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.
There are increasing signs that the capital markets and dealmaking are returning to normalcy, but there is still plenty of time for fits and starts before the end of the year.
October has already been the biggest month for global M&A since June 2019 with $139 billion in takeovers logged in the month with a week still to go. This has largely been spurred on by a handful of mega deals, most recently Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) $53 billion bid for peer Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES), but even that is a show of potentially growing momentum as four of the five biggest deals of the year were announced in the past two months.
Strategic consolidation and private equity activity don’t always spill over directly into the SPAC market, however. On the traditional IPO side, the indicators are mixed. The $17.4 billion in IPO proceeds year-to-date in 2023 already more than doubles the $8.6 billion fetched by companies taking the traditional way to market in 2022.
But median returns on the year for this crop is still an uninspiring -53.3%, according to IPOInsider data. That has ticked up to -16.8% for the 18 IPOs launched since September 1, which is a significant improvement, but still perhaps still not quite enough to convince the markets that the salad days have returned
Deals
- TenX Keane Acquisition (NASDAQ:TENKU) has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Citius Pharmaceuticals’ oncology subsidiary. Citius is expected to retain $675 million in equity in the Citius Oncology spinoff.
News and Rumors
- Bloomberg: Cyxtera Technologies (OTC:CYXTQ), which combined with Starboard Value in 2021, is in talks to sell a large portion of its data centers to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners as it undergoes Chapter II bankruptcy.
International SPACs
- Business Times: Live-streaming platform 17Live, which agreed to combine with Singapore-listed SPAC Vertex Technology, reported its operational losses widened to $118.2 million for the first half of 2023. It blamed this drop on the resumption of normal business activities coming out of the pandemic.
Liquidations
- Infinite Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:NFNT) announced that its board of directors has determined to redeem all of its issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares, effective as of November 6. The redemption of the shares is expected to be completed on or around November 6 and the per-share redemption price will be approximately $10.78.
Scheduling Notes
- Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ:HWEL) has postponed the completion vote for its combination with Starton Therapeutics normally slated for October 25. The SPAC has not yet set a new time for the special meeting but the change will extend the time investors have to make redemption decisions. The record date remains September 14.
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending December 1, 2023 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. For the most part, this was a quiet week for filings being that it followed the Thanksgiving holiday. Ideally, bankers, lawyers and teams got a...
Aimei Health Technology Co., Ltd (NASDAQ: AFJKU) announced the pricing of its $60 million IPO this evening. Its units are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “AFJKU” on Monday, December 4, 2023. After the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the Class A ordinary shares and rights are expected to...
PROOF Acquisition Corp I (NYSE: PACI) announced this afternoon that it has closed its business combination with private aviation company Volato after shareholders approved the deal at a meeting on November 28. In total, including previous shareholder votes, shareholders opted to redeem an aggregate of 99.93% of PACI’s trust, leaving it with less than $215,000...
Adit EdTech (NYSE: ADEX) announced this morning that its shareholders have approved its business combination with bitcoin self-mining company Griid Infrastructure at a special meeting held yesterday, November 30. A total of 8,520,710 shares of common stock, representing approximately 95.7% of the outstanding shares entitled to vote, were present at the meeting, constituting a quorum...
At the SPAC of Dawn There had been hopes that this week would take one world conflict off the board, but combat has resumed in the Middle East as other eyes are likely to be fixed on new Fed comments today. The fighting in Gaza continues to not appear to have appreciable affects on the...