☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Cayman Islands | 98-1598139 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
2333 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 630 | ||
Coral Gables, FL | 33134 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) |
Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||
Units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant | TOACU | The Nasdaq Global Market | ||
Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share | TOAC | The Nasdaq Global Market | ||
Redeemable warrants, each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A ordinary share, each at an exercise price of $11.50 per share | TOACW | The Nasdaq Global Market |
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||
Non-accelerated filer | ☒ | Smaller reporting company | ☒ | |||
Emerging growth company | ☒ |
Auditor Firm ID: | Auditor Name: | Auditor Location: | ||
688 | Marcum LLP | Houston, TX |
TALON 1 ACQUISITION CORP.
Annual Report on Form
Table of Contents
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PART IV | ||||||
Item 15. | 89 | |||||
Item 16. | 89 | |||||
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form
Forward-looking statements in this Annual 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 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;
our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination;
our pool of prospective target businesses;
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.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual
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results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described under the heading “Risk Factors.” Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
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RISK FACTORS SUMMARY
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in the section titled “Risk Factors,” alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Such risks include, but are not limited to:
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.
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.
we may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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 will be unsuccessful and that you will have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
the requirement that we complete an initial business combination within 15 months after the closing (or 1824 months after the closing of our initial public offering if we extend the period of time to consummate a business combination) 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 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.
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.
if we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (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 business combination.
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.
because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
we may issue additional ordinary shares or preferred shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue
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Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one |
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.
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.
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.
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 at least the next 15 months (or the next 18 months24months if we extend the period of time to consummate a business combination), 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.
provisions in our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and Cayman Islands law may have the effect of inhibiting a takeover of us and discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
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.
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PART I
Item 1. | Business. |
In this Annual Report, references to the “Company” and to “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Talon 1 Acquisition Corp.
Overview
Talon 1 Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company and incorporated with limited liability, and formed 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 Annual Report as our “initial business combination.” We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us. We may pursue an initial business combination target in any business or industry.
On November 8, 2021, we consummated our initial public offering of 20,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds of $200,000,000. We granted the underwriters of our initial public offering a
Prior to the consummation of our initial public offering, in April 2021, our Sponsor paid $25,000 to purchase 5,750,000 Class B founder shares, or approximately $0.004 per share. On July 23, 2021, our Sponsor transferred, for no consideration, 50,000 founder shares to each of our three independent directors, 10,000 founder shares to each of the two members of the board of advisors, 50,000 founder shares to Ryan Goepel, our Chief Financial Officer, and 75,000 founder shares to Jeremy Falk, our Chief Operating Officer. Prior to the initial investment in the Company of $25,000 by our Sponsor, the Company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the Company by the aggregate number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering would be a maximum of 23,000,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option were exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering.
A total of $235,750,000 of the proceeds from the net proceeds of the sale of the units in our initial public offering, the sale of the over-allotment units, the sale of the over-allotment warrants and the sale of the private placement warrants were placed in a trust account at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank of America, N.A., maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account, none of the funds held in the trust account will be released until the earlier to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination (including the release of funds to pay any amounts due to any public stockholders who properly exercise their redemption rights in connection therewith); (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or
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held in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbols “TOACU,” “TOAC” and “TOACW,” respectively. Our units commenced public trading on November 8, 2021, and our Class A ordinary shares and warrants commenced separate public trading on December 30, 2021.
Opportunity and Target Industries
Through our team’s extensive experience in sourcing, acquiring, operating, developing, growing, financing, and selling businesses in the global aerospace, aviation, and aviation services industries, we have established a robust network that will prove invaluable throughout the sourcing process. The individuals on our team have reputations for reliability and fair dealing with all involved parties as well as critical experience navigating various market conditions, including economic downturns. These connections, reputations, and experiences have created a
steady flow of referrals, resulting in numerous successful transactions for both our management team and Sponsor. We view the extensive network of connections and relationships of our management team and Sponsor as a strong potential source of business combination opportunities. Additionally, we expect various other market participants, including investment banking firms, private equity firms, consultants, and other business enterprises, may present viable target business candidates.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, executive officers or directors, or completing the initial business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our Sponsor, executive officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a target that is affiliated with our Sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions, stating that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
If any of our executive 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-existing fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may be required to present such business combination opportunity to such entity prior to presenting such business combination opportunity to us. Certain of our executive officers currently have certain relevant
fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us. We believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers and directors will not materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Acquisition Criteria
We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will leverage these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into an initial business combination with a target business that does not meet all of these criteria and guidelines. We intend to acquire target businesses that we believe:
• | are industry leaders that have demonstrated consistent top-line growth and/or are benefitting from secular tailwinds; |
• | have defensible and established business models, with sustainable competitive advantages and multiple avenues for growth – though many companies in our industries likely experienced substantial challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we seek companies with fundamentally sound business models that will recover well; |
can potentially benefit from having a public currency to accelerate growth trajectory;
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can benefit from our management team’s operating expertise, industry network, and financing experience;
are not reliant on financial leverage to generate returns;
are at the point in their lifecycle at which going public, with the support of our highly experienced management team and access to our robust industry networks, is a natural next step; and
are valued in such a way, relative to their public peers, that we will be able to offer an attractive risk-adjustedrisk- adjusted return for our stockholders.
We will also assess potential target opportunities based on the criteria described below:
• | Services provided: We will source and evaluate companies focused on one or more of the following services: |
• | Aircraft services: includes fueling, cleaning, maintenance, and supply chain management |
• | Airport services: includes passenger support, cargo handling, and ground handling (such as repositioning, ramp services, etc.) |
• | Asset management: includes aircraft and component leasing – a core competency of our Sponsor |
• | Technology: includes development and sale of aviation software, such as programs related to maintenance and longevity |
• | Aircraft operations: includes transport of passengers and/or cargo in commercial, special mission or private contexts |
• | End market: We will focus on companies that service one or more of the following end markets: (a) commercial passenger airlines, (b) cargo airlines, (c) business aviation operators, and (d) special mission operators. We will seek companies with an international presence, but that primarily serve the US or Europe. |
• | Size: We will pursue targets with an enterprise value between $1.0 billion and $1.5 billion. |
• | Potential for add-on acquisitions: We will actively consider target companies that would serve as a strong platform for post-closing add-on acquisitions. Given our extensive industry networks and collective experience, we believe we will have access to a large number of private equity assets operating in the global aerospace, aviation, and aviation services sectors. Such add-on acquisitions can expedite growth for the target and help to amplify returns for our stockholders. |
This
Initial Business Combination
We will have until 15 months from the closing of our initial public offering to consummate our initial business combination. However, if we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 15 months, we may, by resolution of our board if requested by our Sponsor, extend the period of time to consummate a business combination by an additional threenine months (for a total of up to 1824 months to complete a business combination), subject to the Sponsor providing advance notice and depositing additional funds into the trust account. Pursuant to the terms of our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement between us and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, in order to extend the time
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available for us to consummate our initial business combination by an additional three months, our Sponsor or its affiliates or designees must provide advance notice at least five days prior to the date which is 15 months from the closing of our initial public offering and must deposit into the trust account $2,300,000 ($0.10 per share in either case), on or prior to the date which is 15 months from the closing of our initial public offering. In the event that we receive notice from our Sponsor at least five days prior to the deadline of its wish for us to effect the extension, we intend to issue a press release announcing such intention at least three days prior to the deadline. In addition, we intend to issue a press release the day after the deadline announcing whether or not the funds have been timely deposited. Our Sponsor and its affiliates or designees are not obligated to fund the trust account to extend the time for us to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within the applicable time period, we will redeem 100% of the public shares at a
The Nasdaq listing rules require that 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. Our board of directors will make the determination as to the fair market value of our initial business combination. We refer to this as the “80% of net assets test.” 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. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will be unable to make an independent determination of the fair market value of a target business or target businesses, it may be unable to do so if the board of directors is less familiar or experienced with the target company’s business or there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the company’s assets or prospects. 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.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transactionpost- 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. However, 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 an interest in the target sufficient for the post-transactionpost- transaction company not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination 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. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our 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 is what will be taken into account for purposes of Nasdaq’s 80% of net assets test. If the 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 and we will treat the target businesses together
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as the initial business combination for seeking shareholder approval or for purposes of a tender offer, as applicable. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we are not then listed on Nasdaq for whatever reason, we would no longer be required to meet the foregoing 80% of net assets test.
The net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants released to us from the trust account upon the closing of our initial business combination may be used as consideration to pay the sellers of a target business with which we complete our initial business combination and to pay the deferred underwriting commissions. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or used for redemption of our public shares, we may use the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account following the closing for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies, or for working capital. In addition, we may be required to obtain additional financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination to be used following the closing for general corporate purposes as described above. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following consummation of our initial public offering. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial business combination. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities or otherwise. None of our sponsors, officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination. We may issue a substantial number of additional ordinary shares or preferred 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 conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater
However, our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things that, following our initial public offering and prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will be prohibited from issuing additional securities that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination. These provisions of our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote.
Our Acquisition Process
In evaluating prospective business combinations, we expect to conduct a disciplined due diligence review of issues that we deem important to validating a company’s business quality and assessing growth and value creation opportunities, allowing our management team to price returns relative to potential risks appropriately. This review may encompass, among other things, research related to the company’s industry, markets, products, services and competitors, meetings with incumbent management and
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
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Each of our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. 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 opportunity to such entity. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to identify and pursue business combination opportunities or complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue. Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that we renounce any interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
Our founders and our directors may sponsor, form or participate in other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. As a result, our Sponsor, officers or directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other blank check company with which they may become involved. Although we have no formal policy in place for vetting potential conflicts of interest, our board of directors will review any potential conflicts of interest on
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders in Connection With Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a
Limitations on Redemptions
Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we are not 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
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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 either (i) in connection with a shareholder 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. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while direct mergers with our company and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would require shareholder approval. If we structure a business combination transaction with a target business in a manner that requires shareholder approval, we will not have discretion as to whether to seek a shareholder vote to approve the proposed business combination. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote unless shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement and we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other legal reasons. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on the Nasdaq, we will be required to comply with the Nasdaq rules.
If we hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination, we will:
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.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding ordinary shares voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of our outstanding ordinary shares representing a majority of the voting power of all of our outstanding ordinary shares entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial shareholders will count toward this quorum and have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding ordinary shares
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If we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, we will:
• | conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers; and |
file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
Although we are not required to do so, we currently intend to comply with the substantive and procedural requirements of Regulation 14A in connection with any shareholder vote even if we are not able to maintain our Nasdaq listing or Exchange Act registration.
Upon the public announcement of our business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our Sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule
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
Limitation on Redemption Rights Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Stockholder Approval
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our second 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.” 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 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 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 business combination.
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Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination
Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that we only have the completion window to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, 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
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our Sponsor, officers or directors acquire public shares in or after our initial public offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.
Our Sponsor, officers, directors and director nominees 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 affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights
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 as part of the estimated $1.0 million of cash held outside of the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose.
However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not used to make permitted withdrawals, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account and any tax payments or expenses for the dissolution of the trust, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account and any tax payments or expenses for the dissolution of the trust,
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upon our dissolution would be $10.25. 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
Although we will seek to have all vendors (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), service providers, prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly,
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below (i) $10.25 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to
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reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, 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 if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations and we cannot assure you that our Sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of
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 (other than 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 underwriters of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to approximately $1,124,500 from the proceeds of our initial public offering 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. In the event that our offering expenses and other operating expenses exceed our estimate of $1,775,500, we may fund such excess with funds from the funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses and other operating expenses are less than our estimate of $1,775,500, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.25 per share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law, (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights
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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.
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, and 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 stockholders who 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. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.
Employees
We currently have fourthree executive officers: Mr. Edward J. Wegel (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer), Mr. Ryan Goepel (Chief Financial Officer), and Mr. Jeremy Falk (Chief Operating Officer) and Mr. Jeff Zeunik (Chief Commercial Officer). These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters, but they have devoted and will continue 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.
Corporate Information
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
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
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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
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation
Our executive offices are located at 2333 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 630, Coral Gables, FL 33134 and our phone number is
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 Annual Report, 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 the Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, an Initial Business Combination
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a shareholder vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support that combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination if the business combination would not require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Except as required by applicable law or stock exchange requirement, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Even if we seek shareholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such shareholder approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our outstanding public shares do not approve of the business combination we complete.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our Sponsor, officers, initial shareholders, directors and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our initial shareholders, officers and directors have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree) to vote any founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 8,625,000,1,966,305, or 37.5%20.3%, of the 23,000,0009,682,608 public shares sold in our initial public offeringoutstanding to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted) in order to have such initial business combination approved. We expect that our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares at the time of any such shareholder vote. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, it is more likely that the necessary shareholder approval will be received than would be the case if our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public shareholders.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash unless we seek shareholder approval of such business combination.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of our initial business combination. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, if we do not seek shareholder approval, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding our initial business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
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The 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. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriter will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a business combination and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial business combination. If we are able to consummate an initial business combination,
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares are submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B ordinary shares results in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than
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 will be unsuccessful and that you will 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
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business combination will be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you will not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate, or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within the completion window may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within the completion window. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the timeframe described above. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within the completion window. 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. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at
Our board or our Sponsor may decide not to extend the term we have to consummate our initial business combination, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, and the rights and warrants will be worthless.
We will have until 15 months from the closing of our initial public offering to consummate our initial business combination. However, if we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination
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within 15 months, we may, by resolution of our board if requested by our Sponsor, extend the period of time to consummate a business combination by an additional threenine months (for a total of up to 1824 months to complete a business combination), subject to the Sponsor providing advance notice and depositing additional funds into the trust account as set out below. In order for the time available for us to consummate our initial business combination to be extended, our Sponsor or its affiliates or designees must deposit into the trust account for the three month extension $2,300,000 ($0.10 per share), on or prior to the date which is 15 months from the closing of our initial public offering. Any such payment would be made in the form of a loan. The terms of the promissory note to be issued in connection with any such loan have not yet been negotiated. Our Sponsor and its affiliates or designees are not obligated to fund the trust account to extend the time for us to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within the applicable time period, we will redeem 100% of the public shares at a
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our Sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors and their respective affiliates may elect to purchase shares or public warrants from public shareholders or public warrant holders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our initial shareholders, Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants or a combination thereof in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and the Nasdaq rules. However, other than as expressly stated herein, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions.
In the event that our initial shareholders, Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. We expect that any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent the purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
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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. For example, we may require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.
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 earliest to occur of: (i) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with our initial business combination (including the release of funds to pay any amounts due to any public shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights in connection therewith), (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
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 second 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 in Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” 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.
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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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter 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 through a tender offer. Target businesses 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public shareholders may receive less than $10.25 per share upon our liquidation. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and
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 at least the duration of the completion window, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination, in which case our public shareholders may only receive $10.25 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
As of December 31, 2021,2022, we had cash of $1,090,391$92,674 held outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the duration of the completion window, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, including permitted withdrawals and loans or additional investments from our Sponsor, will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the duration of the completion window; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund
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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 at least the duration of the completion window, 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 for a business combination, to make permitted withdrawals and to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain these loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, only approximately $1,000,000 will be available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. In the event that our offering expenses and other operating expenses exceed our estimate of $1,775,500, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses and other operating expenses are less than our estimate of $1,775,500, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such increase or decrease. If our other sources of working capital are insufficient, we will depend on loans from our Sponsor or management team or a third party to fund our search, to pay our taxes and to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain such loans, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business and we may be unable to complete our initial business combination. We could also be forced to liquidate. None of our Sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500.000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 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 or an affiliate of our Sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.25 per 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
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and our share price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will surface all material issues in relation to a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down
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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
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;
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 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 will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions
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100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window; or (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law. 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, or may result in our liquidation. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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) $10.25 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 $10.25 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, 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 $10.25 per share.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the
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 (other than 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 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. Making such a request of potential target businesses may make our acquisition proposal less attractive to them and, to the extent prospective target businesses refuse to execute such a waiver, it may limit the field of potential target businesses that we might pursue.
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 are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business
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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,
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account,
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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.
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 recent novel coronavirus
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the outbreak of the
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 recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia 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 our target markets.
The 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. Any of the abovementioned factors, or any other negative impact on the global economy, capital markets or other geopolitical conditions resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, could adversely affect our search for a business combination and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a
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business combination. The extent and duration of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting sanctions and any related market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial, particularly if current or new sanctions continue for an extended period of time or if geopolitical tensions result in expanded military operations on a global scale. Any such disruptions may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report. If these disruptions 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 may ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
In addition, the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the impact of sanctions against Russia and the potential for retaliatory acts from Russia, could result in increased cyber-attacks against U.S. companies.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be 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 also may 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 complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules that would, among other items, impose additional disclosure requirements in business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amend the financial statement requirements applicable to business combination transactions involving such companies; update and expand guidance regarding the general use of projections in SEC filings, as well as when projections are disclosed in connection with proposed business combination transactions; increase the potential liability of certain participants in proposed business combination transactions; and impact the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940. These rules, if adopted, whether in the form proposed or in revised form, may materially adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.
The excise tax included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 may decrease the amount of funds available for distribution in connection with a liquidation and may hinder our ability to consummate an initial Business Combination.
On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IR Act”) was signed into federal law. The IR Act provides for, among other things, a new U.S. federal 1% excise tax on certain repurchases (including redemptions) of stock by publicly traded domestic corporations and certain domestic subsidiaries of publicly traded foreign corporations. The excise tax is imposed on the repurchasing corporation itself, not its stockholders from which shares are repurchased. The amount of the excise tax is generally 1% of the fair market value of the shares repurchased at the time of the repurchase. However, for purposes of calculating the excise tax, repurchasing corporations are permitted to net the fair market value of certain new stock issuances against the fair market value of stock repurchases during the same taxable year. In addition, certain exceptions apply to the excise tax. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has been given authority to provide regulations and other guidance to carry out and prevent the abuse or avoidance of the excise tax. The IR Act applies only to repurchases that occur after December 31, 2022.
Although we were incorporated in the Cayman Islands, there is a possibility that we may acquire a U.S. domestic corporation or engage in a transaction in which a domestic corporation becomes our parent or our affiliate. While not free from doubt, absent any further guidance, it is possible that the excise tax will apply to any redemptions of our shares after December 31, 2022, including redemptions made in connection with an initial Business Combination or redemptions made if we are unable to consummate a Business Combination by or before the Completion Window. The application of the excise tax to any redemptions we make after December 31, 2022
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could potentially reduce the per-share amount that our public stockholders would otherwise be entitled to received. In addition, the excise tax may make a transaction with us less appealing to potential business combination targets, and thus, potentially hinder our ability to enter into and consummate an initial Business Combination.
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 seek to complete a business combination with an operating company in any industry, sector or location. However, we will not, under our second 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 identified or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination with us, 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 cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any securityholders who choose to remain securityholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such securityholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value of their securities.
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We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside of our management’s areas of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our company. 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 Annual 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 related to such acquisition. Accordingly, any securityholders who choose to remain securityholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such securityholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek business combination opportunities with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings, which could subject us to volatile revenues, cash flows or earnings or difficulty in retaining key personnel.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenues, cash flows or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include volatile revenues, cash flows or earnings and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not 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.
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As the number of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could 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 seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, more effort and more resources to identify a suitable target and to consummate an initial business combination.
In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination.
This could delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination.
We may issue additional ordinary shares or preferred 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 Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater
Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorizes the issuance of up to 800,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 199,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 undesignated preferred shares, par value $0.0001 per share. As of March 30, 2022,April 14, 2023, there are 800,000,000790,317,392 and 193,250,000 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance, which amount does not take into account Class A ordinary shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants, or shares issuable upon conversion of Class B ordinary shares. Our Class B ordinary shares are automatically convertible into Class A ordinary shares at the time of completion of our initial business combination, initially at
We may issue a substantial number of additional ordinary shares or preferred 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 conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater
may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our initial public offering;
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may subordinate the rights of holders of ordinary shares if preferred shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded to our ordinary shares
could cause a change in control if a substantial number of our ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and
may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting 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 company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that the price we are paying is fair to our company 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. 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. However, our shareholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion, nor will they be able to rely on such opinion.
Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys, consultants and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our current officers may not remain in their positions following our business combination. We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company, which could, in turn, negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
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 shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in
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the value of their securities. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials (as applicable) relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
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 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 $243,250,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $8,050,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account and the estimated expenses of our initial public offering).
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 assets, 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 business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our
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initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our business combination strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure a business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires an interest in the target sufficient for the post-transactionpost- transaction company not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination 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. 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 shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding 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 stock 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 do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete a business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association do 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 (such that we are not subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). As a result, we may be able to complete our 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
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Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require the affirmative vote of a majority of our board of directors to approve our initial business combination, which may have the effect of delaying or preventing a business combination that our public shareholders would consider favorable.
Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require the affirmative vote of a majority of our board of directors. Accordingly, it is unlikely that we will be able to enter into an initial business combination unless our board members find the target and the business combination attractive. This may make it more difficult for us to approve and enter into an initial business combination than other blank check companies and could result in us not pursuing an acquisition target or other board or corporate action that our public shareholders would find favorable.
In order to effectuate our initial business combination, we may seek to amend our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or other governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination but that some of our shareholders or warrant holders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, blank check companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their constitutional documents and modified governing instruments. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and changed industry focus. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in order to effectuate our initial business combination though amending our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law.
Certain provisions of our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their constitutional documents which prohibits the amendment of certain of its constitutional provisions, including those which relate to a company’s
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discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern
Our Sponsor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at
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 only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our 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 business combination.
The securities in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that
The proceeds held in the Trust Account are invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions
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Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, our public shareholders are entitled to receive
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, in which case the laws of such jurisdiction would 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.
Risks Relating to Our Management Team
We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, 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
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be totally dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our 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 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.
In addition, the officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact
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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. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
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 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 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.
Our officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. These conflicts of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Certain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and 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. Our Sponsor and officers and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. Our officers and directors also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties. Accordingly, they will 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. Our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, 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 both us and another entity about which any member of our management team or director acquires knowledge and we will waive any claim or cause of action we may have in respect thereof.
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Our officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our Sponsor, our directors or officers, although we do not intend to do so. We do not 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.
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, our officers and directors have agreed, and any persons who may become officers or directors prior to the initial business combination will agree, to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a 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 may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our Sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our Sponsor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our Sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders. Our officers and directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Management — Conflicts of Interest.” They may also have investments in target businesses. 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 business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no preliminary 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 this Annual Report under the heading “Acquisition Criteria” and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our obligation to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent 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, officers or directors, 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.
Since our Sponsor, officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our 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.
As of March 30, 2022,24, 2023, our initial shareholders own an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering
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would be a maximum of 23,000,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering. In July 2021, our Sponsor transferred 50,000 founder shares to each of our three independent directors, 75,000 founder shares to Jeremy Falk, our Chief Operating Officer, 50,000 founder to shares to Ryan Goepel, our Chief Financial Officer, and 10,000 founder shares to each of our two members of our board of advisors. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination. In addition, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 13,250,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $13,250,000, or $1.00 per warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a business combination. The founder shares are identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units being sold in our initial public offering, except that they are Class B ordinary shares that automatically convert into our Class A ordinary shares at the time of completion of our initial business combination on
Risks Relating to Our Securities
Nasdaq may delist our securities from its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are currently listed on Nasdaq. We cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum average global market capitalization and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 400 round lot holders). Additionally, 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, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, we would be required to have a minimum of 400 round lot holders of our securities, with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500, and we would be subject to certain other listing requirements. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on an
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.
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The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.”
Because our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants have been approved to be listed on Nasdaq, our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
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 will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the successful completion of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and will file a Current Report on
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, and thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offence and may be liable to a fine of up to approximately $18,300 and to imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual meeting of shareholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our shareholders to elect directors.
In accordance with the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are required to hold an annual meeting within one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or general meetings or elect directors. Until we hold an annual meeting of shareholders, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to discuss company affairs with
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We are not registering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and 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 except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
We are not registering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed to use our best efforts to file a registration statement under the Securities Act covering such shares and maintain 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 cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, 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, or an exemption from registration 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 be required to use our commercially reasonable 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 issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws, and there is no applicable exemption available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. 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 securities issuable upon exercise of such warrants for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders 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 an agreement entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in our initial public offering, our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the Class A ordinary shares into which founder shares are convertible, holders of our private placement warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such warrants or the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such warrants. Assuming the founder shares convert on a one for one basis and no warrants are issued upon conversion of working capital loans, an aggregate of up to 5,750,000 Class A ordinary
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shares and up to 13,250,000 warrants are subject to registration under these agreements. 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 Class A ordinary shares that is expected when the securities owned by our initial shareholders, holders of our private placement warrants, holders of working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
Unlike some other similarly structured blank check companies, our initial shareholders will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue shares to consummate our initial business combination.
The founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares at the time of completion of our initial business combination on
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Annual Report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following our initial public offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand;
our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;
our inability to pay dividends on our 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 ordinary shares if declared, to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions and fund other general corporate purposes;
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limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and it the industry in which we operate;
increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation;
limitation on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements and execution of our strategy; and
other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
The exercise price for the public warrants is higher than in some other blank check company offerings, and, accordingly, the warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
The exercise price of the public warrants is higher than in some other blank check companies. For example, historically, the exercise price of a warrant was often a fraction of the purchase price of the units in our initial public offering. The exercise price for our public warrants is $11.50 per share, subject to adjustments as provided herein. As a result, the warrants are less likely to ever be in the money and more likely to expire worthless.
Our initial shareholders control the election and removal of our board of directors until consummation of our initial business combination and will hold a substantial interest in us. As a result, they will elect all of our directors and may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial shareholders own 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares (assuming they do not purchase any units in our initial public offering). In addition, the founder shares, all of which are held by our initial shareholders, (i) entitle the holders to elect all of our directors prior to our initial business combination and (ii) in respect of any vote or votes to continue the company in a jurisdiction outside the Cayman Islands (including, but not limited to, the approval of the organizational documents of the company in such other jurisdiction), which requires the approval of at
Neither our initial shareholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Annual 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, as a result of their substantial ownership in our company, our initial shareholders may exert a substantial influence on other actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of major corporate transactions. If our initial shareholders purchase any additional ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their influence over these actions. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will exert significant influence over actions requiring a shareholder vote at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
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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 65% 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 were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 65% 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 65% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 65% 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 our Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the City of New York, County of New York, 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 City of New York, County of New York, 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 City of New York, County of New York, 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.
This choice-of-forum provision
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We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem issued and outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant if, among other things, the Reference Value equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for changes to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant). 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 securities issuable upon exercise of such warrants 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 issued and outstanding warrants could force you (i) to exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) to sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the issued and outstanding warrants are called for redemption, we expect would be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant if, among other things, the Reference Value equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for changes to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant). In such a case, the 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 price of the shares issuable upon exercise of such warrants 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.
Our management’s ability to require holders of our warrants to exercise such warrants on a cashless basis will cause holders to receive fewer Class A ordinary shares upon their exercise of the warrants than they would have received had they been able to exercise their warrants for cash.
If we call our public warrants for redemption after the redemption criteria have been satisfied, our management will have the option to require any holder that wishes to exercise its warrant (including any warrants held by our Sponsor, officers, directors or their permitted transferees) to do so on a “cashless basis.” If our management chooses to require holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, the number of Class A ordinary shares received by a holder upon exercise will be fewer than it would have been had such holder exercised his warrant for cash. This will have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our company.
Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our business combination.
We issued warrants to purchase up to 11,500,000 Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered in our initial public offering, simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, we also issued in a private placement an aggregate of 13,250,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share. The founder shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares on
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issuance 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 combination. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because each unit
Each unit
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 a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include target 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 financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing our initial business combination.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with ourthis Annual Report on
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Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our management is likewise required, on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls and to disclose any changes and material weaknesses identified through such evaluation in those internal controls. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
We identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to our controls around the carrying value of our Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption. As a result of this material weakness, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2022.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. Measures to remediate material weaknesses may be time-consuming and costly and there is no assurance that such initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results. If we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, any such newly identified material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and adversely affect our business and operating results. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
Provisions in our second 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 second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board, three-year director terms and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Risks Associated with Our Status as a Foreign Entity
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 with limited liability under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs are governed by our second 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 statutory law
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and 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.
We have been advised by 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.
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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.
We may pursue a business combination with a target business in any geographic location. If we effect our initial business combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, 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 and complying with difficult commercial and legal requirements of the overseas market;
rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
tax issues, such as complex corporate taxes, withholding taxes on operating income and withholding taxes on shareholders;
tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
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;
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
rates of inflation;
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
cultural and language differences;
employment regulations;
underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
corruption;
protection of intellectual property;
social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;
terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars;
deterioration of political relations with the United States; and
government appropriation of assets.
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We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, our operations might suffer, which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our initial business combination, our management may resign from their positions as officers or directors of the company and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination will remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue will be derived from our operations in such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and legal policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such 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.
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
General Risk Factors
We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check exempted company established 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. 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.
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We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. holder of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. holder may be subject to certain 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
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders or warrant holders.
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 warrant holder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder or warrant holder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant holders to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrant holders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
Our initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not
Although we will attempt to structure our initial business combination in
In addition, we may effect a business combination with a target company that has business operations outside of the United States, and possibly, business operations in multiple jurisdictions. If we effect such a business
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combination, we could be subject to significant income, withholding and other tax obligations in a number of jurisdictions with respect to income, operations and subsidiaries related to those jurisdictions. Due to the complexity of tax obligations and filings in other jurisdictions, we may have a heightened risk related to audits or examinations by U.S. federal, state, local
An investment in our securities may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences.
An investment in our securities may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences. For instance, because there are no authorities that directly address instruments similar to the units we issued in our initial public offering, the allocation an investor makes with respect to the purchase price of a unit between the Class A ordinary shares and
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A ordinary shares held by
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
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Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Rule 10(f)(1) of Regulation
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.
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
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 revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
We employ a mail forwarding service, which may delay or disrupt our ability to receive mail in a timely manner.
Mail addressed to the company and received at its registered office will be forwarded unopened to the forwarding address supplied by company to be dealt with. None of the company, its directors, officers, advisors or service providers (including the organization which provides registered office services in the Cayman Islands) will bear any responsibility for any delay howsoever caused in mail reaching the forwarding address, which may impair your ability to communicate with us.
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Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of our 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 will have the right to vote on the appointment of our directors. As a result, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of Nasdaq’s corporate governance standards. Under Nasdaq’s 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 of directors that includes a majority of ‘independent directors,’ as defined under the rules of Nasdaq;
we have a compensation committee of our board of directors that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and
we have a nominating and corporate governance committee of our board of directors that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities
We do not intend to utilize these exemptions and intend to comply with the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq, subject to
Risks Relating to the Post-Business Combination Company
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 price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or
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Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
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.
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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 shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination 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.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity 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.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target business 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. Furthermore, 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.
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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;
challenges in managing and staffing international operations;
longer payment cycles;
tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
rates of inflation;
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
cultural and language differences;
employment regulations;
underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
corruption;
protection of intellectual property;
social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;
regime changes and political upheaval;
terrorist attacks 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 initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Item 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments |
None.
Item 2. | Properties |
We do not own any real estate or other physical properties materially important to our operation. We currently maintain our principal executive offices at 2333 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 630, Coral Gables, FL 33134 and our telephone number is
Item 3. | Legal Proceedings |
None.
Item 4. | Mine Safety Disclosures |
Not applicable.
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PART II
Item 5. | Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities. |
Market Information
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbols “TOACU,” “TOAC” and “TOACW,” respectively. Our units commenced public trading on November 8, 2021, and our Class A ordinary shares and warrants commenced separate public trading on December 30, 2021.
Holders
As of March 30, 2022,24, 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. The number of holders of record does not include a substantially greater number of “street name” holders or beneficial holders whose units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.
Dividends
We have not paid or declared any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
Unregistered Sales
Simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, the Company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 13,250,000 warrants at a purchase price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, to our sponsor, AVi8 Acquisition LLC, generating gross proceeds to the Company of $13,250,000. The terms of the private placement warrants are substantially similar to the warrants sold as part of the units in our initial public offering, except as otherwise disclosed in the registration statement. The issuance of the Private Placement Warrants was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.
Use of Proceeds
On November 3, 2021, our registration statement on Form
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Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
Item 6. | Reserved. |
Item 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. |
References in this Annual Report to “we,” “us” or the “Company” refer to Talon 1 Acquisition Corp. References to our “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors, and references to the “Sponsor” refer to AVi8 Acquisition LLC. The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the unaudited condensedour audited financial statements and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this Annual Report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on April 20, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company. Our business purpose is to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (referred to in this Annual Report as our initial business combination). We have reviewed, and continue to review, a number of opportunities to enter into a Business Combination with an operating business, but we are not selectedable to determine at this time whether we will complete a Business Combination with any specificof the target business andthat we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directlyreview or indirectly, with any other target business with respect to an initial business combination.
The issuance of additional shares in connection with a business combination to the owners of the target or other investors:
• | may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our 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 Class A ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;
may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and
may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants.
Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant debt to bank or other lenders or the owners of a target, it could result in:
default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
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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 expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete our initial business combination will be successful.
Results of Operations and Known Trends or Future Events
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for our initial public offering.offering and search for a target for a possible business combination. We do not expect to generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We generate
For the year ended December 31, 2022, we had a net income of $11,449,396 consisting of general and administrative costs of $3,826,521 offset by the change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities of $11,897,500 and income earned in marketable securities held in Trust Account of $3,378,417.
For the period from April 20, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had a net loss of $468,403 which resulted primarily fromconsisting of formation and operating and formation costs andof $675,422, offering costs relatingallocated to warrant liabilities partiallyof $359,830 offset by athe change in the fair value of derivative warrant liabilities.liabilities of $555,100 and income earned in marketable securities held in Trust Account of $11,749.
Recent Developments
On January 20, 2023, the Company entered into an investment advisory agreement with Genaesis, LLC (“Genaesis”) pursuant to which Genaesis will serve as the non-exclusive transaction advisor in connection with the potential identification and introduction of candidates to the Company for a business acquisition, or financing or equity investment in the Company. If the Company enters into a letter of intent with a potential target introduced by Genaesis within 24 months of this agreement, it shall pay Genaesis a 1% “Success fee” of the capital committed by the Company for the business acquisition.
In the event that the Company consummates a transaction facilitated by Genaesis, Genaesis is entitled to charge appropriate expenses for its services to the Company for placing an announcement and/or press release on their behalf.
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On January 27, 2023, at an extraordinary general meeting (“Extraordinary General Meeting”) of the Company’s stockholders, the Company’s stockholders approved the amendment to the Company’s investment management trust agreement, dated as of November 3, 2021, by and between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC (the “Trust Agreement Amendment”). Pursuant to the Trust Agreement Amendment, the Company will deposit into the Company’s trust account (the “Trust Account”), for each one-month extension, $330,000.
In connection with the Trust Agreement Amendment, AVi8 Acquisition LLC (the “Sponsor”) has agreed to make available to the Company an aggregate amount of up to US$4,000,000 pursuant to a promissory note in favor of the Sponsor (the “Note”).
The Sponsor may elect to convert up to $1,500,000 of the outstanding principal balance of the Note into warrants to purchase shares of Class A ordinary shares of the Company at a conversion price equal to $1.00 per warrant. The terms of such warrants issued in connection with such conversion shall be identical to the warrants issued to the Sponsor in connection with the Company’s initial public offering that closed on November 8, 2021. The Note does not bear interest. In the event that the Company does not consummate a business combination, the Note will be repaid only from amounts remaining outside of the Company’s trust account, if any.
The proceeds of the Note will be used by the Company to deposit additional funds to the trust account in connection with the extension of the amount of time the Company has available to complete a business combination and to fund the Company’s operations.
At the Extraordinary General Meeting, the shareholders of the Company approved an amendment (the “Charter Amendment”) to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the date by which the Company must consummate an initial business combination up to nine (9) times for an additional one (1) month each time from February 8, 2023 to November 8, 2023 (which is 24 months from the closing of the Company’s initial public offering). Under Cayman Islands law, the Charter Amendment took effect upon approval by the shareholders. The Company plans to file the Charter Amendment with the Cayman Islands General Registry within 15 days of the Extraordinary General Meeting.
At the Extraordinary General Meeting, holders of 24,144,029 ordinary shares, comprised of 18,394,029 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (“Class A Ordinary Shares”), and 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (together with Class A Ordinary Shares, the “Ordinary Shares”), were present in person or by proxy, representing approximately 83.98% of the voting power of the 28,750,000 issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Talon (“Outstanding Shares”) entitled to vote at the Extraordinary General Meeting as of the close of business on January 9, 2023, which was the record date for the Extraordinary General Meeting.
In connection with the Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders properly elected to redeem an aggregate of 13,317,392 Class A Ordinary Shares at a redemption price of approximately $10.41 per share (the “Redemption”), for an aggregate redemption amount of approximately $138,639,176. Following such redemptions, approximately $100,799,675 will remain in the Talon trust account (the “Trust Account”), not including the extension payment of $330,000.
At the Extraordinary General Meeting, the Company’s shareholders approved the proposal to amend the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association (the “Extension Amendment”) to give the Company the right to extend the date by which it has to consummate a business combination from February 8, 2023 up to 9 times for an additional one (1) month each time up to November 8, 2023 (i.e., for a period of time ending up to 24 months after the consummation of its initial public offering).
Liquidity and Capital Resources
On November 8, 2021, we consummated our initial public offering of 20,000,000 units (the “Units” and, with respect to the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units sold, the “Public Shares”), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $200,000,000. Simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, the underwriters fully exercised the over-allotment option, generating gross proceeds of $30,000,000.
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Simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, the Company consummated the sale of 13,250,000 warrants at a price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant in a private placement to our Sponsor generating gross proceeds of $13,250,000.
A total of $235,750,000 of the proceeds from our initial public offering, a portion of the sale of the private placement warrants, the sale of the over-allotment units and the sale of the over-allotment warrants were placed in a U.S.-based trust account maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee.
As of December 31, 2021,2022, we had cash and marketable securities held in the trust accountTrust Account of $235,757,582 (including approximately $7,582 of interest income)$239,110,999 consisting of securities held in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under
As of December 31, 2021,2022, we had cash of $1,090,391$92,674 held outside the trust account.Trust Account. We intend to use the funds held outside the trust accountTrust Account primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
The Company has incurred and expects to continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its financing and acquisition plans. As of December 31, 2022, the Company had $239,110,999 cash and investments held in its Trust Account for use in a potential Business Combination. The Company had until February 8, 2023 to complete a Business Combination, however, the Company has since extended this date to November 8, 2023. If a Business Combination is not believe weconsummated by this date, there will needbe a mandatory liquidation, should a Business Combination not occur, and potential subsequent dissolution.
As of December 31, 2022, the Company had $92,674 in cash and working capital deficit of $335,839. The Company has incurred and expects to raise additional fundscontinue to incur significant costs in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination.pursuit of its acquisition plans. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking
These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities as a result of this uncertainty.
Off-Balance
We did not have any
Commitments and Contractual Obligations
We do not have any long term debt obligations, capital lease obligations, operating lease obligations, purchase
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obligations or other long term liabilities, other than an agreement to pay our Sponsor a monthly fee of $10,000 for office space and administrative support. We began incurring these fees on November 3, 2021 and will continue to incur these fees monthly until the earlier of the completion of the initial business combination or our liquidation.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of condensed financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results could materially differ from those estimates. We have identified the following critical accounting policies:
Net LossIncome (Loss) Per Ordinary Share
Net lossincome (loss) per ordinary share is computed by dividing net lossincome (loss) by the weighted-average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period. On December 31, 2021,2022, the Company did not have any dilutive securities and
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company evaluates its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging. For derivative financial instruments that are accounted for as assets or liabilities, the derivative instrument is initially recorded at its fair value on the grant date and is then
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”)FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”)
The Company’s management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards updates, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on our condensedthe Company’s audited financial statements.
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Item 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk. |
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule
Item 8. | Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. |
Our financial statements and notes thereto begin on page
Item 9. | Changes 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 and accounting officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2022. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that as of the end of the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective because of a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting that was identified during our preparation of the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, the Company’s management has concluded that our controls around the carrying value of our Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption were not effectively designed or maintained to prevent an error in the calculation of such carrying value, as the Company failed to adjust the carrying value to account for the interest and dividends accrued in the Trust Account during the quarterly period ended June 30, 2022 during the closing process. The failure to accrue interest and dividends resulted in us having to record a post-closing journal entry to correct the error prior to filing this Quarterly Report. Since this control deficiency could lead to a material misstatement, management concluded that there was a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting.
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 and accounting officer or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
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Management’s Report on Internal Control 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 GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:
(1) | pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company, |
(2) | provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and |
(3) | provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. |
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. 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 we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, due to the material weakness in our internal control over the financial reporting process described above, which was initially identified at June 30, 2022.
Management has implemented remediation steps to improve our internal control over financial reporting. Specifically, we expanded and improved our review process for complex securities, related party transactions and related accounting standards. We plan to further improve this process by enhancing access to accounting literature, identification of third-party professionals with whom to consult regarding complex accounting applications and implementing additional layers of reviews in the financial close process.
This Annual Report does not include an attestation report of 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
We have continued our remediation efforts in connection with the identification of the material weakness discussed above. Specifically, we have expanded and improved our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules
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
Name | Age | Position | ||||
Edward J. Wegel | 65 | Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer | ||||
Ryan Goepel | 48 | Chief Financial Officer | ||||
Jeremy Falk | 43 | Chief Operating Officer | ||||
Maggie Arvedlund | 43 | Director | ||||
Marc Cho | 47 | Director | ||||
Joseph DaGrosa, Jr | 58 | Director | ||||
Nathaniel Felsher | 42 | Director | ||||
Abdol Moabery | ||||||
55 | Director |
Mr.
Other accomplishments include: drafted the first business plan for JetBlue; focused on the then relatively new Airbus A320s and chose JFK as its base of operations; created Republic Airways with an industry-leading order for 80 EMB 145 aircraft in 1998; oversaw the acquisition of Chautauqua Airlines (where he served as Chief Executive Officer); and conceived and led the privatization and financing of BWIA International Airways, Trinidad, operating 20 L1011
Mr.
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Mr.
Ms.
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Economics and an MBA in Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Ms. Arvedlund serves on
Mr.
Mr. Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. serves as an independent director. He has been a member of the board of directors of GlobalX since June 2020. Mr. DaGrosa currently serves as Chairman of DaGrosa Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm focused on making control and influential minority investments in companies throughout the United States, Western Europe and Latin America, having served in that role since February 2020. Mr. DaGrosa is a co-founder of 1848 Capital Partners LLC (“1848”), having co-managed the firm from its founding in 2003 until 2016 and having served as a member of the firm’s investment committee. Mr. DaGrosa also served as co-chairman or as a board member for the following 1848 portfolio companies: Eastern Airlines, Brazil Tower Company, and Jet Support Services, Inc. Mr. DaGrosa served as Founder and Senior Partner at Core Values Partners LLC (“Core Values”), during which time Mr. DaGrosa co- founded the Heartland Food Corp., a Core Values’ portfolio platform company used to acquire two hundred and forty eight (248) Burger King restaurants out of bankruptcy (and in workout situations), creating the second largest franchisee in the Burger King system. Heartland was successfully sold in December 2006 to an affiliate of the Blackstone Group., Mr. DaGrosa was a partner at MapleWood Partners LP, a Miami-based private equity firm, where he served as a member of the Executive and Investment Committees and was co-head of the firm’s Transaction Team. Prior to MapleWood Partners LP, Mr. DaGrosa was a vice president for PaineWebber, Inc. (now part of UBS) in its Special Accounts Group. Mr. DaGrosa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance, Accounting and Statistics from Syracuse University.
Mr. Nathaniel Felsher serves as an independent director. He is the current Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CAVU Management Partners, LLC, a consulting services company, having served in that role since March 2019. Felsher is the former President and Chief Strategy Officer of Aimia Inc. (TSX: AIM), a holding company with a focus on long-term investments in public and private companies, having served in that role from August 2018 through November 2018. Previously, Mr. Felsher worked at Deutsche Bank, a German multinational investment bank and financial services company, where he served for eleven years, in ever increasing roles of responsibility, most recently as Global Co-Head of Aviation – Corporate & Investment Banking until August 2018. Throughout his time at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Felsher advised clients in the aircraft leasing, airline loyalty, travel technology and transportation infrastructure sectors with respect to strategy, equity and debt placements and M&A, having executed transactions in more than 20 countries. Mr. Felsher has global deal experience having executed transactions in more than 20 countries. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Mr. Felsher held investment banking positions with HSBC and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Mr. Abdol Moabery serves as an independent director. Mr. Moabery is the founder, Chief Executive Officer of
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GA Telesis, a leader in integrated commercial aviation services. Founded in 2002 by Mr. Moabery, GA Telesis has quickly grown to one of the largest firms in its sector, amassing vertically integrated global aviation services businesses including engine, component and aerostructural maintenance and engineering, aircraft replacement parts distribution and supply-chain management, aircraft and engine leasing, and investment management with operating units throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. The company has also developed several strategic partnerships, including GAIC, a one-of-kind joint-venture, based in Beijing, with Air China. GA Telesis has won numerous awards and accolades, including the 2018 Air Transport Best Integrated Aviation Solutions Provider, 2014 Air Transport World MRO of the Year, The Boeing Gold Services Award and was also named among a select group of companies in the United States classified as a Good-to-Great company. While Mr. Moabery holds a substantial stake in the company, since 2007, the company’s stockholders have grown to include significant stakes by global financial institutions, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC) and Tokyo Century Corporation (8439: Tokyo).
A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Moabery is responsible for the start-up, organization and development of GA Telesis. He has 30 years of direct experience in various disciplines in aviation from flight, lease and structured finance to logistics and maintenance. Mr. Moabery previously served as Executive Vice President of Aviation Systems
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International, Inc., where his responsibilities included oversight and management of worldwide operations. Prior to joining ASI, he was with C-S Aviation Services, Inc. (a Soros Fund Management company), where he was responsible for the sale and marketing of the company’s aviation portfolio assets.
Mr. Moabery currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Florida Atlantic University and is President-elect of the Wings Club Foundation Board of Governors. He also serves as board member to several national and local charitable organizations. Mr. Moabery received the prestigious Wright Brothers Memorial Award in 2014 and the ISTAT Life Time Achievement Award in 2021 for his accomplishments in aviation.
Advisor
Furthermore, our advisor is:
Alvin Khoo serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for GA Telesis. Mr. Khoo has played an instrumental role in strategic transactions like the acquisition of Finnair Engine Services and the introduction of Tokyo Century and All Nippon Airways as strategic equity investors. Prior to joining GA Telesis, Mr. Khoo was most recently a Managing Director at SkyWorks Capital, where he led corporate finance and restructuring advisory efforts. Prior to SkyWorks Capital, Khoo held various positions at JP Morgan’s Transportation Investment Banking Group. Khoo helmed the origination and execution of transactions in the aviation, aerospace, and aircraft leasing sectors. Khoo has significant transaction experience including initial public offerings, out-of-court restructuring and bankruptcies, secured and unsecured bank and bond financings, all while advising on numerous M&A transactions. Khoo also previously worked for SH&E and NatWest Markets. He received his BA from Trinity College.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of fivesix members and is divided into three classes, with only one class of directors being elected in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term. In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Nathaniel Felsher and Abdol Moabery, will expire at our first annual general meeting. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Maggie Arvedlund and Joseph DaGrosa, Jr., will expire at the second annual general meeting. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Edward J. Wegel and Marc Cho, will expire at the third annual general meeting.
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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.
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our second amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
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 which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Abdol Moabery, Mr. Nathaniel Felsher, Mr. Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. and, Ms. Maggie Arvedlund and Mr. Cho are “independent directors” as defined in Nasdaq 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
Our board of directors has three standing committees: an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Each of our audit committee, our compensation committee and our nominating and corporate governance is composed solely of independent directors. Subject to
Audit Committee
We have established an audit committee of the board of directors. Abdol Moabery, Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. and Nathaniel Felsher serve as members of our audit committee, and Nathaniel Felsher chairs the audit committee. All members of our audit committee are independent of and unaffiliated with our Sponsor.
Our board of directors has determined that each member of the audit committee is financially literate and that Nathaniel Felsher qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us;
• | pre-approving all audit and non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures; |
reviewing and discussing with the independent registered public accounting firm all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence;
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setting clear hiring policies for employees or former employees of the independent registered public accounting firm;
setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
meeting obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent registered public accounting firm describing (i) the independent registered public accounting firm’s internal quality-control procedures and (ii) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues;
• | reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and |
reviewing with management, the independent registered public accounting firm, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
Compensation Committee
We have established a compensation committee of the board of directors. Abdol Moabery and Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. serve as members of our compensation committee, and Abdol Moabery chairs 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 on an annual basis the compensation of all of our other officers;
reviewing on an annual basis our executive compensation policies and plans;
implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans;
assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements;
approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees;
if required, producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and
reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, as indicated above, other than the payment to our Sponsor of $10,000 per month, for up to 15 months (or up to 18 months, as applicable), for office space, utilities, secretarial support and administrative services and to reimburse our Sponsor for any
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The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
We have established a nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. Joseph DaGrosa, Jr., Nathaniel Felsher and Abdol Moabery serve as members of our nominating and corporate governance committee, and Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. chairs the nominating and corporate governance committee. In accordance with Rule 5605(e)(2) of the Nasdaq rules, a majority of the independent directors may recommend a director nominee for selection by our board of directors. In accordance with Rule 5605(e)(1)(A) of the Nasdaq rules, all such directors are independent.
We have adopted a nominating and corporate governance committee charter, which details the principal functions of the nominating and corporate governance committee, including:
identifying, screening and reviewing individuals qualified to serve as directors and recommending to the board of directors candidates for nomination for election at the annual meeting of stockholders or to fill vacancies on the board of directors;
developing, recommending to the board of directors and overseeing implementation of our corporate governance guidelines;
coordinating and overseeing the annual self-evaluation of the board of directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the company; and
reviewing on a regular basis our overall corporate governance and recommending improvements as and when necessary.
Director Nominations
Our nominating and corporate governance committee will recommend to the board of directors candidates for nomination for election at the annual meeting of the stockholders.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, our board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our stockholders. Prior to our initial business combination, holders of our public shares will not have the right to recommend director candidates for nomination to our board of directors.
Advisors to the Board of Directors
We formed an advisory board comprised of two members, which appointments took effect upon the closing of our initial public offering. Such individuals assistOne of our advisors, Mr. Cho, was elected as a director of the Company on January 16, 2023 and no longer serves as an advisor. Our remaining advisor, Mr. Khoo, assists our management team with sourcing and evaluating business opportunities and devising plans and strategies to optimize any business that we acquire. The advisors areadvisor is neither paid nor reimbursed for any
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Code of Ethics and Committee Charters
We adopted a Code of Ethics, our audit committee charter, our compensation committee charter and nominating and corporate governance committee charter in connection with our initial public offering. A copy of each of these documents will be provided without charge upon request from us and will be posted on our website.
If we make any amendments to our Code of Ethics other than technical, administrative or other
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors owe fiduciary duties to the company including the following:
duty to act in good faith in what the director believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole;
duty to exercise authority for the purpose for which it is conferred;
directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion;
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 which that director has.
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.
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
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a business combination opportunity (e.g., Edward J. Wegel serves as our Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of our board of directors and serves
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
None of our officers or directors is required to commit his or her full time to our affairs and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating his or her time among various business activities.
In the course of their other business activities, our officers and directors may become aware of investment and business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as the other entities with which they are affiliated. Our management may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
• | Our initial shareholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination. Additionally, our initial shareholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within the completion window. If we do not complete our initial business combination within such applicable time period, the proceeds of the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, and the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Furthermore, our initial shareholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any founder shares held by them until one year after the date of the consummation of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our initial business combination, (i) the last reported sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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 (ii) we consummate a subsequent liquidation, merger, stock exchange or other similar transaction which results in all of our 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 issuable upon exercise of such warrants will not be transferable, assignable or saleable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. Since our sponsor and officers and directors may directly or indirectly own ordinary shares and warrants following this offering, our officers and directors 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 or any of its affiliates may make additional investments in the company in connection with our initial business combination, although our sponsor and their affiliates have no obligation to do so. If our sponsor or any of its affiliates elect to make additional investments or provide financing, such proposed transactions could influence our sponsor’s motivation to complete our initial business combination.
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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 $1.5 million of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.00 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.
The conflicts described above may not be resolved in our favor.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with the Sponsor, officers or directors or making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with the Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with the Sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
The Sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, may serve as a finder or provide other services for which they may be paid underwriting discounts and commissions, placement agent fees, initial purchaser fees or discounts, finder’s fees, arrangement fees, commitment fees and transaction, structuring, consulting, advisory and management fees and similar fees by the company 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). Further, commencing on the date our securities are first listed on Nasdaq, we will pay an amount equal to $10,000 per month, for up to 15 months (or for up to 1824 months if we extend the period of time to consummate a business combination), to our sponsor for office space, utilities, secretarial support and administrative services provided to us.
In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding ordinary shares voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. Our initial shareholders have agreed to vote any founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination and our officers and directors have also agreed to vote any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination.
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, fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide 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 will enter into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. We may purchase 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, and any persons who may become officers or directors prior to the initial business combination will agree, to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the
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trust account, and 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.
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers or persons controlling us pursuant to the foregoing provisions, we have been informed that in the opinion of the SEC such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is therefore unenforceable.
Item 11. | Executive Compensation. |
Executive Officer and Director Compensation
Other than as described below, none of our executive officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on November 3, 2021, we have agreed to pay Mr. Falk a monthly consulting fee of $20,000, for services prior to the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the amount of services provided), including preparation of our financial statements, SEC filings, financial due diligence of targets for our initial business combination and negotiations of an agreement for our initial business combination. In addition, on January 31, 2022 we paid Mr. Falk $25,000 in respect of services provided in advance of our initial public offering. We expect that Mr. Falk will devote a majority of his monthly business time on average to providing us these services, although Mr. Falk is entitled to receive the full monthly consulting fee irrespective of the amount of services he provides in a given month. In addition, in March 2022, we agreed to pay Mr. Wegel and Mr. Goepel $5,000 and $2,500 per month, respectively, in respect of services to be provided to us in advance of the completion of our initial business combination. We have agreed that commencing on November 3, 2021 through the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation, we will pay our Sponsor $10,000 per month, for up to 15 months (or up to 1824 months, as applicable), for office space, utilities, secretarial support and administrative services and to reimburse our Sponsor for any
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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 stockholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our stockholders 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.
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.
Item 12. | Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters. |
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of March 30, 202224, 2023 based on information obtained from the persons named below, with respect to the beneficial ownership of 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 23,000,0009,682,608 Class A ordinary shares (which includes Class A ordinary shares that are underlying the units) and 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding as of March 30, 2022.24, 2023. The Class B ordinary shares will be convertible into Class A ordinary shares on a
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Class A Ordinary Shares | Class B Ordinary Shares | |||||||||||||||
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned | % of Class | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned (1) | % of Class | ||||||||||||
AVi8 Acquisition LLC (our Sponsor) (2)(3) | — | — | 5,455,000 | 94.87 | % | |||||||||||
Edward J. Wegel (2) (3) | — | — | 5,455,000 | 94.87 | % | |||||||||||
Jeremy Falk (3) | — | — | 75,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Nathaniel Felsher (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Abdol Moabery (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Ryan Goepel (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Alvin Khoo (3) | — | — | 10,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Marc Cho (3) | — | — | 10,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Maggie Arvedlund (3) | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
All officers and directors as a group (9 individuals) | — | — | 5,750,000 | — | ||||||||||||
Saba Capital Management, L.P. (4) | 2,059,428 | 9.0 | % | |||||||||||||
Highbridge Capital Management, LLC (5) | 1,431,598 | 6.22 | % | — | — |
Class A Ordinary Shares | Class B Ordinary Shares | |||||||||||||||
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned | % of Class | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned(1) | % of Class | ||||||||||||
AVi8 Acquisition LLC (our Sponsor) (2)(3) | — | — | 5,455,000 | 94.87 | % | |||||||||||
Edward J. Wegel (2) (3) | — | — | 5,455,000 | 94.87 | % | |||||||||||
Jeremy Falk (3) | — | — | 75,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Nathaniel Felsher (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Abdol Moabery (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Ryan Goepel (3) | — | — | 50,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Alvin Khoo (3) | — | — | 10,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Marc Cho (3) | — | — | 10,000 | * | ||||||||||||
Maggie Arvedlund (3) | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
All officers and directors as a group (9 individuals) | — | — | 5,750,000 | — | ||||||||||||
Saba Capital Management, L.P. (4) | 2,079,249 | 21.5 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
Millennium Management LLC (5) | 1,736,015 | 17.9 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
Shaolin Capital Management LLC (6) | 672,661 | 7.0 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
Glazer Capital, LLC (7) | 1,039,683 | 10.7 | % | — | — |
* | Less than one percent. |
(1) | Interests shown consist solely of founder shares, classified as Class B ordinary shares. Such shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one |
(2) | AVi8 Acquisition LLC is the record holder of the shares reported herein. Edward J. Wegel is the managing member of the Sponsor and has voting and investment discretion with respect to the securities held by the Sponsor. As such, Mr. Wegel may be deemed to share beneficial ownership of the shares of Class B common stock held directly by the Sponsor. Mr. Wegel disclaims any beneficial ownership of the reported shares other than to the extent of any pecuniary interest he may have therein, directly or indirectly. |
(3) | Each of such persons holds an indirect interest in founder shares through AVi8 Acquisition LLC. The business address of each individual is 2333 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 630, Coral Gables, FL 33134. |
(4) |
Based on information provided in a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 14, |
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(5) | Based on information provided in a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on January 25, 2023 by Integrated Core Strategies (US) LLC, Millennium Management LLC, Millennium Group Management LLC and Israel A. Englander. Millennium Management LLC, Millennium Group Management LLC and Israel A. Englander share voting and dispositive power with respect to all of the reported shares and Integrated Core Strategies (US) LLC shares voting and dispositive power with respect to 1,296,015 shares. Based on such Schedule 13G/A, the business address for each of Integrated Core Strategies (US) LLC, Millennium Management LLC, Millennium Group Management LLC and Israel A. Englander is 399 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022. |
(6) | Based on information provided in a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 14, 2023 by Shaolin Capital Management LLC. Shaolin Capital Management LLC has sole voting and dispositive power with respect to all of the reported shares. Based on such Schedule 13G, the business address for Shaolin Capital Management LLC is 230 NW 24th Street, Suite 603, Miami, FL 33127. |
(7) | Based on information provided in a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on March 10, 2023 by Glazer Capital, LLC and Paul J. Glazer. Glazer Capital, LLC and Paul J. Glazer share voting and dispositive power with respect to all of the reported shares. Based on such Schedule 13G/A, the business address for each of Glazer Capital, LLC and Paul J. Glazer is 250 West 55th Street, Suite 30A, New York, New York 10019. |
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Changes in Control
None.
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Item 13. | Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence |
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence
As of December 31, 2021,2022, our initial stockholders own an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares. The number of founder shares was determined based on the expectation that the founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares upon completion of our initial public offering. 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.
Simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 13,250,000 private placement warrants for a purchase price of $1.00 per warrant. As such, our Sponsor’s interest is valued at $13.25. Each private placement warrant entitles the holder to purchase one whole Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share. 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.
We currently utilize office space at 2333 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 630, Coral Gables, FL 33134 from our Sponsor. We pay our Sponsor $10,000 per month, for up to 15 months (or up to 1824 months, as applicable), for office space, utilities, secretarial support and administrative services and to reimburse our Sponsor for any
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, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. However, these individuals will be reimbursed for any
In addition to these monthly fees, underwriting discounts and commissions, placement agent fees, initial purchaser fees or discounts, finder’s fees, arrangement fees, commitment fees and transaction, structuring, consulting, advisory and management fees and similar fees may be paid by the company to our Sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination or following our initial business combination. However, these individuals will be reimbursed for
In addition, in order to 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 would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the trust account. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.00 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. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans by our officers and directors, if any, have not been determined and no written
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agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
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 stockholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer or proxy solicitation materials (as applicable) furnished to our stockholders. 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 stockholder 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 have entered into a registration rights agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, which are described under the heading “Description of Securities — Registration Rights” in our Registration Statement.
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
We have not yet adopted a formal policy for the review, approval or ratification of related party transactions. Accordingly, the transactions discussed above were not reviewed, approved or ratified in accordance with any such policy.
Item 14. | Principal Accountant Fees and Services. |
The following is a summary of fees paid or to be paid to Marcum LLP, or Marcum, for services rendered.
Audit Fees
Audit-Related Fees.
Tax Fees
All Other Fees
Pre-Approval
Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of our initial public offering. As a result, the audit committee did not
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committee, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will
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PART IV
Item 15. | Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules |
The following documents are filed as part of this report:
(1) | Financial Statements |
Page | ||||
F-1 | ||||
F-2 | ||||
F-3 | ||||
F-4 | ||||
F-5 | ||||
F-6 |
(2) | Financial Statement Schedules |
All financial statements are omitted because they are not applicable or the amounts are immaterial and not required, or the required information is presented in the financial statements and notes thereto in this Item 15 of Part IV below.
(3) | Exhibits |
We hereby file as part of this report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index. Copies of such material can be obtained on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.
Item 16. | Form 10-K Summary |
Not applicable.
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Assets | ||||
Cash | $ | 1,090,391 | ||
Other current assets | 828,996 | |||
Total current assets | 1,919,387 | |||
Investment held in Trust Account | 235,757,582 | |||
Other non-current assets | 274,845 | |||
Total Assets | $ | 237,951,814 | ||
Liability and Stockholders’ Equity | ||||
Current liability: | ||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | $ | 148,907 | ||
Note payable | 90,043 | |||
Total current liabilities | 238,950 | |||
Deferred underwriting compensation | 8,050,000 | |||
Derivative warrant liabilities | 12,392,500 | |||
Total liabilities | 20,681,450 | |||
Commitments and Contingencies (Note 5) | 0 | |||
Common stock subject to possible redemption, 23,000,000 shares at redemption value of $10.25 per share | 235,750,000 | |||
Stockholders’ Equity: | ||||
Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; NaNissued and outstanding | 0 | |||
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 800,000,000 | 0 | |||
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 199,000,000 | 575 | |||
Additional paid-in capital | 0 | |||
Accumulated deficit | (18,480,211 | ) | ||
Total stockholders’ equity | (18,479,636 | ) | ||
Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity | $ | 237,951,814 | ||
As of December 31, 2022 | As of December 31, 2021 | |||||||
Assets: | ||||||||
Current assets: | ||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 92,674 | $ | 1,090,391 | ||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 315,459 | 828,996 | ||||||
Total current assets | 408,133 | 1,919,387 | ||||||
Cash and investments held in trust account | 239,110,999 | 235,757,582 | ||||||
Other non-current assets | — | 274,845 | ||||||
Total Assets | $ | 239,519,132 | $ | 237,951,814 | ||||
Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Stockholders’ Deficit: | ||||||||
Current liabilities: | ||||||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | $ | 741,584 | $ | 148,907 | ||||
Due to related parties | 2,388 | — | ||||||
Promissory note – related party | — | 90,043 | ||||||
Total current liabilities | 743,972 | 238,950 | ||||||
Deferred underwriting compensation | 8,050,000 | 8,050,000 | ||||||
Derivative warrant liabilities | 495,000 | 12,392,500 | ||||||
Total Liabilities | 9,288,972 | 20,681,450 | ||||||
Commitments and Contingencies (Note 5) | ||||||||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, 23,000,000 shares at redemption value of $10.40 per share as of December 31, 2022 and $10.25 per share at December 31, 2021 | 239,110,999 | 235,750,000 | ||||||
Stockholders’ Deficit: | ||||||||
Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding | — | — | ||||||
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 800,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding | — | — | ||||||
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 199,000,000 shares authorized; 5,750,000 shares issued and outstanding | 575 | 575 | ||||||
Additional paid-in capital | — | — | ||||||
Accumulated deficit | (8,881,414 | ) | (18,480,211 | ) | ||||
Total stockholders’ deficit | (8,880,839 | ) | (18,479,636 | ) | ||||
Total Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Stockholders’ Deficit | $ | 239,519,132 | $ | 237,951,814 | ||||
General and administrative expenses | $ | 675,422 | ||
Loss from operations | (675,422 | ) | ||
Other income (expense): | ||||
Offering costs allocated to warrant liabilities | (359,830 | ) | ||
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | 555,100 | |||
Interest earned on cash held in trust account | 11,749 | |||
Total other income, net | 207,019 | |||
Net loss | $ | (468,403 | ) | |
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class A | 23,000,000 | |||
Basic and diluted net loss per share, Class A | $ | (0.02 | ) | |
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class B | 5,750,000 | |||
Basic and diluted net loss per share, Class B | $ | 0.02 |
Ordinary Shares | Additional Paid-in Capital | Accumulated Deficit | Total Stockholders’ Deficit | |||||||||||||||||
Shares | Amount | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance as of April 20, 2021 (inception) | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | |||||||||||
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | 5,750,000 | 575 | 24,425 | — | 25,000 | |||||||||||||||
Stock-based compensation | — | — | 251,733 | — | 251,733 | |||||||||||||||
Proceeds from Private Placement Warrants in excess of fair value | — | — | 6,312,300 | — | 6,312,300 | |||||||||||||||
Adjust Class A common stock to redemption amount | — | — | (6,588,458 | ) | (18,011,808 | ) | (24,600,266 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | (468,403 | ) | (468,403 | ) | |||||||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2021 | 5,750,000 | $ | 575 | $ | 0 | $ | (18,480,211 | ) | $ | (18,479,636 | ) | |||||||||
Year Ended December 31, 2022 | For the Period from April 20, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 | |||||||
General and administrative expenses | $ | 3,826,521 | $ | 675,422 | ||||
Loss from operations | (3,826,521 | ) | (675,422 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense): | ||||||||
Offering costs allocated to warrant liabilities | — | (359,830 | ) | |||||
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | 11,897,500 | 555,100 | ||||||
Income earned in marketable securities held in Trust Account | 3,378,417 | 11,749 | ||||||
Total other income, net | 15,275,917 | 207,019 | ||||||
Net income (loss) | $ | 11,449,396 | $ | (468,403 | ) | |||
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class A | 23,000,000 | 23,000,000 | ||||||
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per share, Class A | $ | 0.40 | $ | (0.02 | ) | |||
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class B | 5,750,000 | 5,750,000 | ||||||
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per share, Class B | $ | 0.40 | $ | (0.02 | ) | |||
Net loss | $ | (468,403 | ) | |
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: | ||||
Offering costs allocated to warrant liabilities | 359,830 | |||
Stock-based compensation | 251,733 | |||
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | (555,100 | ) | ||
Interest income | (11,749 | ) | ||
Other changes | 4,167 | |||
Changes | ||||
Other current assets | (828,996 | ) | ||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | 148,907 | |||
Non-current assets | (274,845 | ) | ||
Net cash used in operating activities | (1,374,456 | ) | ||
Cash Flows from Investing Activity: | ||||
Proceeds deposited in Trust Account | (235,750,000 | ) | ||
Net cash used in investing activity | (235,750,000 | ) | ||
Cash Flows from Financing Activities: | ||||
Proceeds from initial public offering, net of costs | 225,400,000 | |||
Proceeds from private placement | 13,250,000 | |||
Proceeds from sale of common stock to initial shareholders | 25,000 | |||
Proceeds from loans from related parties | 104,893 | |||
Payment of deferred offering costs | (550,196 | ) | ||
Repayment of loans from related parties | (14,850 | ) | ||
Net cash provided by financing activities | 238,214,847 | |||
Net increase in cash | 1,090,391 | |||
Cash, April 20, 2021 (inception) | 0 | |||
Cash, end of the period | $ | 1,090,391 | ||
Supplemental disclosure of noncash investing and financing activities | ||||
Initial value of common stock subject to possible redemption | $ | 225,400,000 | ||
Deferred underwriter commissions payable | 8,050,000 | |||
Initial classification of derivative warrant liabilities | 12,947,600 | |||
Class B sponsor contribution | 18,011,808 | |||
Ordinary Shares | Additional Paid- In Capital | Accumulated Deficit | Total S tock holders’Deficit | |||||||||||||||||
Shares | Amount | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance as of April 20, 2021 (inception) | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | |||||||||||
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | 5,750,000 | 575 | 24,425 | — | 25,000 | |||||||||||||||
Stock-based compensation | — | — | 251,733 | — | 251,733 | |||||||||||||||
Proceeds from Private Placement Warrants in excess of fair value | — | — | 6,312,300 | — | 6,312,300 | |||||||||||||||
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption value | — | — | (6,588,458 | ) | (18,011,808 | ) | (24,600,266 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | (468,403 | ) | (468,403 | ) | |||||||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2021 | 5,750,000 | 575 | — | (18,480,211 | ) | (18,479,636 | ) | |||||||||||||
Stock-based compensation | — | — | 1,510,400 | — | 1,510,400 | |||||||||||||||
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption value | — | — | (1,510,400 | ) | (1,850,599 | ) | (3,360,999 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net income | — | — | — | 11,449,396 | 11,449,396 | |||||||||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2022 | 5,750,000 | $ | 575 | $ | — | $ | (8,881,414 | ) | $ | (8,880,839 | ) | |||||||||
For the Year Ended December 31, 2022 | For the Period from April 20, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 | |||||||
Cash Flows Used in Operating Activities: | ||||||||
Net income (loss) | $ | 11,449,396 | $ | (468,403 | ) | |||
Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash used in operating activities: | ||||||||
Offering costs allocated to warrant liabilities | — | 359,830 | ||||||
Stock-based compensation | 1,510,400 | 251,733 | ||||||
Unrealized change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | (11,897,500 | ) | (555,100 | ) | ||||
Income earned in marketable securities held in Trust Account | (3,353,417 | ) | (11,749 | ) | ||||
Other changes | — | 4,167 | ||||||
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | ||||||||
Other current assets | 513,537 | (828,996 | ) | |||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | 592,677 | 148,907 | ||||||
Non-current assets | 274,845 | (274,845 | ) | |||||
Due to related party | 2,388 | — | ||||||
Net cash used in operating activities | (907,674 | ) | (1,374,456 | ) | ||||
Cash flows from investing activities: | ||||||||
Proceeds deposited in Trust Account | — | (235,750,000 | ) | |||||
Net cash used in investing activities | — | (235,750,000 | ) | |||||
Cash flows from financing activities: | ||||||||
Proceeds from initial public offering, net of costs | — | 225,400,000 | ||||||
Proceeds from private placement | — | 13,250,000 | ||||||
Proceeds from sale of common stock to initial shareholders | — | 25,000 | ||||||
Payment of deferred offering costs | — | (550,196 | ) | |||||
Proceeds from loans from related parties | — | 104,893 | ||||||
Repayments of loans from related parties | (90,043 | ) | (14,850 | ) | ||||
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | (90,043 | ) | 238,214,847 | |||||
Net (decrease) increase in cash | (997,717 | ) | 1,090,391 | |||||
Cash, beginning of period | 1,090,391 | — | ||||||
Cash, end of period | $ | 92,674 | $ | 1,090,391 | ||||
Supplemental disclosure with respect to cash flows | ||||||||
Initial value of common stock subject to possible redemption | $ | — | $ | 225,400,000 | ||||
Deferred underwriter commissions payable | $ | — | $ | 8,050,000 | ||||
Initial classification of derivative warrant liabilities | $ | — | $ | 12,947,600 | ||||
Change in value of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | $ | 3,360,999 | $ | — | ||||
Gross proceeds | $ | 235,750,000 | ||
Less: | ||||
Offering costs allocated to Class A | (11,519,926 | ) | ||
Plus: | ||||
Deferred underwriting costs | 8,050,000 | |||
Remeasurement of carrying value to redemption value | 3,469,926 | |||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | $ | 235,750,000 |
Gross proceeds | $ | 230,000,000 | ||
Less: | ||||
Offering costs allocated to Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | (12,840,366 | ) | ||
Proceeds allocated to public warrants | (6,009,900 | ) | ||
Plus: | ||||
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to redemption value | 24,600,266 | |||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption as of December 31, 2021 | 235,750,000 | |||
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to redemption value | 3,360,999 | |||
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption as of December 31, 2022 | $ | 239,110,999 | ||
For the Year ended December 31, 2022 | For the period from April 20, 2021 (inception) through September 30, 2021 | |||||||
Class A ordinary shares | ||||||||
Numerator: | ||||||||
Allocation of net income (loss) | $ | 9,159,517 | $ | (374,722 | ) | |||
Denominator: | ||||||||
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding | 23,000,000 | 23,000,000 | ||||||
Basic and diluted earnings per share | $ | 0.40 | $ | (0.02 | ) | |||
Class B ordinary shares | ||||||||
Numerator: | ||||||||
Allocation of net income (loss) | $ | 2,289,879 | $ | (93,681 | ) | |||
Denominator: | ||||||||
Basic and diluted Weighted Average shares outstanding | 5,750,000 | 5,750,000 | ||||||
Basic and diluted earnings per share | $ | 0.40 | $ | (0.02 | ) | |||
For the period from April 20, 2021 (inception) to December 31, 2021 | ||||||||
Class A | Class B | |||||||
Basic and diluted net loss per ordinary share | ||||||||
Numerator: | ||||||||
Allocation of net loss | $ | (374,722 | ) | $ | (93,681 | ) | ||
Denominator: | ||||||||
Basic and diluted weighted average common shares | 23,000,000 | 5,750,000 | ||||||
Basic and diluted net loss per ordinary share | $ | (0.02 | ) | $ | (0.02 | ) | ||
Level 1: | Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. An active market for an asset or liability is a market in which transactions for the asset or liability occur with sufficient frequency and volume to provide pricing information on an ongoing basis. | |
Level 2: | Observable inputs other than Level 1 inputs. Examples of Level 2 inputs include quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities and quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in markets that are not active. | |
Level 3: | Unobservable inputs based on our assessment of the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability. |
Description | Level | December 31, 2022 | December 31, 2021 | |||||||||
Assets: | ||||||||||||
Cash and investments held in Trust Account | 1 | $ | 239,110,999 | $ | 235,757,582 | |||||||
Liabilities: | ||||||||||||
Warrant Liability – Public Warrants | 1 | $ | 230,000 | $ | 5,635,000 | |||||||
Warrant Liability – Private Placement Warrants | 3 | $ | 265,000 | $ | 6,757,500 |
Description | Level | December 31, 2021 | ||||||
Assets: | ||||||||
Cash held in Trust Account | 1 | $ | 235,757,582 | |||||
Liabilities | ||||||||
Warrant Liability – Public Warrants | 3 | $ | 5,635,000 | |||||
Warrant Liability – Private Placement Warrants | 3 | $ | 6,757,500 |
Input | December 31, 2022 | December 31, 2021 | ||||||
Risk-free interest rate | 3.99 | % | 1.26 | % | ||||
Expected term (years) | 5.24 | 5.50 | ||||||
Expected volatility | 2.00 | % | 10.00 | % | ||||
Exercise price | $ | 11.50 | $ | 11.50 | ||||
Unit Price (public) | $ | 10.37 | $ | 10.09 | ||||
Unit Price (private) | $ | 11.50 | $ | 9.87 |
Input | September 30, 2021 (Initial Measurement) | December 31, 2021 | ||||||
Risk-free interest rate | 0.93 | % | 1.26 | % | ||||
Expected term (years) | 4.75 | 5.50 | ||||||
Expected volatility | 11.53 | % | 10.00 | % | ||||
Exercise price | $ | 11.50 | $ | 11.50 | ||||
Unit Price (public) | $ | 9.74 | $ | 10.09 | ||||
Unit Price (private) | $ | 9.74 | $ | 9.87 |
Private Placement | Public | Warrant Liabilities | ||||||||||
Fair value as of April 20, 2021 (inception) | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | ||||||
Initial measurement on September 30, 2021 | 6,937,700 | 6,009,900 | 12,947,600 | |||||||||
Change in valuation inputs and other assumptions | (180,200 | ) | (374,900 | ) | (555,100 | ) | ||||||
Public warrants transfer to level 1 | — | (5,635,000 | ) | (5,635,000 | ) | |||||||
Fair value as of December 31, 2021 | 6,757,500 | — | 6,757,500 | |||||||||
Change in valuation inputs and other assumptions | (6,492,500 | ) | — | (6,492,500 | ) | |||||||
Fair value as of December 31, 2022 | $ | 265,000 | $ | — | $ | 265,000 | ||||||
Private Placement | Public | Warrant Liabilities | ||||||||||
Fair value as of April 20, 2021 (inception) | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | ||||||
Initial measurement on September 30, 2021 | 6,937,700 | 6,009,900 | 12,947,600 | |||||||||
Change in valuation inputs and other assumptions | (180,200 | ) | (374,900 | ) | (555,100 | ) | ||||||
Fair value as of December 31, 2021 | $ | 6,757,500 | $ | 5,635,000 | $ | 12,392,500 | ||||||
EXHIBIT INDEX
* | Filed herewith |
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
TALON 1 ACQUISITION CORP. | ||||||
Date: April | By: | /s/ Edward J. Wegel | ||||
Name: | Edward J. Wegel | |||||
Title: | Chief Executive Officer |
POWER OF ATTORNEY
KNOWN BY ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that the individuals whose signatures appear below hereby constitute and appoint Edward J. Wegel and Ryan Goepel, and each of them severally, as his or her true and lawful
SIGNATURE | TITLE | DATE | ||||
/s/ Edward J. Wegel | Chief Executive Officer, Director | April | ||||
Edward J. Wegel | (principal executive officer) | |||||
/s/ Ryan Goepel | Chief Financial Officer | April 17, 2023 | ||||
Ryan Goepel | (principal financial and accounting officer) | |||||
/s/ Maggie Arvedlund | Director | April | ||||
Maggie Arvedlund | ||||||
/s/ | Director | April | ||||
Marc Cho | ||||||
/s/ | Director | April | ||||
Joseph DaGrosa, Jr. | ||||||
/s/ | Director | April | ||||
Nathaniel Felsher | ||||||
/s/ Abdol Moabery | Director | April 17, 2023 | ||||
Abdol Moabery |