Risk Factors.
Item 1.B.
Unresolved Staff Comments.
Item 2.
Properties.
Item 3.
Legal Proceedings.
Item 4.
Mine Safety Disclosures.
PART II.
Item 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Item 6.
[Reserved]
Item 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Item 7.A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk.
Item 8.
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Item 8.A.
Other Information.
Item 9.
Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
Item 9.A.
Controls and Procedures.
Item 9.B.
Other Information.
Item 9.C.
Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.
PART III.
Item 10.
Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance.
Item 11.
Executive Officer and Director Compensation.
Item 12.
Principal Shareholders
Item 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
Item 14.
Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
PART IV.
Item 15.
Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
Item 16.
Form 10-K Summary.
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND
RISK FACTOR SUMMARY
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains statements that are forward-looking and as such are not historical facts. This includes, without limitation, statements under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding our financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations. These statements constitute projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K 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, the following risks, uncertainties and other factors:
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;
the proceeds of the forward purchase securities being available to us;
our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination;
our pool of prospective target businesses;
our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic 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; or
our financial performance; and
the other risk and uncertainties discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
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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PART I.
References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) to (i) “we,” “us,” “our” or the “Company” are to CC Neuberger Principal Holdings III, a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company, (ii) “founders” are to senior professionals of CC Capital SP, LP and Neuberger Berman; (iii) our “initial shareholders” are to our Sponsor and our independent director that held our founder shares prior to our initial public offering; (iv) our “management” or our “management team” are to our officers and directors, (v) “NBOKS” are to Neuberger Berman Opportunistic Capital Solutions Master Fund LP, a Delaware limited partnership and a member of our Sponsor; and (vi) “Sponsor” are to CC Neuberger Principal Holdings III Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.
Item 1. Business.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on July 24, 2020 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. We have not selected any 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.
Our sponsor is an affiliate of CC Capital and NBOKS. CC Capital is a private investment firm managed by a team of private equity professionals with a track record of success in sponsoring special purpose acquisition companies. NBOKS is advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC (“NBIA”). Neuberger Berman is a leader in a broad range of global investment solutions-equity, fixed income and alternatives to institutions and individuals through customized separately managed accounts, mutual funds and alternative investment products. CC Capital and NBIA have entered into an arrangement whereby they have agreed to co-sponsor a series of special purpose acquisition companies, including our company, CCN I and CCN II; the arrangement provides that NBOKS will make available certain funds through commitments of its limited partners, including its anchor investor, an affiliate of Koch Industries, (i) to each special purpose acquisition company in the form of certain commitments to purchase securities of such company at the time of the initial business combination of each such company, including the forward purchase commitment described herein; and (ii) collectively, to all special purpose acquisition companies co-sponsored by CC Capital and NBOKS, a facility that may be used by the special purpose acquisition companies (in an aggregate amount of up to between $100 million and $600 million, provided, that such aggregate amount shall not exceed $300 million unless and until a fourth special purpose acquisition company is co-sponsored by CC Capital and NBOKS), from time to time, on a first come first serve basis, to backstop redemptions by holders of Class A ordinary shares in connection with the consummation of such company’s initial business combination, with any such funds to be used by NBOKS to purchase Class A ordinary shares; provided that in no event will more than $300 million be available to any one special purpose acquisition company under such facility. On December 9, 2021, CCN II entered into a definitive business combination agreement with affiliates of Getty Images and on July 22, 2022, CCN II and Getty Images Holdings, Inc., formerly known as Vector Holding, LLC (“New CCNB”), consummated the transactions contemplated by that definitive business combination agreement. At the of the business combination, NBOKS, pursuant to its backstop facility agreement with CCN II, subscribed for 30,000,000 shares of New CCNB Class A common shares, for a purchase price of $10.00 per share and aggregate purchase price of $300,000,000. As a result, as of July 22, 2022, there is no available capital under the backstop facility agreement in which NBOKS had committed capital to all special purpose acquisition companies sponsored by CC Capital Partners, LLC and NBOKS, including us.
Given our affiliation with NBOKS and CC Capital’s deep private equity know-how focused on sourcing, due diligence and creating additional operational value in target companies, we believe we have the required investment, operational, diligence and capital raising experience to effect a business combination with an attractive target and to position it for long-term success in the public markets. In addition, we believe that our management team is positioned to drive ongoing value creation post-business combination, as our team has done with investments in various sectors over time. We believe our management team is well suited to identify opportunities that have the potential to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.
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Effecting a Business Combination
Our Business Strategy
Our business strategy is to identify and complete our initial Business Combination with a company that complements the experiences and skills of our management team and can benefit from their operational expertise. Our selection process will leverage our founders’ broad and deep relationship network, unique industry experiences and proven deal sourcing capabilities to access a broad spectrum of differentiated opportunities. This network has been developed through our founders’ extensive experience and demonstrated success in both investing in and operating businesses in our target sectors and across a variety of industries, including:
a track record of successfully identifying, acquiring, and growing companies and ability to deliver shareholder value over an extended time period with above-market-average investment returns;
experience deploying a proven value creation toolkit including recruiting world-class talent, identifying value enhancements, delivering operating efficiencies and successfully integrating strategic acquisitions; and
an extensive history of accessing the capital markets across various business cycles, including financing businesses and assisting companies with the transition to public ownership.
We believe that our management team is well positioned to identify attractive Business Combination opportunities with a compelling industry backdrop and an opportunity for transformational growth. Our founders’ objectives are to generate attractive returns for shareholders and enhance value through improving operational performance of the acquired company. We expect to favor opportunities with certain industry and business characteristics. Key industry characteristics include compelling long-term growth, attractive competitive dynamics, consolidation opportunities and low risk of technological obsolescence. Key business characteristics include high barriers to entry, significant streams of recurring revenue, opportunity for operational improvement, attractive steady-state margins, high incremental margins and free cash flow characteristics.
In connection with the Initial Public Offering, we entered into a forward purchase agreement with NBOKS, which provides for the purchase of up to $200,000,000 of units, with each unit consisting of one Class A ordinary share and three-twentieths of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, for a purchase price of $10.00 per unit, in a private placement to occur concurrently with the closing of our initial Business Combination. The forward purchase agreement will allow NBOKS to be excused from its purchase obligation in connection with a specific Business Combination if NBOKS does not have sufficient committed capital allocated to the forward purchase agreement to fulfill its funding obligations under such forward purchase agreement in respect of such Business Combination. Prior to an initial Business Combination, NBOKS intends to raise additional committed capital such that the condition described in the preceding sentence is met, but there can be no assurance that additional capital will be available. The obligations under the forward purchase agreement will not depend on whether any Class A ordinary shares are redeemed by our public shareholders. The forward purchase securities will be issued only in connection with the closing of the initial Business Combination. The proceeds from the sale of forward purchase securities may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in our initial Business Combination, expenses in connection with our initial Business Combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company.
Acquisition Criteria
Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial Business Combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to seek to acquire businesses that we believe:
are fundamentally sound but are underperforming their potential;
exhibit unrecognized value or other characteristics that we believe have been misevaluated by the marketplace;
are at an inflection point where we believe we can drive improved financial performance;
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offer opportunities to enhance financial performance through organic initiatives and/or inorganic growth opportunities that we identify in our analysis and due diligence;
can benefit from our founders’ knowledge of the target sectors, proven collection of operational strategies and tools, and past experiences in profitably and rapidly scaling businesses;
are valued attractively relative to their existing cash flows and potential for operational improvement; and
offer an attractive potential return for our shareholders, weighing potential growth opportunities and operational improvements in the target business against any identified downside risks.
These criteria and guidelines 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 criteria and guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant.
Additional Disclosures
In April 2018, Chinh E. Chu, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors, co-founded Collier Creek Holdings (“Collier Creek”), a blank check company formed for substantially similar purposes as our company. Collier Creek completed its initial public offering in October 2018, in which it sold 44,000,000 units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share of Collier Creek and one-third of one redeemable warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share of Collier Creek, for an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate proceeds of $440 million. On August 28, 2020, Collier Creek consummated the acquisition of Utz Brands Holdings, LLC, the parent of Utz Quality Foods, LLC, a leading manufacturer of branded salty snacks, to form Utz Brands (NYSE: UTZ).
In January 2020, CC Capital SP, LP and NBOKS founded CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I (“CCN I”), a blank check company formed for substantially similar purposes as our company. CCN I completed its initial public offering in April 2020, in which it sold 41,400,000 units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share of CCN I and one-third of one redeemable warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share of CCN I, for an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate proceeds of $414 million. On February 5, 2021, CCN I consummated the acquisition of E2open Holdings, LLC, a leading provider of supply chain management software, to form E2open (NYSE: ETWO). None of the funds available under the backstop facility agreement between CCN I and NBOKS were used in connection with CCN I’s initial business combination.
In May 2020, CC Capital SP, LP and NBOKS founded CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II (“CCN II”), a blank check company formed for substantially similar purposes as our company. CCN II completed its initial public offering in August 2020, in which it sold 82,800,000 units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share of CCN II and one-fourth of one redeemable warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share of CCN II, for an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate proceeds of $828 million. On July 22, 2022, CCN II consummated a business combination with affiliates of Getty Images, pursuant to which CCN II merged into a subsidiary of Getty Images Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation that is the publicly traded company and parent of Getty Images (NYSE: GETY). At the closing of the business combination, NBOKS, pursuant to its backstop facility agreement with CCN II, subscribed for 30,000,000 shares of New CCNB Class A common shares, for a purchase price of $10.00 per share and aggregate purchase price of $300,000,000. As a result, as of July 22, 2022, there is no available capital under the backstop facility agreement in which NBOKS had committed capital to all special purpose acquisition companies sponsored by CC Capital Partners, LLC and NBOKS, including us.
On February 1, 2023, we held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (“Extension Meeting”) to, in part, amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to extend the date by which we have to consummate a business combination. In connection with that vote, the holders of 35,712,662 Class A ordinary shares of the Company properly exercised their right to redeem their shares for an aggregate redemption amount of approximately $362,840,646.
Our Acquisition Process
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.
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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, founders, 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 founders, 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 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) or an independent accounting firm that such initial Business Combination or transaction is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our management team and our directors directly or indirectly own our ordinary shares and/or Private Placement Warrants and are affiliated with entities that purchase forward purchase securities 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.
In addition, certain of our founders, officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities. As a result, if any of our founders, 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 founders, 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 we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity (including any Business Combination ) offered to any director or officer unless such is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and it is an that we are to complete on a reasonable basis.
In addition, our Sponsor, founders, 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. Our founders, 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.
Initial Business Combination
The rules of the NYSE require that 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 net assets held in the Trust Account (net of amounts disbursed to management for working capital purposes and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount held in trust). 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 net assets threshold, 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
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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.
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 outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial Business Combination could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares subsequent to our initial Business Combination. If less than 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. If our initial Business Combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses 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. 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.
Competition
We have encountered, and expect to continue 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.
Some of these competitors may possess greater resources or more specialized industry knowledge related to a specific business combination target than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of some of these competitors. Additionally, the number of blank check companies looking for Business Combination targets has increased compared to recent years and many of these blank check companies are sponsored by entities or persons that have significant experience with completing Business Combinations. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable may 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 negotiating a Business Combination.
Our sponsor is CC Neuberger Principal Holdings III Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. Our sponsor currently owns 14,942,500 Class B ordinary shares and 10,050,000 private placement warrants. Our sponsor is not “controlled” (as defined in 31 CFR 800.208) by a foreign person, such that our sponsor’s involvement in the business combination would be a “covered transaction” (as defined in 31 CFR 800.213). However, it is possible that non-U.S. persons could be involved in our business combination, which
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may increase the risk that our business combination becomes subject to regulatory review, including review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), and that restrictions, limitations or conditions will be imposed by CFIUS. If our business combination with a U.S. business is subject to CFIUS review, the scope of which was expanded by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”), to include certain non-passive, non-controlling investments in sensitive U.S. businesses and certain acquisitions of real estate even with no underlying U.S. business. FIRRMA, and subsequent implementing regulations that are now in force, also subjects certain categories of investments to mandatory filings. If our potential business combination with a U.S. business falls within CFIUS’s jurisdiction, we may determine that we are required to make a mandatory filing or that we will submit a voluntary notice to CFIUS, or to proceed with a business combination without notifying CFIUS and risk CFIUS intervention, before or after closing a business combination. CFIUS may decide to block or delay our business combination, impose conditions to mitigate national security concerns with respect to such business combination or order us to divest all or a portion of a U.S. business of the combined company without first obtaining CFIUS clearance, which may limit the of or prevent us from pursuing certain initial business combination that we believe would otherwise be to us and our shareholders. As a result, the pool of potential targets with which we could complete a business combination may be limited and we may be affected in terms of competing with other special purpose acquisition companies which do not have similar foreign ownership issues. A to notify CFIUS of a transaction where such notification was required or otherwise warranted based on the national security considerations presented by an investment target may our sponsor and/or the combined company to legal , costs, and/or other reputational and financial effects, thus potentially the value of the combined company. In addition, CFIUS is actively pursuing transactions that were not notified to it and may ask regarding, or impose restrictions or mitigation on, a business combination post-.
Moreover, the process of government review, whether by CFIUS or otherwise, could be lengthy and we have limited time to complete our business combination. If we cannot complete a business combination by the Termination Date (as defined below) because the transaction is still under review or because our business combination is ultimately prohibited by CFIUS or another U.S. government entity, we may be required to liquidate. If we liquidate, our public shareholders may only receive approximately $10.00 per public share or less in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. This will also cause you to lose the investment opportunity in a target company and the chance of realizing future gains on your investment through any price appreciation in the combined company.
Employees
We currently have four executive officers: Chinh E. Chu, Matthew Skurbe, Douglas Newton and Jason Giordano. 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.
Item 1.A. Risk Factors.
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report, before making a decision to invest in our 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
We are a 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 blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through our initial public 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.
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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.
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.
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.
Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, 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 owned 27.2% of our outstanding ordinary shares immediately following our initial public offering. On February 1, 2023, we held an Extension Meeting to, in part, amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to extend the date by which we have to consummate a business combination. In connection with that vote, the holders of 35,712,662 Class A ordinary shares of the Company properly exercised their right to redeem their shares. Accordingly, our initial shareholders currently own, on an as-converted basis, approximately 76.8% of our outstanding ordinary shares. 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 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. 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.
In evaluating a prospective target business for our initial business combination, our management will rely on the availability of all of the funds from the sale of the forward purchase securities to be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination. If the sale of the forward purchase securities does not close, we may lack sufficient funds to consummate our initial business combination.
We have entered into a forward purchase agreement with NBOKS, which provides for the purchase of up to $200,000,000 of units, with each unit consisting of one Class A ordinary share and three-twentieths of one warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, for a purchase price of $10.00 per unit, in a private placement occurred concurrently with the closing of our initial Business Combination. The proceeds from this sale of forward purchase securities may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in our initial Business Combination, expenses in connection with our initial Business Combination or for working capital in the post-transaction company. The forward purchase agreement contained customary closing conditions, the fulfillment of which is a condition for NBOKS to purchase the forward purchase securities, including that our initial business combination must be consummated substantially concurrently with, and immediately following, the purchase of forward purchase securities. The forward purchase agreement also allows NBOKS to be excused from its purchase obligation in connection with a specific business combination if NBOKS does not have sufficient committed capital allocated to the forward purchase agreement to fulfill its funding obligations under such forward purchase agreement in respect of such Business Combination.
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The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a Business Combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. While we have entered into a forward purchase agreement with NBOKS, which provides for the purchase of up to $200,000,000 of units in a private placement to occur concurrently with the closing of 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 and after taking into account the availability of the $200.0 million forward purchase agreement we have entered into with NBOKS. 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 and after taking into account the availability of the forward purchase agreement we have entered into with NBOKS.
We may not be able to complete our initial Business Combination by the Termination Date (as defined below), 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 by the date by which we are required to consummate a business combination pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (the “Termination Date”). Our ability to complete our initial Business Combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. For example, the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to impact markets and business operations both in the U.S. and globally and, while the extent of the impact of the outbreak on us will depend on future developments, it could limit our ability to complete our initial Business Combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the 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) 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 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 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, and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. Our amended and memorandum and articles of association 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 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 $10.00 per public share, or less than $10.00 per public share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire . See “- If third parties bring us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
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.
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. In addition, if a larger number of shares are submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to the transaction to reserve a 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 levels. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to
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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 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 by the Termination Date 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 by the Termination Date. 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 recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 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 outbreak 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 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 of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the posed by COVID-19 or other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural 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 affected.
In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious
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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 outbreak of COVID-19 may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those related to the market for our securities and cross-border transactions.
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, although they are under no obligation to do so. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 by the Termination Date and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination by the Termination Date, 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 .
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The NYSE 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 cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be, listed on the NYSE in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on the NYSE prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, share price and distribution levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders). Additionally, our units will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination, and, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with NYSE initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the NYSE continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE. For instance, in order for our Class A ordinary shares to be listed upon the consummation of our initial business combination, at such time, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, our global market capitalization would be required to be at least $200,000,000, the aggregate market value of publicly-held shares would be required to be at least $100,000,000 and we would be required to have at least 400 round lot holders. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If the NYSE 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:
a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
reduced liquidity for our securities;
a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” 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 the NYSE, 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 are not entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Because we had net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the completion of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors are not afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
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If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association 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 our initial public offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a .
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We have encountered, and expect to continue 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. Additionally, the number of blank check companies looking for Business Combination targets has increased compared to recent years and many of these blank check companies are sponsored by entities or persons that have significant experience with completing Business Combinations. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination.
If we do not complete our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
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 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. For example, following an investment by one of
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our founders in Constellation Healthcare Technologies Inc. (“CHT”), CHT filed for bankruptcy protection. 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 $10.00 per public share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (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 our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party to execute an agreement waiving such 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 interests of the company under the circumstances. The underwriters of the initial public offering will not execute an agreement with us waiving such 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 $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to a letter agreement, 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) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, provided that such liability will not apply to any 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 under our indemnity of the underwriters of our initial public offering certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party . 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 its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot you that our sponsor would be to those obligations. As a result, if any such were made the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be 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 by third parties including, without , by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per public share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of .
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and 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 petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
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 the NYSE 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 the NYSE. There is no requirement under the Companies Law for us to hold annual or general meetings to appoint directors. Until we hold an annual general meeting, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to discuss company affairs with management. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of
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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 $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the of our trust account and our warrants will expire .
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent 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.
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Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. In addition, pursuant to an agreement to be entered into on or prior to the closing of our initial public offering, our sponsor, upon and following the consummation of our initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for appointment to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. 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 our initial public 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 our initial public 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.
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.
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We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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 our initial Business Combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our sponsor and officers and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. 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. 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.
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 we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity (including any business combination 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.
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 “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and 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. 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 of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as to our public shareholders as they would be absent any of interest.
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Since our sponsor, executive officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they may acquire during or after our initial public offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
Our initial shareholders currently own 15,062,500 Class B ordinary shares. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 10,050,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.00 per warrant ($10,050,000 in the aggregate), in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. If we do not complete our initial business combination by the Termination Date, 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 Termination Date nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single-target business or multiple-target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
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
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whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target 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 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 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. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
In order to effectuate an initial Business Combination, 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, 50% of the then 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 memorandum and articles of association 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 by
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the Termination Date. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any of the securities offered in the Initial Public Offering, 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.
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 provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our initial public 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 collectively beneficially own 76.8% of our ordinary shares following the Extension Meeting, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and 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 to amend the provisions of our amended and memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-business combination behavior more 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 us for any of our amended and memorandum and articles of association.
Our sponsor, executive officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association 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 by the Termination Date, 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.
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.
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Risks Associated With Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations;
rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;
laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;
tariffs and trade barriers;
regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
local or regional economic policies and market conditions;
unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
challenges in managing and staffing international operations;
longer payment cycles;
tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
rates of inflation;
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
cultural and language differences;
employment regulations;
underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
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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 Relating to our Securities
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
restrictions on the issuance of securities, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
registration as an investment company with the SEC;
adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business 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. Our initial public 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 that would
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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 by the Termination Date; or (iii) absent an initial business combination by the Termination Date, 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 $10.00 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 by the Termination Date, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such the Termination Date before redemption from our trust account.
If we do not consummate our initial business combination by the Termination Date, 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 Law. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the Termination Date 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 unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and 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 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 memorandum and articles of association. Our amended and memorandum and articles of association 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 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 us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who and authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be of an and may be liable for a fine of approximately $18,000 and for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We are not registering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
We are not registering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed 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 registration statement covering the issuance of such shares, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same 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 prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are
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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 Annual Report, 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 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 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 . 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 our initial public offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be 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 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 to exercise their warrants.
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.
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. Pursuant to the forward purchase agreement, we will use our reasonable best efforts (i) to file within 30 days after the closing of the initial business combination a registration statement with the SEC for a secondary offering of the forward purchase shares and the forward purchase warrants (and underlying Class A ordinary shares), (ii) to cause such registration statement to be declared effective promptly thereafter but in no event later than 60 days after the initial filing, (iii) to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement until the earliest of (A) the date on which NBOKS or its assignees cease to hold the securities covered thereby, and (B) the date all of the securities covered thereby can be sold publicly without restriction or under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and (iv) after such registration statement is declared , cause us to conduct firm commitment underwritten offerings, subject to certain . In addition, the forward purchase agreement provides for certain “piggy-back” registration rights to the holders of forward purchase securities to include their securities in other registration statements filed by us. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an 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 or 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 impact on the market price of
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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 business combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we 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 impact a target business. We also cannot you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more to investors than a direct investment, if such 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 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 our initial public 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 Annual Report regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to 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 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 authorize the issuance of up to 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. As of the date of this Report, there are 495,462,662 and 34,937,500 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants and any forward purchase warrants, shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares or any forward purchase 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. There are 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 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 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 by the Termination Date. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote. The issuance of additional ordinary or preference shares:
may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our initial public offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares;
may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A ordinary shares;
could cause a change in control if a substantial number of Class A ordinary shares are issued, which may, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;
may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us;
may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants; and
may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
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. However, if additional Class A ordinary shares or any other equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with 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 our initial public 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 (including the forward purchase shares, but not the forward purchase warrants), 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 $10.00 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 $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. Holder of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current and subsequent taxable years may depend on whether we qualify for the PFIC start-up exception. Depending on the particular circumstances the application of the start-up exception may be subject to uncertainty, and there cannot be any assurance that we will qualify for the start-up exception. Accordingly, there can be no assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for any taxable year, however, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. Holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, including a PFIC Annual Information Statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. We urge U.S. investors to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC 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 Law, 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.
Following the initial Business Combination, it is possible that 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 Annual Report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding;
our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares;
using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation or prevailing interest rates; and
limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
We may 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.
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To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination. 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 as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.
Our initial shareholders control a substantial interest in us and thus exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial shareholders own 76.8% of our outstanding ordinary shares following the Extension Meeting. Accordingly, they exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. If our initial shareholders purchase any additional Class A ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial shareholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Annual Report. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were appointed by our sponsor, 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. 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 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.
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 Annual Report, 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 to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
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Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement do 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 (including 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’ and Forward Purchase 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.
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 (including 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’ and Forward Purchase 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 redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
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None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us as (except as set forth under “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Shareholders’ and Forward Purchase 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.
The forward purchase warrants will be redeemable on the same terms as the warrants offered as part of the units being sold in our initial public offering. 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 issued warrants to purchase 8,050,000 of our Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered in our initial public offering and, simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 10,050,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. We may also issue up to 3,000,000 forward purchase warrants pursuant to the forward purchase agreement. In addition, our sponsor may convert up to $2,500,000 of its working capital loans into up to an additional 2,500,000 warrants, 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’ and Forward Purchase 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-fifth 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-fifth 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-fifth 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.
General Risk Factors
Our warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our warrants could have a material effect on our financial results.
On April 12, 2021, the Staff of the SEC issued a public statement (the “SEC Staff Statement”) entitled Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs’). This SEC Staff Statement highlighted the complex nature of warrants issued in connection with a SPAC’s formation and initial registered offering and the potential accounting implications of certain terms that may be common in warrants included in SPAC transactions to determine if any errors exist in previously-filed financial statements. With this new public statement, we determined that a fresh evaluation of the accounting for the warrants was necessary, and we are now of the view that our warrants should have been accounted for as a liability, recorded at fair value at the date of issuance and marked to market at each balance sheet date.
On our balance sheets as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 contained elsewhere in this Annual Report are derivative liabilities related to embedded features contained within our warrants. Accounting Standards Codification 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”), provides for the remeasurement of the fair value of such derivatives at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value being recognized in earnings in the statement of operations. As a result of the recurring fair
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value measurement, our financial statements and results of operations may fluctuate quarterly, based on factors which are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we recognize non-cash gains or losses on our warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material.
Past performance of our founders and the other members 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 founders and the other members of 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 founders and the other members 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 founders or the other members 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 founders and the other members 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 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 directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders’ rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
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.
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Our corporate affairs will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law (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, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of or multiple may well be held to be 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.
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Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, the NYSE may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
Only holders of our founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. As a result, the NYSE may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:
we have a board that includes a majority of “independent directors,” as defined under the rules of the NYSE;
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; and
we have a nominating and corporate governance 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 the NYSE, subject to applicable phase-in rules. However, if we determine in the future to utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE 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.
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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.
Our management concluded that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $399,123 in our operating bank account and working capital deficit of approximately $23,000. If the Company is unable to raise additional capital, it may be required to take additional measures to conserve liquidity, which could include, but not necessarily be limited to, suspending the pursuit of a Business Combination. Further, our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial business combination may not be successful. If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination by the Termination Date, then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution as well as the Company’s working capital deficit, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern through our date. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this annual report do not include any adjustments that might result from our to consummate a Business Combination or our to continue as a going .
The SEC has recently issued proposed rules to regulate special purpose acquisition companies. Certain of the procedures that we, a potential business combination target, or others may determine to undertake in connection with such proposals may increase our costs and the time needed to complete an initial business combination and may constrain the circumstances under which we could complete an initial business combination.
On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules (the “SPAC Proposed Rules”) that would, among other items, impose additional disclosure requirements in initial public offerings by special purpose acquisition companies and business combination transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies and private operating companies; amend the financial statement requirements applicable to business combination transactions involving such companies; update and expand guidance regarding the general use of projections in SEC filings, as well as when projections are disclosed in connection with proposed business combination transactions; increase the potential liability of certain participants in proposed business combination transactions; and impact the extent to which special purpose acquisition companies could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. These rules, if adopted, whether in the form proposed or in revised form, may materially adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.
If we are deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we may be forced to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead be required to liquidate. To mitigate the risk of that result, we have instructed Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company to liquidate the securities held in the trust account and instead hold all funds in the trust account in cash in an interest-bearing demand deposit account until the earlier of the consummation of our initial business combination or our liquidation.
As a result, following such change, we will likely receive minimal interest on the funds held in the trust account, which would reduce the dollar amount that our public shareholders would receive upon any redemption or our liquidation. As indicated above, we completed our initial public offering in February 2021 and have operated as a blank check company searching for a target business with which to consummate an initial business combination since such time. The SPAC Proposed Rules relate, among other matters, to the circumstances in which special purpose acquisition companies such as us could potentially be subject to the Investment Company Act. The SPAC Proposed Rules would provide a safe harbor for such companies from the definition of “investment company” under Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act, provided that a special purpose acquisition company satisfies certain criteria. To comply with the duration limitation of the proposed safe harbor, a special purpose acquisition company would have a limited time period to announce and complete a de-SPAC transaction. Specifically, to comply with the safe harbor, the SPAC Proposed Rules would require a company to file a report on Form 8-K announcing that it has entered into an agreement with a target company for an initial business combination no later than 18 months after the effective date of the registration statement for its initial public offering. The company
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would then be required to complete its initial business combination no later than the Termination Date. We understand that the SEC has recently been taking informal positions regarding the Investment Company Act consistent with the SPAC Proposed Rules.
There is currently uncertainty concerning the applicability of the Investment Company Act to a special purpose acquisition company, including a company like ours, that does not complete its initial business combination within the proposed time frame set forth in the proposed safe harbor rule. As a result, it is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. If we were deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we might be forced to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead be required to liquidate. If we are required to liquidate, our investors would not be able to realize the benefits of owning shares in a successor operating business, including the potential appreciation in the value of our shares and warrants or rights following such a transaction, and our warrants would expire worthless.
The funds in the trust account have, since our initial public offering and until the 36-month anniversary of the consummation of our initial public offering, have been held only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. government treasury obligations and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act. To mitigate the risk of us being deemed to have been operating as an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act), prior to the 24-month anniversary of the consummation of our initial public offering, we instructed Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the trustee with respect to the trust account, to liquidate the U.S. government treasury obligations or money market funds held in the trust account and have maintained the funds in the trust account in cash in an interest-bearing demand deposit account at a bank until the earlier of the consummation of our initial business combination or our liquidation. Interest on such deposit account is currently 3.35% per annum, but such deposit account carries a variable rate and we cannot assure you that such rate will not decrease or increase significantly. Following such liquidation, we would likely receive minimal interest on the funds held in the trust account. However, interest previously earned on the funds held in the trust account still may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any. As a result, any decision to the investments held in the trust account and thereafter to hold all funds in the trust account in cash in an interest-bearing demand deposit account would reduce the dollar amount our public shareholders would receive upon any redemption or . Were we to , our warrants would expire , and our securityholders would the investment associated with an investment in the combined company, including any potential price appreciation of our securities.
Recent increases in inflation and interest rates in the United States and elsewhere could make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Recent increases in inflation and interest rates in the United States and elsewhere may lead to increased price volatility for publicly traded securities, including ours, and may lead to other national, regional and international economic disruptions, any of which could make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Item 1.B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
