At the SPAC of Dawn
Good morning! Watch this space moving forward as a roundup of evening filings as well as news nuggets to nibble on beside your morning coffee.
After a Halloween massacre that saw four SPAC deals get terminated in about 24 hours, we presaged that the bloodletting of long-running deals might continue into November. So far, it has.
Yesterday two more deals went down as Blockchain Coinvestors (NASDAQ:BCSA) canceled a deal with Qenta and Arogo (NASDAQ:AOGO) threw in the towel on its EON reality deal. Both were transactions in sectors that appear to have far less buzz today than when they were struck.
Qenta is attempting to create a physical gold-backed crypto currency and fintech platform, while EON provides metaverse-based training programs.
The deals had each been pending for a year or more, which continues to be the state for a large portion of SPACs with announced deals. As of November 1, the median time since announcement for such SPACs had already grown to 7.3 months.
One more SPAC, Healthwell I (NASDAQ:HWEL) terminated its deal with Starton Therapeutics on Monday after a shorter campaign, having announced it initially in late April. This still brings the 10-day total to seven terminations.
News and Rumors
- PR: Space venture Momentus (NASDAQ:MNTS) closed a sale of 2,904,269 warrants for about $6.5 million two years out from closing its combination with Stable Road. The warrants can be exercised to receive 5,808,538 shares at $2 per share.
- The Messenger: SoftBank Group reported a loss of $1.55 billion in its second quarter on Thursday after taking a significant hit from WeWork’s (NYSE:WE), which combined with BowX in 2021, bankruptcy filing earlier this week.
- PR: IoT company KORE (NYSE:KORE) announced a $150 million strategic investment from Searchlight Capital Partners that will reduce its leverage to 5.3x EBITDA from 7.3x. The company combined with Cerberus Telecom in 2021.
- GasWorld: New Era Helium Corp., which announced the signing of a non-binding LOI for a proposed business combination with Accretion Acquisition (NASDAQ:ENER), is one step closer to production at its Pecos Slope helium plant, having announced the signing of two new agreements with Keyes Helium Company and Badger Midstream Energy.
- Venture Beat: Skillz (NYSE:SKLZ) told a federal court on Monday that a federal grand jury was seeking access to information on AviaGames and its top executives in relation to Skillz’ allegations about defrauding players in skill-based games. Skillz completed its combination with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. in mid-December 2020.
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At the SPAC of Dawn While SPACs settle into a slight pause through Rosh Hashanah, de-SPACs are also entering another period of holiday-based trading patterns. Traders following the usual “Sell in May and Go Away” pattern this year would have missed out on a major late-summer market rally. But, stocks may now feel the effects...
At the SPAC of Dawn As SPACs switch back into gear with a new cycle, traditional IPO road shows are heating up into the fourth quarter as well. A raft of private equity-backed companies have determined now is the time to strike and the period between the Fed’s September rate slash and the November election...
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Ocean Capital Acquisition Corporation (Nasdaq:OCACU) filed this morning for a $60 million offering to be underwritten by Brookline Capital Markets. This is only the second offering for Brookline where they will be in the position of sole bookrunner, with DT Cloud Acquisition Corporation being their first. However, Brookline has been a bookrunner to the right...