TradeUP (NASDAQ:UPTD) announced this morning that it has closed its combination with Estrella Biopharma and its shares and warrants will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbols “ESLA” and “ESLAQ” on October 2.
This will be the first time that TradeUp sub-unit’s will split into shares and their accompanied 1/2 warrants. The SPAC secured shareholder approval for the deal way back on July 31, but TradeUP has spent the past two months securing additional committed financing for the combination.
Estrella is to receive $23.1 million in gross proceeds in the end made up of $10 million in PIPE cash, $9.75 million from a preferred offering and about $300,000 in debt, according to the parties’ press release.
That leaves about $3.05 million in equity coming from TradeUp shares. The SPAC saw 98% redemptions reduce its trust to about $829,703 in the final vote, but it also issued 250,000 TradeUp shares to White Lion Capital as a part of a its commitments in a common stock agreement that may see it purchase up to $50 million in stock post-close.
TradeUp initially announced its $398 million combination with Estrella Biopharma in October 2022. Emeryville, California-based Estrella is developing three potential cancer therapies aimed at improving the effectiveness of T-cell treatments.
In March, it gained FDA clearance to start Phase I/II trials for its EB-103 drug candidate, which uses its CD19 t-cell therapy to combat b-cell lymphoma.
ADVISORS
- US Tiger Securities, Inc. has acted as financial advisor to TradeUP.
- Robinson & Cole LLP acted as legal advisor to TradeUP.
- Winston & Strawn LLP acted as legal advisor to Estrella.
At the SPAC of Dawn A new conservative stock with meme potential is further taking shape as the market finds its footing this week. Firearms marketplace GrabAGun nominated its Board that will take their seats after the company completes its combination with Colombier II (NYSE:CLBR) anticipated later this summer. This Board includes Donald Trump Jr.,...
Berto Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:TACOU) has filed for a $250 million SPAC to continue a long-running series by a repeat sponsor under a new name and this will be its first go-around with underwriter Cohen & Company. This new SPAC is not overfunded and will have 24 months initially to complete a transaction with 1/2 warrants...
At the SPAC of Dawn March’s penultimate week is slated to be its busiest in terms of SPAC votes with four special meetings to approve business combinations on the docket as well as two extension votes. A pair of these votes has already been postponed once, so some events may be punted into the next...
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending March 21, 2025 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. After two weeks of waiting, March finally saw two IPOs price this week, giving us some data to measure for IPO performance. SPACs also saw...
Perimeter Corp I (NASDAQ:PMTRU) has filed for a $150 million SPAC to hunt for a target among space and defense companies, aiming to repeat a de-SPAC play that has been the most resilient to this year’s market downturn. The new SPAC is the third to file an initial S-1 with Citigroup since the start of...