References in this report to “we,” “us” or the “Company” refer to Zanite Acquisition Corp. References to our “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors, and references to the “Sponsor” refer to Zanite Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.
We are a blank check company formed as a Delaware corporation for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (the “business combination”). We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the Company is a “shell company” as defined under the Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.
On November 19, 2020, we consummated our initial public offering (the “initial public offering”) of 23,000,000 units (the “units”), including the issuance of 3,000,000 units as a result of the underwriters’ exercise of their over-allotment option in full. Each unit consists of one share of Class A common stock and
one-half
warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock for $11.50 per share. The units were sold at a price of $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds of $230 million.
Simultaneously with the consummation of the initial public offering, we completed the private sale (the “private placement”) of an aggregate of 9,650,000 warrants (the “private placement warrants”) to Zanite Sponsor LLC (the “Sponsor”) at a purchase price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, generating proceeds to the Company of $9,650,000.
Prior to the consummation of the initial public offering, on August 7, 2020, we issued an aggregate of 5,750,000 shares (the “founder shares”) of our Class B common stock (the “Class B common stock”) to our Sponsor for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000 in cash. On October 15, 2020, our Sponsor transferred 250,000 founder shares to Ronald D. Sugar, our senior advisor, and 150,000 founder shares to each of John B. Veihmeyer, Larry R. Flynn and Gerard J. DeMuro, our then directors, resulting in our Sponsor holding 5,050,000 founder shares.
A total of $232,300,000, comprised of $222,650,000 of the proceeds from the initial public offering (which amount includes $8,050,000 of the underwriters’ deferred discount) and $9,650,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the private placement warrants, was placed in a U.S.-based trust account (the “trust account”) at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee.
The funds held in the trust account are invested in U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), with a maturity of 185 days or less or in any open-ended investment company that holds itself out as a money market fund selected by us meeting the conditions of Rule
2a-7
of the Investment Company Act, as determined by us, until the earlier of: (i) the consummation of an initial business combination or (ii) the distribution of the trust account, as described below.
On May 18, 2021 and November 16, 2021, we completed the sale of total of 4,600,000 private placement warrants , 2,300,000 and 2,300,000, respectively, to our Sponsor for an aggregate purchase price of $4,600,000, to extend the period of time we will have to consummate our initial business combination by 12 months from the deadline of May 19, 2021 until May 19, 2022 (the “completion window”). The private placement warrants were identical to the private placement warrants sold to our Sponsor in connection with our initial public offering.
As of December 31, 2021, there was $236,926,076 in investments and cash held in the trust account, which includes interest income available to us for franchise and income tax obligations of approximately $23,403, and $475,339 of cash held outside the trust account. As of December 31, 2021, we have withdrawn $0 of interest earned from the trust account to pay taxes.
On December 21, 2021, we entered into a Business Combination Agreement (the “Business Combination Agreement”) with Embraer S.A., a Brazilian corporation (
(“Embraer”), Embraer Aircraft Holding, Inc., a Delaware corporation and a direct wholly owned subsidiary of Embraer (“EAH”), and EVE UAM, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of EAH (“Eve”) that was formed for purposes of conducting all activities by or on behalf of Embraer or its subsidiaries related to research, design, development, testing, engineering, licensing, certification, manufacturing, procurement, assembling, packaging, sales support and after-sales support of, marketing, promotion, advertising, qualification, distribution, importation, fulfillment, offering, sale, deployment delivery, provision, exploitation, configuration, installation, integration, analysis, support, maintenance, repair, service, and other commercialization of or provision of services with respect to Eve’s passenger or cargo aircrafts with hybrid/electric propulsion with vertical
take-off
and landing capabilities (“eVTOL”) and related products and services and the collection of systems and services (including organizations, airspace structures and procedures, environment and technologies) that support the integrated operation of UAM (as defined below) vehicles in low level airspace, which systems and services are directed to supporting UAM operations and enhancing the performance of UAM
and low-level air
travel, which for avoidance of doubt does not include general air traffic management systems (“UATM”) for the market of a system for commercial
or non-commercial passenger
or cargo air travel or transportation services, in each case, which involves an eVTOL vehicle and onboard/ground-piloted or autonomous piloting or operations (“UAM”) , in each case, excluding any of the following applications or uses whether or not in connection with eVTOL: crop dusting, defense or security businesses (the “UAM Business”).