Nightcap: Sponsors seem to be feeling... Bullish with 14 new SPACs filed this week
Nightly recap of the day's SPAC highlights (July 9, 2021)
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The Weekly Stats:
The Stats:
The Deals:
1) Far Peak Acquisition Corporation (FPAC: $10.13) & Bullish (A Block.one company)
Bullish Announces Intent to Go Public on New York Stock Exchange (Press Release)
Merger Partner Description:
Focused on developing products and services for the digital assets sector, Bullish has rewired the traditional exchange to benefit asset holders, enable traders and increase market integrity. Supported by the group’s treasury, Bullish’s new breed of exchange combines deep liquidity, automated market making and industry-leading security and compliance to increase the accessibility of digital assets for investors. Bullish exchange is operated by Bullish (GI) Limited and is expected to be fully regulated.
Block.one is an asset holding and investment company that creates, incubates, and invests in businesses that build trust in transactions, transparency in systems and efficiency in how our world works. Through strategic capital allocation and pioneering business ventures, Block.one has funded more than 100 innovative entrepreneurs to date. Block.one group companies, Bullish and Voice, are empowering people to architect integrity across the financial services industry and social media ecosystem.
Valuation: $2.5B Pro-forma EV
PIPE: $300M including investments from EFM Asset Management, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Cryptology Asset Group, and Galaxy Digital.
Bullish Investor Presentation
Notable News:
SPAC Bosses Turn to Clubby Deals to Seal IPOs in Chilly Market (article behind paywall)
Fierce competition amid a market chill is forcing some blank-check companies to pull out all the stops to push deals over the finish line.
Several new special purpose acquisition companies have tweaked their filings right before their market debut to showcase that they’ve already lined up pledges from a select group of investors. With more than 420 SPACs seeking a private company to take public and another 295 with pending initial public offerings, having friendly investors in hand can make it easier to get deals done.
In extreme cases, SPACs have lined up buyers for more than half the IPO. Agritech investor David Friedberg’s TPB Acquisition Corp. I on Thursday amended its offering documents to note that anchor investors want in on roughly $130 million of units at the offering price. The SPAC in early April cut its IPO by $50 million to $200 million.
TPB Acquisition Corp. I is sponsored by San Francisco-based investment firm The Production Board, which focuses on food, life sciences and agritech. Friedberg is a former Google employee and serial entrepreneur who previously started the Monsanto-acquired Climate Corporation.
Former pharmaceutical executive Someit Sidhu’s JATT Acquisition Corp. and ex-Sequoia venture capitalist Li Jianwei’s TradeUp Acquisition Corp. also recently announced they’d lined up anchor investors willing to buy more than half their offerings.
Benchmark’s Bill Gurley says SPACs are ‘remarkably cheap compared to mispriced IPOs’
Nextdoor’s decision to go public through a special purpose acquisition company was largely the result of favorable pricing compared with a traditional IPO, said Bill Gurley, a partner at Benchmark and an early investor in the neighborhood social network.
Gurley has been among the most vocal supporters of direct listings, another IPO alternative in which companies go public without selling shares at a steep discount to new investors. He said the average IPO in 2020 came with a 57% cost of capital.
“SPACs are remarkably cheap compared to mispriced IPOs,” Gurley told CNBC’s “TechCheck” on Friday.
Nextdoor announced plans earlier this week to pursue a SPAC sponsored by an affiliate of Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla’s investment firm. In a SPAC, a so-called blank check company raises capital through a public offering and then shops around for a potential target, which becomes the operating entity after the transaction closes.
Quick News Corner:
Alussa Energy Acquisition Corp. (ALUS) completed its merger with FREYR Battery (FREY: $8.80). ALUS began trading as FREY today.
Reminder from yesterday: Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, Ltd. (PSTH: $21.78) filed its tender offer statements: redemption tender offer and warrant exchange offer
New S-1s (5)
1) Roth CH Acquisition IV Co. (ROCG)
$100M, 1/4 warrant
Focus: Business services, consumer, healthcare, technology, wellness or sustainability
Management:
Byron Roth (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Roth)
2) Adnant Concepcion Acquisition Corp. (Ticker not available yet)
$10M, 1/9 warrant
Focus: Cannabis
3) AfterNext HealthTech Acquisition Corp. (AFTR)
$300M, 1/4 warrant
Focus: Healthcare Tech
4) Activate Permanent Capital Corp. (APCC)
$250M, 1/3 warrant
Focus: energy transition, smart mobility and logistics, intelligent automation, and the food value chain
5) Blue Whale Acquisition Corp I (BWC)
$200M, 1/4 warrant
Focus: Media and Content
Sponsor Affiliate: Mubadala Capital
Management:
David H. Johnson (Former CEO of Warner Chappell and EMI Music Publishing)
Upcoming Dates:
Next Week’s Announced Shareholder Meetings, Unit Splits, Warrant Redemptions
Monday, July 12th
Rodgers Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. (RSVA: $22.55) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Enovix
Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp. (ASPL: $9.85) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Wheels Up
Tuesday, July 13th
Landcadia Holdings III, Inc. (LCY: $LCY) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Hillman Group
one (AONE: $9.95) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Markforged
Wednesday, July 14th
Empower Ltd. (EMPW: $10.00) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Holley
Sandbridge Acquisition Corporation (SBG: $9.77) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Owlet
GX Acquisition Corp (GXGX: $10.21) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Cellularity
Thursday, July 15th
NewHold Investment Corp (NHIC: $9.99) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Evolv Technologies
Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation (DCRB: $10.00) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Hyzon Motors
Friday, July 16th
FG New America Acquisition Corp. (FGNA: $10.21) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with OppFi
SC Health Corp (SCPE: $10.11) Shareholder Meeting to Approve Business Combination with Rockley Photonics
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