As filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 5, 2021.
Registration No. 333-
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Games & Esports Experience Acquisition Corp.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Cayman Islands | | | 6770 | | | 98-1592885 | |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | | (Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number) | | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) | |
7381 La Tijera Blvd.
P.O. Box 452118
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(213) 266-7674
P.O. Box 452118
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(213) 266-7674
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
Ari Segal
Chief Executive Officer
7381 La Tijera Blvd.
P.O. Box 452118
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(213) 266-7674
Chief Executive Officer
7381 La Tijera Blvd.
P.O. Box 452118
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(213) 266-7674
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
| Michael P. Heinz David C. Buck Sidley Austin LLP One South Dearborn Street Chicago, Illinois 60603 Tel: (312) 853-7000 | | | Jonathan Ko Paul Hastings LLP 515 South Flower Street, 25th Floor Los Angeles, California 90071 Tel: (213) 683-6000 | |
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), check the following box. ☐
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
| Large accelerated filer ☐ | | | Accelerated filer☐ | |
| Non-accelerated filer ☒ | | | Smaller reporting company ☒ | |
| | | | Emerging growth company ☒ | |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Title of Each Class of Security Being Registered | | | | Amount Being Registered | | | | Proposed Maximum Offering Price per Security(1) | | | | Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price(1) | | | | Amount of Registration Fee | | |||||||||
Units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share, $0.0001 par value per share, and one-half of one redeemable warrant(2) | | | | 17,250,000 Units | | | | | $ | 10.00 | | | | | | $ | 172,500,000 | | | | | | $ | 15,991 | | |
Class A ordinary shares included as part of the units(3) | | | | 17,250,000 Shares | | | | | | — | | | | | | | — | | | | | | | —(4) | | |
Redeemable warrants included as part of the units(3) | | | | 8,625,000 Warrants | | | | | | — | | | | | | | — | | | | | | | —(4) | | |
Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of redeemable warrants included as part of the units(3) | | | | 8,625,000 Shares | | | | | $ | 11.50 | | | | | | $ | 99,187,500 | | | | | | $ | 9,195 | | |
Total | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | $ | 271,687,500 | | | | | | $ | 25,186 | | |
(1)
Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(a) under the Securities Act.
(2)
Includes 2,250,000 units, consisting of 2,250,000 Class A ordinary shares and 1,125,000 redeemable warrants, which may be issued upon exercise of a 45-day option granted to the underwriters to cover over-allotments, if any.
(3)
Pursuant to Rule 416 under the Securities Act, there are also being registered an indeterminable number of additional securities as may be issued to prevent dilution resulting from share subdivisions, share dividends or similar transactions.
(4)
No fee pursuant to Rule 457(g) under the Securities Act.
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED NOVEMBER 5, 2021
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS
$150,000,000
Games & Esports Experience Acquisition Corp.
15,000,000 Units
Games & Esports Experience Acquisition Corp. is a newly formed blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to 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. While our efforts to identify a prospective business combination target will not be limited to a particular geographic region, we intend to focus on a target business in the gaming and esports sectors. Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently plan to merge with Gamers Club (as defined herein), a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil and an affiliate our sponsor, GEEX Sponsor, LLC. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club.
This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles its holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus. Only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. The warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, and will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation, as described in this prospectus. Subject to the terms and conditions described in this prospectus, we may redeem the warrants once the warrants become exercisable. The underwriters have a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 2,250,000 additional units to cover over-allotments, if any.
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described in this prospectus. We will have 15 months from the closing of this offering to consummate an initial business combination. If we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the consummation of this offering, we may, but are not obligated to, by resolution of our board of directors if requested by our sponsor, extend the period of time to consummate a business combination up to two times by an additional three months each time for a total of up to 21 months (the “Paid Extension Period”). In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic three-month extension (the “Automatic Extension Period”) if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period, to complete an initial business combination, as described in more detail in this prospectus. In the case of the Paid Extension Period or Automatic Extension Period, public shareholders will not be offered the opportunity to vote on or redeem their shares if we choose to make any such paid extension or in connection with an automatic extension. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within the 15-month period (or up to 24 months if we were to extend the time to complete our initial business combination as described herein), we will redeem 100% of the public shares at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to applicable law and certain conditions as further described herein.
Our sponsor has agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 9,250,000 warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, in a private placement to occur concurrently with the closing of this offering.
Our initial shareholders, including our sponsor, currently hold 4,312,500 Class B ordinary shares (up to 562,500 of which will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised). The total number of Class B ordinary shares outstanding after this offering and the expiration of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units will equal 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of
the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in this prospectus. Only holders of Class B ordinary shares will have the right to appoint directors in any election held prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and may remove members of the board of directors for any reason. On any other matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders, holders of Class B ordinary shares and holders of Class A ordinary shares will vote together as a single class, except as required by law.
Currently, there is no public market for our securities. We have applied to have our units listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “GEEXU” on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on Nasdaq. We expect the Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants comprising the units to begin separate trading on Nasdaq under the symbols “GEEX” and “GEEXW” respectively, on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such day is not a business day, on the next succeeding business day) unless the representatives of the underwriters permit earlier separate trading and we have satisfied certain conditions.
We are an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company” under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. No offer or invitation to subscribe for securities may be made to the public in the Cayman Islands.
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 42 for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities. Investors will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings.
Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
| | | Per Unit | | | Total | | ||||||
Public offering price | | | | $ | 10.00 | | | | | $ | 150,000,000 | | |
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1) | | | | $ | 0.55 | | | | | $ | 8,250,000 | | |
Proceeds, before expenses, to us | | | | $ | 9.45 | | | | | $ | 141,750,000 | | |
(1)
$0.20 per unit, or $3,000,000 in the aggregate (or $3,450,000 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), is payable upon the closing of this offering. Includes $0.35 per unit, or $5,250,000 in the aggregate (or $6,037,500 in the aggregate if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions to be placed in a trust account located in the United States as described in this prospectus and released to the underwriters only upon the completion of an initial business combination. See also “Underwriting” for a description of compensation and other items of value payable to the underwriters.
Of the proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $153,750,000, or $176,812,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full ($10.25 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a trust account in the United States with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, as discussed below and subject to the requirements of law and regulation, will provide that none of the funds held in the trust account will be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window and (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public shareholders.
The underwriters are offering the units for sale on a firm commitment basis. The underwriters expect to deliver the units to the purchasers on or about , 2021.
Book-Running Managers
J.P. Morgan William Blair
, 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| | | | | F-1 | | |
We are responsible for the information contained in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information, and we take no responsibility for any other information others may give to you. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus or on the date or dates which are specified in this prospectus.
Trademarks
This prospectus contains references to trademarks and service marks belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ® or TM symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that the applicable licensor will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, its rights to these trademarks and trade names. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trade names, trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.
i
SUMMARY
This summary only highlights the more detailed information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the information under “Risk Factors” and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before investing.
Unless otherwise stated in this prospectus or the context otherwise requires, references to:
•
“we,” “us,” “our” or our “company” are to Games & Esports Experience Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company;
•
“amended and restated memorandum and articles of association” are to our Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association;
•
“Companies Act” are to the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands as the same may be amended from time to time;
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“completion window” are to the period following the completion of this offering at the end of which, if we have not completed our initial business combination, we will redeem 100% of the public shares at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to applicable law and certain conditions and as further described herein. The completion window ends 15 months from the closing of this offering, which may be extended up to two times by an additional three months each time for a total of 21 months (the “Paid Extension Period”). In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic three-month extension (the “Automatic Extension Period”) if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period, to complete an initial business combination, as described in more detail in this prospectus. If we exercise both paid extension options and the automatic extension is triggered at the end of the Paid Extension Period, the completion window would end 24 months from the closing of this offering;
•
“equity-linked securities” are to any debt or equity securities that are convertible, exercisable or exchangeable for Class A ordinary shares issued in a financing transaction in connection with our initial business combination, including but not limited to a private placement of equity or debt;
•
“founder shares” are to our Class B ordinary shares initially issued to our sponsor in a private placement prior to this offering and the Class A ordinary shares that will be issued upon the conversion of the Class B ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described herein (for the avoidance of doubt, such Class A ordinary shares will not be “public shares”);
•
“Gamers Club” are to Gamers Club Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company;
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“initial shareholders” are to holders of our founder shares prior to this offering;
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“management” or our “management team” are to our executive officers and directors, and “directors” are to our current directors and director nominees;
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“ordinary shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares and our Class B ordinary shares;
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“private placement warrants” are to the warrants to be issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of this offering and upon conversion of working capital loans or extension funding loans, if any;
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“public shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market);
•
“public shareholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our initial shareholders and members of our management team to the extent our initial shareholders or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that each initial shareholder’s and member of our management team’s status as a “public shareholder” will only exist with respect to such public shares;
•
“sponsor” are to GEEX Sponsor, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company; and
1
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“warrants” are to our redeemable warrants sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market).
Any forfeiture of shares described in this prospectus will take effect as a surrender of shares for no consideration of such shares as a matter of Cayman Islands law. Any conversion of the Class B ordinary shares described in this prospectus will take effect as a redemption of Class B ordinary shares and an issuance of Class A ordinary shares as a matter of Cayman Islands law. Any share dividends described in this prospectus will take effect as a share capitalization as a matter of Cayman Islands law.
Unless we tell you otherwise, the information in this prospectus assumes that the underwriters will not exercise their option to purchase additional units and the surrender by our sponsor of 562,500 founder shares to us for no consideration.
General
We are a newly organized, blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination, with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as a target business. We have not selected any specific target business and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any target business regarding a business combination with our company. As described further below under “— Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club,” concurrent with or after the completion of our initial business combination we may also combine with Gamers Club, a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with continental preeminence in Latin America. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination only with Gamers Club.
We intend to pursue business combinations with interactive media companies operating directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports. We may also consider industries with similar user characteristics or demographics including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, although our efforts in identifying a prospective target business will not be limited to a particular industry.
We plan to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify, acquire and operate interactive media businesses directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports, as well as on the significant experience, reputation and relationships of our management team, directors, and advisors to complete an initial business combination. The business executives that comprise our management team are recognized leaders in the sports & entertainment, competitive gaming and esports industries and have experience in acquiring and operating prominent companies in these domains. In addition, our management team, directors, and advisors, by virtue of their extensive operational and transactional experience and through long-standing industry relationships, have global access to the operating, venture capital and financial sponsor communities, providing a key sourcing portal into a pipeline of potential target acquisition opportunities.
Our Management Team and Advisors
Our management team and advisors consist of seasoned executives with wide ranging experience from multiple verticals in the competitive gaming and esports industries and from other relevant industries, with proven track records of:
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Operating high-growth enterprises across the competitive gaming and esports industries;
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Building out vertically integrated platforms in competitive gaming and esports;
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Driving immersive best-in-class user experiences through the combination of Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play functionality, as described below under “— Acquisition Strategy”;
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Pursuing accretive acquisitions to catalyze growth of a larger enterprise;
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Strategizing, executing, and reviewing organic growth plans intended to accelerate company growth;
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Building qualified, cohesive, and productive management teams;
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Rationalizing non-core operations to realize value and optimize resource management for the benefit of primary business functions;
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Sourcing, structuring, financing, acquiring, and divesting businesses; and
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Fostering relationships with sellers, investors, target management teams, and other key industry stakeholders.
Ari Segal, our Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Director, most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Immortals Gaming Club (“IGC”), a position he held from December 2018 through June 2021, prior to which he was promoted from President & Chief Operating Officer of IGC, a position he held since 2017. Mr. Segal also serves as a Director of Gamers Club. As CEO, Mr. Segal led an aggressive merger and acquisition (“M&A”) strategy, including IGC’s acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club, as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform, a popular news and information site for competitive gamers in Brazil. In 2019 and 2020, IGC raised and deployed nearly $80 million in equity financing from investors including Meg Whitman, Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Milken family, Lionsgate, March Capital Partners, Steve Kaplan, and Irongrey, among others. The capital raised by IGC fueled growth initiatives including the expansion of Gamers Club and the acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1. Mr. Segal was also instrumental in the divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI) and the divestitures of several other key assets, including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, the OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2017, Mr. Segal worked as Chief Operating Officer of the National Hockey League’s (the “NHL”) Arizona Coyotes, where he led the club to its highest revenue season to date in 2016-2017. Mr. Segal was also Special Assistant to the CEO of the Anaheim Ducks and President of Business Operations for the San Diego Gulls (the Ducks’ American Hockey League (‘‘AHL’’) affiliate) when Mr. Segal and the team were awarded the first ever AHL President’s Award for Business Excellence. Previously, Mr. Segal worked as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and in the Financial Sponsors banking group at Lehman Brothers, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice. In 2020, Mr. Segal was named to the Sports Business Journal and Leaders in Sports annual “Forty Under 40” lists. Mr. Segal holds a J.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar and a B.A. with Distinction from the University of Virginia.
Tomi Kovanen, our Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder and Director, most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of IGC, and has over 15 years of experience in the esports industry across multiple roles and sub-verticals, including direct experience in the core functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play) as described in “— Acquisition Strategy” below. Mr. Kovanen also serves as a director of Gamers Club. Mr. Kovanen joined IGC in 2018 as Vice President, Business Development/General Manager, CS:GO of IGC, and previously served as Vice President, Finance and Business Development and Senior Vice President, Finance and Business Development of IGC. Since joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen has focused on the execution of the firm’s aggressive M&A strategy, including the acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Mr. Kovanen was instrumental in additional acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1, and the following divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI), as well as divestitures of several other key assets including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen served in J.P. Morgan’s Healthcare and Technology, Media, and Telecommunications investment banking groups in London from 2015 to 2017, and co-founded ENCE, Finland’s largest esports organization. Mr. Kovanen has written articles on the esports industry that have been published by the Financial Times and ESPN that led to his nomination for Esports Journalist of the Year in 2017 by The Esports Awards. Mr. Kovanen was also a professional esports athlete, competing in over 100 tournaments globally from 2005 through 2012, winning
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‘Milken-Backed Immortals Makes Esports’ First $100 Million Deal’, Bloomberg (2019)
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multiple international championships as the captain of Finnish teams and a North American organization. Mr. Kovanen holds a B.S. from the University of Oulu.
Margaret C. Whitman, a director nominee, is a business executive, former political candidate, and philanthropist. Based in Colorado, Ms. Whitman currently serves as a member of the board of directors for The Procter & Gamble Company and General Motors. Most recently, Ms. Whitman served as Chief Executive Officer for Quibi in 2020. Prior to joining Quibi, Ms. Whitman served as the Chief Executive Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, or HPE, a multinational enterprise information technology company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2015 to June 2017. From 2014 to 2015, Ms. Whitman served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman for Hewlett-Packard Company (now known as HP Inc.), the former parent of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2011 to 2015. Prior to joining HP Inc., Ms. Whitman was the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2010 gubernatorial race in California. From 1998 to 2008, Ms. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay Inc., an online marketplace and payments company. Ms. Whitman previously served as a member of the board of directors for HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Dropbox, Inc. and DXC Technology Company and for a number of other public and private companies, including IGC. Ms. Whitman currently serves as the National Board Chair for Teach For America. Ms. Whitman holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. from Princeton University.
Steven A. Cohen, a director nominee, is Executive Vice President of The Anschutz Corporation, the holding company for the Anschutz family of enterprises, a position he has held since 2001. Mr. Cohen is involved with a number of the operating companies and investments within the Anschutz organization and sits on the board of directors of many of the Anschutz portfolio companies including Anschutz Entertainment Group, for which he also serves as Chief Strategy Officer since 2013, and IGC. Mr. Cohen also serves as a Managing Director of Anschutz Investment Company, the investment arm of The Anschutz Corporation that is focused on both equity and debt investments in a variety of industries, including communications, media, oil and gas, alternative energy, entertainment, hospitality and lodging, real estate and transportation. Mr. Cohen is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rose Community Foundation, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver), the Board of Directors of Roundup River Ranch, a member of the SeriousFun Children’s Network, and the Board of Directors of 303 Rugby, a not-for-profit that supports rugby programs for inner-city youth, and is also a member of Colorado Thrives. Prior to working at The Anschutz Corporation, Mr. Cohen was a corporate partner at Hogan Lovells, and started his legal career at Skadden in their mergers and acquisitions group. Mr. Cohen holds a B.Sc. from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Stephen A. Kaplan, an advisor to our company, is the Chairman of Nalpak Capital LLC, the family office investment firm he founded in 2016. Mr. Kaplan was a Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital Group LLC, a global alternative investment management firm. He retired from day-to-day activities in 2016 to focus on philanthropy and personal investments with a special emphasis on sports and entertainment. Mr. Kaplan is the Co-Chairman of DC United and serves on the Major League Soccer Board of Governors. He is also an owner of multiple other sports franchises and sports related investments including Swansea City FC in the English Championship. Mr. Kaplan also serves as a Director of IGC. Mr Kaplan was previously the Co-Chairman of the National Basketball Association’s (the “NBA”) Memphis Grizzlies from 2012 until he sold his interest in 2018. Mr. Kaplan joined Oaktree at its inception in 1995, having previously served as a managing director of Trust Company of the West. Prior to joining TCW in 1993, he was a partner with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Kaplan has served on numerous public and private boards during his career and presently serves on the board of Townsquare Media, Inc. (NYSE: TSQ). In addition, he currently serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation, LA 84 Foundation and the New York University School of Law Foundation. Mr. Kaplan holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
Yuri Uchiyama, an advisor to our company, is Gamers Club’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, positions he has held since launching Gamers Club in 2016. Mr. Uchiyama also serves as a Director of Gamers Club. Mr. Uchiyama has guided Gamers Club from its inception, having led its early fundraising
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efforts and its sale to IGC in 2018, and he continues in the role of CEO through present day. Under Mr. Uchiyama’s leadership, Gamers Club has become the second largest matchmaking platform in the world, with a distinctive market position in Latin America. Since IGC’s acquisition, and working alongside Messrs. Segal and Kovanen, Uchiyama led Gamers Club’s growth from operating solely in Brazil to three additional countries (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), from one game title (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) to six game titles, established partnerships with publishers such as Epic Games and Riot Games and companies such as Microsoft, and expanded Gamers Club’s content footprint through the acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Prior to co-founding Gamers Club in 2016, Mr. Uchiyama worked as a Manager of Smyowl, a Brazilian startup focused on mobile game development. Previously, Uchiyama worked as a Coordinator of the Inova Sorocaba/Sorocaba Technology Park, where he helped to create the startup ecosystem of the Sao Paulo suburb. Mr. Uchiyama also worked at Capgemini, providing Business Intelligence consulting to companies in Brazil, the United States, and Poland. Mr. Uchiyama is a frequent contributor to various media sources covering competitive gaming and esports in Brazil and in 2019 the Brazilian Senate Chamber invited Mr. Uchiyama to address an assembly regarding the future of the esports market in Brazil. Mr. Uchiyama holds a B.S. from Fatec Sorocaba.
Our management team and Mr. Uchiyama grew IGC into a vertically integrated business in the competitive gaming and esports spaces, with a portfolio of complementary assets inclusive of Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play-based functionality. IGC co-founded B Site, Inc., which was the first team-owned tournament organizing platform in esports. In 2018 IGC acquired Gamers Club, a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with the largest market share in the South America region. During IGC’s ownership, Gamers Club has more than doubled its registered users to approximately two million, approximately half of which are monthly active users (“MAUs”). Through a combination of organic growth and selective, strategic M&A, Gamers Club has expanded its initial functionality from educational content and matchmaking to media coverage and broader news and editorial content; and built new, complementary functionality such as fantasy sports and more comprehensive “Play” experiences (e.g., online and offline-based tournaments). Gamers Club has formed partnerships with the likes of Riot Games, Epic Games and Microsoft, among others, while diversifying from one to six game titles, from one language to two, and from one country to four.
Our advisors will assist our management team with sourcing and evaluating potential business combination targets and developing plans and strategies to optimize any business that we acquire following the consummation of this offering, including sourcing potential executives, persons to serve as directors and capital. However, unlike our management team, our advisors are not responsible for managing our day-to-day affairs and have no authority to engage in substantive discussions with business combination targets on our behalf. We have not currently entered into formal arrangements or agreements with our advisors to provide services, and they will have no fiduciary obligations to present business opportunities to us.
Notwithstanding our management team’s or advisors’ past experiences, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, past performance is not a guarantee (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) that we will provide an attractive return to our shareholders from any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management’s performance as indicative of our future performance. See “Risk Factors — Past performance of our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us, and we may be unable to provide positive returns to shareholders.” For a list of our executive officers and entities for which a conflict of interest may or does exist between such officers and the company, please refer to “Management — Conflicts of Interest.”
Market Opportunity
We intend to pursue business combinations with interactive media companies operating directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports. We may also consider industries with similar user characteristics or demographics including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, although our efforts in identifying a prospective target business will not be limited to a particular industry.
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The competitive gaming and esports market, a large and growing subset of interactive and digital media, has been growing rapidly over the past several years; some examples of this dynamic:
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YouTube Gaming reached 100 billion hours watched across 40 million active gaming channels in 20202;
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Live streaming platform Twitch hours watched grew approximately 39% annually from 2016 (4.8 billion) to 2020 (18.6 billion)3;
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There was $2.3 billion in capital raised by esports companies in 2020, and $19.6 billion in capital raised by gaming companies in 2020, representing 139% and 327% increases in value year over year, respectively4;
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There are expected to be approximately 2.9 billion gamers globally as of by the end of 20215;
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There is expected to be a global live-streaming gaming audience of 728.8 million viewers by the end of 2021, a 10% increase over 2020’s audience figures6; and
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There is expected to be an esports audience of approximately 286 million enthusiasts and 292 million occasional viewers in 2024, representing increases of approximately 37 million enthusiasts and 39 million occasional viewers from 20196.
Competitive gaming and esports are propelled by strong secular trends and demographic tailwinds that have further accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, total gaming and esports market revenue was approximately $167 billion and is expected to have a compounded annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 13% from 2020 to 2024. In 2020, video game revenue grew to approximately $145 billion, a CAGR of approximately 9% from 2016 to 2020, and is expected to grow to approximately $198 billion in 20247. As viewership and engagement continue to gain momentum with more comprehensive, interactive experiences, the esports market, a subsector of the broader video games market, will become increasingly attractive. Today, the esports market represents approximately $1.1 billion in revenue, and is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 20246, with distinctive opportunity available to those market participants able to integrate esports with other socially oriented experiences to drive engagement. As gaming and esports continue to become more accessible, with the cost of technology decreasing and high-speed internet becoming more widespread globally, we believe the total addressable market is positioned for several decades of incremental, strong growth. Thus, even as a leading market share position is attractive at the market’s current size, the gaming and esports market continues to grow.
Total audience, as well as engagement of the full spectrum of casual to more avid gamers as well as competitive gaming and esports fans, have all shown strong, steady growth trends, including the following:
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Three out of four global video game players report watching other people play video games weekly8;
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Globally, video game players spend more than five hours a week watching other people play online or in esports tournaments, an increase of 27% from January 2020 to January 2021, while spending only three hours watching traditional sports on television8;
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Consumers are increasingly evolving in their selection of entertainment content, with 6.6 million households canceling their cable subscriptions in 2020, and TV subscriptions down 23% from the peak
2
‘2020 Is YouTube Gaming’s Biggest Year Ever: 100B Watch Time Hours’, Youtube (2021)
3
Total Hours Viewed, Twitch Statistics (2021)
4
‘2021 Industry Report; Gaming M&A And Fundraising Update’, Quantum Tech Partners (2021)
5
‘Global Games Market to Generate $175.8 Billion in 2021…, Newzoo (2021)
6
‘Viewership Engagement Continues To Skyrocket Across Games And Esports…’, Newzoo (2021)
7
‘Activate Technology & Media Outlook 2021’, Activate Consulting (2020)
8
‘The State Of Online Gaming’, Limelight Networks (2021)
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in 20149. Conversely, the prevalence of the OTT market comprised of streaming services, is expected to register a CAGR of approximately 11% from 2020-202510;
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Incremental platform capabilities such as follower perks, exclusive access to content, and ability to interact via web-based chat are creating more avenues to participate within the online gaming community, bolstering overall audience engagement;
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In a 2017 Magid survey of esports viewers, 69% of respondents indicated interest in a subscription viewership model11; and
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Audience engagement in the form of betting is exploding across esports, with 66% of those who actively follow esports indicating interest in placing bets on esports events, as compared to 50% for traditional sporting events11.
Gaming has more than tipped into the mainstream; it is a bona fide mainstay. For its core and existing users, share of time, wallet, mindshare and passion continue to increase. Gaming is neither exclusively active (i.e., games are not merely “played”) nor just passive (i.e., unlike professional traditional sports or film and television, games are not merely watched) — users engage with games. This engagement, and the diversity of engagement opportunities, has unleashed a tidal wave of creativity and entrepreneurialism in and around gaming, highlighted by proliferation in both game development, exemplified by companies such as Roblox, which offers a creative development platform and has attracted seven million developers across 170 countries as of September 30, 2020; and consumption options, often inclusive of multiple media segments simultaneously, exemplified by Fortnite Battle Royal in-game experiences featuring live concerts with music artists such as Travis Scott and Marshmello.
Equally compelling from a market size or market growth potential standpoint is the emergence of gaming as a utility: gaming is, for instance, now used for educational purposes and increasingly seen as a tool to enable socialization (in stark contrast to how it was previously viewed as an antisocial and isolating phenomena), as currency and as the proverbial “water cooler” of the 21st century. The emergence of education technology companies leveraging gaming as a teaching tool, content source, or means of distribution has increased, as exemplified by Duolingo’s interactive language learning solution. So-called “gamification” is increasingly pervasive in education, seen as a way to aid in the engagement of students in the classroom, and aid cognitive development12. Activate Consulting expects most digital activities, including search, social, shopping and live events, to increasingly take place inside games; indeed, gaming may already be the central hub for people’s virtual lives and, increasingly, their real lives7. As live and digital content continue to fuse, gaming continues to evolve towards and converge into traditional media, evidenced by Netflix observation in their 2018 shareholders’ letter: “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.” In addition, gaming and esports users tend to have attractive demographic and/or income characteristics:
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Approximately 57% of U.S. esports viewers have incomes over $75,00011;
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Approximately 65% of U.S. esports viewers have a college degree or higher education11;
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Approximately 62% of U.S. esports viewers are between the age of 18 and 3411
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Approximately 44% of existing adult video game players, who started playing video games before March 2020, are aged 45 or above, while 56% of new adult gamers are aged 45 or above. New adult gamers are also increasingly gender diverse, as 66% of new gamers are female7; and
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Users are increasingly engaged with social networking activities in video games, as approximately 38% of video game players have participated in a non-gaming activity or event within a videogame in the last 12 months, such as live in-game concerts, virtual re-creations of social events, in game movies, and sports-related events and content7.
9
‘Cord Cutting Is Breaking Records During The Pandemic’, Fortune (2020)
10
‘United States Over The Top (OTT) Market — Growth, Trends, Forecasts’, Intrado (2020)
11
‘eSports — The Ecosystem of Professional Competitive Video Gaming and Streaming’, Goldman Sachs (2019)
12
‘5 Benefits Of Gamification’, Smithsonian Science Education Center
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However, despite the industry’s attractive growth profile and user characteristics, few competitive gaming and esports assets have managed to reach the necessary user scale that would allow for attractive operating margins or the development of robust, durable business models. Because the user experience is fragmented, causing users to split time among multiple platforms, sites, and services daily, share of user time and wallet are similarly broadly distributed rather than consolidated. Thus, while in total, monetization per user is strong and growing, monetization per user is often small on a per platform basis, with few if any platforms delivering sufficient scale and value to monetize effectively. In 2020 monetization per user for the gaming and esports market was approximately $58. The high fragmentation of revenue in the industry that tracks the user experience undermines the ability to scale associated expenses — asset and functionality fragmentation leads to replicated costs (e.g., central and administrative costs) unrelated to and not commensurate with improved user experience or product distinctiveness and quality. Collectively, these structural issues create friction and pain points adversely impacting users and lead to higher cost, lower margin, less sticky businesses.
We believe the fragmentation of competitive gaming and esports businesses creates a landscape primed for consolidation. Further, we believe that streamlining user functionality within competitive gaming and bringing esports fans together on a unified platform that improves the user experience for all participants will significantly increase the average annual revenue per user in esports, which has grown to approximately $511 in 2018 from approximately $2 per user in 201413. We believe there is significant, attainable opportunity for increased monetization, particularly when compared to the average annual revenue per user of $15 for the NBA or $60 for the National Football League (the “NFL”)11. Material cost and revenue synergies may enable a consolidated platform to improve operating margins and benefit from operating leverage, as costs can either be eliminated entirely or scaled across a broader user base with higher revenue per user characteristics. We believe that gaming and esports businesses that are early to market with adequate liquidity and access to growth capital via public financing may be competitively advantaged during this consolidation period.
We believe there is an opportunity for a large, well-capitalized and diverse company with exposure to and touchpoints throughout competitive gaming and esports to emerge as a clear market leader by demonstrating growth and an ability to reach a broader audience, generate scale and capitalize on synergies to expand revenue and profitability. With infrastructure that unifies diversified competitive gaming and esports assets, a scaled platform can become the foundation for additional business combinations to compete in the ecosystem and to return value to shareholders and industry stakeholders (including, but not limited to, publishers, gamers, fans, and even the otherwise non-engaged parents of gamers and fans) in the long-term.
Further, for a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) in particular, interactive media enterprises within competitive gaming and esports represents an attractive and underexploited market opportunity. First, we believe there is a robust universe of potential target companies, nearly all of which will continue to benefit from the dynamic and attractive secular growth characteristics that have propelled gaming and esports forward as a leading media vertical over the last several years, if not decades. Twenty years ago, gaming was a fairly narrow media vertical serving a casual player base primarily comprised of young adults; today, gaming is larger than the global movie and North American sports industries combined14, and as GenZ reaches adulthood and GenX and Millennials enter middle age and beyond, the age distribution of participants in gaming and esports becomes more diverse and attractive. This is in contrast to many traditional sports in which the average age of fans is increasing without any refreshing of the fan population from younger market entrants. For example, the average age of an NHL fan in 2016 was 49 years old, a one-year increase in average age from one year prior15. Similar trends can be observed in the NFL and Major League Baseball (“MLB”), and it is unclear today what might reverse that trend in the coming years15. By extension, traditional sport participation amongst children is declining, with 37% of children aged 6 to 12 playing traditional sports in 2017, down from 45% in 200816. At the same time, the fastest growing cohorts in our industry are teens and children, entering the gaming market with high velocity and energy, with up to
13
‘The Global Games Market: Trends, Market Data and Opportunities’, Newzoo (2015)
14
‘Video Games Are A Bigger Industry Than Movies And North American Sports Combined, Thanks To The Pandemic’, Marketwatch (2021)
15
‘Esports Doesn’t Need a Virus to Overtake Real Sports’, Financial Times (2020)
16
‘New Study Shows Youth Sports Are In Big Trouble’ Good (2017)
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91% of people between the ages of 2 and 17 playing video games17. Furthermore, while many traditional sports are experiencing net churn and a reduction in fans across essentially every age cohort, adults are increasingly joining the gaming market. Adults are using gaming as a mechanism through which to socialize or connect with friends and peers as well as their children, phenomena that we believe were accelerated by the recent and ongoing COVID pandemic. A 2020 report released by Global Web Index, for instance, finds that gamers between the ages of 55-64 have grown by 32% over the last three years. Thus, while monetization per user in gaming is expected to increase significantly in the short term, driven in part by players and fans who grew up gaming, have significant discretionary income and make their own purchasing decisions, that anticipated rate of growth is likely to increase even further over the long term as more people consume multiple forms of media within gaming while simultaneously engaging in games in their more traditional, competitive and participatory format.
Acquisition Strategy
The secular trends identified in the “Market Opportunity” section above are accelerating rather than decelerating; thus, our company, together with our management team’s knowledge and experience with the broader competitive gaming and esports marketplace can target and acquire a business with strong underlying user and organic growth characteristics and guide that business towards more robust growth and better operating margins as the market continues to mature and evolve. Having operated, participated in, and advised businesses in this sector, and having worked with investors and other operators approaching and accessing competitive gaming from other nodes in the broader interactive media and entertainment markets, our diligence of target companies will not be limited by the target’s standalone growth characteristics but will also extend to, for example, how the target’s users and customers, functionality, and current and potential value proposition fit within the environment of the evolving gaming and media industry. In other words, market knowledge and new perspective, combined with capital and liquidity, should enable an already strong company to modify or refine its strategic vision to take advantage of the sizable opportunities in the market today as well as tomorrow.
Our combination of industry experience, know-how, and relationships will allow us to pursue an acquisition strategy with multiple opportunities for value creation for shareholders:
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Identify a target with strong growth characteristics, including indicia related to active and/or registered users, time spent on platform, and engagement, exposed to the powerful secular growth trends articulated above;
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Leverage our gaming platform operating experience to unlock untapped organic growth potential within that target — either through expansion to new markets, integration of new and complementary functionality, or by otherwise enhancing the existing value proposition to both existing users or customers (growing monetization per user or time per user on platform) and potential new users and customers;
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Further enhance or accelerate growth through the potential simultaneous merger of Gamers Club, as described further below under “— Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club,” which IGC has owned and operated since December 2018. Gamers Club’s potential inclusion is likely to add immediately complementary functionality, publisher relationships and a performance track record, as well as geographic presence in South America and Brazil, where the target may or may not already have an existing presence; and
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After the initial business combination, pursuing an ongoing, aggressive M&A strategy to identify various additional targets in the very fragmented gaming and esports sector, which are likely ill-suited, ill-equipped, or simply too small to be publicly listed and may be without the scale and functionality to monetize effectively on a standalone basis, but that can offer significant benefits and value to the day-to-day user experience for our broader user base that seeks deeper and wider engagement.
Every aspect of our acquisition and growth strategy is characterized by a common underlying theme: relentless focus on improving the user experience. In many ways, gaming is succeeding in spite of itself:
17
‘91% of Kids are Gamers, Research Says’, CNET (2011)
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users are bounced from game to game, app to app, device to device, group to group, news source to news source, network to network, username to username, with no cohesive and curated experience facilitating improved navigation in and around gaming as a form of media. It is a credit to competitive gaming and esports’s social, cultural and business relevance that the market has grown as it has despite the user experience being what it is.
We think of optimizing the user experience as an imperative and guiding objective, both within the initial target itself (and any potential subsequently acquired and integrated assets), and across, in, and around competitive and engaged gaming and esports generally. We believe that focusing on the users’ day-to-day consumption and known and unknown, stated and unstated needs and wants, and efficiently packaging and delivering that functionality will allow us to pursue a diversified growth strategy, characterized by organic growth, functionality-based and geographic expansion, the potential integration of Gamers Club, and the pursuit of enhancing and accretive targets through strategic M&A.
Focus on a comprehensive and seamless user experience and solution rather than just a linear product to sale transaction will create a flywheel that, with increasing velocity, streamlines and improves user activity and materially increases time spent by users within the company’s ecosystem. User experience is therefore the driver of increased share of wallet and lifetime value of users, as well as network effect-driven non-linear, exponential growth.
Further, consolidating previously dispersed and fragmented user functionality into a single point of entry enables, for the first time, the creation of a single identity layer for each user. Frictions that often restrict, limit, or deter deeper engagement or time spent on-platform can be dramatically mitigated through the creation of a secure, single-entry point. This structure will allow for expansion into various incremental verticals of functionality, which could improve the platform’s user experience as described above and making the users even stickier, which should lead to a lower steady-state churn rate.
Fully integrated and at mature scale, key characteristics of an all-in-one platform include four functionality pillars:
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Follow: read about, or engage with, non-live competitive content related to a game;
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Watch: watch live or on-demand content, primarily of a game being played, or game play being discussed;
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Converse: actively engage in dialogue about a game, with friends or other users; and
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Play: actively participate in game play.
Each of these pillars represents a critical aspect of users’ gaming activity, with an attractive universe of potential target companies to acquire. At Gamers Club, IGC started by primarily delivering “Play” functionality through matchmaking, but established geographic prominence in Brazil by both diversifying within that core functionality pillar through adding leagues and tournaments to compete in, as well as live stream broadcasts of the leagues and tournaments and by expanding to other functionality pillars both organically with fantasy sports and educational content and through M&A with the acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Through the combination of these tools and experiences, the resulting customer “solution” that Gamers Club delivers is not some additional code or object; rather, it is a robust community. Gamers Club’s users do not use Gamers Club or consume Gamers Club; they are part of Gamers Club.
Our experience in having grown and operated Gamers Club and, in particular, experimented with and deployed each of the functionality pillars both individually and in combination, have helped to provide us with knowledge and perspective about how a user base grows and responds to delivery of broad capabilities within each of the functionality pillars. Our belief is that integrating multiple functionality pillars does not result merely in additional users or customers from each pillar individually (for example, the “Follower” user base (A) is simply added to the “Watch” user base (B), creating total audience of A+B — redundancies); rather, our belief is that network effects drive more than just linear growth as functionality pillars are combined together onto a single platform. We believe this is due to several factors, including but not limited to the improved user experience, referrals and user promotion, and social activity. Our belief is that additional functionality encourages users to spend additional time on the platform, as users experiment with added functionality, and/or vary their level or degree of engagement with different types of functionality.
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Further, we believe that experimentation coincides with users encouraging their friends and colleagues interested in this incremental functionality to join the platform. For example, a user who is initially only playing (not following) may introduce the platform to a friend interested in Follow functionality (not Play), but that may migrate or expand engagement to Play as well once they are introduced to that functionality on the platform. We also believe that both of these hypothetical users (the “Play”-first user and “Follow”-first user) are more likely than not to end up using both “Play” and “Follow” functionality (in part because of their social relationship), as well as others, and to further encourage additional friends and contacts in their respective networks to join the platform. Alternatively, users who already access multiple pillars of functionality from different companies may, if introduced to the platform through any individual functionality pillar, funnel all of their activity onto the one integrated platform that serves all of their competitive gaming and esports needs. As a starting point, each pillar individually has positive and negative attributes which can be enhanced or mitigated as appropriate; however, our belief is that in combination, the complementarity of the pillars together helps to elevate the overall value of the user experience, with powerful network effects as described.
Our willingness to acquire a target whose line of business is within any single pillar or across a combination of pillars enhances the potential target company universe without limiting or constraining our long-term strategy.
We intend to build a central entry point through which competitive gaming and esports users can ultimately access all four key functionality pillars. Our initial business combination may result in a market leading position within a particular pillar, and/or market relevance across multiple pillars. This initial business combination, including the potential merger with Gamers Club (which has relevance across the Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play functionality pillars and a substantial geographic presence in Latin America) will be further augmented by significant investment in organic growth and expansion by expanding to other pillars and/or geographies, as well as through an M&A strategy focusing on acquisitions that similarly improve the user experience or operations of the company, expand the product offering or geographical footprint, and drive enhanced shareholder value.
We believe that public equity investors will benefit from the introduction of a scaled competitive gaming and esports platform business into the market given the current lack of suitable public market opportunities, which has been driven by the industries’ fragmented nature and lack of standalone scale.
Our initial business combination target selection process will benefit from our management team’s relationships and experience in operating and leading various successful companies in the competitive gaming and esports sectors, as well as our management team’s recent experience in executing a modified version of vertical integration within that sector for Gamers Club in Latin America. We expect to leverage the network of contacts and relationships of our management team, directors and sponsors, and believe those will be a differentiator in sourcing potential business combination opportunities.
We believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the expected momentum in the competitive gaming and esports industry due to our management team’s distinguished track record of successfully integrating and growing acquired businesses throughout their professional tenure, with acute focus on our core target areas. We believe that the fragmented landscape of competitive gaming and esports companies creates an opportunity for consolidation and value creation for shareholders as gaming becomes more and more ubiquitous in people’s lives as content, sport, activity, and an arena for socialization.
We believe that adoption and growth of the industry, buttressed by a significant and sticky base of monthly active users, will appeal to a broad cohort of investors. Furthermore, we expect that deployment of our strategy will provide considerable upside through combined go-to-market strategies, a unified brand, centralized capabilities, revenue diversification, and financial security through scale, as well as cost savings from centralized back-office functions.
Acquisition Criteria
We will primarily seek to acquire an anchor business where we can leverage our management team’s strategic insight and expertise, experience as operators and acquirers, and its extensive network of industry leaders, all with an eye to drive shareholder returns. We have identified the following general criteria and
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guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use the following criteria and guidelines to help evaluate acquisition opportunities, but may decide to enter into an initial business combination with a target business that does not meet them:
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Market leadership position in one (or more) of the four functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play);
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Meaningful presence and/or relevance across multiple functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play);
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Large, engaged and/or growing user base directly interested in competitive gaming and esports or with a significant overlap with competitive gaming and esports audience demographics;
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Complementary strategy, user base, or functionality set with Gamers Club and/or other potential available future bolt-on acquisitions;
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Strong potential for both organic and M&A driven growth in number of active users, time spent on platform, revenue, and/or earnings;
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Ability to accelerate growth by leveraging our management team’s experience and network;
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Need for access to capital to fund aggressive growth plans;
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Suitability for public listing; and
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Financial profile that can provide attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management team may deem relevant to that opportunity specifically. Moreover, as indicated in the “— Overview” section, our analysis in identifying a prospective target business, while guided by the principles detailed above, will not be limited to a particular industry.
In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this prospectus, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we would file with the SEC.
Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review that may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews and inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial and other information that will be made available to us. We will also utilize our operational and capital planning experience.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination or, subject to certain exceptions, subsequent material transactions with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our 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 FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. In addition, if we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with or after the completion of our initial business combination, we will obtain a fairness opinion with respect to such merger. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
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We currently do not have any specific business combination under consideration. Our officers and directors have not individually selected a target business. Our management team is continuously made aware of potential business opportunities, one or more of which we may desire to pursue for a business combination. However, 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.
Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently intend to combine with Gamers Club. The resulting combined company would inherit our Nasdaq listing and its common stock and warrants would be publicly traded. We believe the combination of Gamers Club, us and a target business in the competitive gaming, esports, and adjacent industries, including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, under our company’s umbrella will allow the resulting combined company to leverage Gamers Club’s existing technology and platform, suite of relevant and synergistic gaming functionality, team of engineers, powerful brand, large community, and established footprint in an attractive and key geographic market to materially aid long-term value creation opportunities for our investors and serve as a platform for further growth and geographic diversification.
Gamers Club Holdings, LLC is the parent of Gamers Club, LLC and is also among the investors in our sponsor. Gamers Club is a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with a substantial presence in Latin America that offers a range of competitive gaming-related functionality, including matchmaking, tournament and league play, editorial and news content, and other services. Founded in 2016, Gamers Club was acquired by Immortals Gaming Club in 2018. During IGC’s ownership, Gamers Club has enjoyed strong organic and M&A-driven growth, expanding from one to six game titles; from one to four countries; and added significant functionality to its original matchmaking capability. Gamers Club is currently the second largest matchmaking platform globally, and the largest in Latin America.
At the time of Gamers Club’s original sale to IGC, Yuri Uchiyama, one of four founders of Gamers Club, remained as Gamers Club’s CEO and joined IGC’s leadership team. Working alongside IGC’s leadership (currently the management of our company and our sponsor), Mr. Uchiyama led Gamers Club’s growth and expansion, and helped negotiate strategic partnerships and other integration opportunities with companies such as Microsoft and game publishers including Epic Games, for its Fortnite title, Garena, for its Free Fire title, and Riot Games, for League of Legends and VALORANT; among others, enabling Gamers Club to expand quickly beyond its initial footprint in Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Gamers Club has emerged as a critical lynchpin in the Latin American competitive gaming and esports marketplace, and has become a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion in gaming, such as through its annual Gamers Club Masters Femina tournament.
We have not entered into any letter of intent or definitive agreement with Gamers Club, nor have we agreed to valuation or other key terms and conditions with respect to such a possible combination transaction. As a result, even though we intend to combine with Gamers Club concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, we cannot provide any assurance that such a merger with Gamers Club will occur at all, or, if it does, we cannot provide any assurance as to the timing or terms thereof. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club. In addition, we may not consummate a combination with Gamers Club if the target business with respect to our initial business combination is not within the competitive gaming, esports, or adjacent industries. If we pursue a combination with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, a committee of our disinterested directors will negotiate the terms and conditions of such merger (including the valuation of Gamers Club) on our behalf. Such committee of disinterested directors would also obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the proposed merger with Gamers Club is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. Our public shareholders will have the same voting and redemption rights with respect to any merger with Gamers Club as are applicable to our initial business combination and described elsewhere in this prospectus.
Members of our management team, our directors and our advisors will directly or indirectly own our ordinary shares and/or private placement warrants following this offering and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which
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to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity subject to their fiduciary duties. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he, she or it has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, or contractual obligations, he, she or it will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not believe that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
In addition, our sponsor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates may sponsor or form, or, in the case of individuals, serve as a director or officer of, other blank check companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. 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 management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. See “Risk Factors — 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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.”
Prior to the date of this prospectus, we will file a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
Ability to Extend Time to Complete Business Combination
If we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the consummation of this offering, we may, but are not obligated to, by resolution of our board of directors if requested by our sponsor, extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination up to two times by an additional three months each time for a total of up to 21 months (the “Paid Extension Period”). In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic three-month extension (the “Automatic Extension Period”) if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period, to complete an initial business combination. In the case of the Paid Extension Period or Automatic Extension Period, public shareholders will not be offered the opportunity to vote on or redeem their shares if we choose to make any such paid extension or in connection with an automatic extension. Pursuant to the terms of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement, in order to avail ourselves of the Paid Extension Period to consummate our initial business combination, our sponsor or its affiliates or designees, upon five days’ advance notice prior to the applicable deadline, must deposit
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into the trust account for each three-month extension $1,500,000, or $1,725,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($0.10 per share in either case), on or prior to the date of the applicable deadline. Any such payments would be made in the form of a loan. Any such time extension funding loans will be non-interest bearing and payable upon the consummation of our initial business combination. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Up to $3,450,000 of such time extension funding loans may be convertible into 3,450,000 private placement warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. If we do not complete an initial business combination, we will not repay such loans. In the event that we receive notice from our sponsor or its affiliates five days prior to the applicable deadline of its wish for us to effect an extension, we intend to issue a press release announcing such intention at least three days prior to the applicable deadline. In addition, we intend to issue a press release the day after the applicable deadline announcing whether or not the funds had 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. For the avoidance of doubt, no amounts need to be deposited into the trust account for the Automatic Extension Period. Our public shareholders will not be entitled to vote or redeem their shares in connection with any such paid extension or an automatic extension. As a result, we may conduct such an extension even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such an extension and will not be able to redeem their shares in connection therewith.
Initial Business Combination
Nasdaq rules require that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. We refer to this as the 80% of fair market value 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 that is a member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., or FINRA, or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will not be able to make such independent determination of fair market value, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board of directors determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. As any such opinion, if obtained, would only state that the fair market value meets the 80% of fair market value test, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of the target or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders. However, if required by Schedule 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, any proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we will file with the SEC in connection with our initial business combination will include such opinion.
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-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act.
Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of a target and, if applicable,
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Gamers Club. 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 valued for purposes of the 80% of fair market value test. If our initial business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking shareholder approval, as applicable. If we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will not include the fair market value of Gamers Club for purposes of satisfying the 80% of fair market value test.
In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor. To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
Corporate Information
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company. Exempted companies are Cayman Islands companies conducting business mainly outside the Cayman Islands and, as such, are exempted from complying with certain provisions of the Companies Act. As an exempted company, we have applied for and have received, a tax exemption undertaking from the Cayman Islands government that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Law (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 20 years from the date of the undertaking, no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations will apply to us or our operations and, in addition, that no tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations or which is in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax will be payable (i) on or in respect of our shares, debentures or other obligations or (ii) by way of the withholding in whole or in part of a payment of dividend or other distribution of income or capital by us to our shareholders or a payment of principal or interest or other sums due under a debenture or other obligation of us.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer and (2) the
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date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” will have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year or the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter.
Our executive offices are located at 7381 La Tijera Blvd. P.O. Box 452118, Los Angeles, California 90045 and our telephone number is (213) 266-7674. Our website address is www.geexcorp.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this prospectus or the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.
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The Offering
In deciding whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the backgrounds of the members of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company and the fact that this offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. You should carefully consider these and the other risks set forth in the section below entitled “Risk Factors” of this prospectus.
Securities offered
15,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit (or 17,250,000 units if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each unit consisting of:
•
one Class A ordinary share; and
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one-half of one redeemable warrant.
Proposed Nasdaq symbols
Units: “GEEXU”
Class A Ordinary Shares: “GEEX”
Warrants: “GEEXW”
Trading commencement and separation of Class A ordinary shares and warrants
The units are expected to begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The Class A ordinary shares and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such day is not a business day, on the next succeeding business day) unless the representatives of the underwriters inform us of their decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the Class A ordinary shares and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into Class A ordinary shares and warrants. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase a multiple of two units, the number of warrants issuable to you upon separation of the units will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of warrants.
Additionally, the units will automatically separate into their component parts and will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination.
Separate trading of the Class A ordinary shares and warrants is prohibited until we have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K
In no event will the Class A ordinary shares and warrants be traded separately until we have filed with the SEC a Current Report on Form 8-K, which includes an audited balance sheet of the company reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds at the closing of this offering. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on
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Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units.
Units:
Number outstanding before this offering
0
Number outstanding after this offering
15,000,000(1)
Ordinary Shares:
Number outstanding before this offering
4,312,500(2)
Number outstanding after this offering
18,750,000(3)
Warrants:
Number of private placement warrants to be sold in a private placement simultaneously with this offering
9,250,000(1)
Number of warrants to be outstanding after this offering and the sale of private placement warrants
16,750,000(1)
(1)
Assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units and 562,500 founder shares are surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration.
(2)
Consists solely of founder shares and includes up to 562,500 founder shares that will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. Founder shares are currently classified as Class B ordinary shares, which shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described below adjacent to the caption “Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights.”
(3)
Includes 15,000,000 public shares and 3,750,000 founder shares.
Exercisability
Each whole warrant sold in this offering is exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share, subject to adjustment as described herein. Only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade.
We structured each unit to contain one-half of one redeemable warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A ordinary share, as compared to units issued by some other similar special purpose acquisition companies which contain whole warrants exercisable for one whole share, in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of our initial business combination as compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive business combination partner for target businesses.
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Exercise price
$11.50 per whole share, subject to adjustments as described herein.
In addition, if (x) we issue additional ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by our board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to our sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any founder shares held by our sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance) (the “Newly Issued Price”), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume weighted average trading price of our Class A ordinary shares during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which we consummate our initial business combination (such price, the “Market Value”) is below $9.20 per share, the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, the $10.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under “Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under “Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00” and “Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price.
Exercise period
The warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, provided in each case that we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the issuance of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available and such shares are registered, qualified or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky, laws of the state of residence of the holder (or we permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under the circumstances specified in the warrant agreement, including as a result of a notice of redemption described below under “Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00”). If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
The registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part registers the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants. We have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a post-effective amendment to the registration statement for which this prospectus forms a part or a new registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon
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exercise of the warrants. We will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the registration statement to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement provided that if 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. If a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th business day after the closing of the initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. Because the warrants are not exercisable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, we do not currently intend to update the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part or file a new registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants until after the initial business combination has been consummated.
The warrants will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. On the exercise of any warrant, the warrant exercise price will be paid directly to us and not placed in a trust account.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the private placement warrants):
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in whole and not in part;
•
at a price of $0.01 per warrant;
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upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder, which we refer to as the “30-day redemption period”; and
•
if, and only if, the last reported sale price (the “closing price”) of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third
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trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.
We will not redeem the warrants as described above unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is then effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem warrants even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
Except as set forth below, none of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants:
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in whole and not in part;
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at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares determined by reference to the table set forth under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants” based on the redemption date and the “Fair Market Value” of our Class A ordinary shares (as defined below) except as otherwise described in “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants”;
•
if, and only if, the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per public share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within the 30-trading day period ending three trading days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and
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if the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-dilution Adjustments”), the private placement warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding public warrants, as described above.
The “Fair Market Value” of our Class A ordinary shares for the above purpose shall mean the volume weighted average price of our
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Class A ordinary shares during the 10 trading days as reported immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. This redemption feature differs from the warrant redemption features used in some other blank check offerings. We will provide our warrant holders with the final Fair Market Value no later than one business day after the 10 trading day period described above ends. In no event will the warrants be exercisable on a cashless basis in connection with this redemption feature for more than 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment).
No fractional Class A ordinary shares will be issued upon redemption. If, upon redemption, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will round down to the nearest whole number of the number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued to the holder. Please see the section entitled “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants” for additional information.
Founder Shares
In April 2021, we issued to our sponsor an aggregate of 4,312,500 founder shares in exchange for a payment of $25,000 from our sponsor to cover certain expenses on behalf of us, or approximately $0.006 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash the sponsor paid for the founder shares by the number of founder shares issued. In May 2021, our sponsor transferred an aggregate of 150,000 founder shares to our executive officers who are also directors (32,500 each), our director nominees (32,500 each) and two advisors (10,000 each). Up to 562,500 founder shares will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration after the closing of this offering depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. The total number of Class B ordinary shares outstanding after this offering and the expiration of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units will equal 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in this prospectus. If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full).
The founder shares are identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units being sold in this offering, except that:
•
prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the appointment
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of directors, including in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and holders of a majority of our Class B ordinary shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason;
•
the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions contained in a letter agreement that our initial shareholders, directors and officers have entered into with us, as described in more detail below;
•
pursuant to such letter agreement, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares held by them, as applicable, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares held by them 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity and (iii) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame). If we submit our initial business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved;
•
the founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described below adjacent to the caption “Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights”; and
•
the founder shares are entitled to registration rights.
In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.
Transfer restrictions on founder shares
Our initial shareholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of: (i) one year
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after the completion of our initial business combination; and (ii) subsequent to our initial business combination (x) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property or (y) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination (except as described in the section entitled “Principal Shareholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants”). Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our initial shareholders with respect to any founder shares. We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this prospectus as the “lock-up.”
Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights
The founder shares are designated as Class B ordinary shares and will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share subdivisions, share dividends, rights issuances, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. However, if additional Class A ordinary shares or any other equity-linked securities (as defined below)are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts issued in this offering and related to the closing of our initial business combination, the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of this offering plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor upon conversion of working capital loans, provided that such conversion of Class B ordinary shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis. Any conversion of Class B ordinary shares described herein will take effect as a redemption of Class B ordinary shares and an issuance of Class A ordinary shares as a matter of Cayman Islands law. The term “equity-linked securities” refers to any debt or equity securities that are convertible, exercisable or exchangeable for our Class A ordinary shares issued in a financing transaction in connection with our initial business combination, including, but not limited to, a private placement of equity or debt securities.
Appointments of directors; Voting rights
Holders of record of our Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares are entitled, except as described below, to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders.
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Unless specified in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or as required by the Companies Act or stock exchange rules, an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, is generally required to approve any matter voted on by our shareholders. Approval of certain actions require a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares that are voted, and pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, such actions include amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approving a statutory merger or consolidation with another company. There is no cumulative voting with respect to the appointment of directors, meaning, following our initial business combination, the holders of more than 50% of our ordinary shares voted for the appointment of directors can appoint all of the directors. Only holders of Class B ordinary shares will have the right to appoint directors in any election held prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of our initial business combination, holders of a majority of our Class B ordinary shares may remove a member of our board of directors for any reason. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association relating to the rights of holders of Class B ordinary shares to appoint or remove directors prior to our initial business combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. With respect to any other matter submitted to a vote of our shareholders, including any vote in connection with our initial business combination, except as required by law, holders of the founder shares and holders of our public shares will vote together as a single class, with each share entitling the holder to one vote. If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company. In such case, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved.
Private placement warrants
Our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.00 per warrant ($9,250,000 in the aggregate or $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in
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full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The private placement warrants will be non-redeemable and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees (as described in the section entitled “Principal Shareholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants”). If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this offering.
Transfer restrictions on private placement warrants
The private placement warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, except as described in the section entitled “Principal Shareholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants.”
Cashless exercise of private placement warrants
In connection with a redemption of our warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00, holders of private placement warrants who exercise their shares on a cashless basis would receive that number of shares determined by reference to the table set forth under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants.” If holders of private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis at any time other than in connection with such a redemption of warrants by us, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering their warrants for that number of Class A ordinary shares equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the Sponsor Fair Market Value (defined below) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the Sponsor Fair Market Value. The “Sponsor Fair Market Value” shall mean the average reported closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent. The reason that we have agreed that these warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees is because it is not known at this time whether they will be affiliated with us following a business combination. If they remain affiliated with us, their ability to sell our securities in the open market will be significantly limited. We expect to have policies in place that restrict insiders from selling our securities except during specific periods.
Proceeds to be held in trust account
Nasdaq rules provide that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account.
Of the proceeds we will receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus,
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$153,750,000, or $176,812,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full ($10.25 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a segregated trust account located in the United States at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee and $2,500,000 will be used to pay expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following this offering. The proceeds to be placed in the trust account include $5,250,000 (or $6,037,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) in deferred underwriting commissions.
Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, as discussed below and subject to the requirements of law and regulation, will provide that none of the funds held in the trust account will be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public shareholders.
Anticipated expenses and funding sources
Except as described above with respect to the payment of taxes, unless and until we complete our initial business combination, no proceeds held in the trust account will be available for our use (although such funds may be used to redeem public shares as described above). The proceeds 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 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. We estimate the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $153,750 per year, assuming an interest rate of 0.10% per year; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. The trust account’s earnings will be lower if interest rates on short-term U.S. government treasury obligations decline. Unless and until we complete our initial business combination, we may pay our expenses only from:
•
the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not held in the trust account, which will be approximately $1,100,000 in working capital after the payment of approximately $1,400,000 in expenses relating to this offering; and
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•
any loans or additional investments from our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors, although they are under no obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us, and provided any such loans will not have any claim on the proceeds held in the trust account unless such proceeds are released to us upon completion of our initial business combination.
Conditions to completing our initial business combination
Nasdaq rules require that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions 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. 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 that is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will not be able to make such independent determination of fair market value, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board of directors determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. As any such opinion, if obtained, would only state that the fair market value meets the 80% of fair market value test, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of the target or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders. However, if required by Schedule 14A of the Exchange Act any proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we will file with the SEC in connection with our initial business combination will include such opinion. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our 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 FINRA or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that such initial business combination is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. In addition, if we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will obtain a fairness opinion with respect to such merger. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
We will complete our initial business combination only if the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company
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Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to 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. 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 valued for purposes of the 80% of fair market value test, provided that in the event that the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking shareholder approval, as applicable. If we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will not include the fair market value of Gamers Club for purposes of satisfying the 80% of fair market value test. Please see the section of this prospectus entitled “Gamers Club Business” for additional information with respect to Gamers Club.
Permitted purchases of public shares and public warrants by our affiliates
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds held in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules. See “Proposed Business — Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or any of
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their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.
The purpose of any such transaction could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (ii) 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 or (iii) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such transactions with respect to our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Redemption rights for public shareholders upon completion of our initial business
combination
combination
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.25 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Further, subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we will not proceed with redeeming our public shares, even if a public shareholder has properly elected to redeem its shares, if a business combination does not close. Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they may acquire during or after this offering in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering.
Limitations on redemption
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an
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amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). However, a greater net tangible asset or cash requirement may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners; (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes; or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. Furthermore, although we will not redeem shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to fall below $5,000,001, we do not have a maximum redemption threshold based on the percentage of shares sold in this offering, as many special purpose acquisition companies do. 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, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
Manner of conducting redemptions
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a general meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. In the case of a general meeting, such election must be made, unless extended by us in our sole discretion, no later than two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. 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 share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval, while direct mergers with our company and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would typically require shareholder approval. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote unless shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other reasons.
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
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•
file proxy materials with the SEC.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company. In such case, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require that at least 5 days’ notice will be given of any such general meeting.
If we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
•
conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers; and
•
file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we and our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase our Class A ordinary shares in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e- 1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public shareholders not tendering more than the number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public shareholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete such initial business combination.
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Limitation on redemption rights of shareholders holding more than 15% of the Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering if we hold shareholder vote
Notwithstanding the foregoing redemption rights, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering, without our prior consent. We believe the restriction described above will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to redeem their shares 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 Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights against a business combination 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 to no more than 15% of the Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including all shares held by those shareholders that hold more than 15% of the Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering) for or against our initial business combination.
Release of funds in trust account on closing of our initial business combination.
On the completion of our initial business combination, the funds held in the trust account will be used to pay amounts due to any public shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights as described above adjacent to the caption “Redemption rights for public shareholders upon completion of our initial business combination,” to pay the underwriters their deferred underwriting commissions, to pay all or a portion of the consideration payable to the target or owners of the target of our initial business combination and to pay other expenses associated with our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our
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initial business combination or the redemption of our public shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of 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.
Redemption of public shares and distribution and liquidation if no initial business combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that we will have only the end of the completion window to complete our initial business combination. If we do not 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 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.
Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our initial shareholders or management team acquire public shares in or after this 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.
The underwriters have agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission held in the trust account in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the trust account that will be available to fund the redemption of our public shares.
Our sponsor, executive officers, directors and director nominees will 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 (i) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business
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combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described above adjacent to the caption “Limitations on redemptions.” For example, our board of directors may propose such an amendment if it determines that additional time is necessary to complete our initial business combination. In such event, we will conduct a proxy solicitation and distribute proxy materials pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act seeking shareholder approval of such proposal and, in connection therewith, provide our public shareholders with the redemption rights described above upon shareholder approval of such amendment. This redemption right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsor, any executive officer, director or director nominee, or any other person.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
Limited payments to insiders
Other than as outlined below, there will be no finder’s fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or directors, or any affiliate of our sponsor or officers, for services rendered prior to, or for any services rendered in order to effectuate, the consummation of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). The following payments will be made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, and, if made prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account:
•
repayment of up to an aggregate of $300,000 in loans made to us by our sponsor to cover offering-related and organizational expenses;
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reimbursement for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination; and
•
repayment of loans which may be made by our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination or to extend the period of time to consummate our initial business combination beyond the 15 months from the closing of this offering. Up to $4,950,000 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
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placement warrants. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans.
In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees.
Audit committee
We will establish and maintain an audit committee, which will be composed entirely of independent directors as and when required by Nasdaq rules and Rule 10A of the Exchange Act. Among its responsibilities, the audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates and monitor compliance with the other terms relating to this offering. If any noncompliance is identified, then the audit committee will be charged with the responsibility to promptly take all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise to cause compliance with the terms of this offering. For more information, see the section entitled “Management — Committees of the Board of Directors — Audit Committee.”
Conflicts of Interest
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity subject to their fiduciary duties. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he, she or it has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, or contractual obligations, he, she or it will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not believe that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
In addition, our sponsor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates may sponsor or form, or, in the case of individuals, serve as a director or officer of, other blank check companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. Our officers and directors, are
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not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. See “Risk Factors — 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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.”
Indemnity
In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.25 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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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Summary of Risk Factors
We are a newly formed company that has conducted no operations and has generated no revenues. Until we complete our initial business combination, we will have no operations and will generate no operating revenues. In making your decision whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the background of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company. This offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. For additional information concerning how Rule 419 blank check offerings differ from this offering, please see “Proposed Business — Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419.”
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:
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We are a newly formed blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted 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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Past performance by our management team or their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
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Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.
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Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
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If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
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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.
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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.
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The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
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The requirement that we consummate an 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 could produce value for our shareholders.
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Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the status of debt and equity markets.
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If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants, which may
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influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants.
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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.
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You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
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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.
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You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
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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 have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
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If the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate until at least the end of the completion window, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and our ability to complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
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Holders of Class A ordinary shares will not be entitled to vote on any appointment of directors we hold prior to our initial business combination.
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The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.
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Unlike some other similarly structured blank check companies, our sponsor will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue shares to consummate an initial business combination.
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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.
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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.
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Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
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Summary Financial Data
The following table summarizes the relevant financial data for our business and should be read with our financial statements, which are included in this prospectus. We have not had any significant operations to date, so only balance sheet data is presented.
| | | September 30, 2021 (unaudited) | | |||||||||
| | | Actual | | | As Adjusted | | ||||||
Balance Sheet Data: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Working capital (deficiency)(1) | | | | $ | (548,100) | | | | | $ | 1,087,011 | | |
Cash held in trust | | | | $ | — | | | | | $ | 153,750,000 | | |
Total assets(2) | | | | $ | 565,109 | | | | | $ | 154,879,623 | | |
Total liabilities(3) | | | | $ | 578,098 | | | | | $ | 19,820,112 | | |
Value of ordinary shares subject to possible redemption(4) | | | | $ | — | | | | | $ | 153,750,000 | | |
Shareholders’ deficit(5) | | | | $ | (12,989) | | | | | $ | (18,690,489) | | |
(1)
The “as adjusted” calculation includes $1,100,000 of cash held outside the trust account.
(2)
The “as adjusted” calculation includes $153,750,000 of cash held in trust from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants plus $1,100,000 of cash held outside the trust account less repayment of $176,314 of promissory note and reclassification of deferred offering costs to additional paid-in capital.
(3)
The “as adjusted” calculation includes $5,250,000 of deferred underwriting commissions, assuming the option to purchase additional units is not exercised and the derivative warrant liability in the amount of $14,527,500.
(4)
The “as adjusted” calculation equals the “as adjusted” total assets, less the “as adjusted” total liabilities, less the “as adjusted” stockholders” deficit.
(5)
Excludes 15,000,000 ordinary shares that are subject to possible redemption and assuming no exercise of the option to purchase additional units. The “as adjusted” calculation equals the “as adjusted” total assets, less the “as adjusted” total liabilities, less the value of ordinary shares that is subject to possible redemption.
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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 prospectus, before making a decision to invest in our units. 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 Related to our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks
We are a newly formed blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted 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 newly formed blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through this offering. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
As of September 30, 2021, we had $16,326 in cash and a working capital deficiency of $548,475. Further we expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Management’s plans to address this need for capital through this offering are discussed in the section of this prospectus titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial business combination may not be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this prospectus do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate this offering or our inability to continue as a going concern.
Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote before we complete our initial business combination if the business combination would not require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. For instance, if we were seeking to acquire a target business where the consideration we were paying in the transaction was all cash, we would typically not be required to seek shareholder approval to complete such a transaction. Except for as required by applicable law or stock exchange listing 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. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our outstanding ordinary shares do not approve of the business combination we complete. Please see the section entitled “Proposed Business — Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination” for additional information.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of 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
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opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, 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.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our initial shareholders will own 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares immediately following the completion of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Our initial shareholders and management team also may from time to time purchase Class A ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we seek shareholder approval of an initial business combination, such initial business combination will be approved only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, including the founder shares. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial shareholders and management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholder approval for such initial business combination.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a 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. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The per-share amount we will distribute to shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission
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and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
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 time frame 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.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and other events, and the status of debt and equity markets.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, which has and is continuing to spread throughout China and other parts of the world, including the United States. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” On January 31, 2020, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for the United States to aid the U.S. healthcare community in responding to COVID-19, and on March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak as a “pandemic.” The COVID-19 pandemic and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) could adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
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In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases), including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity in third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those related to the market for our securities and cross-border transactions.
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.
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. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the U.S. and global economies and, while the extent of the impact of the outbreak on us will depend on future developments, it could limit our ability to complete our initial business combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the outbreak of COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law. In either such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.25 per public share, or less than $10.25 per public share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.25 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
Unlike many other blank check companies, we may extend the time to complete an initial business combination by up to six months for paid extension. In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic extension of three months if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period without a shareholder vote or your ability to redeem your shares.
We will have until 15 months from the closing of this offering to consummate an initial business combination. However, unlike many other similarly structured blank check companies, if we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the consummation of this offering, we may, but are not obligated to, if requested by our sponsor or its affiliates, extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination up to two times by an additional three months each time for a total of up to 21 months. In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic three-month extension if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period, to complete an initial business combination; provided that, pursuant to the terms of our amended and restated
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memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement, in order to avail ourselves of the Paid Extension Period to consummate our initial business combination, our sponsor or its affiliates or designees, upon five days’ advance notice prior to the applicable deadline, must deposit into the trust account $1,500,000, or $1,725,000, if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($0.10 per share in either case), on or prior to the date of the applicable deadline. Public shareholders will not be offered the opportunity to vote on or redeem their shares in connection with any such paid extension or an automatic extension.
Because our trust account is expected to contain approximately $10.25 per Class A ordinary share (or $10.35 or $10.45 per Class A ordinary share if we extend the period of time to complete an initial business combination to 18 months or 21 months, respectively) at the time of our initial business combination, public shareholders may be more incentivized to redeem their public shares at the time of our initial business combination.
Our trust account will initially contain $10.25 per Class A ordinary share (or $10.35 or $10.45 per Class A ordinary share if we extend the period of time to complete an initial business combination to 18 months or 21 months, respectively). This is different than some other similarly structured blank check companies for which the trust account will only contain $10.00 per Class ordinary share. As a result of the additional funds receivable by public shareholders upon redemption of public shares, our public shareholders may be more incentivized to redeem their public shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or public warrants, 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 sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Any such price per share may be different than the amount per share a public shareholder would receive if it elected to redeem its shares in connection with our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates, are under no obligation to do so and they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or public warrants in such transactions.
In the event that our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (ii) 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 or (iii) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. See “Proposed Business — Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.
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, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
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Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination.
In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense and/or accept less favorable terms. Furthermore, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
In addition, after completion of any initial business combination, our directors and officers could be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to such initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly redeem or tender public shares. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. See “Proposed Business — Tendering Share Certificates in Connection With a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights.”
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) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholders properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (a) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 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.
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Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
We have applied to have our units listed on Nasdaq on or promptly after the date of this prospectus and our Class A ordinary shares and warrants on or promptly after their date of separation. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on Nasdaq. Although after giving effect to this offering we expect to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the Nasdaq listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will be, or 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 market value of listed securities (generally $50,000,000), a minimum number of publicly held shares with a minimum market value (generally 1.1 million publicly held shares with a minimum of $15 million market value), a minimum bid price (generally $1.00 per share) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders). Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with 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 stock price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, the market value of our listed securities would generally be required to be at least $75 million, the number of unrestricted publicly held shares must be at least 1.1 million with an aggregate market value of at least $20 million and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders (with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500) of our securities. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
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a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
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reduced liquidity for our securities;
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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;
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a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
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a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because we expect that our units and eventually our Class A ordinary shares and warrants will be listed on Nasdaq, our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants will qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of covered securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of this 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 are not offering a penny stock, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in
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blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if this offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination. For a more detailed comparison of our offering to offerings that comply with Rule 419, please see “Proposed Business — Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419.”
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other special purpose acquisition 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 this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination.
If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring
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claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.25 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
If the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate until at least the end 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 and to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of this offering, only an estimated $1,100,000 will be available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. We believe that, upon closing of this offering, the funds available to us outside of the trust account will be sufficient to allow us to operate until at least the end 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 a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business.
In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,400,000, 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 are less than our estimate of $1,400,000, 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 we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us. Any such advances may be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination.
Up to $4,950,000 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 do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.25 per public share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.25 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
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 or file for bankruptcy protection, which 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 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
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forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges or file for bankruptcy protection, which could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any 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 and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.25 per public share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (except our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements, they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to the company, and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. The underwriters of this offering will not execute an agreement with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason.
Upon redemption of our public shares, if we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.25 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.25 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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor
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to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.25 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.25 per public share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy and/or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
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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 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 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.
We may not hold an annual general meeting until after the consummation of our initial business combination. Our public shareholders will not have the right to appoint directors until after the consummation of our initial business combination.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to appoint directors. Until we hold an annual general meeting, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to discuss company affairs with management. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being appointed in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term. In addition, as holders of our Class A ordinary shares, our public shareholders will not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors until after the consummation of our initial business combination. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, including in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and holders of a majority of our Class B ordinary shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, you may not have any say in the management of our company prior to the consummation of an initial business combination.
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 meet some or all of these criteria and guidelines. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these criteria and 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 applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity (including, concurrently with our initial business combination, a merger with Gamers Club), we are not required to obtain an opinion
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from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction 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.
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, 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, director 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.
In addition, the directors and officers 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 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 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. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial 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.
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
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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 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 and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Certain of our officers and directors have or will have direct and indirect economic interests in us and/or our sponsor after the consummation of this offering and such interests may potentially conflict with those of our public shareholders as we evaluate and decide whether to recommend a potential business combination to our public shareholders.
Certain of our officers and directors may own membership interests in our sponsor and indirect interests in our Class B ordinary shares and private placement warrants which may result in interests that differ from the economic interests of the investors in this offering, which includes making a determination of whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. There may be a potential conflict of interest between our officers and directors that hold membership interests in our sponsor and our public shareholders that may not be resolved in favor of our public shareholders. For example, our sponsor proposes to allocate a material portion of both the private placement warrants and founder shares to our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer; however, the cash invested by our management team in the sponsor at risk capital contributions is expected to be nominal. See “Management — Conflicts of Interest.”
Our executive officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. See “Gamers Club Business” for additional information with respect to Gamers Club. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination. For a complete discussion of our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs, please see “Management — Officers, Directors and Director Nominees.”
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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Following the completion of this offering and 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
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and officers and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors may participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company prior to completion of our 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. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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 may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see the sections of this prospectus entitled “Management — Officers, Directors and Director Nominees,” “Management — Conflicts of Interest” and “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, executive officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Management — Conflicts of Interest.” In addition, our sponsor and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or 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, executive 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, 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 this offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
Our initial shareholders, including our sponsor, currently own 4,312,500 Class B ordinary shares (up to 562,500 of which will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration after the closing of this offering depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised).
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If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full). The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.00 per warrant ($9,250,000 in the aggregate or $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The personal and financial interests of our executive officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the end of the completion window nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
Since our sponsor paid only approximately $0.006 per share for the founder shares, certain of our officers and directors could potentially make a substantial profit even if we acquire a target business that subsequently declines in value, which may result in a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
In April 2021, we issued 4,312,000 founder shares to our sponsor in exchange for a capital contribution of $25,000, or approximately $0.006 per share. Certain of our officers and directors have invested in our sponsor by subscribing for units issued by the sponsor and therefore have a significant economic interest in our sponsor. These officers and directors will not receive any cash compensation from us prior to a business combination but through their investment in the sponsor will be eligible to share in a portion of any appreciation in founder shares and private placement units, provided that we successfully complete a business combination. As a result, the low acquisition cost of the founder shares creates an economic incentive whereby our officers and directors could potentially make a substantial profit even if we complete a business combination with a target business that subsequently declines in value and is unprofitable for public investors.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of this 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 this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will provide us with $151,100,000 (or $173,600,000 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) that we may use to complete our initial business combination (which includes $5,250,000 or up to $6,037,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full, of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account, and excludes estimated offering expenses of $1,400,000).
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single-target business or multiple-target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
•
solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
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•
dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
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.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies increases, there may be more competition to find an attractive target for an initial business combination. This could increase the costs associated with completing our initial business combination and may result in our inability to find a suitable target for our initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many companies have entered into business combinations with special purpose acquisition companies, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many additional special purpose acquisition companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, effort and resources to identify a suitable target for 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 target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find a suitable target for and/or complete our initial business combination.
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,
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but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for 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 our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares in exchange for all of the issued and 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 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 our 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 our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will 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 initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
The provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company (or 65% of our ordinary shares with respect to amendments to the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account), which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other special purpose acquisition companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of this offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public shareholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by special resolution, meaning holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of not less than 65% of our ordinary shares; provided that the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association relating to the rights of holders of Class B ordinary shares to appoint or remove directors prior to our initial business combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. Our initial shareholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), will participate in any vote to amend our amended and
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restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
Our sponsor, executive officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (i) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholder’s rights or pre-initial combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. Our shareholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, executive officers, directors or director nominees for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our shareholders would need to pursue a shareholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Unlike some blank check companies, if:
(i)
we issue additional ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share;
(ii)
the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions); and
(iii)
the Market Value is below $9.20 per share,
then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, the $10.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00” and “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. This may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
Certain of our warrants are expected to be accounted for as a warrant liability and will be recorded at fair value upon issuance with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings, which may have an adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares or may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Following the consummation of the concurrent private placement of warrants, our Sponsor will hold 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 private placement warrants if the underwriters’ over-allotment is exercised in full). We expect to account for these as a warrant liability and will record at fair value upon issuance any changes in fair value each period reported in earnings as determined by the company based upon a valuation report obtained from its independent third party valuation firm. The impact of
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changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares. In addition, potential targets may seek a SPAC that does not have warrants that are accounted for as a warrant liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
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 historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America or GAAP, or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
Risks Associated With Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
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costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations;
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rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
•
laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
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exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;
•
tariffs and trade barriers;
•
regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
•
local or regional economic policies and market conditions;
•
unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
•
challenges in managing and staffing international operations;
•
longer payment cycles;
•
tax issues, including complex withholding or other tax regimes, variations in tax laws as compared to the United States, and potential changes in the applicable tax laws in the United States and/or relevant non-U.S. jurisdictions;
•
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
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•
rates of inflation;
•
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
•
cultural and language differences;
•
employment regulations;
•
underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
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corruption;
•
protection of intellectual property;
•
social unrest, crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances and wars;
•
regime changes and political upheaval; 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.
Risks Related to our Securities
The securities in which we invest the funds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.25 per share.
The proceeds 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 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial business combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.25 per share.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
•
restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
•
restrictions on the issuance of securities,
each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
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registration as an investment company with the SEC;
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adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
•
reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.
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In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments, and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we intend to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. This offering is not intended for persons who are seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (a) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; or (iii) absent an initial business combination within the completion window, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public shareholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
If we do not consummate our initial business combination within the completion window, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond the end of the completion window before redemption from our trust account.
If we do not consummate our initial business combination within the completion window, the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind-up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public shareholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the end of the completion window before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their Class A ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we do not complete our initial business combination and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial
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business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. 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 for a fine of approximately $18,000 and imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We have included the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act in the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. However, this registration statement or another registration statement covering such Class A ordinary shares 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. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of warrants is not registered, qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless.
We have included the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act in the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Because the warrants are not exercisable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, we do not currently intend to update the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part or file a new registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants until after the initial business combination has been consummated. Under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a post-effective amendment to the registration statement for which this prospectus form a part or a new registration statement covering the issuance of such shares, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the registration statement to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed. 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 in accordance with the above requirements, 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 seek to exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption
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is not available. Exercising the warrants on a cashless basis could have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of Class A ordinary shares upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants included as part of units sold in this offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying ordinary shares. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.
In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to register the issuance of the security underlying the warrants within 20 business days of the closing of an initial business combination.
The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders and holders of our private placement warrants may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to an agreement to be entered on or prior to the closing of this offering, our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of 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 conversion of such warrants. The registration rights will be exercisable with respect to the founder shares and the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such private placement warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our securities that is expected when the securities owned by our initial shareholders, holders of our private placement warrants or their respective permitted transferees are registered for resale.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
We may pursue business combination opportunities in any sector, except that we will not, under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, be permitted to effectuate our initial
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business combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. If our target business with respect to the initial business combination is not within the gaming or esports related sectors, we will likely not consummate a merger with Gamers Club. See “Gamers Club Business.” Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any shareholders 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 and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors which may or may not be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside of our management’s area 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. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors in this offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. 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 prospectus regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. Accordingly, any 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 and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the founder shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will authorize the issuance of up to 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 20,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. Immediately after this offering, there will be 185,000,000 and 16,250,000 (assuming in each case that the underwriters have not exercised their option to purchase additional units and the surrender of 562,500 Class B ordinary shares) authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance, which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of issued and outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described herein. Immediately after this offering, there will be no preference shares outstanding.
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We may issue a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares in connection with our redeeming the warrants as described in “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of Warrants for Class A Ordinary Shares” or upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth herein. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares (a) on any initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond the end of the completion window. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote. The issuance of additional ordinary or preference shares:
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may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this 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;
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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;
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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;
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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;
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may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants; and
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may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies, our initial shareholders will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue shares to consummate an initial business combination.
The founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share subdivisions, share dividends, rights issuances, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. However, if additional Class A ordinary shares or any other equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts issued in this offering and related to the closing of our initial business combination, the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of this offering plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor upon conversion of working capital loans, provided that such conversion of Class B ordinary shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis. This is different than some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies in which the initial shareholders will only be issued an aggregate of 20% of the total number of shares to be outstanding prior to the initial business combination.
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Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may only receive only approximately $10.25 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
An investment in our securities, and certain subsequent transactions with respect to our securities, may result in uncertain or adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences for an investor.
An investment in our securities, and certain subsequent transactions with respect to our securities, may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences for an investor. For instance, because there are no authorities that directly address the U.S. federal income tax implications of instruments similar to the units we are issuing in this offering, the allocation an investor makes with respect to the purchase price of a unit between the Class A ordinary shares and the one-half of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share included in each unit could be challenged by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or the courts. Furthermore, the U.S. federal income tax consequences of a cashless exercise of warrants is unclear under current law. Finally, it is unclear whether the redemption rights with respect to our Class A ordinary shares suspend the running of a U.S. Holder’s (as defined below in “Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — General”) holding period for purposes of determining whether any gain or loss realized by such holder on the sale or exchange of Class A ordinary shares is long-term capital gain or loss and for determining whether any dividend we pay would be considered “qualified dividends” eligible for favorable U.S. federal income tax treatment. See the section of this prospectus captioned “Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations” for a summary of the U.S. federal income tax considerations of an investment in our securities. Prospective investors are urged to consult with and rely on their tax advisors with respect to these and other tax consequences when purchasing, holding or disposing of our securities.
Transactions in connection with or in anticipation of our initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not be tax-efficient to our shareholders and warrant-holders. As a result of our business combination, our tax obligations may be more complex, burdensome and uncertain.
Although we will attempt to structure transactions in connection with our initial business combination in a tax-efficient manner, tax structuring considerations are complex, the relevant facts and law are uncertain and may change, and we may prioritize commercial and other considerations over tax considerations. For example, in anticipation of or as a result of our initial business combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval, we may enter into one or more transactions that require shareholders and/or warrant-holders to recognize gain or income for tax purposes or otherwise increase their tax burden. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant-holders to pay taxes in connection with our business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, a shareholder or a warrant-holder may be required to satisfy any liability resulting from any such transactions with cash from its own funds or by selling all or a portion of such holder’s shares or warrants. In addition, we may effect a business combination with a target company in another jurisdiction (including, but not limited to, the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located). As a result, shareholders and warrant-holders may be subject to additional income, withholding or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after our initial business combination.
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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 (as defined in the section of this prospectus captioned “Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — General”) of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current and subsequent taxable years may depend on, among other things, whether we qualify for the PFIC start-up exception, the timing of our business combination, the amount of our passive income and assets in the year of the business combination, and the amount of passive income and assets of the acquired business (see the section of this prospectus captioned “Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — U.S. Holders — Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules”). Our actual PFIC status for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year (and in the case of our start-up year, possibly not until after the close of the second taxable year following our start-up year). Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we will not be a PFIC in our current taxable year or in any future taxable year.
If we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request by a U.S. Holder, we will endeavor to provide to such U.S. Holder such information as the IRS may require, including a PFIC Annual Information Statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” (“QEF”) election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. U.S. investors should to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules. The rules dealing with PFICs and with the QEF election are very complex and are affected by various factors in addition to those described in this prospectus. Accordingly, U.S. investors are strongly urged to consult with and rely solely upon their own tax advisors regarding the application of the PFIC rules to them in their particular circumstances. For a more detailed discussion of the tax consequences of PFIC classification to U.S. Holders, see the section of this prospectus captioned “Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — U.S. Holders — Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”
We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of non-compliance.
We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the SEC, which are charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders.
We may, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval under the Companies Act, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a shareholder or 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 holder to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrant holder may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
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After our initial business combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all of our assets will be located outside the United States; therefore, investors may not be able to enforce federal securities laws or their other legal rights.
It is possible that after our initial business combination, a majority of our directors and officers will reside outside of the United States and all of our assets will be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights, to effect service of process upon all of our directors or officers or to enforce judgments of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors and officers under United States laws.
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 prospectus to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following this offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
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default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
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acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
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our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand; 58
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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;
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our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares;
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using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
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limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
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increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation or prevailing interest rates; and
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limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
We may seek business combination opportunities with a high degree of complexity that require significant operational improvements, which could delay or prevent us from achieving our desired results.
We may seek business combination opportunities with large, highly complex companies that we believe would benefit from operational improvements. While we intend to implement such improvements, to the extent that our efforts are delayed or we are unable to achieve the desired improvements, the business combination may not be as successful as we anticipate.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the
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business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination. If we are not able to achieve our desired operational improvements, or the improvements take longer to implement than anticipated, we may not achieve the gains that we anticipate. Furthermore, some of these risks and complexities may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks and complexities will adversely impact a target business. Such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, special purpose acquisition companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law, meaning the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and amending our warrant agreement in a manner that would adversely impact the registered holders of public warrants will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, at least 50% of the then issued and outstanding private placement warrants. In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require us to provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (i) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
Our letter agreement with our initial shareholders, officers and directors and registration rights agreement may be amended, and provisions therein may be waived, without shareholder approval.
Our letter agreement with our initial shareholders, officers and directors contain provisions relating to transfer restrictions of our founder shares and private placement warrants, indemnification of the trust account, waiver of redemption rights and participation in liquidating distributions from the trust account. The letter agreement and the registration rights agreement may be amended, and provisions therein may be waived, without shareholder approval (although releasing the parties from the restriction contained in the letter agreement not to transfer any units, warrants, Class A ordinary shares or any other securities convertible into, or exercisable, or exchangeable for, Class A ordinary shares for 180 days following the date of this prospectus will require the prior written consent of the representatives of the underwriters). While we do not expect our board to approve any amendment to or waiver of the letter agreement or registration rights agreement prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to or waivers of
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such agreements. Any such amendments or waivers would not require approval from our shareholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction because we have not yet selected any prospective target business. If the net proceeds of this 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, or the obligation to repurchase for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption 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. The current economic environment may make it difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.25 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Our initial shareholders control a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Upon closing of this offering, our initial shareholders will own 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. If our initial shareholders purchase any units in this offering or if our initial shareholders purchase any additional Class A ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial shareholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this prospectus. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were appointed by our sponsor, is and will be divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. We may not hold an annual general meeting to appoint new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual general meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for appointment and our initial shareholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome following our initial business combination. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, including in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and holders of a majority of our Class B ordinary shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. As a result, holders of Class A ordinary shares will not have the right to appoint any directors until after the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination
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without the prior consent of our sponsor. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will continue to exert substantial control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
Our sponsor contributed $25,000 and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of our Class A ordinary shares.
The difference between the public offering price per share (allocating all of the unit purchase price to the Class A ordinary share and none to the warrant included in the unit) and the pro forma net tangible book value per Class A ordinary share after this offering constitutes the dilution to you and the other investors in this offering. Our sponsor acquired the founder shares at a nominal price, significantly contributing to this dilution.
Upon closing of this offering, and assuming no value is ascribed to the warrants included in the units, you and the other public shareholders will incur an immediate and substantial dilution of approximately 90.8% (or $9.08 per share, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units), the difference between the pro forma net tangible book value per share of $0.92 and the initial offering price of $10.00 per unit. This dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provisions of the founder shares result in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the founder shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination and would become exacerbated to the extent that public shareholders seek redemptions from the trust for their public shares. In addition, because of the anti-dilution protection in the founder shares, any equity or equity-linked securities issued in connection with our initial business combination would be disproportionately dilutive to our Class A ordinary shares.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants will be issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or correct any mistake, including to conform the provisions of the warrant agreement to the description of the terms of the warrants and the warrant agreement set forth in this prospectus, or defective provision (ii) amending the provisions relating to cash dividends on ordinary shares as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement or (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, at least 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
Our warrant agreement will designate the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement will provide 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
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Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, we expect would be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us (except as described below under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00”) so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met, including that holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of Class A ordinary shares determined based on the
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redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. Please see “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00.” The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us as (except as set forth under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00”) so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us on such terms so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We will be issuing warrants to purchase 7,500,000 of our Class A ordinary shares (or up to 8,625,000 Class A ordinary shares if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) as part of the units offered by this prospectus and, simultaneously with the closing of this offering, we will be issuing in a private placement an aggregate of 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. In addition, if the sponsor makes any working capital loans or any loans in connection with an Paid Extension, it may convert up to $1,500,000 of such working capital loans into up to an additional 1,500,000 warrants and up to $3,450,000 of such extension loans into up to 3,450,000 warrants in each case, at the price of $1.00 per warrant. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares in connection with our redemption of warrants as described in “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Redemption of Warrants for Class A Ordinary Shares.” To the extent we issue ordinary shares for any reason, including to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because each unit contains one-half of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other special purpose acquisition companies.
Each unit contains one-half of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number the number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one whole warrant to purchase one whole share. We have established the components of the units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination since the warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate for one-half of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if a unit included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
The determination of the offering price of our units and the size of this offering is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities and size of an offering of an operating company in a particular industry. You may have less assurance, therefore, that the offering price of our units properly reflects the value of such units than you would have in a typical offering of an operating company.
Prior to this offering there has been no public market for any of our securities. The public offering price of the units and the terms of the warrants were negotiated between us and the underwriters. In
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determining the size of this offering, management held customary organizational meetings with representatives of the underwriters, both prior to our inception and thereafter, with respect to the state of capital markets, generally, and the amount the underwriters believed they reasonably could raise on our behalf. Factors considered in determining the size of this offering, prices and terms of the units, including the Class A ordinary shares and warrants underlying the units, include:
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the history and prospects of companies whose principal business is the acquisition of other companies;
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prior offerings of those companies;
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our prospects for acquiring an operating business at attractive values;
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a review of debt-to-equity ratios in leveraged transactions;
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our capital structure;
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an assessment of our management and their experience in identifying operating companies;
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general conditions of the securities markets at the time of this offering; and
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other factors as were deemed relevant.
Although these factors were considered, the determination of our offering price is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities of an operating company in a particular industry since we have no historical operations or financial results.
There is currently no market for our securities and a market for our securities may not develop, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
There is currently no market for our securities. Shareholders therefore have no access to information about prior market history on which to base their investment decision. Following this offering, the price of our securities may vary significantly due to one or more potential business combinations and general market or economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases). Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established and sustained.
Risks Related to the Company after a Business Combination
If we merge with Gamers Club concurrent with our initial business combination, we will become subject to risks affecting Gamers Club’s business.
Although we can provide no assurances, we currently intend to merge with Gamers Club concurrent with the closing of our initial business combination. See “Proposed Business — Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club.” If we successfully complete the merger with Gamers Club, we will become subject to risks affecting Gamers Club’s business, including, without limitation, the following:
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developing and managing frequent introductions of innovative products in order to attract and retain users;
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declines in consumer spending and other adverse changes in the economy could have a material adverse effect on Gamers Club’s business;
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the video game and esports industry is significantly dependent on the popularity of a small number of games, and we may not have access to “hit” games or titles; and
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Gamers Club’s ability to acquire and maintain licenses to use the intellectual property rights of third parties which are incorporated into our products and services, and our failure to renew or expand existing licenses may require us to modify, limit or discontinue certain offerings.
The information included in this prospectus with respect to Gamers Club is very limited and is subject to change and, accordingly, your evaluation of Gamers Club and ability make an investment decision may be limited.
Although we can provide no assurances, we currently intend to merge with Gamers Club concurrent with the closing of our initial business combination. See “Proposed Business — Our Acquisition Process
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and Possible Merger with Gamers Club.” The information with respect to Gamers Club included in the “Gamers Club Business” section and elsewhere in this prospectus is very limited and subject to change and does not include all of the disclosures that would be required if Gamers Club were pursuing an initial public offering of its equity securities or in a proxy statement relating to a potential merger with Gamers Club. If, as part of our initial business combination, we pursue a merger with Gamers Club, the proxy statement relating to our initial business combination and proposed merger with Gamers Club will include all required and SEC-compliant disclosures with respect to Gamers Club. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on the Gamers Club disclosures included herein and refer instead to the proxy statement we subsequently file in connection with our initial business combination, assuming, as is currently planned, that we decide to pursue a merger with Gamers Club in connection with our initial business combination.
The challenges associated with completing a proposed merger concurrent with our initial business combination may result in increased transaction execution risk, introduce significant delays and/or may preclude us from being able to timely complete an initial business combination within the completion window.
Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently intend to merge with Gamers Club. We have not entered into any letter of intent or definitive agreement with Gamers Club, nor have we agreed to valuation or other key terms and conditions with respect to such a possible combination transaction. Accordingly, we cannot provide any assurance that such a merger with Gamers Club will occur at all, or, if it does, we cannot provide any assurance as to the timing or terms thereof. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club. If we pursue a merger with Gamers Club concurrent with our initial business combination, a committee of our independent directors will negotiate the terms and conditions of such merger (including the valuation of Gamers Club) on our behalf. Such committee of independent directors would also obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the proposed merger with Gamers Club is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. As a result, we cannot provide any assurance that such committee of our independent directors may be able to reach an agreement with Gamers Club as to the proposed valuation of Gamers Club or other terms and conditions of such proposed merger on a timely basis or at all, or, even if they do reach such an agreement, that an independent investment banking firm will be able to render such a fairness opinion. In addition, the proposed merger with Gamers Club may necessitate significant third party debt and/or equity financing incremental to what may be required to complete our initial business combination with a target business in the gaming and hospitality sectors, and such financing may not be available on attractive terms, on a timely basis or at all (due to market conditions or otherwise). Moreover, the proposed merger with Gamers Club may not be approved by our shareholders or there may not be sufficient funds in our trust account after redemptions to complete such proposed merger. Furthermore, such a merger will require substantial attention from our management and may impede pursuit of other opportunities that could have been beneficial to that organization. Therefore, completing the proposed merger with Gamers Club concurrent with the closing of our initial business combination with a proposed target business introduces significant complexities and increased transaction risk, which could result in significant delays and/or may preclude us from being able to timely complete an initial business combination within the completion window (as may be extended subject to shareholder approval).
If we are successful in consummating a merger with Gamers Club concurrent with our initial business combination, our management may face significant integration challenges. There can be no assurance that this integration, and the synergies expected to result from that integration, will be achieved as rapidly or to the extent currently anticipated.
If we are successful in consummating a merger with Gamers Club concurrent with our initial business combination, the concurrent integration of both Gamers Club and a target business may be complex, challenging, time-consuming. The combined company may encounter potential difficulties in the integration process including the following:
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the inability to successfully integrate the businesses, including operations, technologies, products and services, in a manner that permits the resulting company to achieve the cost savings and operating synergies anticipated to result from such merger, which could result in the anticipated benefits of such merger not being realized partly or wholly in the time frame currently anticipated or at all;
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the potential coordination geographically separated organizations, systems and facilities;
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potential unknown liabilities and unforeseen expenses, delays or regulatory conditions associated with the merger;
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the integration of personnel with diverse business backgrounds and business cultures, while maintaining focus on providing consistent, high-quality services;
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the consolidation and rationalization of information technology platforms and administrative infrastructures as well as accounting systems and related financial reporting activities;
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the potential weakening of relationships with regulators; and
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the challenge of preserving important relationships of Gamers Club and the initial business combination target and resolving potential conflicts that may arise.
Furthermore, it is possible that the integration process could result in the loss of talented employees or skilled workers of Gamers Club and the initial business combination target. The process of integrating operations could cause an interruption of, or loss of momentum in, the activities of Gamers Club and the initial business combination target. If the resulting company experiences difficulties with the integration process, the anticipated benefits of the merger and the initial business combination may not be realized fully or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. These integration matters could have an adverse effect on the business, results of operations, financial condition or prospects of the resulting company during this transition period and for an undetermined period after completion of the merger and the initial business combination.
General Risk Factors
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to “emerging growth companies”or “smaller reporting companies,” this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another
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public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year or the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Past performance of our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us, and we may be unable to provide positive returns to shareholders.
Information regarding our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance of our management team and the businesses with which they have been associated, including related to acquisitions and shareholder returns, is not a guarantee that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination, that we will be able to provide positive returns to our shareholders, or of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical experiences of our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us, including whether we can provide an attractive return to our shareholders, or as indicative of every prior investment by each of our management team. The market price of our securities may be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, and our shareholders may experience losses on their investment in our securities.
We are dependent upon our executive officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our executive officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our executive officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, executive officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.
The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a business combination. Consequently, our
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directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders’ rights. See the section titled “Description of Securities — Certain Differences in Corporate Law — Shareholders’ Suits” for further information on the ability to bring such claims. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate a business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2021. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, you may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited.
We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or executive officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the U.S. courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. We will also be subject to the federal securities laws of the United States. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders derivative action in a federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by Maples and Calder (Cayman) LLP, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has
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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 U.S. company.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors, advance notice procedures, inability of shareholders to call a general meeting, removal of directors only for cause (other than by holders of our Class B ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination) and only by the board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference shares, and the fact that prior to the completion of our initial business combination only holders of our Class B ordinary shares are entitled to vote on the appointment of directors, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, upon the listing of our shares on Nasdaq, 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.
After completion of this offering, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. As a result, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of Nasdaq corporate governance standards. Under Nasdaq corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:
•
we have a board that includes a majority of “independent directors,” as defined under Nasdaq rules; and
•
we have a compensation committee of our board 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 applicable phase-in rules. However, if we determine in the future to
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utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.
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 U.S. securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue may be derived from our operations in any such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and social conditions and government policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial business combination and if we effect our initial business combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’ ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the Cayman Islands to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this prospectus may constitute “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus may include, for example, statements about:
•
our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses;
•
our ability to complete our initial business combination;
•
our expectations around the performance of the prospective target business;
•
our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination;
•
our officers and directors allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination;
•
our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination;
•
our pool of prospective target businesses;
•
our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases);
•
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;
•
our financial performance following this offering; or
•
our ability to complete a merger with Gamers Club, and risks related to the business of Gamers Club.
The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described under the heading “Risk Factors.” Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
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USE OF PROCEEDS
We are offering 15,000,000 units at an offering price of $10.00 per unit. We estimate that the net proceeds of this offering, together with the funds we will receive from the sale of the private placement warrants, will be used as set forth in the following table.
| | | Without Option to Purchase Additional Units | | | Option to Purchase Additional Units Exercised | | ||||||
Gross proceeds | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gross proceeds from units offered to public(1) | | | | $ | 150,000,000 | | | | | $ | 172,500,000 | | |
Gross proceeds from private placement warrants offered in the private Placement | | | | | 9,250,000 | | | | | | 10,262,500 | | |
Total gross proceeds | | | | $ | 159,250,000 | | | | | $ | 182,762,500 | | |
Estimated offering expenses(2) | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Underwriting commissions (2.0% of gross proceeds from units offered to public, excluding deferred portion)(3) | | | | $ | 3,000,000 | | | | | $ | 3,450,000 | | |
Legal fees and expenses | | | | | 350,000 | | | | | | 350,000 | | |
Printing and engraving expenses | | | | | 40,000 | | | | | | 40,000 | | |
Accounting fees and expenses | | | | | 40,000 | | | | | | 40,000 | | |
SEC/FINRA Expenses | | | | | 62,329 | | | | | | 62,329 | | |
Nasdaq listing and filing fees | | | | | 75,000 | | | | | | 75,000 | | |
Director & Officer liability insurance premiums | | | | | 800,000 | | | | | | 800,000 | | |
Miscellaneous | | | | | 32,671 | | | | | | 32,671 | | |
Total estimated offering expenses (excluding underwriting commissions) | | | | $ | 1,400,000 | | | | | $ | 1,400,000 | | |
Proceeds after estimated offering expenses | | | | $ | 154,850,000 | | | | | $ | 177,912,500 | | |
Held in trust account(3) | | | | $ | 153,750,000 | | | | | $ | 176,812,500 | | |
Percentage of public offering size | | | | | 102.5% | | | | | | 102.5% | | |
Not held in trust account | | | | $ | 1,100,000 | | | | | $ | 1,100,000 | | |
The following table shows the use of the estimated $1,100,000 of net proceeds not held in the trust(4)(5)
| | | Amount | | | Percentage of Total | | ||||||
Legal, accounting, due diligence, travel, consulting and other expenses in connection with a search for and consummation of any business combination(6) | | | | $ | 400,000 | | | | | | 36.4% | | |
Legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting obligations | | | | | 125,000 | | | | | | 11.4% | | |
Nasdaq continued listing fees | | | | | 75,000 | | | | | | 6.8% | | |
Working capital to cover miscellaneous expenses | | | | | 500,000 | | | | | | 45.5% | | |
Total | | | | $ | 1,100,000 | | | | | | 100.0% | | |
(1)
Includes amounts payable to public shareholders who properly redeem their shares in connection with our successful completion of our initial business combination.
(2)
In addition, a portion of the offering expenses have been paid from the proceeds of loans from our sponsor of up to $300,000 as described in this prospectus. These loans will be repaid upon completion of this offering out of the $1,400,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated for the payment of offering expenses other than underwriting commissions. In the event that offering expenses are less than as set forth in this table, any such amounts will be used for post-closing working capital expenses.
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If offering expenses are greater than set forth in this table, such excess will reduce amounts available post-closing for working capital expenses.
(3)
The underwriters have agreed to defer underwriting commissions of 3.5% of the gross proceeds of this offering. Upon and concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, up to $5,250, 000, which constitutes the underwriters’ deferred commissions (or up to $5,950,000 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) will be paid to the underwriters from the funds held in the trust account. See “Underwriting.” The remaining funds, less amounts released to the trustee to pay redeeming shareholders, will be released to us and can be used to pay all or a portion of the purchase price of the business or businesses with which our initial business combination occurs or for general corporate purposes, including payment of principal or interest on indebtedness incurred in connection with our initial business combination, to fund the purchases of other companies or for working capital. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions.
(4)
These expenses are estimates only. Our actual expenditures for some or all of these items may differ from the estimates set forth herein. For example, we may incur greater legal and accounting expenses than our current estimates in connection with negotiating and structuring our initial business combination based upon the level of complexity of such business combination. In the event we identify a business combination target in a specific industry subject to specific regulations, we may incur additional expenses associated with legal due diligence and the engagement of special legal counsel. In addition, our staffing needs may vary and as a result, we may engage a number of consultants to assist with legal and financial due diligence. We do not anticipate any change in our intended use of proceeds, other than fluctuations among the current categories of allocated expenses, which fluctuations, to the extent they exceed current estimates for any specific category of expenses, would not be available for our expenses. The amount in the table above does not include interest available to us from the trust account. The proceeds 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 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Assuming an interest rate of 0.10% per year, we estimate the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $153,750 per year; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. The trust account’s earnings will be lower if interest rates on short-term U.S. government treasury obligations decline.
(5)
Assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units.
(6)
Includes estimated amounts that may also be used in connection with our initial business combination to fund a “no-shop” provision and commitment fees for financing.
Nasdaq rules provide that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account. Of the $159,250,000 in proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, or $182,762,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full, $153,750,000 ($10.25 per unit), or $176,812,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full ($10.25 per unit), will be deposited into a trust account with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and $9,250,000, or up to $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full, will be used to pay expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following this offering. We will not be permitted to withdraw any of the principal or interest held in the trust account, except for the withdrawal of interest to pay our taxes, if any, until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. Based on current interest rates, we expect that interest income earned on the trust account (if any) will be sufficient to pay our income taxes.
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The net proceeds held in the trust account may be used as consideration to pay the sellers of a target business with which we ultimately complete our initial business combination and to pay the deferred underwriting commissions. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or the redemption of our public shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-business combination company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our initial business combination.
We believe that amounts not held in trust, together with funds available to us from loans from our sponsor, will be sufficient to pay the costs and expenses to which such proceeds are allocated. This belief is based on the fact that while we may begin preliminary due diligence of a target business in connection with an indication of interest, we intend to undertake in-depth due diligence, depending on the circumstances of the relevant prospective acquisition, only after we have negotiated and signed a letter of intent or other preliminary agreement that addresses the terms of a business combination. However, if our estimate of the costs of undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating a business combination is less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may be required to raise additional capital, the amount, availability and cost of which is currently unascertainable. If we are required to seek additional capital, we could seek such additional capital through loans or additional investments from our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates, but such persons are not under any obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares (a) on any initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond the end of the completion window.
In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees.
Prior to the closing of this offering, our sponsor has agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. These loans are non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of December 31, 2021 or the closing of this offering. The loans will be repaid upon the closing of this offering out of the $1,400,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated to the payment of offering expenses. As of September 30, 2021, there was $174,316 outstanding under this sponsor loan.
In addition, in order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we may repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans may 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 to repay such loaned amounts. Up to $4,950,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination company at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
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DIVIDEND POLICY
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of our initial business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full). Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
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DILUTION
The difference between the public offering price per Class A ordinary share, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units we are offering pursuant to this prospectus or the private placement warrants, and the pro forma net tangible book value per Class A ordinary share after this offering constitutes the dilution to investors in this offering. Such calculation does not reflect any dilution associated with the sale and exercise of warrants, including the private placement warrants, which would cause the actual dilution to the public shareholders to be higher, particularly where a cashless exercise is utilized. Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing our net tangible book value, which is our total tangible assets less total liabilities (including the value of Class A ordinary shares which may be redeemed for cash), by the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares.
At September 30, 2021, our net tangible book deficit was $(548,475), or approximately $(0.15) per Class B ordinary share. After giving effect to the sale of 15,000,000 Class A ordinary shares included in the units we are offering by this prospectus (or 17,250,000 Class A ordinary shares if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), the sale of the private placement warrants and the deduction of underwriting commissions and estimated expenses of this offering, our pro forma net tangible book value at September 30, 2021 would have been $5,000,001 or $0.87 per share (or $5,000,001 or $0.77 per share if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), representing an immediate increase in net tangible book value (as decreased by the value of 13,005,951 Class A ordinary shares, which is the maximum number of Class A ordinary shares that may be redeemed for cash to effect a business combination, or 15,050,414 Class A ordinary shares if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) of $1.02 per share (or $0.90 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) to our initial shareholders as of the date of this prospectus. Total dilution to public shareholders from this offering will be $9.13 per share (or $9.23 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full).
In calculating the pro forma net tangible book value after this offering, we have given effect to the provision of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that will 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 do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). Accordingly, we have calculated pro forma net tangible book value in the table below assuming that holders of approximately 89% of our public shares may redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account at a per share redemption price equal to the amount in the trust account.
The following table illustrates the dilution to the public shareholders on a per-share basis, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units or the private placement warrants:
| | | Without Option to Purchase Additional Units | | | Option to Purchase Additional Units Exercised | | ||||||
Public offering price | | | | $ | 10.00 | | | | | $ | 10.00 | | |
Net tangible book deficit before this offering | | | | | (0.15) | | | | | | (0.13) | | |
Increase attributable to public shareholders | | | | | 1.02 | | | | | | 0.90 | | |
Pro forma net tangible book value after this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants(1) | | | | $ | 0.87 | | | | | $ | 0.77 | | |
Dilution to public shareholders(1) | | | | $ | 9.13 | | | | | $ | 9.23 | | |
Percentage of dilution to public shareholders(1) | | | | | 91.3% | | | | | | 92.3% | | |
(1)
For purposes of presentation, in light of the $5,000,001 minimum net tangible assets requirement in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we have reduced our pro forma net tangible book value after this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units) by $133,405,333 assuming holders of up to approximately 89% of our public shares may redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account at a per share redemption price equal to the amount in the trust account as set forth in our tender offer or proxy materials (initially anticipated to be the aggregate amount held in trust two business days
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prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of Class A ordinary shares sold in this offering.
The following table sets forth information with respect to our sponsor and the public shareholders:
| | | Shares Purchased | | | Total Consideration | | | Average Price per Share | | |||||||||||||||||||||
| | | Number | | | Percentage | | | Amount | | | Percentage | | ||||||||||||||||||
Class B ordinary shares(1) | | | | | 3,750,500 | | | | | | 20.0% | | | | | $ | 25,000 | | | | | | 0.02% | | | | | $ | 0.006 | | |
Public Shareholders | | | | | 15,000,000 | | | | | | 80.0% | | | | | | 150,000,000 | | | | | | 99.98% | | | | | $ | 10.00 | | |
| | | | | 18,750,000 | | | | | | 100.0% | | | | | $ | 150,025,000 | | | | | | 100.0% | | | | | | | | |
(1)
Assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units and the corresponding forfeiture of 562,500 Class B ordinary shares held by our sponsor.
The pro forma net tangible book value per share after the offering is calculated as follows, subject to the assumption described above:
| | | Without Option to Purchase Additional Units | | | Option to Purchase Additional Units Exercised | | ||||||
Numerator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net tangible book deficit before this offering | | | | $ | (548,475) | | | | | $ | (548,475) | | |
Net proceeds from this offering and sale of the private placement warrants(1) | | | | | 154,850,000 | | | | | | 177,912,500 | | |
Plus: Offering costs accrued for or paid in advance, excluded from tangible book value before this offering | | | | | 535,486 | | | | | | 535,486 | | |
Less: Deferred underwriting commissions | | | | | (5,250,000) | | | | | | (6,037,500) | | |
Less: Warrant liability | | | | | (14,527,500) | | | | | | (16,357,875) | | |
Less: Assumed maximum proceeds available for redemption to effect a business combination(2) | | | | | (130,059,510) | | | | | | (150,504,135) | | |
| | | | $ | 5,000,001 | | | | | $ | 5,000,001 | | |
Denominator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Class B ordinary shares outstanding prior to this offering | | | | | 4,312,500 | | | | | | 4,312,500 | | |
Class B ordinary shares forfeited if option to purchase additional units is not exercised | | | | | (562,500) | | | | | | — | | |
Class A ordinary shares included in the units offered | | | | | 15,000,000 | | | | | | 17,250,000 | | |
Less: Maximum Class A ordinary shares that may be redeemed to effect a business combination | | | | | (13,005,951) | | | | | | (150,504,135) | | |
| | | | | 5,744,049 | | | | | | 6,512,087 | | |
(1)
Expenses applied against gross proceeds include offering expenses of $1,400,000 and underwriting commissions of $3,000,000 (if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is not exercised) or $3,450,000 (if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised) (in all cases excluding deferred underwriting fees). See “Use of Proceeds.”
(2)
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. In the event of any such purchases of our shares prior to the completion of our initial business combination, the number of Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption will be reduced by the amount of any such purchases, increasing the pro forma net tangible book value per share. See “Proposed Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination —Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities.”
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CAPITALIZATION
The following table sets forth our capitalization at September 30, 2021, and as adjusted to give effect to the sale of our units in this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and the application of the estimated net proceeds derived from the sale of such securities, assuming no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional units:
| | | September 30, 2021 | | |||||||||
| | | Actual | | | As Adjusted(1) | | ||||||
Notes payable to related party(2) | | | | $ | 174,316 | | | | | $ | — | | |
Warrant liability(4) | | | | | — | | | | | | 14,527,500 | | |
Deferred underwriting commissions | | | | | — | | | | | | 5,250,000 | | |
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, 200,000,000 shares authorized; -0- and 15,000,000 shares are subject to possible redemption, respectively(3) | | | | | — | | | | | | 153,750,000 | | |
Shareholders’ Equity (Deficit) Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; none outstanding, actual and as adjusted | | | | | — | | | | | | — | | |
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, 20,000,000 shares authorized, 4,312,500 and 3,750,000 shares outstanding, actual and as adjusted, respectively | | | | | 431 | | | | | | 375 | | |
Additional paid-in capital (deficit)(5) | | | | | 24,569 | | | | | | — | | |
Accumulated deficit(6) | | | | | (37,989) | | | | | | (18,690,864) | | |
Total shareholders’ (deficit)/equity | | | | $ | (12,989) | | | | | $ | (18,690,489) | | |
Total capitalization | | | | $ | 161,327 | | | | | $ | 154,837,011 | | |
(1)
Assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units and the corresponding forfeiture of 562,500 Class B ordinary shares held by our sponsor.
(2)
Our sponsor may loan us up to $300,000 under an unsecured promissory note to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. The “as adjusted” information gives effect to the repayment of any loans made under this note out of the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants. As of September 30, 2021, we have borrowed $174,316 under the promissory note with our sponsor. The balance of the note payable will be repaid from the offering proceeds.
(3)
Upon the completion of our initial business combination, we will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, subject to the limitations described herein. The Class A ordinary shares contain redemption rights that make them redeemable by our public shareholders. Accordingly, they are classified within temporary equity in accordance with the guidance provided in ASC 480-10-S99-3A, and will be subsequently accreted at redemption value.
(4)
We will account for the 16,750,000 warrants to be issued in connection with this offering (including 7,500,000 public warrants and 9,250,000 private placement warrants, assuming the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is not exercised) in accordance with the guidance contained in Accounting Standards Codification Topic 815-40. Such guidance provides that because the warrants do not meet the criteria for equity treatment thereunder, each warrant must be recorded as a liability. Accordingly, we will classify each warrant as a liability at its fair value. The proceeds received from the public offering will be allocated between the Class A ordinary shares and the warrant liability. This liability is subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date. With each such re-measurement, the warrant liability will be adjusted to fair value, with the change in fair value recognized in our statement of operations. The warrants are also subject to re-evaluation of the proper classification and accounting treatment at each reporting period.
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(5)
The “as adjusted” additional paid-in capital includes the excess of proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants over their estimated fair value at issuance as a deemed capital contribution from our sponsor, less an adjustment to accrete the Class A ordinary shares to its redemption value.
(6)
As adjusted accumulated deficit includes transaction costs allocated to warrant liability, which will be immediately expensed, less an adjustment to accrete the Class A ordinary shares to its redemption value.
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Overview
We are a newly organized, blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination, with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as a target business. We have not selected any specific target business and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any target business regarding a business combination with our company. As described further below under “— Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club,” concurrent with or after the completion of our initial business combination we may also combine with Gamers Club, a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with continental preeminence in Latin America. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination only with Gamers Club.
We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our securities in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant any forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of this offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing or other sources.
The issuance of additional shares or equity-linked securities in connection with a business combination to the owners of the target or other investors:
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may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this 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;
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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;
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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;
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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;
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may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants; and
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may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant debt, it could result in:
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default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
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acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
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our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
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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;
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our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares;
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•
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;
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increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation or prevailing interest rates; and
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limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
As indicated in the accompanying financial statements, as of September 30, 2021, we had $16,326 of cash and deferred offering costs of approximately $535,486. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete our initial business combination will be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
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 this offering. Following this offering, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents after this offering. There has been no significant change in our financial or trading position and no material adverse change has occurred since the date of our audited financial statements. After this offering, we expect to incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses. We expect our expenses to increase substantially after the closing of this offering.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our liquidity needs have been satisfied prior to the completion of this offering through the $25,000 payment from our sponsor to cover for certain expenses on behalf of us in exchange for issuance of the founder shares, a $124,316 draw on a promissory note from our Sponsor with a maximum borrowing capacity of $300,000. We estimate that the net proceeds from: (1) the sale of the units in this offering, after deducting estimated offering expenses of approximately $1,400,000 and underwriting commissions of $3,000,000 ($3,450,000 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) (excluding deferred underwriting commissions of $5,250,000 (or up to $6,037,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full)); and (2) the sale of the private placement warrants for a purchase price of $9,250,000 (or $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), will be $154,850,000 (or $177,912,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full). Of this amount, $153,750,000 (or $176,812,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), which includes $5,250,000 (or up to $6,037,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full) of deferred underwriting commissions, will be deposited into the trust account. The funds in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. Treasuries. The remaining $1,100,000 will not be held in the trust account. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,400,000, 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 are less than our estimate of $1,400,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (less taxes payable and deferred underwriting commissions) to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay our taxes, if any. Our
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annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. We expect the interest income earned on the amount in the trust account (if any) will be sufficient to pay our taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the trust account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we expect to have available to us the $1,100,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, as well as certain funds from loans from our sponsor.
We will use these funds 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, and to pay taxes to the extent the interest earned on the trust account is not sufficient to pay our taxes.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination, other than funds available from loans from our sponsor. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our initial business combination. In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we may repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds held in the trust account released to us. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such working capital loans may be convertible into warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. The terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans.
Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
We expect our primary liquidity requirements during that period to include approximately $400,000 for legal, accounting, due diligence, travel, consulting and other expenses in connection with a search for and consummation of any business combination; $125,000 for legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting obligations; $75,000 for Nasdaq continued listing fees; and $500,000 for general working capital that will be used for miscellaneous expenses and reserves. In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees.
These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.
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Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In addition, following our initial business combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Controls and Procedures
We are not currently required to maintain an effective system of internal controls as defined by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will be required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement.
Prior to the closing of this offering, we have not completed an assessment, nor has our independent registered public accounting firm tested our systems, of our internal controls. We expect to assess the internal controls of our target business or businesses prior to the completion of our initial business combination and, if necessary, to implement and test additional controls as we may determine are necessary in order to state that we maintain an effective system of internal controls. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the adequacy of internal controls. Many small and mid-sized target businesses we may consider for our initial business combination may have internal controls that need improvement in areas such as:
•
staffing for financial, accounting and external reporting areas, including segregation of duties;
•
reconciliation of accounts;
•
proper recording of expenses and liabilities in the period to which they relate;
•
evidence of internal review and approval of accounting transactions;
•
documentation of processes, assumptions and conclusions underlying significant estimates; and
•
documentation of accounting policies and procedures.
Because it will take time, management involvement and perhaps outside resources to determine what internal control improvements are necessary for us to meet regulatory requirements and market expectations for our operation of a target business, we may incur significant expenses in meeting our public reporting responsibilities, particularly in the areas of designing, enhancing, or remediating internal and disclosure controls. Doing so effectively may also take longer than we expect, thus increasing our exposure to financial fraud or erroneous financial reporting.
Once our management’s report on internal controls is complete, we will retain our independent registered public accounting firm to audit and render an opinion on such report when required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The independent registered public accounting firm may identify additional issues concerning a target business’s internal controls while performing their audit of internal control over financial reporting.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
The net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be invested in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which
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invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
Related Party Transactions
See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements; Commitments and Contractual Obligations; Quarterly Results
As of September 30, 2021, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations. No unaudited quarterly operating data is included in this prospectus as we have not conducted any operations to date.
JOBS Act
The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an “emerging growth company” and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an “emerging growth company,” we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis) and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the Chief Executive Officer’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our initial public offering or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
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PROPOSED BUSINESS
Introduction
We are a newly organized, blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination, with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as a target business. We have not selected any specific target business and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any target business regarding a business combination with our company. As described further below under “— Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club,” concurrent with or after the completion of our initial business combination we may also combine with Gamers Club, a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with continental preeminence in Latin America. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination only with Gamers Club.
We intend to pursue business combinations with interactive media companies operating directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports. We may also consider industries with similar user characteristics or demographics including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, although our efforts in identifying a prospective target business will not be limited to a particular industry.
We plan to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify, acquire and operate interactive media businesses directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports, as well as on the significant experience, reputation and relationships of our management team, directors, and advisors to complete an initial business combination. The business executives that comprise our management team are recognized leaders in the sports & entertainment, competitive gaming and esports industries and have experience in acquiring and operating prominent companies in these domains. In addition, our management team, directors, and advisors, by virtue of their extensive operational and transactional experience and through long-standing industry relationships, have global access to the operating, venture capital and financial sponsor communities, providing a key sourcing portal into a pipeline of potential target acquisition opportunities.
Our Management Team and Advisors
Our management team and advisors consist of seasoned executives with wide ranging experience from multiple verticals in the competitive gaming and esports industries and from other relevant industries, with proven track records of:
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Operating high-growth enterprises across the competitive gaming and esports industries;
•
Building out vertically integrated platforms in competitive gaming and esports;
•
Driving immersive best-in-class user experiences through the combination of Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play functionality;
•
Pursuing accretive acquisitions to catalyze growth of a larger enterprise;
•
Strategizing, executing, and reviewing organic growth plans intended to accelerate company growth;
•
Building qualified, cohesive, and productive management teams;
•
Rationalizing non-core operations to realize value and optimize resource management for the benefit of primary business functions;
•
Sourcing, structuring, financing, acquiring, and divesting businesses; and
•
Fostering relationships with sellers, investors, target management teams, and other key industry stakeholders.
Ari Segal, our Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Director, most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of IGC, a position he held from December 2018 through June 2021, prior to which he was promoted from President & Chief Operating Officer of IGC, a position he held since 2017. Mr. Segal also
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serves as a Director of Gamers Club. As CEO, Mr. Segal led an aggressive M&A strategy, including IGC’s acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club, as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform, a popular news and information site for competitive gamers in Brazil. In 2019 and 2020, IGC raised and deployed nearly $80 million in equity financing from investors including Meg Whitman, Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Milken family, Lionsgate, March Capital Partners, Steve Kaplan, and Irongrey, among others. The capital raised by IGC fueled growth initiatives including the expansion of Gamers Club and the acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1. Mr. Segal was also instrumental in the divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI) and the divestitures of several other key assets, including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, the OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2017, Mr. Segal worked as Chief Operating Officer of the National Hockey League’s NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, where he led the club to its highest revenue season to date in 2016-2017. Mr. Segal was also Special Assistant to the CEO of the Anaheim Ducks and President of Business Operations for the San Diego Gulls (the Ducks’ AHL affiliate) when Mr. Segal and the team were awarded the first ever AHL President’s Award for Business Excellence. Previously, Mr. Segal worked as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and in the Financial Sponsors banking group at Lehman Brothers, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice. In 2020, Mr. Segal was named to the Sports Business Journal and Leaders in Sports annual “Forty Under 40” lists. Mr. Segal holds a J.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar and a BA with Distinction from the University of Virginia.
Tomi Kovanen, our Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder and Director, most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of IGC, and has over 15 years of experience in the esports industry across multiple roles and sub-verticals, including direct experience in the core functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play) as described in “— Acquisition Strategy” below. Mr. Kovanen also serves as a director of Gamers Club. Mr. Kovanen joined IGC in 2018 as Vice President, Business Development/General Manager, CS:GO of IGC, and previously served as Vice President, Finance and Business Development and Senior Vice President, Finance and Business Development of IGC. Since joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen has focused on the execution of the firm’s aggressive M&A strategy, including the acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Mr. Kovanen was instrumental in additional acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1, and the following divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI), as well as divestitures of several other key assets including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen served in J.P. Morgan’s Healthcare and Technology, Media, and Telecommunications investment banking groups in London from 2015 to 2017, and co-founded ENCE, Finland’s largest esports organization. Mr. Kovanen has written articles on the esports industry that have been published by the Financial Times and ESPN that led to his nomination for Esports Journalist of the Year in 2017 by The Esports Awards. Mr. Kovanen was also a professional esports athlete, competing in over 100 tournaments globally from 2005 through 2012, winning multiple international championships as the captain of Finnish teams and a North American organization. Mr. Kovanen holds a B.S. from the University of Oulu.
Margaret C. Whitman, a director nominee, is a business executive, former political candidate, and philanthropist. Based in Colorado, Ms. Whitman currently serves as a member of the board of directors for The Procter & Gamble Company and General Motors. Most recently, Ms. Whitman served as Chief Executive Officer for Quibi in 2020. Prior to joining Quibi, Ms. Whitman served as the Chief Executive Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, or HPE, a multinational enterprise information technology company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2015 to June 2017. From 2014 to 2015, Ms. Whitman served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman for Hewlett-Packard Company (now known as HP Inc.), the former parent of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2011 to 2015. Prior to joining HP Inc., Ms. Whitman was the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2010 gubernatorial race in California. From 1998 to 2008, Ms. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay Inc., an online marketplace and payments company.
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Ms. Whitman previously served as a member of the board of directors for HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Dropbox, Inc. and DXC Technology Company and for a number of other public and private companies, including IGC. Ms. Whitman currently serves as the National Board Chair for Teach For America. Ms. Whitman holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. from Princeton University.
Steven A. Cohen, a director nominee, is Executive Vice President of The Anschutz Corporation, the holding company for the Anschutz family of enterprises, a position he has held since 2001. Mr. Cohen is involved with a number of the operating companies and investments within the Anschutz organization and sits on the board of directors of many of the Anschutz portfolio companies including Anschutz Entertainment Group, for which he also serves as Chief Strategy Officer since 2013, and IGC. Mr. Cohen also serves as a Managing Director of Anschutz Investment Company, the investment arm of The Anschutz Corporation that is focused on both equity and debt investments in a variety of industries, including communications, media, oil and gas, alternative energy, entertainment, hospitality and lodging, real estate and transportation. Mr. Cohen is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rose Community Foundation, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver), the Board of Directors of Roundup River Ranch, a member of the SeriousFun Children’s Network, and the Board of Directors of 303 Rugby, a not-for-profit that supports rugby programs for inner-city youth, and is also a member of Colorado Thrives. Prior to working at The Anschutz Corporation, Mr. Cohen was a corporate partner at Hogan Lovells, and started his legal career at Skadden in their mergers and acquisitions group. Mr. Cohen holds a B.Sc. from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Stephen A. Kaplan, an advisor to our company, is the Chairman of Nalpak Capital LLC, the family office investment firm he founded in 2016. Mr. Kaplan was a Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital Group LLC, a global alternative investment management firm. He retired from day-to-day activities in 2016 to focus on philanthropy and personal investments with a special emphasis on sports and entertainment. Mr. Kaplan is the Co-Chairman of DC United and serves on the Major League Soccer Board of Governors. He is also an owner of multiple other sports franchises and sports related investments including Swansea City FC in the English Championship. Mr. Kaplan also serves as a Director of IGC. Mr Kaplan was previously the Co-Chairman of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies from 2012 until he sold his interest in 2018. Mr. Kaplan joined Oaktree at its inception in 1995, having previously served as a managing director of Trust Company of the West. Prior to joining TCW in 1993, he was a partner with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Kaplan has served on numerous public and private boards during his career and presently serves on the board of Townsquare Media, Inc. (NYSE: TSQ). In addition, he currently serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation, LA 84 Foundation and the New York University School of Law Foundation. Mr. Kaplan holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
Yuri Uchiyama, an advisor to our company, is Gamers Club’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, positions he has held since launching Gamers Club in 2016. Mr. Uchiyama also serves as a Director of Gamers Club. Mr. Uchiyama has guided Gamers Club from its inception, having led its early fundraising efforts and its sale to IGC in 2018, and he continues in the role of CEO through present day. Under Mr. Uchiyama’s leadership, Gamers Club has become the second largest matchmaking platform in the world, with a distinctive market position in Latin America. Since IGC’s acquisition, and working alongside Messrs. Segal and Kovanen, Uchiyama led Gamers Club’s growth from operating solely in Brazil to three additional countries (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), from one game title (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) to six game titles, established partnerships with publishers such as Epic Games and Riot Games and companies such as Microsoft, and expanded Gamers Club’s content footprint through the acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Prior to co-founding Gamers Club in 2016, Mr. Uchiyama worked as a Manager of Smyowl, a Brazilian startup focused on mobile game development. Previously, Uchiyama worked as a Coordinator of the Inova Sorocaba/Sorocaba Technology Park, where he helped to create the startup ecosystem of the Sao Paulo suburb. Mr. Uchiyama also worked at Capgemini, providing Business Intelligence consulting to companies in Brazil, the United States, and Poland. Mr. Uchiyama is a frequent contributor to various media sources covering competitive gaming and esports in Brazil and in 2019 the Brazilian Senate Chamber invited Mr. Uchiyama to address an assembly regarding the future of the esports market in Brazil. Mr. Uchiyama holds a B.S. from Fatec Sorocaba.
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Our management team and Mr. Uchiyama grew IGC into a vertically integrated business in the competitive gaming and esports spaces, with a portfolio of complementary assets inclusive of Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play-based functionality. IGC co-founded B Site, Inc., which was the first team-owned tournament organizing platform in esports. In 2018 IGC acquired Gamers Club, a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with the largest market share in the South America region. During IGC’s ownership, Gamers Club has more than doubled its registered users to approximately two million, approximately half of which are MAUs. Through a combination of organic growth and selective, strategic M&A, Gamers Club has expanded its initial functionality from educational content and matchmaking to media coverage and broader news and editorial content; and built new, complementary functionality such as fantasy sports and more comprehensive “Play” experiences (e.g., online and offline-based tournaments). Gamers Club has formed partnerships with the likes of Riot Games Epic Games and Microsoft, among others, while diversifying from one to six game titles, from one language to two, and from one country to four.
Our advisors will assist our management team with sourcing and evaluating potential business combination targets and developing plans and strategies to optimize any business that we acquire following the consummation of this offering, including sourcing potential executives, persons to serve as directors and capital. However, unlike our management team, our advisors are not responsible for managing our day-to-day affairs and have no authority to engage in substantive discussions with business combination targets on our behalf. We have not currently entered into formal arrangements or agreements with our advisors to provide services, and they will have no fiduciary obligations to present business opportunities to us.
Notwithstanding our management team’s or advisors’ past experiences, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, past performance is not a guarantee (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) that we will provide an attractive return to our shareholders from any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management’s performance as indicative of our future performance. See “Risk Factors — Past performance of our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us, and we may be unable to provide positive returns to shareholders.” For a list of our executive officers and entities for which a conflict of interest may or does exist between such officers and the company, please refer to “Management — Conflicts of Interest.”
Market Opportunity
We intend to pursue business combinations with interactive media companies operating directly within or adjacent to competitive gaming and esports. We may also consider industries with similar user characteristics or demographics including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, although our efforts in identifying a prospective target business will not be limited to a particular industry.
The competitive gaming and esports market, a large and growing subset of interactive and digital media, has been growing rapidly over the past several years; some examples of this dynamic:
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YouTube Gaming reached 100 billion hours watched across 40 million active gaming channels in 20202;
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Live streaming platform Twitch hours watched grew approximately 39% annually from 2016 (4.8 billion) to 2020 (18.6 billion)3;
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There was $2.3 billion in capital raised by esports companies in 2020, and $19.6 billion in capital raised by gaming companies in 2020, representing 139% and 327% increases in value year over year, respectively4;
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There are expected to be approximately 2.9 billion gamers globally as of by the end of 20215;
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There is expected to be a global live-streaming gaming audience of 728.8 million viewers by the end of 2021, a 10% increase over 2020’s audience figures6; and
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There is expected to be an esports audience of approximately 286 million enthusiasts and 292 million occasional viewers in 2024, representing increases of approximately 37 million enthusiasts and 39 million occasional viewers from 20196.
Competitive gaming and esports are propelled by strong secular trends and demographic tailwinds that have further accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, total gaming and esports market revenue was approximately $167 billion and is expected to have a compounded annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 13% from 2020 to 2024. In 2020, video game revenue grew to approximately 9% from 2016 to 2020 and is expected to grow to approximately $198 billion in 20247. As viewership and engagement continue to gain momentum with more comprehensive, interactive experiences, the esports market, a subsector of the broader video games market, will become increasingly attractive. Today, the esports market represents approximately $1.1 billion in revenue, and is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 20246, with distinctive opportunity available to those market participants able to integrate esports with other socially oriented experiences to drive engagement. As gaming and esports continue to become more accessible, with the cost of technology decreasing and high-speed internet becoming more widespread globally, we believe the total addressable market is positioned for several decades of incremental, strong growth. Thus, even as a leading market share position is attractive at the market’s current size, the gaming and esports market continues to grow.
Total audience, as well as engagement of the full spectrum of casual to more avid gamers as well as competitive gaming and esports fans, have all shown strong, steady growth trends, including the following:
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Three out of four global video game players report watching other people play video games weekly8;
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Globally, video game players spend more than five hours a week watching other people play online or in esports tournaments, an increase of 27% from January 2020 to January 2021, while spending only three hours watching traditional sports on television8;
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Consumers are increasingly evolving in their selection of entertainment content, with 6.6 million households canceling their cable subscriptions in 2020, and TV subscriptions down 23% from the peak in 20149. Conversely, the prevalence of the OTT market comprised of streaming services, is expected to register a CAGR of approximately 11% from 2020 — 202510;
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Incremental platform capabilities such as follower perks, exclusive access to content, and ability to interact via web-based chat are creating more avenues to participate within the online gaming community, bolstering overall audience engagement;
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In a 2017 Magid survey of esports viewers, 69% of respondents indicated interest in a subscription viewership model11; and
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Audience engagement in the form of betting is exploding across esports, with 66% of those who actively follow esports indicating interest in placing bets on esports events, as compared to 50% for traditional sporting events11.
Gaming has more than tipped into the mainstream; it is a bona fide mainstay. For its core and existing users, share of time, wallet, mindshare and passion continue to increase. Gaming is neither exclusively active (i.e., games are not merely “played”) nor just passive (i.e., unlike professional traditional sports or film and television, games are not merely watched) — users engage with games. This engagement, and the diversity of engagement opportunities, has unleashed a tidal wave of creativity and entrepreneurialism in and around gaming, highlighted by proliferation in both game development, exemplified by companies such as Roblox, which offers a creative development platform and has attracted seven million developers across 170 countries as of September 30, 2020; and consumption options, often inclusive of multiple media segments simultaneously, exemplified by Fortnite Battle Royal in-game experiences featuring live concerts with music artists such as Travis Scott and Marshmello.
Equally compelling from a market size or market growth potential standpoint is the emergence of gaming as a utility: gaming is, for instance, now used for educational purposes and increasingly seen as a tool to enable socialization (in stark contrast to how it was previously viewed as an antisocial and isolating phenomena), as currency and as the proverbial “water cooler” of the 21st century. The emergence of education technology companies leveraging gaming as a teaching tool, content source, or means of distribution has increased, as exemplified by Duolingo’s interactive language learning solution. So-called “gamification” is
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increasingly pervasive in education, seen as a way to aid in the engagement of students in the classroom, and aid cognitive development12. Activate Consulting expects most digital activities, including search, social, shopping and live events, to increasingly take place inside games; indeed, gaming may already be the central hub for people’s virtual lives and, increasingly, their real lives7. As live and digital content continue to fuse, gaming continues to evolve towards and converge into traditional media, evidenced by Netflix observation in their 2018 shareholders’ letter: “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.” In addition, gaming and esports users tend to have attractive demographic and/or income characteristics:
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Approximately 57% of U.S. esports viewers have incomes over $75,00011; and
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Approximately 65% of U.S. esports viewers have a college degree or higher education11;
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Approximately 62% of U.S. esports viewers are between the age of 18 and 3411;
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Approximately 44% of existing adult video game players, who started playing video games before March 2020, are aged 45 or above, while 56% of new adult gamers are aged 45 or above. New adult gamers are also increasingly gender diverse, as 66% of new gamers are female7; and
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Users are increasingly engaged with social networking activities in video games, as approximately 38% of video game players have participated in a non-gaming activity or event within a videogame in the last 12 months, such as live in-game concerts, virtual re-creations of social events, in game movies, and sports-related events and content7.
However, despite the industry’s attractive growth profile and user characteristics, few competitive gaming and esports assets have managed to reach the necessary user scale that would allow for attractive operating margins or the development of robust, durable business models. Because the user experience is fragmented, causing users to split time among multiple platforms, sites, and services daily, share of user time and wallet are similarly broadly distributed rather than consolidated. Thus, while in total, monetization per user is strong and growing, monetization per user is often small on a per platform basis, with few if any platforms delivering sufficient scale and value to monetize effectively. In 2020 monetization per user for the gaming and esports market was approximately $58. The high fragmentation of revenue in the industry that tracks the user experience undermines the ability to scale associated expenses — asset and functionality fragmentation leads to replicated costs (e.g., central and administrative costs) unrelated to and not commensurate with improved user experience or product distinctiveness and quality. Collectively, these structural issues create friction and pain points adversely impacting users and lead to higher cost, lower margin, less sticky businesses.
We believe the fragmentation of competitive gaming and esports businesses creates a landscape primed for consolidation. Further, we believe that streamlining user functionality within competitive gaming and bringing esports fans together on a unified platform that improves the user experience for all participants will significantly increase the average annual revenue per user in esports, which has grown to approximately $511 in 2018 from approximately $2 per user in 201413. We believe there is significant, attainable opportunity for increased monetization per user, particularly when compared to the average annual revenue per user of $15 for the NBA or $60 for the National Football League (the “NFL”)11. Material cost and revenue synergies may enable a consolidated platform to improve operating margins and benefit from operating leverage, as costs can either be eliminated entirely or scaled across a broader user base with higher revenue per user characteristics. We believe that gaming and esports businesses that are early to market with adequate liquidity and access to growth capital via public financing may be competitively advantaged during this consolidation period.
We believe there is an opportunity for a large, well-capitalized and diverse company with exposure to and touchpoints throughout competitive gaming and esports to emerge as a clear market leader by demonstrating growth and an ability to reach a broader audience, generate scale and capitalize on synergies to expand revenue and profitability. With infrastructure that unifies diversified competitive gaming and esports assets, a scaled platform can become the foundation for additional business combinations to compete in the ecosystem and to return value to shareholders and industry stakeholders (including, but not limited to, publishers, gamers, fans, and even the otherwise non-engaged parents of gamers and fans) in the long-term.
Further, for a SPAC in particular, interactive media enterprises within competitive gaming and esports represents an attractive and underexploited market opportunity. First, we believe there is a robust universe
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of potential target companies, nearly all of which will continue to benefit from the dynamic and attractive secular growth characteristics that have propelled gaming and esports forward as a leading media vertical over the last several years, if not decades. Twenty years ago, gaming was a fairly narrow media vertical serving a casual player base primarily comprised of young adults; today, gaming is larger than the global movie and North American sports industries combined14 and as GenZ reaches adulthood and GenX and Millennials enter middle age and beyond, the age distribution of participants in gaming and esports becomes more diverse and attractive. This is in contrast to many traditional sports in which the average age of fans is increasing without any refreshing of the fan population from younger market entrants. For example, the average age of an NHL fan in 2016 was 49 years old, a one-year increase in average age from one year prior15. Similar trends can be observed in the NFL and MLB, and it is unclear today what might reverse that trend in the coming years15 By extension, traditional sport participation amongst children is declining, with 37% of children aged 6 to 12 playing traditional sports in 2017, down from 45% in 200816. At the same time, the fastest growing cohorts in our industry are teens and children, entering the gaming market with high velocity and energy, with up to 91% of people between the ages of 2 and 17 playing video games17. Furthermore, while many traditional sports are experiencing net churn and a reduction in fans across essentially every age cohort, adults are increasingly joining the gaming market. Adults are using gaming as a mechanism through which to socialize or connect with friends and peers as well as their children, phenomena that we believe were accelerated by the recent and ongoing COVID pandemic. A 2020 report released by Global Web Index, for instance, finds that gamers between the ages of 55-64 have grown by 32% over the last three years. Thus, while monetization per user in gaming is expected to increase significantly in the short term, driven in part by players and fans who grew up gaming, have significant discretionary income and make their own purchasing decisions, that anticipated rate of growth is likely to increase even further over the long term as more people consume multiple forms of media within gaming while simultaneously engaging in games in their more traditional, competitive and participatory format.
Acquisition Strategy
The secular trends identified in the “Market Opportunity” section above are accelerating rather than decelerating; thus, our company, together with our management team’s knowledge and experience with the broader competitive gaming and esports marketplace can target and acquire a business with strong underlying user and organic growth characteristics and guide that business towards more robust growth and better operating margins as the market continues to mature and evolve. Having operated, participated in, and advised businesses in this sector, and having worked with investors and other operators approaching and accessing competitive gaming from other nodes in the broader interactive media and entertainment markets, our diligence of target companies will not be limited by the target’s standalone growth characteristics but will also extend to, for example, how the target’s users and customers, functionality, and current and potential value proposition fit within the environment of the evolving gaming and media industry. In other words, market knowledge and new perspective, combined with capital and liquidity, should enable an already strong company to modify or refine its strategic vision to take advantage of the sizable opportunities in the market today as well as tomorrow.
Our combination of industry experience, know-how, and relationships will allow us to pursue an acquisition strategy with multiple opportunities for value creation for shareholders:
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Identify a target with strong growth characteristics, including indicia related to active and/or registered users, time spent on platform, and engagement, exposed to the powerful secular growth trends articulated above;
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Leverage our gaming platform operating experience to unlock untapped organic growth potential within that target — either through expansion to new markets, integration of new and complementary functionality, or by otherwise enhancing the existing value proposition to both existing users or customers (growing monetization per user or time per user on platform) and potential new users and customers;
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Further enhance or accelerate growth through the potential simultaneous merger of Gamers Club, as described further below under “— Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club,” which IGC has owned and operated since December 2018. Gamers Club’s potential inclusion is likely to add immediately complementary functionality, publisher relationships and a performance
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track record, as well as geographic presence in South America and Brazil, where the target may or may not already have an existing presence; and
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After the initial business combination, pursuing an ongoing, aggressive M&A strategy to identify various additional targets in the very fragmented gaming and esports sector, which are likely ill-suited, ill-equipped, or simply too small to be publicly listed and may be without the scale and functionality to monetize effectively on a standalone basis, but that can offer significant benefits and value to the day-to-day user experience for our broader user base that seeks deeper and wider engagement.
Every aspect of our acquisition and growth strategy is characterized by a common underlying theme: relentless focus on improving the user experience. In many ways, gaming is succeeding in spite of itself: users are bounced from game to game, app to app, device to device, group to group, news source to news source, network to network, username to username, with no cohesive and curated experience facilitating improved navigation in and around gaming as a form of media. It is a credit to competitive gaming and esports’s social, cultural and business relevance that the market has grown as it has despite the user experience being what it is.
We think of optimizing the user experience as an imperative and guiding objective, both within the initial target itself (and any potential subsequently acquired and integrated assets), and across, in, and around competitive and engaged gaming and esports generally. We believe that focusing on the users’ day-to-day consumption and known and unknown, stated and unstated needs and wants, and efficiently packaging and delivering that functionality will allow us to pursue a diversified growth strategy, characterized by organic growth, functionality-based and geographic expansion, the potential integration of Gamers Club, and the pursuit of enhancing and accretive targets through strategic M&A.
Focus on a comprehensive and seamless user experience and solution rather than just a linear product to sale transaction will create a flywheel that, with increasing velocity, streamlines and improves user activity and materially increases time spent by users within the company’s ecosystem. User experience is therefore the driver of increased share of wallet and lifetime value of users, as well as network effect-driven non-linear, exponential growth.
Further, consolidating previously dispersed and fragmented user functionality into a single point of entry enables, for the first time, the creation of a single identity layer for each user. Frictions that often restrict, limit, or deter deeper engagement or time spent on-platform can be dramatically mitigated through the creation of a secure, single-entry point. This structure will allow for expansion into various incremental verticals of functionality, which could improve the platform’s user experience as described above and making the users even stickier, which should lead to a lower steady-state churn rate.
Fully integrated and at mature scale, key characteristics of an all-in-one platform include four functionality pillars:
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Follow: read about, or engage with, non-live competitive content related to a game;
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Watch: watch live or on-demand content, primarily of a game being played, or game play being discussed;
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Converse: actively engage in dialogue about a game, with friends or other users; and
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Play: actively participate in game play.
Each of these pillars represents a critical aspect of users’ gaming activity, with an attractive universe of potential target companies to acquire. At Gamers Club, IGC started by primarily delivering “Play” functionality through matchmaking, but established geographic prominence in Brazil by both diversifying within that core functionality pillar through adding leagues and tournaments to compete in, as well as live stream broadcasts of the leagues and tournaments and by expanding to other functionality pillars both organically with fantasy sports and educational content and through M&A with the acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Through the combination of these tools and experiences, the resulting customer “solution” that Gamers Club delivers is not some additional code or object; rather, it is a robust community. Gamers Club’s users do not use Gamers Club or consume Gamers Club; they are part of Gamers Club.
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Our experience in having grown and operated Gamers Club and, in particular, experimented with and deployed each of the functionality pillars both individually and in combination, have helped to provide us with knowledge and perspective about how a user base grows and responds to delivery of broad capabilities within each of the functionality pillars. Our belief is that integrating multiple functionality pillars does not result merely in additional users or customers from each pillar individually (for example, the “Follower” user base (A) is simply added to the “Watch” user base (B), creating total audience of A+B — redundancies); rather, our belief is that network effects drive more than just linear growth as functionality pillars are combined together onto a single platform. We believe this is due to several factors, including but not limited to the user experience, referrals and user promotion, and social activity. Our belief is that additional functionality encourages users to spend additional time on the platform, as users experiment with added functionality, and/or vary their level or degree of engagement with different types of functionality.
Further, we believe that experimentation coincides with users encouraging their friends and colleagues interested in this incremental functionality to join the platform. For example, a user who is initially only playing (not following) may introduce the platform to a friend interested in Follow functionality (not Play), but that may migrate or expand engagement to Play as well once they are introduced to that functionality on the platform. We also believe that both of these hypothetical users (the “Play”-first user and “Follow”-first user) are more likely than not to end up using both “Play” and “Follow” functionality (in part because of their social relationship), as well as others, and to further encourage additional friends and contacts in their respective networks to join the platform. Alternatively, users who already access multiple pillars of functionality from different companies may, if introduced to the platform through any individual functionality pillar, funnel all of their activity onto the one integrated platform that serves all of their competitive gaming and esports needs. As a starting point, each pillar individually has positive and negative attributes which can be enhanced or mitigated as appropriate; however, our belief is that in combination, the complementarity of the pillars together helps to elevate the overall value of the user experience, with powerful network effects as described.
Our willingness to acquire a target whose line of business is within any single pillar or across a combination of pillars enhances the potential target company universe without limiting or constraining our long-term strategy.
We intend to build a central entry point through which competitive gaming and esports users can ultimately access all four key functionality pillars. Our initial business combination may result in a market leading position within a particular pillar, and/or market relevance across multiple pillars. This initial business combination, including the potential merger with Gamers Club (which has relevance across the Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play functionality pillars and a substantial geographic presence in Latin America) will be further augmented by significant investment in organic growth and expansion by expanding to other pillars and/or geographies, as well as through an M&A strategy focusing on acquisitions that similarly improve the user experience or operations of the company, expand the product offering or geographical footprint, and drive enhanced shareholder value.
We believe that public equity investors will benefit from the introduction of a scaled competitive gaming and esports platform business into the market given the current lack of suitable public market opportunities, which has been driven by the industries’ fragmented nature and lack of standalone scale.
Our initial business combination target selection process will benefit from our management team’s relationships and experience in operating and leading various successful companies in the competitive gaming and esports sectors, as well as our management team’s recent experience in executing a modified version of vertical integration within that sector for Gamers Club in Latin America. We expect to leverage the network of contacts and relationships of our management team, directors and sponsors, and believe those will be a differentiator in sourcing potential business combination opportunities.
We believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the expected momentum in the competitive gaming and esports industry due to our management team’s distinguished track record of successfully integrating and growing acquired businesses throughout their professional tenure, with acute focus on our core target areas. We believe that the fragmented landscape of competitive gaming and esports companies creates an opportunity for consolidation and value creation for shareholders as gaming becomes more and more ubiquitous in people’s lives as content, sport, activity, and an arena for socialization.
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We believe that adoption and growth of the industry, buttressed by a significant and sticky base of monthly active users, will appeal to a broad cohort of investors. Furthermore, we expect that deployment of our strategy will provide considerable upside through combined go-to-market strategies, a unified brand, centralized capabilities, revenue diversification, and financial security through scale, as well as cost savings from centralized back-office functions.
Acquisition Criteria
We will primarily seek to acquire an anchor business where we can leverage our management team’s strategic insight and expertise, experience as operators and acquirers, and its extensive network of industry leaders, all with an eye to drive shareholder returns. We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use the following criteria and guidelines to help evaluate acquisition opportunities, but may decide to enter into an initial business combination with a target business that does not meet them:
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Market leadership position in one (or more) of the four functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play);
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Meaningful presence and/or relevance across multiple functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play);
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Large, engaged and/or growing user base directly interested in competitive gaming and esports or with a significant overlap with competitive gaming and esports audience demographics;
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Complementary strategy, user base, or functionality set with Gamers Club and/or other potential available future bolt-on acquisitions;
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Strong potential for both organic and M&A driven growth in number of active users, time spent on platform, revenue, and/or earnings;
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Ability to accelerate growth by leveraging our management team’s experience and network;
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Need for access to capital to fund aggressive growth plans;
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Suitability for public listing; and
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Financial profile that can provide attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management team may deem relevant to that opportunity specifically. Moreover, as indicated in the “— Overview” section, our analysis in identifying a prospective target business, while guided by the principles detailed above, will not be limited to a particular industry.
In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this prospectus, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we would file with the SEC.
Our Acquisition Process and Possible Merger with Gamers Club
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review that may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews and inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial and other information that will be made available to us. We will also utilize our operational and capital planning experience.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
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We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination or, subject to certain exceptions, subsequent material transactions with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our 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 FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. In addition, if we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with or after the completion of our initial business combination, we will obtain a fairness opinion with respect to such merger. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
We currently do not have any specific business combination under consideration. Our officers and directors have not individually selected a target business. Our management team is continuously made aware of potential business opportunities, one or more of which we may desire to pursue for a business combination. However, 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.
Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently intend to combine with Gamers Club. The resulting combined company would inherit our Nasdaq listing and its common stock and warrants would be publicly traded. We believe the combination of Gamers Club, us and a target business in the competitive gaming, esports, and adjacent industries, including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, under our company’s umbrella will allow the resulting combined company to leverage Gamers Club’s existing technology and platform, suite of relevant and synergistic gaming functionality, team of engineers, powerful brand, large community, and established footprint in an attractive and key geographic market to materially aid long-term value creation opportunities for our investors and serve as a platform for further growth and geographic diversification.
Gamers Club Holdings, LLC is the parent of Gamers Club, LLC and is also among the investors in our sponsor. Gamers Club is a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with a substantial presence in Latin America that offers a range of competitive gaming-related functionality, including matchmaking, tournament and league play, editorial and news content, and other services. Founded in 2016, Gamers Club was acquired by Immortals Gaming Club in 2018. During IGC’s ownership, Gamers Club has enjoyed strong organic and M&A-driven growth, expanding from one to six game titles; from one to four countries; and added significant functionality to its original matchmaking capability. Gamers Club is currently the second largest matchmaking platform globally, and the largest in Latin America.
At the time of Gamers Club’s original sale to IGC, Yuri Uchiyama, one of four founders of Gamers Club, remained as Gamers Club’s CEO and joined IGC’s leadership team. Working alongside IGC’s leadership (currently the management of our company and our sponsor), Mr. Uchiyama led Gamers Club’s growth and expansion, and helped negotiate strategic partnerships and other integration opportunities with companies such as Microsoft and game publishers including Epic Games, for its Fortnite title, Garena, for its Free Fire title, and Riot Games, for League of Legends and VALORANT; among others, enabling Gamers Club to expand quickly beyond its initial footprint in Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Gamers Club has emerged as a critical lynchpin in the Latin American competitive gaming and esports marketplace, and has become a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion in gaming, such as through its annual Gamers Club Masters Femina tournament.
We have not entered into any letter of intent or definitive agreement with Gamers Club, nor have we agreed to valuation or other key terms and conditions with respect to such a possible combination transaction. As a result, even though we intend to combine with Gamers Club concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, we cannot provide any assurance that such a merger with Gamers Club will occur at all, or, if it does, we cannot provide any assurance as to the timing or terms thereof. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club. In addition, we may not consummate a combination with Gamers Club if the target business with respect to our initial business combination is not within the competitive gaming, esports, or adjacent industries. If we pursue a combination with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, a committee of our disinterested directors will negotiate the terms and conditions of such merger (including the valuation of
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Gamers Club) on our behalf. Such committee of disinterested directors would also obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the proposed merger with Gamers Club is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. Our public shareholders will have the same voting and redemption rights with respect to any merger with Gamers Club as are applicable to our initial business combination and described elsewhere in this prospectus.
Members of our management team, our directors and our advisors will directly or indirectly own our ordinary shares and/or private placement warrants following this offering and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity subject to their fiduciary duties. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he, she or it has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, or contractual obligations, he, she or it will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not believe that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
In addition, our sponsor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates may sponsor or form, or, in the case of individuals, serve as a director or officer of, other blank check companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. 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 management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. See “Risk Factors — 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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.”
Prior to the date of this prospectus, we will file a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
Nasdaq rules require that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions 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. If our board of directors
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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 that is a member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., or FINRA, or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will not be able to make such independent determination of fair market value, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board of directors determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. As any such opinion, if obtained, would only state that the fair market value meets the 80% of fair market value test, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of the target or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders. However, if required by Schedule 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, any proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we will file with the SEC in connection with our initial business combination will include such opinion.
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-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of a target and, if applicable, Gamers Club. 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 valued for purposes of the 80% of fair market value test. If our initial business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking shareholder approval, as applicable. If we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will not include the fair market value of Gamers Club for purposes of satisfying the 80% of fair market value test.
In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor. To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure will make us an attractive business combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we offer a target business an alternative to a traditional initial public offering through a merger or other business combination with us. In a business combination transaction with us, the owners of the target business may, for example, exchange their shares of stock in the target business for
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our Class A ordinary shares (or shares of a new holding company) or for a combination of our Class A ordinary shares and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. We believe target businesses will find this method a more expeditious and cost effective method to becoming a public company than a typical initial public offering. The typical initial public offering process takes a significantly longer period of time than the typical business combination transaction process, and there are significant expenses in the initial public offering process, including underwriting discounts and commissions, that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a business combination with us.
Furthermore, once a proposed business combination is completed, the target business will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriters’ ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring or have negative valuation consequences. Once public, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital, an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with shareholders’ interests and the ability to use its shares as currency for acquisitions. Being a public company can offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
While we believe that our structure and our management team’s backgrounds will make us an attractive business partner, some potential target businesses may view our status as a special purpose acquisition company, including our lack of an operating history and our potential need to seek shareholder approval of a proposed initial business combination, negatively.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
Financial Position
With funds available for a business combination initially in the amount of $144,750,000 assuming no redemptions and after payment of $5,250,000 of deferred underwriting fees (or $166,462,500 assuming no redemptions and after payment of up to $6,037,500 of deferred underwriting fees if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), in each case, after estimated offering expenses of $1,400,000 (and prior to any post-IPO working capital expenses), we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio.
Because we are able to complete our initial business combination using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the target business to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third-party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available to us.
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Effecting Our Initial Business Combination
General
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following this offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering, the sale of the private placement warrants, our equity, debt or a combination of these or other sources as the consideration to be paid in our initial business combination.
We may seek to complete our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.
We will have 15 months from the closing of this offering to complete an initial business combination. However, if we anticipate that we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 15 months from the consummation of this offering, we may, but are not obligated to, if requested by our sponsor or its affiliates, extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination two times by an additional three months each time for a total of up to 21 months. In addition, we will be entitled to an automatic three-month extension if we have filed a preliminary proxy statement, registration statement or similar filing for an initial business combination during the 15-month period or Paid Extension Period, to complete an initial business combination. In the case of the Paid Extension Period or Automatic Extension Period, public shareholders will not be offered the opportunity to vote on or redeem their shares if we choose to make any such paid extension or in connection with an automatic extension. Pursuant to the terms of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement, in order to avail ourselves of the Paid Extension Period to consummate our initial business combination, our sponsor or its affiliates or designees, upon five days’ advance notice prior to the applicable deadline, must deposit into the trust account for each three-month extension $1,500,000 or $1,725,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($0.10 per share in either case), on or prior to the date of the applicable deadline. Any such payments would be made in the form of a loan. Any such time extension funding loans will be non-interest bearing and payable upon the consummation of our initial business combination. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Up to $3,450,000 of such time extension funding loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. If we do not complete an initial business combination, we will not repay such loans. In the event that we receive notice from our sponsor or its affiliates five days prior to the applicable deadline of its wish for us to effect an extension, we intend to issue a press release announcing such intention at least three days prior to the applicable deadline. In addition, we intend to issue a press release the day after the applicable deadline announcing whether or not the funds had 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. For the avoidance of doubt, no amounts need to be deposited into the trust account for the Automatic Extension Period. Our public shareholders will not be entitled to vote or redeem their shares in connection with any such paid extension or an automatic extension. As a result, we may conduct such an extension even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such an extension and will not be able to redeem their shares in connection therewith.
If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or used for redemptions of our Class A ordinary shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-business combination company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We have not selected any 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. Additionally, we have not engaged or retained any agent or other representative to identify or locate any suitable acquisition candidate, to conduct any research or take any measures, directly or indirectly, to locate or contact a target business, other than our officers
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and directors. Accordingly, there is no current basis for investors in this offering to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the target business with which we may ultimately complete our initial business combination.
Although our management will assess the risks inherent in a particular target business with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a target business may encounter. Furthermore, some of those risks may be outside of our control, meaning that we can do nothing to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely affect a target business.
We may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our initial business combination. We are not currently a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities, the incurrence of debt or otherwise.
Sources of Target Businesses
Our process of identifying acquisition targets will leverage our management team’s unique industry experiences, proven deal sourcing capabilities and broad and deep network of relationships, including executives and management teams, private equity groups and other institutional investors, large business enterprises, lenders, investment bankers and other investment market participants, consultants, attorneys and accountants, which we believe should provide us with a number of business combination opportunities. We expect that the collective experience, capability and network our directors and officers, combined with their individual and collective reputations in the investment community, will help to create prospective business combination opportunities.
In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates may be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment market participants, private equity groups, investment banking firms, consultants, accounting firms and large business enterprises. Target businesses may be brought to our attention by such unaffiliated sources as a result of being solicited by us through calls or mailings. These sources may also introduce us to target businesses in which they think we may be interested on an unsolicited basis, since some of these sources will have read this prospectus and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates, may also bring to our attention target business candidates of which they become aware through their business contacts as a result of formal or informal inquiries or discussions they may have, as well as attending trade shows or conventions. In addition, we expect to receive a number of proprietary deal flow opportunities that would not otherwise necessarily be available to us as a result of the business relationships of our officers and directors.
While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. In no event, however, will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by us (other than as outlined below) for services rendered prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). Our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination. In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees. Any such payments prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account.
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We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination or, subject to certain exceptions, subsequent material transactions with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our 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 FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. In addition, if we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will obtain a fairness opinion with respect to such merger. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, and other entities that are affiliates of our sponsor, pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. See “Management — Conflicts of Interest.”
Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review that may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews and inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operation, legal and other information that will be made available to us. If we determine to move forward with a particular target, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the business combination transaction.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination and merger with Gamers Club, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to 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:
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solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
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dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
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Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. The determination as to whether any of the members of our management team will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, we will seek shareholder approval if it is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
Type of Transaction | | | Whether Shareholder Approval is Required | |
Purchase of assets | | | No | |
Purchase of stock of target not involving a merger with the company | | | No | |
Merger of target into a subsidiary of the company | | | No | |
Merger of the company with a target | | | Yes | |
Under Nasdaq’s listing rules, shareholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
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we issue Class A ordinary shares that will be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of our Class A ordinary shares then outstanding (other than in a public offering);
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any of our directors, officers or substantial shareholders (as defined by Nasdaq rules) has a 5% or greater interest (or such persons collectively have a 10% or greater interest), directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired or otherwise and the present or potential issuance of ordinary shares could result in an increase in outstanding ordinary shares or voting power of 5% or more; or
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the issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares will result in our undergoing a change of control.
The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination in those instances in which shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on business and other reasons, which include a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
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the timing of the transaction, including in the event we determine shareholder approval would require additional time and there is either not enough time to seek shareholder approval or doing so would place the company at a disadvantage in the transaction or result in other additional burdens on the company;
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the expected cost of holding a shareholder vote;
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the risk that the shareholders would fail to approve the proposed business combination;
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other time and budget constraints of the company; and
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additional legal complexities of a proposed business combination that would be time-consuming and burdensome to present to shareholders.
Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
In the event that our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights or submitted a proxy to vote against our initial business combination, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares and any proxy to vote against our initial business combination. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will be required to comply with such rules.
The purpose of any such transaction could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (ii) 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 or (iii) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such transactions with respect to our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Our sponsor, initial shareholders, officers, directors and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the shareholders with whom our sponsor, initial shareholders, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated transactions by either the shareholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by shareholders (in the case of Class A ordinary shares) following our mailing of tender offer or proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates enter into a private transaction, they would identify and contact potential selling or redeeming shareholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our initial business combination, whether or not such shareholder has already submitted a proxy with respect to our initial business combination
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but only if such shares have not already been voted at the general meeting related to our initial business combination. Our sponsor, executive officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase shares from based on the negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will be restricted from purchasing shares if such purchases do not comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws.
Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will be restricted from making purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. We expect any such purchases would be reported by such person pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.25 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption right will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Further, subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we will not proceed with redeeming our public shares, even if a public shareholder has properly elected to redeem its shares, if a business combination does not close. Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering.
Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will 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 do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). However, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a general meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or whether we were deemed to be a foreign private issuer (which would require a tender offer rather than seeking shareholder approval under SEC rules). Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while
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direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would typically require shareholder approval. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote unless shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other reasons. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on Nasdaq, we will be required to comply with Nasdaq rules.
If we held a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
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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
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file proxy materials with the SEC.
In the event that we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public shareholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company. In such case, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. In addition, our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (i) to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity.
If we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
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conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers; and
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file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, we and our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase Class A ordinary shares in the open market if we elect to redeem our public shares through a tender offer, to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public shareholders not tendering more than the
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number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public shareholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Shareholder Approval
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to Excess Shares, without our prior consent. We believe this restriction will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this 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 this offering without our prior consent, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Tendering Share Certificates in Connection With a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights
In connection with any vote held to approve a proposed business combination, public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” will be required to either tender their certificates (if any) to our transfer agent or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option, in each case no later than two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination. The proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate the applicable delivery requirements, which will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares.
Accordingly, a public shareholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the business combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Given the relatively short period in which to exercise redemption rights, it is advisable for shareholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.
There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker a fee of approximately $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.
In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares must also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent at least two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included.
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Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination, unless otherwise agreed to by us. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.
If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public shareholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.
If our initial proposed business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a business combination with a different target until the end of the completion window.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that we will have only until the end of the completion window to complete our initial business combination. If we do not 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 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our initial shareholders or management team acquire public shares in or after this 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 allotted completion window.
Our sponsor, executive officers, directors and director nominees will 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 (i) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time. This redemption
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right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsor, any executive officer, director or director nominee, or any other person.
We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the $1,100,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. We will depend on sufficient interest being earned on the proceeds held in the trust account to provide us with additional cash to pay any tax obligations that we may owe. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, 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 this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account, the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders upon our dissolution would be $10.25. 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 actual per-share redemption amount received by shareholders will not be less than $10.25. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (except our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to the company, and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. The underwriters of this offering will not execute an agreement with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.25 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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or
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directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption price will not be less than $10.25 per public share.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (except 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. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to $1,100,000 from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, shareholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors, however such liability will not be greater than the amount of funds from our trust account received by any such shareholder. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,400,000, 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 are less than our estimate of $1,400,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
If we file a bankruptcy or winding up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.25 per public share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy or winding up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (a) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of
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any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a shareholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote.
Comparison of Redemption or Purchase Prices in Connection With Our Initial Business Combination and If We Fail to Complete Our Initial Business Combination.
The following table compares the redemptions and other permitted purchases of public shares that may take place in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window.
| | | | Redemptions in Connection With Our Initial Business Combination | | | Other Permitted Purchases of Public Shares by Our Affiliates | | | Redemptions If We Fail to Complete an Initial Business Combination | |
| Calculation of redemption price | | | Redemptions at the time of our initial business combination may be made pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a shareholder vote. The redemption price will be the same whether we conduct redemptions pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a shareholder vote. In either case, our public shareholders may redeem their public shares for cash equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination (which is initially anticipated to be $10.25 per share), including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitation that no redemptions will take place if all of the redemptions would cause our net tangible assets to be less than | | | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit to the prices that our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may pay in these transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act | | | If we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, we will redeem all public shares at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount, then on deposit in the trust account (which is initially anticipated to be $10.25 per share), including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares. | |
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| | | | Redemptions in Connection With Our Initial Business Combination | | | Other Permitted Purchases of Public Shares by Our Affiliates | | | Redemptions If We Fail to Complete an Initial Business Combination | |
| | | | $5,000,001 and any limitations (including but not limited to cash requirements) agreed to in connection with the negotiation of terms of a proposed business combination. | | | or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will be required to comply with such rules. | | | | |
| Impact to remaining shareholders | | | The redemptions in connection with our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for our remaining shareholders, who will bear the burden of the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable. | | | If the permitted purchases described above are made, there would be no impact to our remaining shareholders because the purchase price would not be paid by us. | | | The redemption of our public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for the shares held by our initial shareholders, who will be our only remaining shareholders after such redemptions. | |
Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419
The following table compares the terms of this offering to the terms of an offering by a blank check company subject to the provisions of Rule 419. This comparison assumes that the gross proceeds, underwriting commissions and underwriting expenses of our offering would be identical to those of an offering undertaken by a company subject to Rule 419, and that the underwriters will not exercise their option to purchase additional units. None of the provisions of Rule 419 apply to our offering.
| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| Escrow of offering proceeds | | | $153,750,000 of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be deposited into a trust account located in the United States with Continental Stock & Transfer Company acting as trustee. | | | Approximately $127,575,000 of the offering proceeds would be required to be deposited into either an escrow account with an insured depositary institution or in a separate bank account established by a broker-dealer in which the broker-dealer acts as trustee for persons having the beneficial interests in the account. | |
| Investment of net proceeds | | | $153,750,000 of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in trust 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 | | | Proceeds could be invested only in specified securities such as a money market fund meeting conditions of the Investment Company Act or in securities that are direct obligations of, or obligations guaranteed as to principal or interest by, the | |
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| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| | | | conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. | | | United States. | |
| Receipt of interest on escrowed funds | | | Interest income (if any) on proceeds from the trust account to be paid to shareholders is reduced by (i) any income taxes paid or payable and (ii) in the event of our liquidation for failure to complete our initial business combination within the allotted time, up to $100,000 of net interest that may be released to us should we have no or insufficient working capital to fund the costs and expenses of our dissolution and liquidation. | | | Interest income on funds in escrow account would be held for the sole benefit of investors, unless and only after the funds held in escrow were released to us in connection with our completion of a business combination. | |
| Limitation on fair value or net assets of target business | | | We must consummate an initial business combination with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the value of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting commissions held in trust) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. | | | The fair value or net assets of a target business must represent at least 80% of the maximum offering proceeds. | |
| Trading of securities issued | | | The units are expected to begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The Class A ordinary shares and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such day is not a business day, on the next succeeding business day) unless the representatives of the underwriters inform us of their decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering. If the option to purchase | | | No trading of the units or the underlying Class A ordinary shares and warrants would be permitted until the completion of a business combination. During this period, the securities would be held in the escrow or trust account. | |
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| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| | | | additional units is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the option to purchase additional units. The units will automatically separate into their component parts and will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination. | | | | |
| Exercise of the warrants | | | The warrants cannot be exercised until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. | | | The warrants could be exercised prior to the completion of a business combination, but securities received and cash paid in connection with the exercise would be deposited in the escrow or trust account. | |
| Election to remain an investor | | | We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash at a per share price equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein. We may not be required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement to hold a shareholder vote. If we are not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement and do not otherwise decide to hold a shareholder vote, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC and file tender offer documents with the SEC which will contain substantially the same financial | | | A prospectus containing information pertaining to the business combination required by the SEC would be sent to each investor. Each investor would be given the opportunity to notify the company in writing, within a period of no less than 20 business days and no more than 45 business days from the effective date of a post-effective amendment to the company’s registration statement, to decide if he, she or it elects to remain a shareholder of the company or require the return of his, her or its investment. If the company has not received the notification by the end of the 45 business day, funds and interest or dividends, if any, held in the trust or escrow account are automatically returned to the shareholder. Unless a sufficient number of investors elect to remain investors, all funds on deposit in the escrow account must be returned to all of the investors and none of the securities are issued. | |
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| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| | | | and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SEC’s proxy rules. If, however, we hold a shareholder vote, we will, like many blank check companies, offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company. Additionally, each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. | | | | |
| Business combination deadline | | | If we do not complete an 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 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the | | | If an acquisition has not been completed within 18 months after the effective date of the company’s registration statement funds held in the trust or escrow account are returned to investors. | |
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| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| | | | approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law | | | | |
| Release of funds | | | Except for the withdrawal of interest to pay our taxes, if any, none of the funds held in trust will be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted 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 provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or 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 provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. | | | The proceeds held in the escrow account are not released until the earlier of the completion of a business combination or the failure to effect a business combination within the allotted time. | |
| Tendering share certificates in connection with a tender offer or redemption rights | | | In connection with any vote held to approve a proposed business combination, public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” will be required to either tender their certificates (if any) to our transfer agent or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust | | | Many blank check companies provide that a shareholder can vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating that such shareholder is seeking to exercise its redemption rights. After the business combination is approved, the company would contact such shareholder to arrange for delivery of its share certificates to verify ownership. | |
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| | | | Terms of Our Offering | | | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |
| | | | Company’s DWAC (Deposit/ Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option, in each case no later than two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination. The proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate the applicable delivery requirements, which will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Accordingly, a public shareholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the business combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. | | | | |
| Limitation on redemption rights of shareholders holding more than 15% of the Class A ordinary shares that are part of the units sold in this offering if we hold a shareholder vote | | | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to Excess Shares, without our consent. However, we would not restrict our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares | | | Many blank check companies provide no restrictions on the ability of shareholders to redeem shares based on the number of shares held by such shareholders in connection with an initial business combination. | |
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| | | | (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. | | | | |
Competition
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 special purpose acquisition 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 this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination.
Conflict of Interest
Our management team, in their capacities as directors, officers or employees of our sponsor or its affiliates or in their other endeavors, may choose to present potential business combinations to the related entities described above, current or future entities affiliated with or managed by our sponsor, or third parties, before they present such opportunities to us. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis. For more information, see the section entitled “ Management — Conflicts of Interest.”
In addition, our officers or directors may be investors, or have other direct or indirect interests, in a business with which we may enter into a business combination agreement and/or in certain funds or other persons that may purchase shares in this offering or that may otherwise purchase shares of our Class A ordinary shares in the public market.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our directors or officers becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may need to honor these fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity. See “Risk Factors — 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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.”
We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our directors or officers will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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Indemnity
In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.25 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 public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Facilities
We currently maintain our executive offices at 7381 La Tijera Blvd. P.O. Box 452118, Los Angeles, California 90045. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have two executive officers: Ari Segal, our Chief Executive Officer and Tomi Kovanen, our Chief Operating Officer. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the business combination process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
We will register our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We will provide shareholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, sent to shareholders. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or reconciled to, GAAP or IFRS, depending on the circumstances, and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. We cannot assure you that any particular target business identified by us as a potential business combination candidate will have financial statements prepared in accordance with the requirements outlined above, or that the potential target business will be able to prepare its financial statements in accordance with the requirements outlined above. To the extent that these requirements cannot be met, we may not be able to acquire the proposed target business. While this may limit the pool of potential business combination candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
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We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
Prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will file a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company. Exempted companies are Cayman Islands companies conducting business mainly outside the Cayman Islands and, as such, are exempted from complying with certain provisions of the Companies Act. As an exempted company, we have applied for and have received, a tax exemption undertaking from the Cayman Islands government that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Law (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 20 years from the date of the undertaking, no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations will apply to us or our operations and, in addition, that no tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations or which is in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax will be payable (i) on or in respect of our shares, debentures or other obligations or (ii) by way of the withholding in whole or in part of a payment of dividend or other distribution of income or capital by us to our shareholders or a payment of principal or interest or other sums due under a debenture or other obligation of us.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year or the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equaled or exceeded $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter.
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Legal Proceedings
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such.
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GAMERS CLUB BUSINESS
Gamers Club Holdings, LLC is the parent of Gamers Club, LLC and is also among the investors in our sponsor. Gamers Club is a gaming technology subscription platform and community hub based in Brazil with a substantial presence in Latin America that offers a range of competitive gaming-related functionality, including matchmaking, tournament and league play, editorial and news content, and other services. Founded in 2016, Gamers Club was acquired by Immortals Gaming Club in 2018. During IGC’s ownership, Gamers Club has enjoyed strong organic and M&A-driven growth, expanding from one to six game titles; from one to four countries; and added significant functionality to its original matchmaking capability. Gamers Club is currently the second largest matchmaking platform globally, and the largest in Latin America.
At the time of Gamers Club’s original sale to IGC, Yuri Uchiyama, one of four founders of Gamers Club, remained as Gamers Club’s CEO and joined IGC’s leadership team. Working alongside IGC’s leadership (currently the management of our company and our sponsor), Mr. Uchiyama led Gamers Club’s growth and expansion, and helped negotiate strategic partnerships and other integration opportunities with companies such as Microsoft and game publishers including Epic Games, for its Fortnite title, Garena, for its Free Fire title, and Riot Games, for League of Legends and VALORANT; among others, enabling Gamers Club to expand quickly beyond its initial footprint in Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Gamers Club has emerged as a critical lynchpin in the Latin American esports and competitive gaming marketplace, and has become a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion in gaming, such as through its annual Gamers Club Masters Femina tournament.
Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently intend to combine with Gamers Club. The resulting combined company would inherit our Nasdaq listing and its common stock and warrants would be publicly traded. We believe the combination of Gamers Club, us and a target business in the competitive gaming, esports, and adjacent industries, including, but not limited to, ecommerce, media, content and other intellectual property, sports & entertainment, and social media, under our company’s umbrella will allow the resulting combined company to leverage Gamers Club’s existing technology and platform, suite of relevant and synergistic gaming functionality, team of engineers, powerful brand, large community, and established footprint in an attractive and key geographic market to materially aid long-term value creation opportunities for our investors and serve as a platform for further growth and geographic diversification.
We have not entered into any letter of intent or definitive agreement with Gamers Club, nor have we agreed to valuation or other key terms and conditions with respect to such a possible combination transaction. As a result, even though we intend to combine with Gamers Club concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, we cannot provide any assurance that such a merger with Gamers Club will occur at all, or, if it does, we cannot provide any assurance as to the timing or terms thereof. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club. In addition, we may not consummate a combination with Gamers Club if the target business with respect to our initial business combination is not within the competitive gaming, esports, or adjacent industries. If we pursue a combination with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, a committee of our disinterested directors will negotiate the terms and conditions of such merger (including the valuation of Gamers Club) on our behalf. Such committee of disinterested directors would also obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the proposed merger with Gamers Club is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. Our public shareholders will have the same voting and redemption rights with respect to any merger with Gamers Club as are applicable to our initial business combination and described elsewhere in this prospectus.
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MANAGEMENT
Officers, Directors and Director Nominees
Our officers, directors and director nominees are as follows:
Name | | | Age | | | Position | |
Ari Segal | | | 38 | | | Chief Executive Officer and Director | |
Tomi Kovanen | | | 33 | | | Chief Operating Officer and Director | |
Margaret C. Whitman | | | 64 | | | Director Nominee | |
Steven A. Cohen | | | 58 | | | Director Nominee | |
Ari Segal, our Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Director, most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of IGC, a position he held from December 2018 through June 2021, prior to which he was promoted from President & Chief Operating Officer of IGC, a position he held since 2017. Mr. Segal also serves as a Director of Gamers Club. As CEO, Mr. Segal led an aggressive M&A strategy, including IGC’s acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club, as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform, a popular news and information site for competitive gamers in Brazil. In 2019 and 2020, IGC raised and deployed nearly $80 million in equity financing from investors including Meg Whitman, Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Milken family, Lionsgate, March Capital Partners, Steve Kaplan, and Irongrey, among others. The capital raised by IGC fueled growth initiatives including the expansion of Gamers Club and the acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1. Mr. Segal was also instrumental in the divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI) and the divestitures of several other key assets, including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, the OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2017, Mr. Segal worked as Chief Operating Officer of the National Hockey League’s NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, where he led the club to its highest revenue season to date in 2016-2017. Mr. Segal was also Special Assistant to the CEO of the Anaheim Ducks and President of Business Operations for the San Diego Gulls (the Ducks’ AHL affiliate) when Mr. Segal and the team were awarded the first ever AHL President’s Award for Business Excellence. Previously, Mr. Segal worked as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and in the Financial Sponsors banking group at Lehman Brothers, in private equity at CCMP Capital Advisors, and as a consultant in McKinsey & Co.’s global sports and gaming practice. In 2020, Mr. Segal was named to the Sports Business Journal and Leaders in Sports annual “Forty Under 40” lists. Mr. Segal holds a J.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar and a BA with Distinction from the University of Virginia.
We believe Mr. Segal’s significant experience in the gaming, esports and sports and entertainment industries make him well qualified to serve as a director.
Tomi Kovanen, our Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder and Director, most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of IGC, and has over 15 years of experience in the esports industry across multiple roles and sub-verticals, including direct experience in the core functionality pillars (Follow, Watch, Converse, and Play) as described in “— Acquisition Strategy” below. Mr. Kovanen also serves as a director of Gamers Club. Mr. Kovanen joined IGC in 2018 as Vice President, Business Development/General Manager, CS:GO of IGC, and previously served as Vice President, Finance and Business Development and Senior Vice President, Finance and Business Development of IGC. Since joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen has focused on the execution of the firm’s aggressive M&A strategy, including the acquisition of the Brazilian gaming technology subscription platform and community hub Gamers Club as well as the follow-on acquisition of the Draft5 content platform. Mr. Kovanen was instrumental in additional acquisitions of assets such as a League of Legends franchise slot owned by Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the first esports industry transaction with an implied value exceeding $100 million according to Bloomberg1, and the following divestiture of the Houston Outlaws Overwatch League franchise to Beasley Media Group (Nasdaq: BBGI), as well as divestitures of several other key assets including a Call of Duty League franchise slot, OpTic Gaming brand, and Obey Alliance influencer network. Prior to joining IGC in 2018, Mr. Kovanen served in
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J.P. Morgan’s Healthcare and Technology, Media, and Telecommunications investment banking groups in London from 2015 to 2017, and co-founded ENCE, Finland’s largest esports organization. Mr. Kovanen has written articles on the esports industry that have been published by the Financial Times and ESPN that led to his nomination for Esports Journalist of the Year in 2017 by The Esports Awards. Mr. Kovanen was also a professional esports athlete, competing in over 100 tournaments globally from 2005 through 2012, winning multiple international championships as the captain of Finnish teams and a North American organization. Mr. Kovanen holds a B.S. from the University of Oulu.
We believe Mr. Kovanen’s broad operational and transactional experience make him well qualified to serve as a director.
Margaret C. Whitman, a director nominee, is a business executive, former political candidate, and philanthropist. Based in Colorado, Ms. Whitman currently serves as a member of the board of directors for The Procter & Gamble Company and General Motors. Most recently, Ms. Whitman served as Chief Executive Officer for Quibi in 2020. Prior to joining Quibi, Ms. Whitman served as the Chief Executive Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, or HPE, a multinational enterprise information technology company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2015 to June 2017. From 2014 to 2015, Ms. Whitman served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman for Hewlett-Packard Company (now known as HP Inc.), the former parent of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer from 2011 to 2015. Prior to joining HP Inc., Ms. Whitman was the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2010 gubernatorial race in California. From 1998 to 2008, Ms. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay Inc., an online marketplace and payments company. Ms. Whitman previously served as a member of the board of directors for HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Dropbox, Inc. and DXC Technology Company and for a number of other public and private companies, including IGC. Ms. Whitman currently serves as the National Board Chair for Teach For America. Ms. Whitman holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. from Princeton University.
We believe Ms. Whitman’s extensive senior leadership experience makes her well qualified to serve as a director.
Steven A. Cohen, a director nominee, is Executive Vice President of The Anschutz Corporation, the holding company for the Anschutz family of enterprises, a position he has held since 2001. Mr. Cohen is involved with a number of the operating companies and investments within the Anschutz organization and sits on the board of directors of many of the Anschutz portfolio companies including Anschutz Entertainment Group, for which he also serves as Chief Strategy Officer since 2013, and IGC. Mr. Cohen also serves as a Managing Director of Anschutz Investment Company, the investment arm of The Anschutz Corporation that is focused on both equity and debt investments in a variety of industries, including communications, media, oil and gas, alternative energy, entertainment, hospitality and lodging, real estate and transportation. Mr. Cohen is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rose Community Foundation, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver), the Board of Directors of Roundup River Ranch, a member of the SeriousFun Children’s Network, and the Board of Directors of 303 Rugby, a not-for-profit that supports rugby programs for inner-city youth, and is also a member of Colorado Thrives. Prior to working at The Anschutz Corporation, Mr. Cohen was a corporate partner at Hogan Lovells, and started his legal career at Skadden in their mergers and acquisitions group. Mr. Cohen holds a B.Sc. from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
We believe Mr. Cohen’s significant operation and senior leadership experience makes him well qualified to serve as a director.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors is divided into three classes, with only one class of directors being appointed 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 Mr. Cohen, will expire at our
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first annual general meeting. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Mr. Kovanen and Ms. Whitman, will expire at our second annual general meeting. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Mr. Segal, will expire at our third annual general meeting.
Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.
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 will be authorized to appoint persons to the offices as set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association as it deems appropriate. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that our officers may consist of one or more chairmen of the board, chief executive officers, a president, chief financial officer, vice presidents, secretary, treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
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. We expect that our board of directors will determine that Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen are “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Executive Officer and Director Compensation
None of our executive officers or directors has received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. In addition, our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination. In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made using funds held outside the trust account. Other than quarterly audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and executive officers for their out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
After the completion of our initial business combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed business combination. We have not established any limit on the amount of such fees that may be paid by the combined company to our directors or members of management. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of the proposed business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.
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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 remain directors or 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.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors will have two standing committees: an audit committee and a compensation committee. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, Nasdaq rules and Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors, and Nasdaq rules require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Each committee will operate under a charter that will be approved by our board of directors and will have the composition and responsibilities described below. The form of each committee’s charter is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Audit Committee
Upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will establish an audit committee of the board of directors. Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen will serve as members of our audit committee. Under the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules, we are required to have three members of the audit committee, all of whom must be independent, subject to the exception described below. Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen are independent.
will serve as the Chairman of the audit committee. Each member of the audit committee is financially literate, and our board of directors has determined that Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen each qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules. The primary purposes of our audit committee are to assist the board’s oversight of:
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the integrity of our financial statements;
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our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements;
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the qualifications, engagement, compensation, independence and performance of our independent registered public accounting firm;
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our process relating to risk management and the conduct and systems of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures; and
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the performance of our internal audit function.
The audit committee will be governed by a charter that complies with Nasdaq rules.
Compensation Committee
Upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will establish a compensation committee of our board of directors. The members of our compensation committee will be Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen, with serving as chairman of the compensation committee. Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen are independent.
The primary purposes of our compensation committee are to assist the board in overseeing our management compensation policies and practices, including:
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determining and approving the compensation of our executive officers; and
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reviewing and approving incentive compensation and equity compensation policies and programs.
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The charter will also provide that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, 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.
The compensation committee will be governed by a charter that complies with Nasdaq rules.
Director Nominations
We do not have a standing nominating committee though we intend to form a corporate governance and nominating committee as and when required to do so by law or Nasdaq rules. In accordance with Rule 5605 of the Nasdaq rules, a majority of the independent directors may recommend a director nominee for selection by the board of directors. The board of directors believes that the independent directors can satisfactorily carry out the responsibility of properly selecting or approving director nominees without the formation of a standing nominating committee. The directors who will participate in the consideration and recommendation of director nominees are Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cohen. In accordance with Rule 5605 of the Nasdaq rules, all such directors are independent. As there is no standing nominating committee, we do not have a nominating committee charter in place.
The board of directors will also consider director candidates recommended for nomination by our shareholders during such times as they are seeking proposed nominees to stand for election at the next annual general meeting of shareholders (or, if applicable, a special meeting of shareholders). Our shareholders that wish to nominate a director for election to our board of directors should follow the procedures set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
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 shareholders.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.
Code of Ethics
Upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will have adopted a code of ethics and business conduct (our “Code of Ethics”) applicable to our directors, officers and employees. A copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us and will be posted on our website. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
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duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole;
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duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose;
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directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion;
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duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders;
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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
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duty to exercise independent judgment.
In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge skill and experience of that director.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity subject to their fiduciary duties. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he, she or it has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, or contractual obligations, he, she or it will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not believe that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
In addition, our sponsor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates may sponsor or form, or, in the case of individuals, serve as a director or officer of, other blank check companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. 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 management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. See “Risk Factors — 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, including other blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.”
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Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and director nominees have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations as of the date of this prospectus:
Individual | | | Entity | | | Entity’s Business | | | Affiliation | |
Ari Segal | | | Immortals Gaming Club Gamers Club Holdings, LLC | | | Gaming and esports Gaming and esports | | | Chief Executive Officer Director | |
Tomi Kovanen | | | Immortals Gaming Club Gamers Club Holdings, LLC | | | Gaming and esports Gaming and esports | | | Chief Operating Officer Director | |
Margaret C. Whitman | | | The Procter & Gamble Company General Motors Company | | | Consumer products Automotive manufacturing | | | Director Director | |
Steven A. Cohen | | | The Anschutz Corporation Anschutz Entertainment Group | | | Holding company Sports and live entertainment | | | Executive Vice President Chief Strategy Officer | |
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
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Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs.
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Our sponsor purchased founder shares prior to the date of this prospectus and will purchase private placement warrants in a transaction that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering. Additionally, our initial shareholders have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Our initial shareholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of: (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination; and (ii) subsequent to our initial business combination (x) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property or (y) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination (except as described in the section entitled “Principal Shareholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants”). The private placement warrants will not be transferable until 30 days following the completion of our initial business combination. Because each of our executive officers and director nominees will own ordinary shares or warrants directly or indirectly, they may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination.
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Our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
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A majority of the funding for our sponsor’s purchase of the private placement warrants will be provided through at risk capital contributions to our sponsor by Gamers Club, our director nominees, our advisors and related investors and business partners. Although the cash invested by our management team in the at risk capital contributions is expected to be nominal, our sponsor proposes
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to allocate a material portion of both the private placement warrants and founder shares to our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination or subsequent transaction with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination or, subject to certain exceptions, subsequent material transactions with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our 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 FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such initial business combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view. In addition, if we merge with Gamers Club concurrently with our initial business combination, we will obtain a fairness opinion with respect to such merger. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context. Furthermore, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid by the company any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation (other than as outlined below) for services rendered prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination. Our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination. In the future, we, upon consultation with the compensation committee of our board of directors, may decide to compensate our executive officers and other employees. Any such payments prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account.
We cannot assure you that any of the above mentioned conflicts will be resolved in our favor.
In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor. In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares, and they and the other members of our management team have agreed to vote any shares purchased during or after the 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, willful neglect, civil 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 directors and officers to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. We expect to 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 to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any services provided to us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will only be able to be satisfied by us if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination.
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.
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PRINCIPAL SHAREHOLDERS
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of the date of this prospectus, and as adjusted to reflect the sale of our Class A ordinary shares included in the units offered by this prospectus, and assuming no purchase of units in this offering, by:
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each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our issued outstanding ordinary shares;
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each of our executive officers, directors and director nominees; and
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all our executive officers and directors as a group.
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the private placement warrants as these warrants are not exercisable within 60 days of the date of this prospectus.
In April 2021, we issued to our sponsor an aggregate of 4,312,500 founder shares in exchange for a payment of $25,000 from our sponsor to cover certain expenses on behalf of us, or approximately $0.006 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash the sponsor paid for the founder shares by the number of founder shares issued. In May 2021, our sponsor transferred an aggregate of 150,000 founder shares to our executive officers who are also directors (32,500 each), our director nominees (32,500 each) and two advisors (10,000 each). Up to 562,500 founder shares will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration after the closing of this offering depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. The total number of Class B ordinary shares outstanding after this offering and the expiration of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units will equal 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in this prospectus. If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full). The post-offering percentages in the following table assume that the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional units and that our sponsor has surrendered to us for no consideration 562,500 founder shares.
| | | Before Offering | | | After Offering | | ||||||||||||||||||
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | | | Number of Ordinary Shares Beneficially Owned(2) | | | Approximate Percentage of Outstanding Ordinary Shares | | | Number of Ordinary Shares Beneficially Owned(2) | | | Approximate Percentage of Outstanding Ordinary Shares | | ||||||||||||
GEEX Sponsor, LLC(3)(4) | | | | | 4,162,500 | | | | | | 96.5% | | | | | | 3,600,000 | | | | | | 19.2% | | |
Ari Segal(3) | | | | | 4,195,000 | | | | | | 97.3% | | | | | | 3,632,500 | | | | | | 19.4% | | |
Tomi Kovanen(3) | | | | | 4,195,000 | | | | | | 97.3% | | | | | | 3,632,500 | | | | | | 19.4% | | |
Margaret C. Whitman(4) | | | | | 32,500 | | | | | | * | | | | | | 32,500 | | | | | | * | | |
Steven A. Cohen(4) | | | | | 32,500 | | | | | | * | | | | | | 32,500 | | | | | | * | | |
All officers, directors and director nominees as a group (four individuals) | | | | | 4,227,500 | | | | | | 98.0% | | | | | | 3,665,000 | | | | | | 19.5% | | |
*
Less than one percent.
(1)
Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of our shareholders is 7381 La Tijera Blvd. P.O. Box 452118, Los Angeles, California 90045.
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(2)
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, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described in the section entitled “Description of Securities.”
(3)
GEEX Sponsor, LLC is the record holder of 4,162,500 shares reported herein. Each of Ari Segal and Tomi Kovanen are the managers of GEEX Sponsor, LLC. As such, each of Ari Segal and Tomi Kovanen may be deemed to have beneficial ownership of the founder shares held directly by GEEX Sponsor, LLC. Each of Ari Segal and Tomi Kovanen disclaim beneficial ownership over any securities owned by our sponsor in which he does not have any pecuniary interest. A majority of the funding for our sponsor’s purchase of the private placement warrants will be provided through at risk capital contributions to our sponsor by Gamers Club, our director nominees, our advisors and related investors and business partners. Although the cash invested by our management team in the at risk capital contributions is expected to be nominal, our sponsor proposes to allocate a material portion of both the private placement warrants and founder shares to our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
(4)
Before offering amounts and percentages include up to 562,500 founder shares that will be surrendered to us for no consideration by our sponsor depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. After offering, assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised.
Immediately after this offering and the expiration of the option to purchase additional units, our initial shareholders will beneficially own 20% of the then outstanding ordinary shares (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering) and will have the right to appoint all of our directors prior to our initial business combination. Holders of our public shares will not have the right to appoint any directors to our board of directors prior to our initial business combination. Because of this ownership block, our initial shareholders may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all other matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of significant corporate transactions including our initial business combination.
Our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.00 per warrant ($9,250,000 in the aggregate or $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The private placement warrants are subject to the transfer restrictions described below. The private placement warrants will not be redeemable by us so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees. Our sponsor, or its permitted transferees, has the option to exercise the private placement warrants on a cashless basis. If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this offering. Otherwise, the private placement warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants being sold as part of the units in this offering.
Our sponsor, and our officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoters” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants
The founder shares, private placement warrants and any Class A ordinary shares issued upon conversion or exercise thereof are each subject to transfer restrictions pursuant to lock-up provisions in the letter agreement entered into by our initial shareholders, directors and officers. Pursuant to such letter agreement, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell (i) any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of: (a) one year after the completion of our initial business combination; and (b) subsequent to our initial business combination (x) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property or (y) if the
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closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination and (ii) any of their private placement warrants and the respective Class A ordinary shares underlying such warrants until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. The foregoing restrictions are not applicable to transfers (a) to our officers or directors, any affiliates or family members of any of our officers or directors, any members of our sponsor or their affiliates, or any affiliates of our sponsor, (b) in the case of an individual, by gift to a member of one of the individual’s immediate family or to a trust, the beneficiary of that is a member of the individual’s immediate family, an affiliate of such person or to a charitable organization, (c) in the case of an individual, by virtue of laws of descent and distribution upon death of the individual, (d) in the case of an individual, pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order, (e) by private sales or transfers made in connection with any forward purchase agreement or similar arrangement or in connection with the consummation of a business combination at prices no greater than the price at which the applicable securities were originally purchased, (f) by virtue of the laws of the State of Delaware or the limited liability company agreement of our sponsor upon dissolution of the sponsor, (g) in the event of the company’s liquidation prior to the completion of a business combination, (h) to the company for no value for cancellation in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination, or (i) in the event of our completion of a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction which results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination; provided, however, that in the case of clauses (a) through (f) these permitted transferees must enter into a written agreement agreeing to be bound by these transfer restrictions and the other restrictions contained in the letter agreements.
Registration Rights
The holders of the founder shares, private placement warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the private placement warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement to be entered into on or prior to the closing of this offering. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
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CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
In April 2021, we issued to our sponsor an aggregate of 4,312,500 founder shares in exchange for a payment of $25,000 from our sponsor to cover certain expenses on behalf of us, or approximately $0.006 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash the sponsor paid for the founder shares by the number of founder shares issued. In May 2021, our sponsor transferred an aggregate of 150,000 founder shares to our executive officers who are also directors (32,500 each), our director nominees (32,500 each) and two advisors (10,000 each). Up to 562,500 founder shares will be surrendered to us by our sponsor for no consideration after the closing of this offering depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. The total number of Class B ordinary shares outstanding after this offering and the expiration of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units will equal 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in this prospectus. If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full).
Our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 9,250,000 private placement warrants (or 10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.00 per warrant ($9,250,000 in the aggregate or $10,262,500 if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. Each private placement warrant entitles the holder to purchase one ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. The private placement warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.
As more fully discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled “Management — Conflicts of Interest,” if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he, she or it has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, he, she or it will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity.
Other than these fees, 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 out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates.
Prior to the closing of this offering, our sponsor may loan us funds to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. These loans would be non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of December 31, 2021 or the closing of this offering. The loan would be repaid upon the closing of this offering out of the estimated $1,400,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated to the payment of offering expenses. As of September 30, 2021, there was $174,316 outstanding under this sponsor loan.
In addition, in order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required on a non-interest basis. If we
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complete our initial business combination, we may repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds held in the trust account released to us. In the event that the initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such working capital 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, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
Concurrently with our initial business combination, we currently plan to merge with Gamers Club. The resulting combined company would inherit our Nasdaq listing and its shares and warrants would be publicly traded. We have not entered into any letter of intent or definitive agreement with Gamers Club, nor have we agreed to valuation or other key terms and conditions with respect to such a possible combination transaction. As a result, even though we currently intend to merge with Gamers Club concurrent with the completion of our initial business combination, we cannot provide any assurance that such a merger with Gamers Club will occur at all, or, if it does, we cannot provide any assurance as to the timing or terms thereof. We will not, however, complete an initial business combination with only Gamers Club. In addition, we will likely not consummate a merger with Gamers Club if the target business with respect to our initial business combination is not within the gaming or esports related sectors. Please see the section of this prospectus entitled “Gamers Club Business” for additional information with respect to Gamers Club. If we pursue a merger with Gamers Club concurrent with our initial business combination, a committee of our independent directors will negotiate the terms and conditions of such merger (including the valuation of Gamers Club) on our behalf. Such committee of independent directors would also obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the proposed merger with Gamers Club is fair to our company and our shareholders from a financial point of view. Our public shareholders will have the same voting and redemption rights with respect to any merger with Gamers Club as are applicable to our initial business combination and described elsewhere in this prospectus.
After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to our shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, furnished to our shareholders. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of distribution of such tender offer materials or at the time of a general meeting held to consider our initial business combination, as applicable, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation.
We have entered into a registration rights agreement with respect to the founder shares and private placement warrants, which is described under the heading “Principal Shareholders — Registration Rights.”
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The audit committee of our board of directors will adopt a charter, providing for the review, approval and/or ratification of “related party transactions,” which are those transactions required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K as promulgated by the SEC, by the audit committee. At its meetings, the audit committee shall be provided with the details of each new, existing, or proposed related party transaction, including the terms of the transaction, any contractual restrictions that the company has already committed to, the business purpose of the transaction, and the benefits of the transaction to the company and to the relevant related party. Any member of the committee who has an interest in the related party transaction under review by the committee shall abstain from voting on the approval of the related party transaction, but may, if so requested by the chairman of the committee, participate in some or all of the committee’s discussions of the related party transaction. Upon completion of its review of the related party transaction, the committee may determine to permit or to prohibit the related party transaction.
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Management will present to the audit committee each proposed related party transaction, including all relevant facts and circumstances relating thereto. Under the policy, we may consummate related party transactions only if our audit committee approves or ratifies the transaction in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the policy. The policy will not permit any director or executive officer to participate in the discussion of, or decision concerning, a related person transaction in which he or she is the related party.
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DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company and our affairs will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act and the common law of the Cayman Islands. Pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which will be adopted prior to the consummation of this offering, we will be authorized to issue 220,000,000 ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value each, including 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares and 20,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, as well as 1,000,000 preference shares, $0.0001 par value each. The following description summarizes the material terms of our shares as set out more particularly in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
Because it is only a summary, it may not contain all the information that is important to you.
Units
Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles its holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, a warrant holder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of the company’s Class A ordinary shares. This means only a whole warrant may be exercised at any given time by a warrant holder.
The Class A ordinary shares and warrants comprising the units are expected to begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such day is not a business day, on the next succeeding business day) unless the representatives of the underwriters inform us of their decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the Class A ordinary shares and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into Class A ordinary shares and warrants. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase a multiple of two units, the number of warrants issuable to you upon separation of the units will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of warrants.
In no event will the Class A ordinary shares and warrants be traded separately until we have filed with the SEC a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes an audited balance of the company sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds of this offering. We will file a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes this audited balance sheet promptly after the completion of this offering. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units.
Additionally, the units will automatically separate into their component parts and will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination.
Ordinary Shares
Prior to the date of this prospectus, there were 4,312,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding, all of which were held of record by our initial shareholders so that our initial shareholders will own 20% of the sum of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding after this offering and the expiration of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units (assuming our initial shareholders do not purchase any units in this offering). Up to 562,500 of the founder shares will be surrendered by our sponsor for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units is exercised. Upon the closing of this offering, 18,750,000 of our ordinary shares will be outstanding (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional units and the corresponding surrender for no consideration of 562,500 founder shares by our initial shareholders) including:
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15,000,000 Class A ordinary shares underlying the units issued as part of this offering; and
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3,750,000 Class B ordinary shares held by our initial shareholders.
If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding at such time (assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional units in full).
Ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders. Except as described below, holders of Class A ordinary shares and holders of Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders except as required by law. Unless specified in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, or as required by applicable provisions of the Companies Act or applicable stock exchange rules, an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, is required to approve any such matter voted on by our shareholders. Approval of certain actions will require a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, being the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares that are voted, and pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association; such actions include amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approving a statutory merger or consolidation with another company. Our board of directors is divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. There is no cumulative voting with respect to the appointment of directors, with the result that the holders of more than 50% of the shares voted for the appointment of directors can appoint all of the directors. However, only holders of Class B ordinary shares will have the right to appoint directors in any election held prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, meaning that holders of Class A ordinary shares will not have the right to appoint any directors until after the completion of our initial business combination. 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. The provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association relating to the rights of holders of Class B ordinary shares to appoint or remove directors prior to our initial business combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. Our shareholders are entitled to receive ratable dividends when, as and if declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor.
Because our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will authorize the issuance of up to 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, if we were to enter into a business combination, we may (depending on the terms of such a business combination) be required to increase the number of Class A ordinary shares which we are authorized to issue at the same time as our shareholders vote on the business combination to the extent we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination.
Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being appointed in each year and 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. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to appoint directors. We may not hold an annual general meeting to appoint new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination. 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.
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described
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herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.25 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering.
Unlike many blank check companies that hold shareholder votes and conduct proxy solicitations in conjunction with their initial business combinations and provide for related redemptions of public shares for cash upon completion of such initial business combinations even when a vote is not required by law, if a shareholder vote is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require these tender offer documents to contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SEC’s proxy rules. If, however, a shareholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, we will, like many blank check companies, offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company. However, the participation of our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates in privately negotiated transactions (as described in this prospectus), if any, could result in the approval of our initial business combination even if a majority of our public shareholders vote, or indicate their intention to vote, against such initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of an ordinary resolution, non-votes and abstentions will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require that at least five days’ notice will be given of any general meeting.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to Excess Shares, without our prior consent.
However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Our shareholders’ inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce their influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination, and such shareholders could suffer a material loss in their investment if they sell such Excess Shares on the open market. Additionally, such shareholders will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And, as a result, such shareholders will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose such shares would be required to sell their shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
If we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 5,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the option to purchase additional units is not exercised) of the 15,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction, in order to have such initial business combination approved. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering. Additionally, each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all.
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Pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, if we do not 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 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. Our initial shareholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our initial shareholders or management team acquire public shares in or after this 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 prescribed time period. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the company after a business combination, our shareholders are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining available for distribution to them after payment of liabilities and after provision is made for each class of shares, if any, having preference over the ordinary shares. Our shareholders have no preemptive or other subscription rights. There are no sinking fund provisions applicable to the ordinary shares, except that we will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash at a per share price equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and net of taxes paid or payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein.
Founder Shares
The founder shares are designated as Class B ordinary shares and, except as described below, are identical to the Class A ordinary shares included in the units being sold in this offering, and holders of founder shares have the same shareholder rights as public shareholders, except that (i) prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, including in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and holders of a majority of our Class B ordinary shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason; (ii) the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions contained in a letter agreement that our initial shareholders, directors and officers have entered into with us, as described in more detail below; (iii) pursuant to such letter agreement, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to (A) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares held by them, as applicable, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, (B) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares held by them, as applicable, in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (1) that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the completion window or (2) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity and (C) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame); (iv) the founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, as described below; and (v) the founder shares are entitled to registration rights. If we submit our initial
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business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, the anchor investors, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering.
The founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder thereof, on a one-for-one basis. However, if additional Class A ordinary shares or any other equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts issued in this offering and related to the closing of our initial business combination, the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of this offering plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor upon conversion of working capital loans, provided that such conversion of Class B ordinary shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis.
Our initial shareholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of: (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination; and (ii) subsequent to our initial business combination (x) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property or (y) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other similar transactions) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination (except as described in the section entitled “Principal Shareholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants”). Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our initial shareholders with respect to any founder shares.
Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. With respect to any other matter submitted to a vote of our shareholders, including any vote in connection with our initial business combination, except as required by law, holders of our founder shares and holders of our public shares will vote together as a single class, with each share entitling the holder to one vote.
Register of Members
Under Cayman Islands law, we must keep a register of members and there will be entered therein:
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the names and addresses of the members, a statement of the shares held by each member, and of the amount paid or agreed to be considered as paid, on the shares of each member and the voting rights of shares;
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the date on which the name of any person was entered on the register as a member; and
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the date on which any person ceased to be a member.
Under Cayman Islands law, the register of members of our company is prima facie evidence of the matters set out therein (i.e., the register of members will raise a presumption of fact on the matters referred to above unless rebutted) and a member registered in the register of members will be deemed as a matter
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of Cayman Islands law to have legal title to the shares as set against its name in the register of members. Upon the closing of this public offering, the register of members will be immediately updated to reflect the issue of shares by us. Once our register of members has been updated, the shareholders recorded in the register of members will be deemed to have legal title to the shares set against their name. However, there are certain limited circumstances where an application may be made to a Cayman Islands court for a determination on whether the register of members reflects the correct legal position. Further, the Cayman Islands court has the power to order that the register of members maintained by a company should be rectified where it considers that the register of members does not reflect the correct legal position. If an application for an order for rectification of the register of members were made in respect of our ordinary shares, then the validity of such shares may be subject to re-examination by a Cayman Islands court.
Preference Shares
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will authorize 1,000,000 preference shares and provide that preference shares may be issued from time to time in one or more series. Our board of directors will be authorized to fix the voting rights, if any, designations, powers, preferences, the relative, participating, optional or other special rights and any qualifications, limitations and restrictions thereof, applicable to the shares of each series. Our board of directors will be able to, without shareholder approval, issue preference shares with voting and other rights that could adversely affect the voting power and other rights of the holders of the ordinary shares and could have anti-takeover effects. The ability of our board of directors to issue preference shares without shareholder approval could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change of control of us or the removal of existing management. We have no preference shares outstanding at the date hereof. Although we do not currently intend to issue any preference shares, we cannot assure you that we will not do so in the future. No preference shares are being issued or registered in this offering.
Warrants
Public Shareholders’ Warrants
Each whole warrant entitles the registered holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as discussed below, at any time commencing 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, except as discussed in the immediately succeeding paragraph. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, a warrant holder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of Class A ordinary shares. This means only a whole warrant may be exercised at a given time by a warrant holder. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase a multiple of two units, the number of warrants issuable to you upon separation of the units will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of warrants. The warrants will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination, at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.
We will not be obligated to deliver any Class A ordinary shares pursuant to the exercise of a warrant and will have no obligation to settle such warrant exercise unless a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to the Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants is then effective and a prospectus relating thereto is current, subject to our satisfying our obligations described below with respect to registration, or a valid exemption from registration is available. No warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue a Class A ordinary share upon exercise of a warrant unless the Class A ordinary share issuable upon such warrant exercise has been registered, qualified or deemed to be exempt under the securities laws of the state of residence of the registered holder of the warrants. In the event that the conditions in the two immediately preceding sentences are not satisfied with respect to a warrant, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant. In the event that a registration statement is not effective for the exercised warrants, the purchaser of a unit containing such warrant will have paid the full purchase price for the unit solely for the Class A ordinary share underlying such unit.
The registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part registers the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants. However, we have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event
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later than 20 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a post-effective amendment to the registration statement for which this prospectus forms a part or a new registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the registration statement to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement; provided that if our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b) (1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. If a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th business day after the closing of the initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption, but we will 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 such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of Class A ordinary shares equal to the lesser of (A) the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “Fair Market Value” (defined below) less the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the Fair Market Value and (B) 0.361. The “Fair Market Value” as used in this paragraph shall mean the volume weighted average price of the Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $18.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the private placement warrants):
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in whole and not in part;
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at a price of $0.01 per warrant;
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upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder; and
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if, and only if, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “— Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending three trading days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.
We will not redeem the warrants as described above unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the issuance of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is then effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem warrants even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
We have established the $18.00 (as adjusted) redemption criterion discussed above to prevent a redemption call unless there is at the time of the call a significant premium to the warrant exercise price. If the foregoing conditions are satisfied and we issue a notice of redemption of the warrants, each warrant holder will be entitled to exercise his, her or its warrant prior to the scheduled redemption date. However, the price of the Class A ordinary shares may fall below the $18.00 redemption trigger price (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described
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under the heading “��� Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-dilution Adjustments”) as well as the $11.50 (for whole shares) warrant exercise price after the redemption notice is issued.
Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants:
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in whole and not in part;
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at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares determined by reference to the table below, based on the redemption date and the “Fair Market Value” of our Class A ordinary shares (as defined below) except as otherwise described below;
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if, and only if, the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per public share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “— Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within the 30-trading day period ending three trading days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and
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if the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “—Warrants — Public Shareholders’ Warrants — Anti-dilution Adjustments”), the private placement warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding public warrants, as described above.
Beginning on the date the notice of redemption is given until the warrants are redeemed or exercised, holders may elect to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. The numbers in the table below represent the number of Class A ordinary shares that a warrant holder will receive upon such cashless exercise in connection with a redemption by us pursuant to this redemption feature, based on the “Fair Market Value” of our Class A ordinary shares on the corresponding redemption date (assuming holders elect to exercise their warrants and such warrants are not redeemed for $0.10 per warrant), determined for these purposes based on volume weighted average price of our Class A ordinary shares during the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, and the number of months that the corresponding redemption date precedes the expiration date of the warrants, each as set forth in the table below. We will provide our warrant holders with the final Fair Market Value no later than one business day after the 10-trading day period described above ends.
Pursuant to the warrant agreement, references above to Class A ordinary shares shall include a security other than Class A ordinary shares into which the Class A ordinary shares have been converted or exchanged for in the event we are not the surviving company in our initial business combination. The numbers in the table below will not be adjusted when determining the number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued upon exercise of the warrants if we are not the surviving entity following our initial business combination.
The share prices set forth in the column headings of the table below will be adjusted as of any date on which the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant or the exercise price of a warrant is adjusted as set forth under the heading “— Anti-dilution Adjustments” below. If the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant is adjusted, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the share prices immediately prior to such adjustment, multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of shares deliverable upon exercise of a warrant immediately prior to such adjustment and the denominator of which is the number of shares deliverable upon exercise of a warrant as so adjusted. The number of shares in the table below shall be adjusted in the same manner and at the same time as the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant. If the exercise price of a warrant is adjusted, (a) in the case of an adjustment pursuant to the fifth paragraph under the heading “— Anti-dilution Adjustments” below, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the unadjusted share price multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price as set forth
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under the heading “— Anti-dilution Adjustments” and the denominator of which is $10.00 and (b) in the case of an adjustment pursuant to the second paragraph under the heading “— Anti-dilution Adjustments” below, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the unadjusted share price less the decrease in the exercise price of a warrant pursuant to such exercise price adjustment.
| | | Fair Market Value of Class A Ordinary Shares | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Redemption Date (period to expiration of warrants) | | | ≤10.00 | | | 11.00 | | | 12.00 | | | 13.00 | | | 14.00 | | | 15.00 | | | 16.00 | | | 17.00 | | | ≥18.00 | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
60 months | | | | | 0.261 | | | | | | 0.281 | | | | | | 0.297 | | | | | | 0.311 | | | | | | 0.324 | | | | | | 0.337 | | | | | | 0.348 | | | | | | 0.358 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
57 months | | | | | 0.257 | | | | | | 0.277 | | | | | | 0.294 | | | | | | 0.310 | | | | | | 0.324 | | | | | | 0.337 | | | | | | 0.348 | | | | | | 0.358 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
54 months | | | | | 0.252 | | | | | | 0.272 | | | | | | 0.291 | | | | | | 0.307 | | | | | | 0.322 | | | | | | 0.335 | | | | | | 0.347 | | | | | | 0.357 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
51 months | | | | | 0.246 | | | | | | 0.268 | | | | | | 0.287 | | | | | | 0.304 | | | | | | 0.320 | | | | | | 0.333 | | | | | | 0.346 | | | | | | 0.357 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
48 months | | | | | 0.241 | | | | | | 0.263 | | | | | | 0.283 | | | | | | 0.301 | | | | | | 0.317 | | | | | | 0.332 | | | | | | 0.344 | | | | | | 0.356 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
45 months | | | | | 0.235 | | | | | | 0.258 | | | | | | 0.279 | | | | | | 0.298 | | | | | | 0.315 | | | | | | 0.330 | | | | | | 0.343 | | | | | | 0.356 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
42 months | | | | | 0.228 | | | | | | 0.252 | | | | | | 0.274 | | | | | | 0.294 | | | | | | 0.312 | | | | | | 0.328 | | | | | | 0.342 | | | | | | 0.355 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
39 months | | | | | 0.221 | | | | | | 0.246 | | | | | | 0.269 | | | | | | 0.290 | | | | | | 0.309 | | | | | | 0.325 | | | | | | 0.340 | | | | | | 0.354 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
36 months | | | | | 0.213 | | | | | | 0.239 | | | | | | 0.263 | | | | | | 0.285 | | | | | | 0.305 | | | | | | 0.323 | | | | | | 0.339 | | | | | | 0.353 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
33 months | | | | | 0.205 | | | | | | 0.232 | | | | | | 0.257 | | | | | | 0.280 | | | | | | 0.301 | | | | | | 0.320 | | | | | | 0.337 | | | | | | 0.352 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
30 months | | | | | 0.196 | | | | | | 0.224 | | | | | | 0.250 | | | | | | 0.274 | | | | | | 0.297 | | | | | | 0.316 | | | | | | 0.335 | | | | | | 0.351 | | | | | | 0.361 | | |
27 months | | | | | 0.185 | | | | | | 0.214 | | |