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a business combination and financing arrangements as we may obtain loans from our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or any of our officers or directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.

 

We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, founders, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our founders, 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 or an independent valuation or accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context. Furthermore, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid by us any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination. Further, commencing on the date our securities were first listed on the Nasdaq, we have also been reimbursing our sponsor for office space, administrative support and other services provided to us in the amount of up to $10,000 per month.

 

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

 

If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we obtain the approval of an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy, who attend and vote at a general meeting of the Company.

 

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Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors

 

Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a company’s 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, willful neglect, civil fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides for 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 have 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.

 

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 (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). 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 shareholder’s 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.

 

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Item 11. Executive Compensation

 

Executive Officer and Director Compensation

 

The following disclosure concerns the compensation of our executive officers and directors for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 (i.e., pre-business combination).

 

None of our executive officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date that our securities were first listed on the Nasdaq through the earlier of the consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation, we will reimburse our sponsor for office space, administrative support and other services provided to us in the amount of up to $10,000 per month. In addition, our sponsor, executive 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 reviews on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made using 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 executive 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 finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.

 

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 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 business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.

 

We do not intend to take any action to ensure that members of our management team maintain their positions with us after the consummation of our initial business combination, although it is possible that some or all of our executive officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our initial business combination. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their positions with us may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a 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 executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.

 

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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 Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares as of December 31, 2022 based on information obtained from the persons named below, with respect to the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares, by:

 

  each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our outstanding ordinary shares;

 

  each of our executive officers and directors that beneficially owns ordinary shares; and

 

  all our executive officers and directors as a group.

 

In the table below percentage ownership is based on 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares (which includes Class A ordinary shares that are underlying the units) and 5,000,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding as of December 31, 2022. 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. Voting power represents the combined voting power of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares owned beneficially by such person. On all matters to be voted upon, the holders of the Class A ordinary shares and the Class B ordinary shares vote together as a single class. Currently, all of the Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares on a one-for-one basis. The table below does not include the Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares underlying the private placement warrants held by our sponsor because these securities are not exercisable within 60 days of this Report.

 

   Class B ordinary shares   Class A ordinary shares 
Name of Beneficial Owners(1)  Number of Shares
Beneficially Owned
   Approximate
Percentage of Class
   Number of Shares
Beneficially Owned
   Approximate
Percentage of Class
 
Orion Sponsor Holdings, LLC (our sponsor)(2)   4,880,000    97.6%        
James Huang(3)                
Chrystyna Bedrij Stecyk(3)                
Mark Kayal                
Robert Simonds                
Samuel Broder   40,000    *         
James Collins   40,000    *         
Louisa Rodriguez   40,000    *         
All officers and directors as a group (7 individuals)   120,000    2.4%        
Fir Tree Capital Management LP(4)           1,000,000    5.0%
Gerald D. Hosier(5)             1,500,000    7.5%
683 Capital Management, LLC(6)           1,200,000    6.0%
Vellar Opportunities Fund Master, Ltd.(7)           1,000,000    5.0%

 

*Less than one-percent.

 

(1)Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following entities or individuals is One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, New York 10017.

 

(2)Our sponsor is the record holder of such shares. Our sponsor is managed by a board of managers comprised of James Huang, John Phelan, and Robert Platek, who control the sponsor.

 

(3)Does not include any shares indirectly owned by this individual as a result of his or her membership interest in our sponsor.

 

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(4)The address of Fir Tree Capital Management LP is 55 West 46th Street, 29th Floor New York, NY 10036. Based on a Schedule 13G filed on February 14, 2022.

 

(5)The address of both Gerald D. Hosier and Gerald D. Hosier Revocable Trust (the “Trust”) is 2020 Red Mountain Rd. Aspen, CO 81611 based on a Schedule 13G filed on October 15, 2021 (the “Gerald Hosier 13G”).

 

According to the Gerald Hosier 13G, Gerald D. Hosier is the Trustee of the Trust. Due to the above ownership structure, holdings for Gerald Hosier and the Trust are aggregated for the purposes of this filing.

 

(6)The address of 683 Capital Management, LLC, 683 Capital Partners, LP and Ari Zweiman is 3 Columbus Circle, Suite 2205, New York, NY 10019 based on a Schedule 13G filed on June 29, 2021 (the “683 Capital Management 13G”).

 

According to the 683 Capital Management 13G, as of May 13, 2021, and as of June 29, 2021, 683 Capital Partners, LP beneficially owned 1,200,000 ordinary shares. 683 Capital Management, LLC, as the investment manager of 683 Capital Partners, LP, may be deemed to have beneficially owned the 1,200,000 ordinary shares beneficially owned by 683 Capital Partners, LP. Ari Zweiman, as the Managing Member of 683 Capital Management, LLC, may be deemed to have beneficially owned the 1,200,000 Ordinary Shares beneficially owned by 683 Capital Management, LLC.

 

(7)Based on a Schedule 13G filed on May 21, 2021 (the “Vellar Opportunities 13G”), the address of Vellar Opportunities Fund Offshore, Ltd. (“Vellar”) is Solaris Avenue, Camana Bay PO Box 1348 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands and the address of Cohen & Company Financial Management, LLC, Dekania Investors, Cohen & Company LLC, Cohen & Company Inc. and Daniel Cohen (collectively, “Cohen”) is 3 Columbus Circle, Suite 2400, New York, New York 10019 United States. Vellar and Cohen exercise shared power to vote or to direct the vote of 1,000,000 Class A ordinary shares.

 

Our sponsor, officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoter” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.

 

Changes in Control

 

None.

 

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Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

 

On February 8, 2021, our sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain offering costs on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares, or “founder shares.” On February 25, 2021, our sponsor surrendered 1,437,500 founder shares for no consideration, resulting in an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares outstanding. On February 25, 2021 and on April 9, 2021, our sponsor transferred 40,000 founder shares to each of our independent directors. Furthermore, on June 28, 2021, upon receiving notification from the underwriter that it would not exercise its over-allotment option, our sponsor surrendered 750,000 founder shares for no consideration. All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the share surrenders. As a result, as of December 31, 2022, there were 5,000,000 founder shares outstanding, and our sponsor owned 4,880,000 founder shares. The founder shares were issued to our sponsor in connection with our organization pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The founder shares (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder.

 

Our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,333,333 private placement warrants for a purchase price of $1.50 per warrant in a private placement that occurred simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. As such, our sponsor’s interest in this transaction is valued at approximately $6,500,000. Each private placement warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. The private placement warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination.

 

Prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, we entered into a forward purchase agreement with the forward purchase investor providing for the purchase of up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units, at a purchase price of $10.00 per unit, in a private placement which occurred concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. The number of forward purchase units to be purchased by the forward purchase investor will be subject to the forward purchase investor’s sole discretion. The obligation to purchase the forward purchase units is subject to customary closing conditions, including that our initial business combination must be consummated substantially concurrently with, and immediately following, the purchase of forward purchase units. The proceeds from the sale of forward purchase units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in our initial business combination, expenses in connection with our initial business combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company. The forward purchase shares will generally be identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units being sold in our initial public offering, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights, as described herein. The forward purchase warrants will have the same terms as the private placement warrants so long as they are held by the forward purchase investor or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

If any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that falls within the line of business of any 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 opportunity to such entity. Our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us.

 

We currently maintain our executive offices at One Vanderbilt Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, New York 10017. The cost for our use of this space is included in the up to $10,000 per month fee we pay to our sponsor for office space, administrative support and other services, commencing on the date that our securities were first listed on the Nasdaq. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.

 

No compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid to our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. However, these individuals 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 reviews on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on the reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by such persons in connection with activities on our behalf.

 

Prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, our sponsor agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of our initial public offering. These loans were non-interest bearing, unsecured and were due at the earlier of June 30, 2021 or the closing of our initial public offering. The loan was repaid upon the closing of our initial public offering out of the estimated $1,500,000 of offering proceeds that was allocated to the payment of offering expenses and that was not held in the trust account.

 

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In addition, 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 an initial business combination, we may repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. In the event that the 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 $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of such loans by our officers and directors, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates 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.

 

After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to our shareholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, furnished to our shareholders. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of distribution of such tender offer materials or at the time of a general meeting held to consider our initial business combination, as applicable, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation.

 

We entered into a registration and shareholder rights agreement pursuant to which our initial shareholders, and their permitted transferees, if any, are entitled to certain registration rights with respect to the private placement warrants, the securities issuable upon conversion of working capital loans, if any, and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the foregoing and upon conversion of the founder shares. Further, our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for appointment to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.

 

Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions

 

Our audit committee must review and approve any related person transaction we propose to enter into. Our audit committee charter details the policies and procedures relating to transactions that may present actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest and may raise questions as to whether such transactions are consistent with the best interest of our company and our shareholders.

 

At its meetings, the audit committee shall be provided with the details of each new, existing, or proposed related party transaction, including the terms of the transaction, any contractual restrictions that the company has already committed to, the business purpose of the transaction, and the benefits of the transaction to the company and to the relevant related party. Any member of the committee who has an interest in the related party transaction under review by the committee shall abstain from voting on the approval of the related party transaction, but may, if so requested by the chairman of the committee, participate in some or all of the committee’s discussions of the related party transaction. Upon completion of its review of the related party transaction, the committee may determine to permit or to prohibit the related party transaction.

 

Director Independence

 

Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. Our board of directors has determined that Samuel Broder, James Collins, and Louisa Rodriguez are “independent directors” as defined in the listing standards of Nasdaq. Our independent directors have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.

 

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Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services

 

The following is a summary of fees paid to WithumSmith+Brown, PC for services rendered.

 

Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end financial statements, reviews of our quarterly financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings. The aggregate fees billed by WithumSmith+Brown, PC for audit fees, inclusive of required filings with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, and of services rendered in connection with our initial public offering, totaled approximately $97,000 and $88,000, respectively.

 

Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our year-end financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any audit-related fees for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.

 

Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any tax fees for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.

 

All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any other fees for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.

 

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PART IV

 

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statements Schedules

 

  (a) The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report:

 

  (1) Financial Statements

 

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm F-2
Financial Statements:  
Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 F-3
Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-4
Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Deficit for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-5
Statements of Cash Flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-6
Notes to Financial Statements F-7 to F-21

 

  (2) Exhibits

 

We hereby file as part of this Annual Report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index. Exhibits which are incorporated herein by reference can be obtained from the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

 

Exhibit No.   Description
3.1   Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association.(2)
4.1   Description of Securities.*
10.1   Warrant Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Company.(2)
10.2   Investment Management Trust Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Company.(2)
10.3   Registration and Shareholder Rights Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, among the Company, the Sponsor and the Holders signatory thereto.(2)
10.4   Private Placement Warrants Purchase Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between the Company and the Sponsor.(2)
10.5   Administrative Services Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between the Company and the Sponsor.(2)
10.6   Securities Subscription Agreement, dated February 8, 2021, between the Company and the Sponsor.(1)
10.7   Letter Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between the Company, the Sponsor and each director and executive officer of the Registrant.(2)
10.8   Forward Purchase Agreement, dated May 12, 2021, between the Company and Orion Sponsor Holdings, LLC(2)
31.1   Certification of the Chief Executive Officer required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).*
31.2   Certification of the Chief Financial Officer required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).*
32.1   Certification of the Chief Executive Officer required by Rule 13a-14(b) or Rule 15d-14(b) and 18 U.S.C. 1350**
32.2   Certification of the Chief Financial Officer required by Rule 13a-14(b) or Rule 15d-14(b) and 18 U.S.C. 1350**
101.INS   Inline XBRL Instance Document
101.SCH   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema
101.CAL   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase
101.DEF   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase
101.LAB   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase
101.PRE   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase
104   Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101)

 

*Filed herewith

 

**Furnished herewith

 

(1)Incorporated by reference to the registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1, filed with the SEC on May 4, 2021.

 

(2)Incorporated by reference to the registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on May 18, 2021.

 

Item 16. Form 10-K Summary

 

Not applicable.

 

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SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10-K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

 

March 29, 2023 ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.
     
  /s/ James Huang
  Name: James Huang
  Title: Chief Executive Officer and Director
    (Principal Executive Officer)

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

 

/s/ James Huang

  Chief Executive Officer and Director   March 29, 2023
James Huang   (Principal Executive Officer)    
         

/s/ Mark Kayal

  Chief Financial Officer and Secretary   March 29, 2023
Mark Kayal   (Principal Financial Officer and
Principal Accounting Officer)
   
         

/s/ Robert Simonds

  General Counsel, Assistant Secretary,
Vice President and Director
  March 29, 2023
Robert Simonds        
         

/s/ Samuel Broder

  Director   March 29, 2023
Samuel Broder        
         

/s/ James Collins

  Director   March 29, 2023
James Collins        
         

/s/ Louisa Rodriguez

  Director   March 29, 2023
Louisa Rodriguez        

 

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ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

  Page
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm F-2
Financial Statements:  
Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 F-3
Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-4
Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Deficit for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-5
Statements of Cash Flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the Period from February 5, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 F-6
Notes to Financial Statements F-7 to F-21

 

F-1

 

 

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

 

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of

Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp.

 

Opinion on the Financial Statements

 

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders’ deficit and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 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, 2022 and 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

 

Going Concern

 

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the financial statements, if the Company is unable to complete a business combination by May 17, 2023, then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

 

Basis for Opinion

 

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our 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 Company’s 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/ WithumSmith+Brown, PC

 

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.

 

New York, New York

March 29, 2023

 

PCAOB ID Number 100 

 

F-2

 

 

ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.

BALANCE SHEETS

 

   December 31, 
   2022   2021 
Assets:        
Current assets:        
Cash  $265,717   $712,474 
Prepaid expenses   173,603    640,559 
Total current assets   439,320    1,353,033 
Investments held in Trust Account   202,893,466    200,008,578 
Total Assets  $203,332,786   $201,361,611 
           
Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit:          
Current liabilities:          
Accounts payable  $7,718   $11,631 
Accrued expenses   59,875    70,000 
Total current liabilities   67,593    81,631 
Derivative liabilities   1,264,167    8,035,251 
Deferred underwriting commissions in connection with the initial public offering   7,000,000    7,000,000 
Total Liabilities   8,331,760    15,116,882 
           
Commitments and Contingencies   
 
    
 
 
           
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption; 20,000,000 shares at redemption value at approximately $10.14 and $10.00 per share as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively   202,793,465    200,000,000 
           
Shareholders’ Deficit:          
Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 5,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2022 and 2021   
-
    
-
 
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 500,000,000 shares authorized; no non-redeemable shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2022 and 2021   
-
    
-
 
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 50,000,000 shares authorized; 5,000,000 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2022 and 2021   500    500 
Additional paid-in capital   
-
    
-
 
Accumulated deficit   (7,792,939)   (13,755,771)
Total shareholders’ deficit   (7,792,439)   (13,755,271)
Total Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit  $203,332,786   $201,361,611 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

 

F-3

 

 

ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.

STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

 

   For the Year
Ended
December 31,
2022
   For the
Period from
February 5,
2021
(Inception)
through
December 31,
2021
 
General and administrative expenses  $779,674   $553,689 
General and administrative expenses - related party   120,000    74,516 
Loss from operations   (899,674)   (628,205)
Other income (expenses):          
Offering costs associated with derivative liabilities   
-
    (239,453)
 Loss on forward purchase agreements   
-
    (107,400)
Change in fair value of derivative liabilities   6,771,084    241,982 
Income earned on investments held in Trust Account   2,884,887    8,578 
Net income (loss)  $8,756,297   $(724,498)
           
Weighted average number of shares outstanding of Class A ordinary shares, basic and diluted
   20,000,000    13,878,788 
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per share, Class A ordinary shares
  $0.35   $(0.04)
Weighted average number of shares outstanding of Class B ordinary shares, basic and diluted
   5,000,000    4,909,091 
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per share, Class B ordinary shares
  $0.35   $(0.04)

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

 

F-4

 

 

ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.

STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2022 AND FOR THE PERIOD FROM FEBRUARY 5, 2021
(INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021

 

   Ordinary Shares   Additional       Total 
   Class A   Class B   Paid-in   Accumulated   Shareholders’ 
   Shares   Amount   Shares   Amount   Capital   Deficit   Deficit 
Balance - February 5, 2021 (inception)   
      -
   $
        -
    
-
   $
-
   $
-
   $
-
   $
-
 
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor   
-
    
-
    5,750,000    575    24,425    
-
    25,000 
Excess of cash received over fair value of private placement warrants and forward purchase   -    
-
    -    
-
    2,237,767    
-
    2,237,767 
Forfeiture of Class B ordinary shares   
-
    
-
    (750,000)   (75)   75    
-
    
-
 
Accretion of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption amount   -    
-
    -    
-
    (2,262,267)   (13,031,273)   (15,293,540)
Net loss   -    
-
    -    
 
    
-
    (724,498)   (724,498)
Balance - December 31, 2021   
-
    
-
    5,000,000    500    
-
    (13,755,771)   (13,755,271)
Increase in redemption value of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption   -    
-
    -    
-
    
-
    (2,793,465)   (2,793,465)
Net income   -    
-
    -    
-
    
-
    8,756,297    8,756,297 
Balance - December 31, 2022   
-
   $
-
    5,000,000   $500   $
-
   $(7,792,939)  $(7,792,439)

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

 

F-5

 

 

ORION BIOTECH OPPORTUNITIES CORP.

STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

 

   For the
Year Ended
December 31,
2022
   For the
Period from
February 5,
2021
(Inception)
through
December 31,
2021
 
Cash Flows from Operating Activities:        
Net income (loss)  $8,756,297   $(724,498)
Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash used in operating activities:          
Offering costs associated with derivative liabilities   
-
    239,453 
General and administrative expenses paid by related party under promissory note   
-
    10,320 
General and administrative expenses paid by related party in exchange for issuance of Class B ordinary shares   
-
    25,000 
Loss on forward purchase agreement   
-
    (107,400)
Change in fair value of derivative liabilities   (6,771,084)   (27,182)
Income earned on investments held in Trust Account   (2,884,887)   (8,578)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:          
Prepaid expenses   466,956    (640,559)
Accounts payable   (3,913)   11,631 
Accrued expenses   59,874    
-
 
Net cash used in operating activities   (376,757)   (1,221,813)
           
Cash Flows from Investing Activities          
Cash deposited in Trust Account   
-
    (200,000,000)
Net cash used in investing activities   
-
    (200,000,000)
           
Cash Flows from Financing Activities:          
Proceeds from note payable to related party   
-
    22,360 
Repayment of note payable to related party   
-
    (120,433)
Proceeds received from initial public offering, gross   
-
    200,000,000 
Proceeds received from private placement   
-
    6,500,000 
Offering costs paid   (70,000)   (4,467,640)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities   (70,000)   201,934,287 
           
Net change in cash   (446,757)   712,474 
           
Cash - beginning of the period   712,474    
-
 
Cash - end of the period  $265,717   $712,474 
           
Supplemental disclosure of noncash financing activities:          
Offering costs included in accrued expenses  $
-
   $70,000 
Offering costs paid by related party under promissory note  $
-
   $87,753 
Deferred underwriting commissions in connection with the initial public offering  $
-
   $7,000,000 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

 

F-6

 

 

NOTE 1. DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS

 

Organization and General

 

Orion Biotech Opportunities Corp. (the “Company”) is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on February 5, 2021. The Company was incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses that the Company has not yet identified (“Business Combination”). 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, 2022, the Company had not yet commenced operations. All activity for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2022 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”), which is described below, and since the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the search for a prospective Business Combination. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income from the proceeds derived from the Initial Public Offering. The Company has selected December 31 as its fiscal year end.

 

The Company’s sponsor is Orion Sponsor Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Sponsor”). The registration statement for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on April 28, 2021. On May 17, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 20,000,000 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 $200.0 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $11.6 million, of which $7.0 million was for deferred underwriting commissions (see Note 5). The Company granted the underwriter a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 Units at the Initial Public Offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. On June 28, 2021, the over-allotment option expired and was not exercised. Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one redeemable warrant (“Public Warrant”). Each whole Public Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50 per share subject to adjustment (see Note 8).

 

Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the private placement (“Private Placement”) of 4,333,333 warrants (each, a “Private Placement Warrant” and collectively, the “Private Placement Warrants”) at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant to the Sponsor, generating proceeds of $6.5 million (see Note 4).

 

Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement, $200 million ($10.00 per Unit) of the net proceeds of the sale of the Units in the Initial Public Offering and of the Private Placement Warrants in the Private Placement were placed in a trust account (“Trust Account”) with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee and invested in United States “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”) having a maturity of 185 days (“Government Securities”) 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 (“Money Market Funds”, and collectively with Government Securities, the “Trust Investments”), 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.

 

The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of its Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. The Company’s initial Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time the Company signs a definitive agreement in connection with the initial Business Combination. However, the Company will only complete a Business Combination if the post-Business Combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target business or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

 

F-7

 

 

The Company will provide its holders of the Public Shares (the “Public Shareholders”) with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a general meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek shareholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially at $10.00 per share). The per-share amount to be distributed to Public Shareholders who redeem their Public Shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriter (as discussed in Note 6). These Public Shares were recorded at a redemption value and classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering, in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity” (“ASC 480”). In such case, the Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation of a Business Combination and a majority of the shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a shareholder vote is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements and the Company does not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, the Company will, pursuant to the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (the “Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association”), conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, a shareholder approval of the transactions is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or the Company decides to obtain shareholder 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. Additionally, 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 the Company seeks shareholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the holders of the Founder Shares prior to this Initial Public Offering (the “Initial Shareholders”) agreed to vote their Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5) and any Public Shares purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of a Business Combination. In addition, the Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and Public Shares in connection with the completion of a Business Combination. In addition, the Company agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial Business Combination without the prior consent of the Sponsor.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association will 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 redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% or more of the Class A ordinary shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, without the prior consent of the Company.

 

The Company’s Sponsor, officers and directors agreed not to propose an amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association (A) to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to allow the redemption of its Public Shares in connection with a Business Combination or to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if the Company does not complete a Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, or May 17, 2023 (the “Combination Period”) or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless the Company provides the public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares in conjunction with any such amendment.

 

If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Company 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and 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 the remaining shareholders and the board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject, in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to the Company’s obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law.

 

F-8

 

 

In connection with the redemption of 100% of the Company’s outstanding Public Shares for a portion of the funds held in the Trust Account, each holder will receive a full pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay the Company’s taxes payable (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses).

 

The Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the Initial Shareholders should acquire Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriter agreed to waive its rights to its deferred underwriting commission (see Note 7) held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Company’s Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the residual assets remaining available for distribution in the Trust Account will be less than the $10.00 per share initially held in the Trust Account. In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsor agreed that it will 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 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) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account, if less than $10.00 per 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 the Company’s indemnity of the underwriter of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). 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 vendors, service providers (except the Company’s 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. There can be no guarantee that the Company will be successful in obtaining such waivers from its targeted vendors and service providers.

 

Emerging Growth Company

 

As an emerging growth company, the Company 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 of 2002, 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.

 

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 an emerging growth 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 Company’s 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.

 

F-9

 

 

Liquidity and Going Concern

 

As of December 31, 2022, the Company had approximately $267,000 million in its operating bank account and working capital of approximately $372,000.

 

The Company’s liquidity needs prior to the consummation of the Initial Public Offering were satisfied through the payment of $25,000 from the Sponsor to cover certain expenses on the Company’s behalf in exchange for issuance of Founder Shares (as defined in Note 4), a loan from the Sponsor of approximately $120,000 under the Note (as defined in Note 4). The Company repaid the Note in full upon closing of the Initial Public Offering. Subsequent to the consummation of the Initial Public Offering, the Company’s liquidity has been satisfied through the net proceeds from the Private Placement held outside of the Trust Account. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide the Company Working Capital Loans (as defined in Note 4). As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loan.

 

In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” the Company has until May 17, 2023 to consummate the proposed Business Combination. The Company does not have adequate liquidity to sustain operations, however, management believes that the Company has access to funds pursuant to a commitment letter from the Sponsor that will enable it to sustain operations until it completes its initial Business Combination. If a business combination is not consummated by this date, there will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution of the Company. Management has determined that the liquidity needs, mandatory liquidation (should a business combination not occur), and potential subsequent dissolution, raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after May 17, 2023. The Company intends to complete the proposed Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date. However, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to consummate any business combination by May 17, 2023.

 

NOTE 2. BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

 

Basis of Presentation

 

The accompanying financial statements are 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 SEC.

 

Use of Estimates

 

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires 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 income and 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 short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company does not have any cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022 and 2021.

 

Investments Held in Trust Account

 

The Trust Investments are presented on the balance sheets at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities is included in income on investments held in the Trust Account in the accompanying statement of operations. The estimated fair values of the Trust Investments are determined using available market information.

 

F-10

 

 

Concentrations of Credit Risk

 

The Company has significant cash balances at financial institutions, which throughout the year regularly exceed the federally insured limit. Any loss incurred or a lack of access to such funds could have a significant adverse impact on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

 

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

 

The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities which qualify as financial instruments under the FASB ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements,” equals or approximates the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheets, except for the derivative warrant liabilities (see Note 9).

 

Fair Value Measurements

 

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received for sale of an asset or paid for transfer of a liability, in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. GAAP establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements). These tiers consist of:

 

  Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical instruments in active markets;

 

  Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable such as quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets or quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and

 

  Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions, such as valuations derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant inputs or significant value drivers are unobservable.

 

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.

 

Derivative Liabilities

 

The Company does not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market, or foreign currency risks. The Company evaluates all of its financial instruments, including issued stock purchase warrants and forward purchase agreements, to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives, pursuant to ASC 480 and FASB ASC Topic 815-40, “Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity” (“ASC 815-40”). The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is re-assessed at the end of each reporting period.

 

The Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants are recognized as derivative liabilities in accordance with ASC 815. Accordingly, the Company recognizes the warrant instruments as liabilities at fair value and adjusts the carrying value of the instruments to fair value at each reporting period until they are exercised. The estimated fair value of the Public Warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering were initially estimated using a Monte Carlo simulation model. For periods where no observable traded price is available, the fair value continues to be estimated using a Monte Carlo simulation. As the transfer of Private Placement Warrants to anyone who is not a permitted transferee would result in the Private Placement Warrants having substantially the same terms as the Public Warrants, the Company determined that the fair value of each Private Placement Warrant is equivalent to that of each Public Warrant. The fair value of the Warrants as of December 31, 2022 is based on observable listed prices for such warrants. The determination of the fair value of the warrant liability may be subject to change as more current information becomes available and accordingly the actual results could differ significantly. Derivative warrant liabilities are classified as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.

 

F-11

 

 

The Company entered into a forward purchase agreement with forward purchasers pursuant to which the forward purchasers will purchase up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units at a price equal to $10.00 per unit, in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Business Combination. Each forward purchase unit will consist of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share, with such warrants having the same terms as the Private Placement Warrants. The forward purchase agreement is recognized as a derivative liability in accordance with ASC 815. Accordingly, the Company recognizes the instrument as a liability at fair value and adjusts the instrument to fair value at each reporting period.

 

Offering Cost Associated with the Initial Public Offering

 

Offering costs consisted of legal, accounting, underwriting fees and other costs incurred through the Initial Public Offering that were directly related to the Initial Public Offering. Offering costs are allocated to the separable financial instruments issued in the Initial Public Offering based on a relative fair value basis, compared to total proceeds received. Offering costs allocated to derivative warrant liabilities were expensed as incurred, presented as non-operating expenses in the statements of operations. Offering costs associated with the Class A ordinary shares were charged against the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares issued are charged to shareholders’ equity upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering. The Company classifies deferred underwriting commissions as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.

 

Class A 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 ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A 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 Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. The Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, as of Initial Public Offering, 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ deficit section of the Company’s balance sheets.

 

The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Effective with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount, which resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital (to the extent available) and accumulated deficit.

 

Income Taxes

 

The Company complies with the accounting and reporting requirements of FASB ASC Topic 740 “Income Taxes,” which prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. The Company’s management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Company’s only major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. There were no unrecognized tax benefits and no amounts accrued for interest and penalties as of December 31, 2022 and 2021. The Company is currently not aware of any issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviation from its position.

 

There is currently no taxation imposed on income by the Government of the Cayman Islands. In accordance with Cayman federal income tax regulations, income taxes are not levied on the Company. Consequently, income taxes are not reflected in the Company’s financial statement. The Company’s management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.

 

F-12

 

 

Net Income (Loss) Per Ordinary Share

 

The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. This presentation assumes a business combination as the most likely outcome. Net income (loss) per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period.

 

The calculation of diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share does not consider the effect of the warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement to purchase an aggregate of 8,333,333 Class A ordinary shares in the calculation of diluted income (loss) per share, because their exercise is contingent upon future events and their inclusion would be anti-dilutive under the treasury stock method. As a result, diluted net income (loss) per share is the same as basic net income (loss) per share for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021. Accretion associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.

 

The following table reflects presents a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator used to compute basic and diluted net income (loss) per share for each class of ordinary shares:

 

   For the
Year Ended
December 31,
2022
   For the Period
from
February 5, 2021
(Inception)
through
December 31,
2021
 
   Class A   Class B   Class A   Class B 
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share:                
Numerator:                
Allocation of net income (loss)  $7,005,038   $1,751,259   $(535,194)  $(189,304)
                     
Denominator:                    
Basic and diluted weighted average ordinary shares outstanding
   20,000,000    5,000,000    13,878,788    4,909,091 
                     
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share
  $0.35   $0.35   $(0.04)  $(0.04)

 

Recent Accounting Standards

 

In June 2022, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2022-03, ASC Subtopic 820 “Fair Value Measurement of Equity Securities Subject to Contractual Sale Restrictions”. The ASU amends ASC 820 to clarify that a contractual sales restriction is not considered in measuring an equity security at fair value and to introduce new disclosure requirements for equity securities subject to contractual sale restrictions that are measured at fair value. The ASU applies to both holders and issuers of equity and equity-linked securities measured at fair value. The amendments in this ASU are effective for the Company in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for both interim and annual financial statements that have not yet been issued or made available for issuance. The Company is still evaluating the impact of this pronouncement on the financial statements.

 

Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.

 

F-13

 

 

NOTE 3. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

 

On May 17, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 20,000,000 Units, at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $200.0 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $11.6 million, of which $7.0 million was for deferred underwriting commissions.

 

Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-fifth of one Public Warrant. Each whole Public Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment (see Note 6).

 

NOTE 4. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

 

Founder Shares

 

On February 8, 2021, the Sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain offering costs on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares (the “Founder Shares”). On February 25, 2021, the Sponsor surrendered 1,437,500 Class B ordinary shares for no consideration, resulting in an aggregate of 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. The Sponsor agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 750,000 Founder Shares to the extent that the over-allotment option was not exercised in full by the underwriter, so that the Founder Shares will represent 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 25, 2021, the Sponsor transferred 40,000 Founder Shares to each of the independent directors. The recipient will not be subject to the forfeiture provisions described above. On June 28, 2021, the over-allotment option expired, and the Sponsor forfeited 750,000 of Class B ordinary shares.

 

The Initial Shareholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of: (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination or earlier if, subsequent to the initial Business Combination, the closing price of the Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, capitalization of shares, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, and (B) the date following the completion of the initial Business Combination on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of the Company’s shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property.

 

Private Placement Warrants

 

Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 4,333,333 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant to the Sponsor, generating proceeds of $6.5 million.

 

Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one whole 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 was added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable except as described below in Note 7 and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees.

 

The Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Private Placement Warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination.

 

F-14

 

 

Forward Purchase Agreement

 

On May 12, 2021, the Company entered into a forward purchase agreement (the “Forward Purchase Agreement”) with the Sponsor, pursuant to which the Sponsor agreed to purchase up to $20,000,000 of forward purchase units. Each forward purchase unit (the “Forward Purchase Unit”) will consist of one Class A ordinary share (the “Forward Purchase Shares”) and one-fifth of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share (“Forward Purchase Warrant”) and will be sold at a purchase price of $10.00 per Forward Purchase Unit in a private placement concurrently with the closing of the initial Business Combination. The obligations of the Sponsor under the Forward Purchase Agreement do not depend on whether any Public Shares are redeemed by the Company and the amount of Forward Purchase Units sold pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreement will be subject to the Sponsor’s sole discretion. The proceeds from the sale of the Forward Purchase Units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial Business Combination, expenses in connection with the initial Business Combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company. The Forward Purchase Shares will generally be identical to the Public Shares, except that they will be entitled to certain registration rights. The Forward Purchase Warrants will have the same terms as the Private Placement Warrants so long as they are held by MSD Partners or its permitted assignees and transferees.

 

Related Party Loans

 

On February 8, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $300,000 to be used for the payment of costs related to the Initial Public Offering pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). The Note was non-interest bearing, unsecured and due upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. The Company had borrowed approximately $120,000 under the Note. The Company repaid the Note in full upon closing of the Initial Public Offering. Subsequent to the repayment, the facility is no longer available to the Company.

 

In addition, 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, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are 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. Otherwise, the Working Capital Loans may be repaid only out of funds held outside the Trust Account. 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. The Working Capital Loans would either be repaid upon consummation of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the lender’s discretion, up to $1.5 million of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. 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. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, the Company had no borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.

 

Administrative Services Agreement

 

On May 12, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement that provided that, commencing on the date that the Company’s securities were first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of the initial Business Combination or the liquidation, the Company agreed to pay the Sponsor up to $10,000 per month for office space, administrative support and other services provided to members of the Company’s management team. For the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, the Company incurred expenses of approximately $120,000 and $75,000 under this agreement, respectively. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, the Company had no outstanding for services in connection with such agreement on the accompanying balance sheets.

 

In addition, the 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 the Company’s behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. The audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by the Company to the Sponsor, officers or directors, or the Company’s or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial Business Combination will be made from funds held outside the Trust Account. No such amounts were reimbursed or accrued for as of December 31, 2022 and 2021.

 

F-15

 

 

NOTE 5. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

 

Registration and Shareholder Rights

 

The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants, Class A ordinary shares underlying the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to the registration and shareholder rights agreement. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.

 

Pursuant to the forward purchase agreement, the Company has agreed to use reasonable best efforts (i) to file within 30 days after the closing of the initial business combination a registration statement with the SEC for a secondary offering of the forward purchase shares and the forward purchase warrants (and underlying Class A ordinary shares), (ii) to cause such registration statement to be declared effective promptly thereafter but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the initial filing, (iii) to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement until the earliest of (A) the date on which the Sponsor or its assignees cease to hold the securities covered thereby and (B) the date all of the securities covered thereby can be sold publicly without restriction or limitation under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and (iv) after such registration statement is declared effective, causes the Company to conduct firm commitment underwritten offerings, subject to certain limitations. In addition, the forward purchase agreement provides for “piggy-back” registration rights to the holders of forward purchase securities to include their securities in other registration statements filed by the Company.

 

Underwriting Agreement

 

The Company granted the underwriter a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional Units at the Initial Public Offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. The over-allotment option has not been exercised.

 

The underwriter was entitled to an underwriting discount of $0.20 per unit, or $4.0 million in the aggregate, paid upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.35 per unit, or $7.0 million in the aggregate will be payable to the representative for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the representative 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.

 

Risks and Uncertainties

 

In February 2022, the Russian Federation and Belarus commenced a military action with the country of Ukraine. As a result of this action, various nations, including the United States, have instituted economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and Belarus. Further, the impact of this action and related sanctions on the world economy is not determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The specific impact on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows is also not determinable as of the date of these financial statements.

 

F-16

 

 

NOTE 6. WARRANTS

 

In connection with the Initial Public Offering, 4,000,000 and 4,333,333 Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, respectively, were issued.

 

No fractional Public Warrants will be issued upon separation of the Units and only whole Public Warrants will trade. The Public Warrants will become exercisable on the later of (a) 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination and (b) 12 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering; provided in each case that the Company has an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Public Warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available and such shares are registered, qualified or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky, laws of the state of residence of the holder (or the Company permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under certain circumstances). The Company agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of the initial Business Combination, the Company will use commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and to maintain a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement. If a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th day after the closing of the initial 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. Notwithstanding the above, if 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 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” and, in the event the Company so elects, the Company will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, and in the event the Company does not so elect, it will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.

 

The warrants have an exercise price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustments, and will expire five years after the completion of a Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. 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 board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to the Initial Shareholders or their affiliates, without taking into account any Founder Shares held by the Initial Shareholders 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 the initial Business Combination on the date of the consummation of the initial Business Combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume weighted average trading price of Class A ordinary shares during the 10-trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which the Company consummates its initial 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, the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price 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 will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. See “- Redemption of warrants when the price per class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00” and “- Redemption of warrants when the price per class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” (as described below).

 

The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Public Warrants underlying the Units sold in the Initial Public Offering, except (i) that the Private Placement Warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination, subject to certain limited exceptions, (ii) except as described below, the Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable so long as they are held by the Sponsor or such its permitted transferees and (iii) the Sponsor or its permitted transferees will have the option to exercise the Private Placement Warrants on a cashless basis and have certain registration rights. If the Private Placement Warrants are held by someone other than the Sponsor or its 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.

 

Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00:

 

Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may call the outstanding warrants for redemption (except as described herein with respect to the Private Placement Warrants):

 

  in whole and not in part;

 

  at a price of $0.01 per warrant;

 

  upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder; and

 

  if, and only if, the last reported sale price (the “closing price”) of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.

 

F-17

 

 

The Company will not redeem the warrants as described above unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the issuance of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is then effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period.

 

Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00:

 

Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may call the outstanding warrants for redemption (except as described herein with respect to the Private Placement Warrants):

 

  in whole and not in part;

 

  at $0.10 per warrant 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 Class A ordinary shares to be determined by reference to an agreed table based on the redemption date and the “fair market value” of Class A ordinary shares;

 

  if, and only if, the closing price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted) for any 20 trading days within the 30-trading day period ending three trading days before the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and

 

  if the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted), the Private Placement Warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding Public Warrants, as described above.

 

The “fair market value” of Class A ordinary shares for the above purpose shall mean the volume weighted average price of Class A ordinary shares during the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. In no event will the warrants be exercisable on a cashless basis in connection with this redemption feature for more than 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment).

 

If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and the Company liquidates the funds held in the Trust Account, holders of warrants will not receive any of such funds with respect to their warrants, nor will they receive any distribution from the Company’s assets held outside of the Trust Account with the respect to such warrants. Accordingly, the warrants may expire worthless.

 

Note 7. Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption

 

The Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of future events. The Company is authorized to issue 250,000,000 Class A ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each share. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares outstanding subject to possible redemption.

 

The Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption reflected on the balance sheets is reconciled on the following table:

 

Gross proceeds  $200,000,000 
Less:     
Fair value of Public Warrants at issuance   (3,907,600)
Offering costs allocated to Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption   (11,385,940)
Plus:     
Accretion of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption amount   15,293,540 
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption at December 31, 2021   200,000,000 
Increase in redemption value of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption   2,793,465 
Class A common stock subject to possible redemption at December 31, 2022  $202,793,465 

 

F-18

 

 

NOTE 8. SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

 

Preference Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 5,000,000 preference shares with such designations, voting and other rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by the Company’s board of directors. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were no preference shares issued or outstanding.

 

Class A Ordinary Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each share. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021 there were 20,000,000 Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding, which were all subject to possible redemption and have been classified as temporary equity (see Note 7).

 

Class B Ordinary Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were 5,000,000 Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding.

 

Ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders and holders of Class A ordinary shares and holders of Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of the shareholders except as required by law; provided that only holders of Class B ordinary shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors prior to or in connection with the completion of the initial Business Combination.

 

Class A and Class B ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders. Except as described below, holders of Class A ordinary shares and holders of Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of the shareholders except as required by law. Prior to the initial Business Combination, only holders of the Founder Shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of the Public Shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial Business Combination, holders of a majority of the Founder Shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. The provisions of the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association governing the appointment or removal of directors prior to the initial Business Combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by holders representing at least two- thirds of the issued and outstanding Class B ordinary shares.

 

The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares on the first business day following the consummation of the initial Business Combination at a ratio such that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Founder Shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as- converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares issued and outstanding upon the consummation of the Initial Public Offering, plus the sum of 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 (net of any redemptions of Class A ordinary shares by Public Shareholders), excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, deemed issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial Business Combination and any Private Placement Warrants issued to the Sponsor, members of the founding team or any of their affiliates upon conversion of Working Capital Loans. In no event will the Class B ordinary shares convert into Class A ordinary shares at a rate of less than one-to-one.

 

F-19

 

 

NOTE 9. FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS

 

The following table presents information about the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 by level within the fair value hierarchy:

 

December 31, 2022  Quoted
Prices in
Active
Markets
(Level 1)
   Significant
Other
Observable
Inputs
(Level 2)
   Significant
Other
Unobservable
Inputs
(Level 3)
 
Assets:            
Investments held in Trust Account - Mutual funds  $202,893,465   $
-
   $
-
 
Liabilities:               
Derivative warrant liabilities - Public Warrants  $
-
   $606,800   $
-
 
Derivative warrant liabilities - Private Warrants  $
-
   $657,367   $
-
 

 

December 31, 2021  Quoted
Prices in
Active
Markets
(Level 1)
   Significant
Other
Observable
Inputs
(Level 2)
   Significant
Other
Unobservable
Inputs
(Level 3)
 
Assets:            
Investments held in Trust Account - Mutual funds  $200,008,578   $
-
   $
-
 
Liabilities:               
Derivative warrant liabilities - Public Warrants  $3,840,000   $
-
   $
-
 
Derivative warrant liabilities - Private Warrants  $
-
   $
-
   $4,195,251 

 

Transfers to/from Levels 1, 2, and 3 are recognized at the beginning of the reporting period. The estimated fair value of Public Warrants of $4,618,400 was transferred from a Level 3 fair value measurement to a Level 1 measurement, when the Public Warrants were separately listed and traded in July 2021. The estimated fair value of Public Warrants was transferred from a Level 1 measurement to a Level 2 measurement due to lack of trading activity as of June 30, 2022. The Public Warrants were still held at Level 2 as of December 31, 2022, due to low trading volume. The estimated fair value of the Private Warrants was transferred from a Level 3 measurement to a Level 2 fair value measurement in September 2022, as the transfer of Private Placement Warrants to anyone who is not a permitted transferee would result in the Private Placement Warrants having substantially the same terms as the Public Warrants, the Company determined that the fair value of each Private Placement Warrant is equivalent to that of each Public Warrant. There were no other transfers to/from Levels 1, 2, and 3 for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.

 

Level 1 instruments include investments in mutual funds invested in U.S. government securities and derivative warrant liabilities (Public Warrants). The Company uses inputs such as actual trade data, quoted market prices from dealers or brokers, and other similar sources to determine the fair value of its investments.

 

The initial estimated fair value of the Public Warrants was measured at fair value using a Monte Carlo simulation. Since the Public Warrants were being traded in an active market and the Private Placement Warrants have substantially the same terms as the Public Warrants, the fair value of Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants have been measured using the publicly observable trading price. The Company determined that the Private Placement Warrants have substantially the same terms as Public Warrants in September 2022. Prior to that, the Company was using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the fair value of the Private Placement Warrants.

 

F-20

 

 

The estimated fair value of the Public Warrants, Private Placement Warrants and forward purchase agreement, prior to the Public Warrants being traded in an active market, was determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in a Monte Carlo simulation are assumptions related to expected stock-price volatility, expected life, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield. The Company estimates the volatility of its warrants based on implied volatility from the Company’s traded warrants and from historical volatility of select peer company’s shares that matches the expected remaining life of the warrants. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero-coupon yield curve on the grant date for a maturity similar to the expected remaining life of the warrants. The expected life of the warrants is assumed to be equivalent to their remaining contractual term. The dividend rate is based on the historical rate, which the Company anticipates remaining at zero. Any changes in these assumptions can change the valuation significantly.

 

   December 31,
2021
 
Exercise price  $11.50 
Stock price  $9.67 
Volatility   5% - 14.7%
Term (years)   5 
Estimated time to consummation of Business Combination (years)   0.69 
Risk-free rate   1.32%
Dividend yield   0.0%

 

The change in the fair value of the derivative liabilities, measured using Level 3 inputs, for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from February 5, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 is summarized as follows:

 

Derivative liabilities at February 5, 2021 (inception)  $
-
 
Issuance of Public and Private Warrants   8,156,433 
Forward Purchase Agreement   107,400 
Transfer of Public Warrants to Level 1   (4,618,400)
Change in fair value of derivative liabilities   549,818 
Derivative liabilities at December 31, 2021   4,195,251 
Change in fair value of derivative liabilities   (3,509,721)
Transfer of Public Warrants to Level 2   (685,530)
Derivative liabilities at December 31, 2022  $
-
 

 

NOTE 10. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

 

The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred up to the date 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, which have not previously been recognized or disclosed within the financial statements.

 

 

F-21