Mobile Infrastructure Corp 10-K, filed Mar 30, 2022
Mobile Infrastructure Corp (BEEP)
About this 10-K
Mobile Infrastructure Corp filed this 10-K on March 30, 2022, covering the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended
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FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO
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Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: ( |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ☐ ☒
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. YES ☐ ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ NO ☐
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES
As of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $
As of March 1, 2022,
Documents Incorporated by Reference: None
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K including, without limitation, statements under “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, are forward looking statements. When used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, words such as “may,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “continue,” or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management, identify forward looking statements. Such forward looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, our management. No assurance can be given that results in any forward-looking statement will be achieved and actual results could be affected by one or more factors, which could cause them to differ materially. The cautionary statements made in this Annual Report should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements whenever they appear in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. For these statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to, those detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are qualified in their entirety by this paragraph.
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GLOSSARY
“Affiliate” of any person or entity means any other person or entity that directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, such first person or entity.
“Affiliated Joint Acquisition” means an initial business combination opportunity we pursue jointly with our sponsor, Fifth Wall, or one or more of their respective affiliates, portfolio companies and/or investors.
“Companies Act” means the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands as the same may be amended from time to time.
“equity-linked securities” are any debt or equity securities that are convertible, exercisable or exchangeable for our Class A ordinary shares issued in a financing transaction in connection with our initial business combination, including, but not limited to, a private placement of equity or debt.
“Fifth Wall” is Fifth Wall Asset Management, LLC, collectively with its Affiliates and any investment funds, investment vehicles or accounts managed or advised by any of the foregoing, which are Affiliates of our sponsor.
“Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II" is a special purpose acquisition company, which, on February 28, 2022 has requested withdrawal of its Registration Statement on Form S-1 because it is not currently pursuing a public offering of securities.
“Founder Investor” is Light BCTO Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company, which is an Affiliate of EE Capital Pte. Ltd., a limited partner of funds affiliated with Fifth Wall.
“founders” are Brendan Wallace, co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, and Andriy Mykhaylovskyy, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Fifth Wall.
“founder shares” are our Class B ordinary shares initially issued to our sponsor in a private placement prior to our initial public offering and our Class B ordinary shares transferred by our sponsor to certain of our directors, if any, as well as the Class A ordinary shares that will be issued upon the automatic conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination (for the avoidance of doubt, such Class B ordinary shares will not be “public shares”).
“management” or “our management team” are our executive officers and directors.
“ordinary shares” are our Class A ordinary shares and our Class B ordinary shares.
“Private Placement Shares” are the Class A ordinary shares issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering and upon conversion of working capital loans, if any.
“public shares” are our Class A ordinary shares sold in our initial public offering (whether they are purchased in the initial public offering or thereafter in the open market).
“shareholders” are the holders of our public shares, including our sponsor and management team to the extent our sponsor and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that our sponsor’s and each member of our management team’s status as a “shareholder” will only exist with respect to such public shares.
“sponsor” is Fifth Wall Acquisition sponsor III LLC, a Cayman Islands limited liability company, which is an Affiliate of Fifth Wall.
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SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The following is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky, all of which are more fully described below in the section titled “Risk Factors.” This summary should be read in conjunction with the “Risk Factors” section and should not be relied upon as an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing our business. In addition to the following summary, you should consider the information set forth in the “Risk Factors” section and the other information contained in this Annual Report before investing in our securities:
| ● | We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective. |
| ● | 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. |
| ● | Past performance by Fifth Wall, including our management team, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us. |
| ● | 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 COVID-19 pandemic and the status of debt and equity markets. |
| ● | Our initial business combination or reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders. |
| ● | Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed business combination, which means we may consummate our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination. |
| ● | 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. |
| ● | If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per ordinary share or even less on our redemption. |
| ● | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor has agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote. |
| ● | 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 our initial business combination with a target. |
| ● | The ability of a large number of our shareholders to exercise redemption rights may not allow us to consummate the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure. |
| ● | The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating our initial business combination. |
| ● | The requirement that the target business or businesses that we acquire must collectively have a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the balance of the funds in the trust account (excluding any taxes payable) at the time of the execution of a definitive agreement for our initial business combination may limit the type and number of companies with which we may complete such a business combination. |
| ● | If we seek shareholder approval of our business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares from shareholders, in which case they may influence a vote in favor of a proposed business combination that you do not support. |
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| ● | 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. |
| ● | 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. |
| ● | You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares, potentially at a loss. |
| ● | Our securities may not continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions. |
| ● | You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies. |
| ● | As the number of special purpose acquisition companies increases, there may be more competition to find an attractive target for an initial business combination. This could increase the costs associated with completing our initial business combination and may result in our inability to find a suitable target for our initial business combination. |
| ● | If the funds being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination. |
| ● | Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies, our sponsor will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue certain shares to consummate an 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. |
| ● | Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual or other obligations to other entities and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. |
| ● | Our executive officers, directors, sponsor and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests. |
| ● | 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. |
| ● | 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. |
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PART I
Item 1. Business
General
We are a blank check company incorporated in February 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company whose business purpose is to effect a business combination with one or more businesses (the “initial business combination”). We have reviewed, and continue to review, a number of opportunities to enter into an initial business combination with an operating business, but we are not able to determine at this time whether we will complete an initial business combination with any of the target businesses that we have reviewed or with any other target business. We also have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date.
On May 24, 2021, the Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-255292) (the “Registration Statement”) relating to the initial public offering (the “IPO”) of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company granted the underwriters in the IPO a 45-day option to purchase up to 3,750,000 additional Class A Ordinary Shares (as defined below) to cover over-allotments, if any.
On May 27, 2021, the Company consummated the IPO of 27,500,000 Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, of the Company (the “Class A Ordinary Shares”), including the issuance of 2,500,000 shares as a result of the underwriters’ partial exercise of their over-allotment option. The shares were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per share, generating gross proceeds of $275,000,000 (before underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses).
Simultaneously with the consummation of the IPO and the issuance and sale of the shares, the Company consummated the private placement of 907,000 Private Placement Shares at a price of $10.00 per Private Placement Share, to the sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $9,070,000 (the “Private Placement”). No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to the Private Placement. The Private Placement was conducted as a non-public transaction and, as a transaction by an issuer not involving a public offering, is exempt from registration under the Securities Act in reliance upon Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The Private Placement Shares are identical to the Class A Ordinary Shares sold in the IPO, subject to certain limited exceptions, including that the sponsor has agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Private Placement Shares (except to certain permitted transferees) until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial business combination.
A total of $275,000,000 of the net proceeds from the IPO and the Private Placement (which includes the underwriters’ deferred discount of $9,625,000) was placed in a trust account, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to the Company to pay its franchise and income tax obligations, the funds held in the trust account will not be released from the trust account until the earliest of: (1) the completion of the Company’s initial business combination; (2) the redemption of the Company’s public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend the Company’s Amended Articles (A) to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to allow redemption in connection with the Company’s initial business combination or to redeem 100% of the Company’s public shares if the Company has not complete its initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (3) the redemption of the Company’s public shares if the Company has not completed its initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, subject to applicable law.
Business Strategy
Our strategy is to identify and acquire businesses within the sectors in which Fifth Wall invests, with a focus on later-stage companies with high quality growth fundamentals and strong market dynamics, whose pace of growth can benefit from our operational expertise and differentiated distribution capabilities. Our management expects to benefit from Fifth Wall’s experience as one of the largest and most active venture investors at the intersection of real estate and technology and its proven track record with deep experience in investing, operations and technology as well as a global consortium of real estate partners representing almost every real estate sector and every major geography. We intend to leverage our sponsor’s expertise and extensive network of strategic LPs, portfolio companies, real estate relationships and reputation in the real estate technology sector to identify investment opportunities with meaningful near term growth potential that can generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location, we intend to focus on industries both inside and outside of the United States that complement our management team’s background, and to capitalize on the
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ability of our management team to identify and acquire a business focusing on verticals of the real estate industry, as well as the adjacent industries that collectively make up the human-made environment that provides the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to cities and beyond, which we call the “Built World.” Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II also intends to focus on these so-called “proptech” companies, focusing specifically on proptech companies serving the residential real estate industry. As such, if any officer or director serving Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II or Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III becomes aware of a business combination opportunity with a proptech company serving the residential real estate industry (and no other parties to which such officers or directors may owe any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations, including in the case of officers and directors associated or affiliated with Fifth Wall, wish to pursue such opportunity), such officers and directors will present the opportunity to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. In all other cases, the opportunity will be first presented to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III.
Sources of Target Businesses
Certain members of our management team have spent significant portions of their careers working with businesses in the proptech industry and have developed a wide network of professional services contacts and business relationships in that industry. The members of our board of directors also have significant executive management and public company experience with proptech companies. Our process of identifying acquisition targets will leverage our management team’s industry experiences, demonstrated deal sourcing capabilities and broad and deep network of relationships, including executives and management teams, private equity groups and other institutional investors, large business enterprises, lenders, investment bankers and other investment market participants, restructuring advisers, consultants, attorneys and accountants, which we believe should provide us with a number of business combination opportunities. We expect that the collective experience, capability and network of our founders, directors and officers, combined with their individual and collective reputations in the investment community, will help to create prospective business combination opportunities.
In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates may be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment bankers and private investment funds. Target businesses may be brought to our attention by such unaffiliated sources as a result of being solicited by us through calls or mailings. These sources may also introduce us to target businesses in which they think we may be interested on an unsolicited basis, since many of these sources will have read the Registration Statement and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates, may also bring to our attention target business candidates of which they become aware through their business contacts as a result of formal or informal inquiries or discussions they may have, as well as attending trade shows or conventions.
While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. In no event, however, will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by the company prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). None of our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, will be allowed to receive any compensation, finder’s fees or consulting fees from a prospective business combination target in connection with a contemplated acquisition of such target by us.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors, or from making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transactions with affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a business combination as set forth below and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with (a) a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our officers or directors or (b) a business combination target that we know or should reasonably know is affiliated with a member of our sponsor owning at least 5% of the membership interests in the sponsor, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking which is a member of FINRA or an independent valuation or appraisal firm, that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
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As more fully discussed in “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest,” if any of our executive officers becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that falls within the line of business of any entity, including private funds under the management of Fifth Wall and their respective portfolio companies, to which he or she has pre-existing fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may be required to present such business combination opportunity to such entity prior to presenting such business combination opportunity to us, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. In addition, existing and future funds managed by Fifth Wall and their respective portfolio companies may compete with us for business combination opportunities and if such opportunities are pursued by such entities, we may be precluded from pursuing such opportunities. All of our executive officers currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us. In addition, we may pursue an Affiliated Joint Acquisition opportunity with an entity to which an officer or director has a fiduciary or contractual obligation. Any such entity may co-invest with us in the target business at the time of our initial business combination, or we could raise additional proceeds to complete the acquisition by issuing to such entity a class of equity or equity-linked securities. Any such business combination may require additional consents from third parties outside the control of our directors, officers or Fifth Wall, including any such business combination that requires the consent of the limited partner advisory committee of one or more investment funds managed or advised by Fifth Wall. We may be prevented from pursuing an Affiliated Joint Acquisition or other similar business combination if such consents are not obtained. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
Acquisition Criteria
We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective targets. 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.
| ● | High quality fundamentals. We will focus our search on identifying transformative businesses with attractive margins and unit economics in line with best-in-class industry benchmarks, strong growth track record, and limited revenue concentration risks. |
| ● | Strong market dynamics and growth potential. We will seek to acquire businesses that have a sizeable total addressable market with product offerings that are relevant across multiple asset classes, industries and geographies. We believe we can leverage our network to upsell and cross-sell additional product modules which will in turn further increase the addressable market and growth opportunities for the business and presents readily available growth targets. |
| ● | Competitive positioning. We will seek to acquire one or more businesses that demonstrate market leadership and / or strong advantages when compared to their competitors, including the potential to disrupt the market through technology driven transformation, defensible proprietary technology, strong adoption rates, and low or manageable risks of technological obsolescence. |
| ● | Attractive risk-adjusted return profile. We intend to focus our efforts on identifying later-stage businesses that we believe have meaningful near term growth opportunity and significant potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns for shareholders, weighing potential growth opportunities and operational improvements in the target business against any identified downside risks. |
| ● | Informational and structuring advantages. We intend to invest in one or more businesses where Fifth Wall’s global network of more than 60 real estate corporations in 14 countries can offer distinct informational advantages in underwriting a potential acquisition, and where Fifth Wall’s ability to unlock distribution to the real estate industry can enable us to structure a potential transaction in such a way that it maximizes value for all parties involved. |
| ● | Value creation potential by Fifth Wall. We intend to acquire one or more businesses that we believe will benefit from Fifth Wall’s differentiated industry network, brand and proprietary value-creation capabilities in order to improve financial performance and business planning. For example, we intend to target companies that have strong traction regionally but lack national and international partners to support geographical expansion whose growth can be accelerated through Fifth Wall’s |
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| network of real estate partners, or companies with a sales cycle that is longer than best-in-class peers that could be shortened with strategic introductions to key management at real estate companies facilitated by Fifth Wall. |
| ● | Management Team. We will seek to invest in one or more businesses that have proven management teams with a compelling strategy of selling their product and recruiting talent. |
| ● | Benefit from Being a Public Company. We intend to invest in one or more businesses that will benefit from being publicly listed and can effectively utilize the broader access to capital and a public profile to grow and accelerate shareholder value creation. |
These criteria 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 guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this report, would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.
Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us. If we determine to move forward with a particular target, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the business combination transaction.
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, and negotiation with, 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. The company will not pay any consulting fees to members of our management team, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered to or in connection with our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
Nasdaq rules and our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association require that we complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts held in trust and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of signing the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, or we are considering an initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or an independent valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.
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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 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 prior owners of the target business, 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 sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the 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 transaction. 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, shares or other equity interests 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 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 the 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 shareholders’ approval, as applicable.
We have until May 27, 2023 to complete our initial business combination.
Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, we will seek shareholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other legal reasons.
Under Nasdaq’s listing rules, shareholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
| ● | we issue (other than in a public offering for cash) ordinary shares that will either (a) be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of Class A ordinary shares then outstanding or (b) have voting power equal to or in excess of 20% of the voting power then outstanding; |
| ● | any of our directors, officers or substantial shareholders (as defined by Nasdaq rules) has a 5% or greater interest (or such persons collectively have a 10% or greater interest), directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired or otherwise and the present or potential issuance of ordinary shares could result in an increase in outstanding ordinary shares or voting power of 5% or more; or |
| ● | the issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares will result in our undergoing a change of control. |
| ● | The Companies Act and Cayman Islands law do not currently require, and we are not aware of any other applicable law that will require, shareholder approval of our initial business combination. |
| ● | The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination in those instances in which shareholder approval is not required by law will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on business and legal reasons, which include a variety of factors, including, but not limited to: |
| ● | the timing of the transaction, including in the event we determine shareholder approval would require additional time and there is either not enough time to seek shareholder approval or doing so would place the company at a disadvantage in the transaction or result in other additional burdens on the company; |
| ● | the expected cost of holding a shareholder vote; |
| ● | the risk that the shareholders would fail to approve the proposed business combination; |
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| ● | other time and budget constraints of the company; and |
| ● | additional legal complexities of a proposed business combination that would be time-consuming and burdensome to present to shareholders. |
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest (net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share. The per ordinary share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Our sponsor has entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which it has agreed to (i) waive its redemption rights with respect to its founder shares and (ii) waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to its founder shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. Our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have also agreed (A) that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares and (B) to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they have acquired during the IPO or may acquire afterwards in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. However, if our sponsor or members of our management team acquire public shares in or after the IPO, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO.
Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we are not subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). However, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. 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, and all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Shareholder Approval
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 provides that a 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 seeking redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the ordinary shares sold in our initial public offering, which we refer to as the Excess Shares. We believe this restriction will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our shareholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in the IPO without our prior consent, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
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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.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that we will have only 24 months from the closing of the IPO to consummate an initial business combination. If we are unable to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 dissolution expenses and net of taxes 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 liquidation 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, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides 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 liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
Our sponsor has entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which it has waived its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to its founder shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. However, if our sponsor or members of our management team acquire public shares in or after the IPO, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO.
Our sponsor had agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public 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 payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we are not subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time. This redemption right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsors, any executive officer or director, or any other person.
We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the $1,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the IPO, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account, the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders upon our dissolution would be $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public shareholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by shareholders will not be less than $10.00. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
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Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (excluding 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, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would 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 an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. 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. The underwriters will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. 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. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a vendor for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts 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 share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. 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 satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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 share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification 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 may choose not to do so in any particular instance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption price will not be less than $10.00 per share.
As noted, we will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have access to up to $1,000,000 from the proceeds of the IPO with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, shareholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $2,570,000, we may fund such excess with funds from the funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $2,570,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
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If we file a bankruptcy, winding-up or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy, winding-up or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency laws, 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, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy, winding-up or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/ creditor and/or bankruptcy and/or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.”
As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, 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 against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO, (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a shareholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. 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.
Corporate Information
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company. Exempted companies are Cayman Islands companies conducting business mainly outside the Cayman Islands and, as such, are exempted from complying with certain provisions of the Companies Act. As an exempted company, we have applied for and received a tax exemption undertaking from the Cayman Islands government that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 20 years from the date of the undertaking, no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations will apply to us or our operations and, in addition, that no tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations or which is in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax will be payable (i) on or in respect of our shares, debentures or other obligations or (ii) by way of the withholding in whole or in part of a payment of dividend or other distribution of income or capital by us to our shareholders or a payment of principal or interest or other sums due under a debenture or other obligation of us.
Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies, operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our shareholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.
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Facilities
We currently maintain our executive offices at 6060 Center Drive, 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90045. We have entered into an administrative support agreement with an affiliate of our sponsor pursuant to which we have agreed to pay the sponsor affiliate a total of up to $17,500 per month for office space and professional, secretarial, administrative and support services provided to us. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have two executive officers. 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 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.
Periodic Reporting and Audited Financial Statements
We have registered our Class A ordinary shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We will provide shareholders with audited financial statements of a prospective target business as part of any tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials sent to shareholders to assist them in assessing the target business. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) or international financial reporting standards (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with 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 financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. While this may limit the pool of potential business combination candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as modified by the JOBS Act, and will remain such for up to five years. However, if our annual gross revenue is $1.07 billion or more, if our non-convertible debt issued within a three-year period exceeds $1 billion or the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million on the last day of the second fiscal quarter of any given fiscal year, we would cease to be an emerging growth company as of the following fiscal year. As an emerging growth company, we have elected, under Section 107(b) of the JOBS Act, to take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
Item 1A. 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 securities. 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.
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Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Position
We are a blank check 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 with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until consummating our initial business combination. 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 with one or more target businesses. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning our initial 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.
We may be a passive foreign investment company for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
We currently expect that we or any of our direct or indirect investments may be treated as a “passive foreign investment company” for U.S. federal income tax purposes for our current taxable year and taxable years thereafter. If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. Holder (as defined in the section of the Registration Statement captioned “Taxation—U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”) of our Class A ordinary shares, 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 and the timing of our initial business combination. Depending on the particular circumstances, the application of the PFIC start-up exception is subject to uncertainty, and there can be no assurance that we will qualify for the PFIC start-up exception. In addition, our status as a PFIC for any taxable year will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. Accordingly, there can be no assurance with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. The U.S. federal income tax rules applicable to investments in passive foreign investment companies are very complex, and a U.S. investor may suffer adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences as a result of these rules. Each prospective U.S. investor should consult its own tax advisor regarding the tax considerations relating to an investment in a passive foreign investment company.
Our initial business combination or reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders.
We may, subject to requisite shareholder approval under the Companies Act, effect a business combination with a target company in another jurisdiction, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located, or reincorporate in another jurisdiction. Such transaction(s) may require a shareholder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder 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 to pay such taxes. Shareholders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
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 Cayman Islands. 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.
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.
It is possible that after our initial business combination, 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.
In particular, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the Cayman Islands or any other applicable jurisdictions would recognize and enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States or entertain original actions brought in the Cayman Islands or any other applicable jurisdiction’s courts against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States.
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Past performance by Fifth Wall, including our management team, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, Fifth Wall is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance of Fifth Wall or our management team is not a guarantee either: (1) that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; or (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of Fifth Wall or our management team’s performance as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. An investment in us is not an investment in Fifth Wall. Our officers, directors and Fifth Wall have had limited experience with a blank check company or special purpose acquisition company in the past.
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. Further, Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors have duties and obligations with respect to confidentiality to other entities and may in the future agree to additional such duties or obligations, which may prevent Fifth Wall and such officers and directors from disclosing such information to the company. Fifth Wall and our officers and directors will comply with such duties and obligations of confidentiality to such other entities, in which case, the company may not have access to such information.
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 COVID-19 pandemic and the status of debt and equity markets.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases could result in, a widespread health crisis that materially and adversely affects the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the operations and financial position 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 restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors, if the target company’s personnel, vendors and service providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner, or if COVID-19 causes a prolonged economic downturn. 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 the emergence of any new variants. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern 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 adversely affected.
In addition, our ability to consummate a business combination may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events, 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.
The requirement that the target business or businesses that we acquire must collectively have a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the balance of the funds in the trust account (excluding any taxes payable) at the time of the execution of a definitive agreement for our initial business combination may limit the type and number of companies with which we may complete such a business combination.
Nasdaq rules and our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association require that the target business or businesses that we acquire must collectively have a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the balance of the funds in the trust account (excluding any taxes payable) at the time of the execution of a definitive agreement for our initial business combination. This restriction may limit the type and number of companies that we may complete a business combination with. If we are unable to locate a target business or businesses that satisfy this fair market value test, we may be forced to liquidate and you will only be entitled to receive your pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account, which may be less than $10.00 per ordinary share.
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The nominal purchase price paid by our sponsor for the founder shares may significantly dilute the implied value of your public shares in the event we consummate an initial business combination, and our sponsor is likely to make a substantial profit on its investment in us in the event we consummate an initial business combination, even if the business combination causes the trading price of our ordinary shares to materially decline.
While we offered our ordinary shares at an offering price of $10.00 per share and the amount in our trust account was initially $10.00 per public share, implying an initial value of $10.00 per public share, our sponsor paid only a nominal aggregate purchase price of $25,000 for the founder shares, or approximately $0.003 per share. As a result, the value of your public shares may be significantly diluted in the event we consummate an initial business combination. Our sponsor is likely to make a substantial profit on its investment in us even if we select and consummate an initial business combination that causes the trading price of our ordinary shares to decline, while our public shareholders who purchased their shares in our initial public offering could lose significant value in their public shares. Our sponsor may therefore be economically incentivized to consummate an initial business combination with a riskier, weaker-performing or less-established target business than would be the case if our sponsor had paid the same per share price for the founder shares as our public shareholders paid for their public shares.
We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. These material weaknesses could continue to adversely affect our ability to report our results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner.
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Management also evaluates the effectiveness of the Company’s internal controls and we will disclose any changes and material weaknesses identified through such evaluation in those internal controls. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
As described elsewhere in this report, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to our control around the interpretation and accounting for certain complex financial instruments issued by the Company, and the design and maintenance of our presentation of earnings per share. On February 23, 2022, the Company’s audit committee concluded that the Company’s previously issued (i) audited balance sheet as of May 27, 2021 (the “Post IPO Balance Sheet”) and the audit report of WithumSmith+Brown, PC included in the Current Report on Form 8-K containing the Post IPO Balance Sheet, filed with the SEC on June 3, 2021; (ii) unaudited interim financial statements included in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2021, filed with the SEC on July 7, 2021; (iii) unaudited interim financial statements included in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2021, filed with the SEC on August 13, 2021; and (iv) unaudited interim financial statements included in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2021, filed with the SEC on November 12, 2021 (collectively, the “Affected Periods”), should be restated to (a) classify all Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in temporary equity, and (b) to, where applicable, restate its earnings per share calculation to allocate income and loss shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. Our management has concluded that the control deficiency that resulted in these restatements constituted a material weakness as of December 31, 2021.
We have implemented a remediation plan, described under Item 9A, Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures, to remediate this material weakness but can give no assurance that the measures we have taken will prevent any future material weaknesses or deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting. Even though we have strengthened controls and procedures, in the future those controls and procedures may not be adequate to prevent or identify irregularities or errors or to facilitate the fair presentation of our financial statements.
We may face litigation and other risks as a result of the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.
As a result of such material weakness, the restatements described above, and other matters raised or that may in the future be raised by the SEC, we face potential for litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal and state securities laws, contractual claims or other claims arising from the restatement and material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements. As of the date of this Annual Report, we have no knowledge of any such litigation or dispute. However, we can provide no assurance that such litigation or dispute will not arise in the future. Any such litigation or dispute, whether successful or not, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition or our ability to complete a business combination.
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Risks Related to Our Proposed Initial Business Combination
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed business combination, which means we may consummate our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
If a shareholder vote is not required, we may conduct redemptions via a tender offer. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our public shares do not approve the business combination.
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.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of one or more target businesses. Because our board of directors may consummate our initial business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential 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 business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor has agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
As of December 31, 2021, our sponsor owns approximately 21.7% of our outstanding ordinary shares. Our sponsor also may from time to time purchase additional Class A ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that, if we seek shareholder approval of an initial business combination, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive approval pursuant to 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. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our sponsor to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholders’ approval for such initial business combination.
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 our initial business combination with a target.
We may enter into a 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. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we may not be able to meet such closing condition, and as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets would be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into our initial business combination transaction with us.
The ability of a large number of our shareholders to exercise redemption rights may not allow us to consummate the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
In connection with the successful consummation of our business combination, we may redeem up to that number of ordinary shares that would permit us to maintain net tangible assets of $5,000,001. If our business combination requires us to use substantially all of our cash to pay the purchase price, the redemption threshold may be further limited. Alternatively, we may need to arrange third party financing to help fund our business combination in case a larger percentage of shareholders exercise their redemption rights than we expect. If the acquisition involves the issuance of our shares as consideration, we may be required to issue a higher percentage of our shares to the target or its shareholders to make up for the failure to satisfy a minimum cash requirement. Raising additional funds to cover any shortfall may involve dilutive equity financing or incurring indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. This may limit our ability to effectuate the most attractive business combination available to us.
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The requirement that we maintain a minimum net worth or retain a certain amount of cash could increase the probability that we cannot consummate our business combination and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If, pursuant to the terms of our proposed business combination, we are required to maintain a minimum net worth or retain a certain amount of cash in trust in order to consummate the business combination and regardless of whether we proceed with redemptions under the tender offer or proxy rules, the probability that we cannot consummate our business combination is increased. If we do not consummate our business combination, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate. 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 in our 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 within 24 months from the closing of the IPO may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating our initial business combination.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning our initial business combination will be aware that we must consummate our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. Consequently, such target businesses may obtain leverage over us in negotiating our initial 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 timeframe 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.
We may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within the required time period, 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 consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the IPO. 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. If we have not consummated an initial business combination within such applicable time period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 dissolution expenses and net of taxes 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 liquidation 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, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides 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 liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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, or possibly less, on the redemption of their public shares. 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.
If we seek shareholder approval of our business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares from shareholders, in which case they may influence a vote in favor of a proposed business combination that you do not support.
If we seek shareholder approval of our business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or equity-linked securities in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the consummation of our initial business combination. Such purchases will not be made if our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates are in possession of any material non-public information that has not been disclosed to the selling shareholder, although they are under no obligation to do so. However, other than as expressly stated herein, 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. In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already
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elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. It is intended that, if Rule 10b-18 would apply to purchases by our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates, then such purchases will comply with Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act, to the extent it applies, which provides a safe harbor for purchases made under certain conditions, including with respect to timing, pricing and volume of purchases.
The purpose of such purchases would be to (1) increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination or (2) 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 the business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. This may result in the consummation of an initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
Purchases of ordinary shares in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions by our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may make it difficult for us to maintain the listing of our shares on a national securities exchange following the consummation of an initial business combination.
If our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase ordinary shares in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, the public “float” of our ordinary shares and the number of beneficial holders of our securities would both be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain the listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange following consummation of the business combination.
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. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders shall be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only in the event of a redemption to public shareholders prior to any winding up in the event we do not consummate our initial business combination or our liquidation, if they redeem their shares in connection with an initial business combination that we consummate or if we seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our redemption obligation to redeem all public shares if we cannot complete an initial business combination within 24 months of the closing of the IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to the funds in the trust account. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares, potentially at a loss.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Because the net proceeds of the IPO are intended to be used to complete our initial business combination with a target business that has not been identified, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the successful consummation of the IPO and have 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 will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our shares were immediately tradable following the IPO and we have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419.
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We or one of our Affiliates may engage one or more of the IPO underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us or our Affiliates, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction or as an underwriter in connection with an offering by another special purpose acquisition company that is competitive with ours. The IPO underwriters are entitled to receive deferred commissions that will be released from the trust only on a completion of an initial business combination. These financial incentives may cause them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after the IPO, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We or one of our Affiliates may engage one or more of the IPO underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing financial advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing or as an underwriter in connection with an offering by another special purpose acquisition company that is competitive with ours.
We may pay such underwriter or its affiliate fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation. The underwriters are also entitled to receive deferred commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial business combination. The underwriters’ or their respective affiliates’ financial interests tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction or other transactions may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such additional services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our 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 ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that a public shareholder, individually or 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 seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO. Your inability to redeem more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO will reduce your influence over our ability to consummate our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell such excess shares in open market transactions. As a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, you would be required to sell your shares in open market transaction, potentially at a loss.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies increases, there may be more competition to find an attractive target for an initial business combination. This could increase the costs associated with completing our initial business combination and may result in our inability to find a suitable target for our initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many companies have entered into business combinations with special purpose acquisition companies, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many additional special purpose acquisition companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, effort and resources to identify a suitable target for an initial business combination.
In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find a suitable target for and/or complete our initial business combination.
If the funds held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the IPO, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the IPO, assuming that our initial business combination is not consummated during that time. Of the funds available to us,
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we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we are unable to fund such down payments or “no shop” provisions, our ability to close a contemplated transaction could be impaired. Furthermore, if we entered into a letter of intent where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive a pro rata portion of the amount then in the trust account (which may be less than $10.00 per ordinary share) on our redemption.
Subsequent to our consummation of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges.
Even if we conduct thorough due diligence on a target business with which we combine, this diligence may not surface all material issues that may be present inside a particular target business. And, regardless of how comprehensive our diligence may be, factors outside of the target business and outside of our control may arise later. 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 that could result in our reporting losses. 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.
Our directors may decide not to enforce indemnification obligations against 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 $10.00 per ordinary share 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 on our behalf 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 may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations on our behalf, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per ordinary share.
Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies, our sponsor will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue certain 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 on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares or 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 total number of Class A ordinary shares outstanding after such conversion (after giving effect to any redemptions of Class A ordinary shares by public shareholders). This amount will include 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, but will exclude any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities or rights exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination, the Private Placement Shares, and any Private Placement Shares issued to our sponsor, officers or directors upon conversion of working capital loans, provided that such conversion of founder 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 our initial business combination.
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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. 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. For a complete discussion of our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.”
Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual or other obligations to other entities and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to other entities, including Fifth Wall investment funds, investment vehicles, accounts and clines and their respective portfolio companies, pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity or other business opportunities to such entity first, in which case such opportunity may not be made available to us, and Fifth Wall or such person will only present such opportunity to us if such other entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the transaction would not violate any restrictive covenants or other legal obligations to which such officers and directors are subject, including their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. In addition, existing and future Fifth Wall investment funds, investment vehicles, accounts, accounts and clients and their respective portfolio companies may compete with us for business combination opportunities and, if such opportunities are pursued by such entities, we may be precluded from pursuing such opportunities. If any officer or director serving Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II or Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III becomes aware of a business combination opportunity with a proptech company serving the residential real estate industry (and no other parties to which such officers or directors may owe any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations, including in the case of officers and directors associated or affiliated with Fifth Wall, Fifth Wall, wish to pursue such opportunity), such officers and directors will present the opportunity to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. In all other cases, the opportunity will be first presented to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III. Further, any of the foregoing may engage in businesses that are competitive to a prospective or actual target for the company’s initial business acquisition. 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, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer on the one hand, and us, on the other. If Fifth Wall or any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which Fifth Wall or such person has then-current fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to present such opportunity to such entity (including Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II), Fifth Wall or such person will honor such fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to present such opportunity to such entity first, in which case such opportunity may not be made available to us, and Fifth Wall or such person will only present such opportunity to us if such other entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the transaction would not violate any restrictive covenants or other legal obligations to which such officers and directors are subject, including their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. In addition, Fifth Wall and its Affiliates and our officers and directors have previously sponsored and formed and become officers or directors of, and in the future may sponsor or form or become officers or directors of, other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours, or may pursue other business or investment ventures, including without limitation forming investment funds or other vehicles, whose strategies may conflict with or otherwise be competitive with us during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. For example, Affiliates of Fifth Wall are currently sponsoring one other special purpose acquisition company, Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Although we intend to focus on industries both inside and outside of the United States, Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II is also pursuing an acquisition opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location with a focus on “Built World”. Mr. Wallace, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II and Mr. Mykhaylovskyy, our Chief Financial Officer and director, is the Chief Financial Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Our other directors, Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness are also directors of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. As a result, any such other special purpose acquisition companies, businesses or investments, including without limitation investment funds or other vehicles, with which Fifth Wall and its Affiliates, and our officers and directors are involved, may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination that you should be aware of. Please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.” If any officer or director serving Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II or Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III becomes aware of a business combination opportunity with a proptech company serving the residential real estate industry (and no other parties to which such officers or directors may owe any fiduciary,
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contractual or other obligations, including in the case of officers and directors associated or affiliated with Fifth Wall, Fifth Wall, wish to pursue such opportunity), such officers and directors will present the opportunity to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. In all other cases, the opportunity will be first presented to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III.
While an affiliate of Fifth Wall has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held of record by our sponsor, Founder Investor has purchased 25% of the economic interest in our Sponsor for a purchase price equivalent to 40% of the Sponsor’s initial investment in us. Founder Investor, together with its affiliates, is an active investor and may present similar conflicts of interest.
Our executive officers, directors, sponsor 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, sponsor 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 (subject to certain approvals and consents), we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers or a target business in which any of the foregoing have an interest, although we do not intend to do so, or we may acquire a target business through an Affiliated Joint Acquisition with one or more affiliates of Fifth Wall and/or one or more investors in any current or future Fifth Wall investment fund, investment vehicle, account or client. 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. In particular, certain of the Fifth Wall funds are focused on investments in the proptech industry. As a result, there may be substantial overlap between companies that would be a suitable business combination for us and companies that would make an attractive target for the Fifth Wall funds. In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
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 or in determining the outcome of any conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of such personal and financial interests. In addition, our directors and officers may have interests in other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours (including sponsors and special purpose acquisition companies that are not Affiliates of Fifth Wall). 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.
While an affiliate of Fifth Wall has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held of record by our sponsor, Founder Investor has purchased 25% of the economic interest in our sponsor for a purchase price equivalent to 40% of the sponsor’s initial investment in us. Founder Investor, together with its affiliates, is an active investor and may present similar conflicts of interest.
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, directors or existing holders 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, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest.” Such entities (including Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II) may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a business combination as set forth in “Item 1. Business—Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination” and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a business combination with (a) an entity or entities affiliated with our sponsor or any
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of our officers or directors or (b) an entity or entities we know or should reasonably know are affiliated with a member of our sponsor owning at least 5% of the membership interests in the sponsor, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public shareholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
Moreover, we may pursue an Affiliated Joint Acquisition opportunity with one or more affiliates of Fifth Wall and/or one or more investors in Fifth Wall. Any such parties may co-invest with us in the target business at the time of our initial business combination, or we could raise additional proceeds to complete the business combination by issuing to such parties a class of equity or equity-linked securities. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours. Any such business combination may require additional consents from third parties outside the control of our directors, officers or Fifth Wall, including any such business combination that requires the consent of the limited partner advisory committee of one or more investment funds managed or advised by Fifth Wall. We may be prevented from pursuing an Affiliated Joint Acquisition or other similar business combination if such consents are not obtained.
While an affiliate of Fifth Wall has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held of record by our sponsor, Founder Investor has purchased 25% of the economic interest in our sponsor for a purchase price equivalent to 40% of the sponsor’s initial investment in us. Founder Investor, together with its affiliates, is an active investor and may present similar conflicts of interest.
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, adoption of a specific form of corporate structure and reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations. 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 consummate our initial business combination.
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 in 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-business combination 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 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 securities are 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 (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business within 24 months from the closing of the IPO, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. 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
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additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete 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.
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 does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. 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 in connection with such initial business combination, 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.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments, in particular, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. 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 also may 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 and results of operations.
If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination, our public shareholders may be forced to wait up to 24 months or longer before redemption from our trust account.
If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO, we will, as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter (subject to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and applicable law), distribute the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account (net of taxes payable), pro rata to our public shareholders by way of redemption and cease all operations except for the purposes of winding up of our affairs by way of a voluntary liquidation, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account shall be effected as required by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to our commencing any voluntary liquidation. Except as otherwise described herein, we have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of any redemption required as a result of our failure to consummate our initial business combination within the period described above or our liquidation, unless we consummate our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their ordinary shares. Only upon any such redemption of public shares as we are required to effect, or any liquidation, will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we are unable to complete our initial business combination.
The grant of registration rights to our sponsor 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 ordinary shares.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into in connection with the IPO, our sponsor (and/or our sponsor’s designees) and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the founder shares, the private shares, the underlying securities and any securities issued upon conversion of working capital loans. 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 adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholder of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or
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ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our ordinary shares that is expected to occur when the securities owned by our sponsor, holders of our private shares or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
Because we have not selected a particular business or specific geographic location or 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’ operations.
We may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business industry or sector, but we intend to initially focus on those industries or sectors that complement our management team’s background. Except for the limitations that a target business have a fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the trust account (excluding any taxes payable) and that we are not permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations, we will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting a prospective acquisition candidate. To the extent we consummate 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 may not properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and thus leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. In addition, investors will be relying on the business judgment of our board of directors, which will have significant discretion in choosing the standard used to establish the fair market value of a particular target business. An investment in our shares may not ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in an acquisition target.
We may seek investment opportunities outside our management’s area of expertise and our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all significant risks associated with the target company.
There is no limitation on the industry or business sector we may consider when contemplating our initial business combination. We may therefore be presented with a business combination candidate in an industry unfamiliar to our management team, but determine that such candidate offers an attractive investment opportunity for our company. In the event we elect to pursue an investment outside of our management’s expertise, our management’s experience may not be directly applicable to the target business or their evaluation of its operations.
Although we 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 specific 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 have all of these positive attributes. If we consummate our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these 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 our initial 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 law or the Nasdaq, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other legal 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per ordinary share or even less on our redemption.
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Management’s flexibility in identifying and selecting a prospective acquisition candidate, along with our management’s financial interest in consummating our initial business combination, may lead management to enter into an acquisition agreement that is not in the best interest of our shareholders.
Subject to the requirements in Nasdaq rules and our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the trust account (excluding any taxes payable) at the time of the agreement to enter into such initial business combination, we will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting a prospective acquisition candidate. Investors will be relying on management’s ability to identify business combinations, evaluate their merits, conduct or monitor diligence and conduct negotiations. Management’s flexibility in identifying and selecting a prospective acquisition candidate, along with management’s financial interest in consummating our initial business combination, may lead management to enter into an acquisition agreement that is not in the best interest of our shareholders, which would be the case if the trading price of our ordinary shares after giving effect to such business combination was less than the per-share trust liquidation value that our shareholders would have received if we had dissolved without consummating our initial business combination.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm, and consequently, an independent source may not confirm that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we consummate 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 from an independent valuation or appraisal firm the price we are paying is fair to our shareholders 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 tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not consummated.
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 consummate 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per ordinary share or even less on our redemption.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be largely dependent upon the efforts of our officers, directors and key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have consummated our initial business combination. In addition, our 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. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
The role of such persons in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of such persons may remain with the target business in senior management 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, our assessment of these individuals may not 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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Members of our management team may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our 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.
Members of our management team may be able to remain with the company after the completion of our 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. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. There is no certainty, however, that any members of our management team will remain with us after the completion of our business combination. We cannot assure you that any members of our management team will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any members of our management team will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effectuate 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’ management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target’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.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon consummation of our initial business combination. The loss of an acquisition 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 consummation 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 some members of the management team of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Risks Related to Our Operations
Our executive officers and directors 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 do 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. 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.
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Fifth Wall and 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 and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Fifth Wall and our sponsor and officers and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities (such as operating companies or investment vehicles) that are engaged in a similar business. Our sponsor and directors and officers are also not prohibited from sponsoring, or otherwise becoming involved with, any other blank check companies prior to us completing our initial business combination. Moreover, certain of our directors and officers have time and attention requirements for investment funds of which affiliates of our sponsor are the investment managers.
Fifth Wall and our officers and directors also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities in the future to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties. For example, Affiliates of Fifth Wall are currently sponsoring one other special purpose acquisition company, Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Although we intend to focus on industries both inside and outside of the United States, Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II is also pursuing an acquisition opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location with a focus on “Built World”. Mr. Wallace, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II and Mr. Mykhaylovskyy, our Chief Financial Officer and director, is the Chief Financial Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Our other directors, Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness are also directors of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. 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, subject to our officers’ and directors’ fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer on the one hand, and us, on the other.
While an affiliate of Fifth Wall has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held of record by our Sponsor, Founder Investor has purchased 25% of the economic interest in our Sponsor for a purchase price equivalent to 40% of the sponsor’s initial investment in us. Founder Investor, together with its affiliates, is an active investor and may present similar conflicts of interest.
Since our sponsor, officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our business combination is not completed, a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On February 24, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000 to cover for certain expenses and offering costs on behalf of the company in exchange for issuance of 4,312,500 founder shares. In April 2021, the Company effected a share capitalization for Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. All shares and associated amounts have been restated to reflect the share capitalization. On May 24, 2021, our sponsor transferred 30,000 founder shares to each of Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by our sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the IPO, excluding the Private Placement Shares. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 907,000 Class A ordinary shares, at a price of $10.00 per ordinary share in a private placement which occurred concurrently with the closing of the IPO for an aggregate purchase price of $9,070,000. The Private Placement Shares are identical to the Class A ordinary shares sold in the IPO, subject to certain limited exceptions. Our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have agreed (A) to vote any shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (B) not to redeem any founder shares in connection with a shareholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination. In addition, we may obtain loans from our sponsor, affiliates of our sponsor or an officer or director. The personal and financial interests of our 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.
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Certain shares beneficially owned by our officers and directors will not participate in liquidating distributions and, therefore, our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is appropriate for our initial business combination.
Our sponsor has agreed to (i) waive its redemption rights with respect to its founder shares and (ii) waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to its founder shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. Our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they have acquired during the IPO or may acquire afterwards in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. However, if our sponsor, directors or executive officers acquire public shares, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. Accordingly, the founder shares will be worthless if we do not consummate our initial business combination. 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. In addition, our directors and officers may have interests in other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours (including sponsors and special purpose acquisition companies that are not Affiliates of Fifth Wall). 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.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete our initial business combination, which may adversely affect our 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 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. If we incur any indebtedness without a waiver from the lender of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
| ● | default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after our 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 security is payable on demand; |
| ● | our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| ● | our inability to pay dividends on our 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 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; 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. |
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We may only be able to complete one business combination, 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.
The net proceeds from the IPO and the sale of the private shares (excluding $1,000,000 of net proceeds that were not deposited in the trust account) have provided us with approximately $275,000,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting discount and offering expenses of approximately $16,100,000.
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously. 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 consummating 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 or services. This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments, 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.
The securities in which we invest the funds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.00 per ordinary share.
The proceeds held in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial business combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.00 per ordinary share.
Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination.
Recently, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense and/or accept less favorable terms. Furthermore, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
In addition, after completion of any initial business combination, our directors and officers could be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to such initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.
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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 shareholder 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 (excluding our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective partner 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 against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our founders will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if our founding team believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.
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 our founding team to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where our founding team 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 have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO 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 ordinary share redemption amount received by public shareholder could be less than the $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to this report, 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 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 ordinary share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims 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 claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. 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 satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
We may attempt to simultaneously consummate business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to consummate 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 the 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 consummate our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available.
In pursuing our acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. By definition, very little public information exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether
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to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in our initial business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
We may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination.
We may structure our initial business combination to acquire less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only consummate such business combination if we will become the majority shareholder of the target (or control the target through contractual arrangements in limited circumstances for regulatory compliance purposes) or are otherwise not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act or to the extent permitted by law we may acquire interests in a variable interest entity, in which we may have less than a majority of the voting rights in such entity, but in which we are the primary beneficiary. Even though we may own a majority interest in the target, our shareholders prior to the 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 transaction. 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, shares or other equity interests of a target. In this case, we 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 such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding 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 stock, shares or other equity interests than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that we will not be able to maintain our control of the target business.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise their redemption rights may not allow us to effectuate the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
If our initial business combination requires us to use substantially all of our cash to pay the purchase price, because we will not know how many public shareholders may exercise redemption rights, we may either need to reserve part of the trust account for possible payment upon such redemption, or we may need to arrange third party financing to help fund our initial business combination. In the event that the acquisition involves the issuance of our shares as consideration, we may be required to issue a higher percentage of our shares to make up for a shortfall in funds. Raising additional funds to cover any shortfall may involve dilutive equity financing or incurring indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. This may limit our ability to effectuate the most attractive business combination available to us.
In connection with any meeting held to approve an initial business combination, we will offer each public shareholder the option to vote in favor of the proposed business combination and still seek redemption of their shares.
In connection with any meeting held to approve an initial business combination, we will offer each public shareholder (but not our sponsor, officers or directors) the right to have their ordinary shares redeemed for cash (subject to the limitations described elsewhere in this report) regardless of whether such shareholder votes for or against such proposed business combination; provided that a shareholder must in fact vote for or against a proposed business combination in order to have their ordinary shares redeemed for cash. If a shareholder fails to vote for or against a proposed business combination, that shareholder would not be able to have their ordinary shares so redeemed. We will consummate our initial business combination only if we have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation and a majority of the outstanding ordinary shares voted are voted in favor of the business combination. This is different than other similarly structured blank check companies where shareholders are offered the right to redeem their shares only when they vote against a proposed business combination. This threshold and the ability to seek redemption while voting in favor of a proposed business combination may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination.
We will require public shareholders who wish to redeem their ordinary shares in connection with a proposed business combination, or an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to effect the substance or timing of their redemption obligation if we fail to timely complete a business combination, to comply with specific requirements for redemption that may make it more difficult for them to exercise their redemption rights prior to the deadline for exercising their rights.
We will require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either (i) tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the expiration date set forth in the tender offer documents mailed to such holders, or in the event we distribute proxy materials, up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination or amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our redemption obligation to redeem all public shares if we cannot complete an initial business
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combination or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, or (ii) deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option. In order to obtain a physical stock certificate, a shareholder’s broker and/or clearing broker, DTC and our transfer agent will need to act to facilitate this request. It is our understanding that shareholders should generally allot at least two weeks to obtain physical certificates from the transfer agent. However, because we do not have any control over this process or over the brokers or DTC, it may take significantly longer than two weeks to obtain a physical stock certificate. While we have been advised that it takes a short time to deliver shares through the DWAC System, this may not be the case. Under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we are required to provide at least 10 days advance notice of any general meeting, which would be the minimum amount of time a shareholder would have to determine whether to exercise redemption rights. Accordingly, if it takes longer than we anticipate for shareholders to deliver their shares, shareholders who wish to redeem may be unable to meet the deadline for exercising their redemption rights and thus may be unable to redeem their shares.
Redeeming shareholders may be unable to sell their securities when they wish to in the event that the proposed business combination is not approved.
We will require public shareholders who wish to redeem their ordinary shares in connection with any proposed business combination to comply with the delivery requirements discussed above for redemption. If such proposed business combination is not consummated, we will promptly return such certificates to the tendering public shareholders. Accordingly, investors who attempted to redeem their shares in such a circumstance will be unable to sell their securities after the failed acquisition until we have returned their securities to them. The market price for our ordinary shares may decline during this time and you may not be able to sell your securities when you wish, even while other shareholders that did not seek redemption may be able to sell their securities.
Because of our structure, other companies may have a competitive advantage and we may not be able to consummate an attractive business combination.
We expect to encounter intense competition from entities other than blank check companies having a business objective similar to ours, including proptech investment funds and operating businesses competing for acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. Therefore, our ability to compete in acquiring certain sizable target businesses 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, seeking shareholder approval of our initial business combination may delay the consummation of a transaction. Additionally, our rights, and the future dilution they represent (entitling the holders to receive ordinary shares on consummation of our initial business combination), may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Any of the foregoing may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating our initial business combination.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per ordinary share or even less on our redemption.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of the IPO will be sufficient to allow us to consummate our initial business combination, because we have not yet identified a prospective target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction or our costs to identify and consummate a transaction and to operate the target business. If the net proceeds of the IPO prove to be insufficient for one or more reasons including the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to repurchase for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination, or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed business combination. Financing may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The current economic environment may make it especially difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to consummate our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular initial business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per ordinary share or even less on our redemption. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to consummate our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material
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adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Our sponsor controls a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our sponsor owns approximately 21.7% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Accordingly, they may 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 we or our sponsor purchase any additional ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our sponsor nor its members nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, has any current intention to purchase additional securities. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our ordinary shares.
Our securities may not continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
While we list our securities on Nasdaq, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future. Additionally, in connection with our business combination, Nasdaq may require us to file a new initial listing application and meet its initial listing requirements as opposed to its more lenient continued listing requirements. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time. If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
| ● | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; |
| ● | a reduced liquidity with respect to our securities; |
| ● | a determination that our ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our ordinary shares; |
| ● | a limited amount of news and analyst coverage for our company; and |
| ● | a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or international financial reporting standards, 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. 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, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board or the IASB, depending on the circumstances. 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. We will include substantially the same financial statement disclosure in connection with any tender offer documents we use, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses with which we consummate our initial business combination, 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 hence we may be unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2022. The fact that we are a
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blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to all public companies because a target company with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
We are an “emerging growth company” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our securities less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. We will remain an “emerging growth company” for up to five years following the IPO. However, if either our non-convertible debt issued within a three-year period, or our revenues exceed $1.07 billion, or the market value of our ordinary shares that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million on the last day of the second fiscal quarter of any given fiscal year, we would cease to be an emerging growth company as of the following fiscal year. As an emerging growth company, we (i) are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and (iii) are exempt from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and obtaining shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, will not adopt the new or revised standard until the time private companies are required to adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accountant standards used.
Investors may find our shares less attractive because we may rely on these provisions. If some investors find our shares less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our shares and our share price may be more volatile.
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 United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs and the rights of shareholders will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (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.
Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like the company have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records or to obtain copies of the register of members of these companies. Our directors have discretion under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate
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records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.
We have been advised by 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, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary 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 our management team, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, executive officers and directors may be amended without shareholder approval.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, executive officers and directors contain provisions relating to transfer restrictions of our founder shares and Private Placement Shares, indemnification of the trust account, waiver of redemption rights and participation in liquidating distributions from the trust account. The letter agreement may be amended without shareholder approval. While we do not expect our board to approve any amendment to the letter agreement prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to the letter agreement. Any such amendments to the letter agreement would not require approval from our shareholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business outside of the United States
We may effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in the target business’ home jurisdiction, including any of the following:
| ● | rules and regulations or currency redemption or 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; |
| ● | 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; |
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| ● | rates of inflation or deflation; |
| ● | challenges in collecting accounts receivable; |
| ● | cultural and language differences; |
| ● | employment regulations; |
| ● | crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist attacks, pandemics and wars; 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, our operations might suffer. |
Social unrest, acts of terrorism, regime changes, changes in laws and regulations, political upheaval, or policy changes or enactments may occur in a country in which we may operate after we effect our initial business combination.
Political events in another country may significantly affect our business, assets or operations. Social unrest, acts of terrorism, regime changes, changes in laws and regulations, political upheaval, pandemics and policy changes or enactments could negatively impact our business in a particular country.
Many countries have difficult and unpredictable legal systems and underdeveloped laws and regulations that are unclear and subject to corruption and inexperience.
Our ability to seek and enforce legal protections, including with respect to intellectual property and other property rights, or to defend ourselves with regard to legal actions taken against us in a given country, may be difficult or impossible, which could adversely impact our operations, assets or financial condition.
Rules and regulations in many countries are often ambiguous or open to differing interpretation by responsible individuals and agencies at the municipal, state, regional and federal levels. The attitudes and actions of such individuals and agencies are often difficult to predict and inconsistent.
Delay with respect to the enforcement of particular rules and regulations, including those relating to customs, tax, environmental and labor, could cause serious disruption to operations abroad and negatively impact our results.
If relations between the United States and foreign governments deteriorate, it could cause potential target businesses or their goods and services to become less attractive.
The relationship between the United States and foreign governments could be subject to sudden fluctuation and periodic tension. For instance, the United States may announce its intention to impose quotas on certain imports. Such import quotas may adversely affect political relations between the two countries and result in retaliatory countermeasures by the foreign government in industries that may affect our ultimate target business. Changes in political conditions in foreign countries and changes in the state of U.S. relations with such countries are difficult to predict and could adversely affect our operations or cause potential target businesses or their goods and services to become less attractive. Because we are not limited to any specific industry, there is no basis for investors in our securities to evaluate the possible extent of any impact on our ultimate operations if relations are strained between the United States and a foreign country in which we acquire a target business or move our principal manufacturing or service operations.
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.
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 United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with our 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.
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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, 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.
Because foreign law could govern our material agreements, we may not be able to enforce our rights within such jurisdiction or elsewhere.
Foreign law could govern our material agreements. The target business may not be able to enforce any of its material agreements and remedies may not be available outside of such foreign jurisdiction’s legal system. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws and contracts in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The judiciaries in certain foreign countries may be relatively inexperienced in enforcing corporate and commercial law, leading to a higher than usual degree of uncertainty as to the outcome of any litigation. Any such jurisdictions may not favor outsiders or could be corrupt. As a result, the inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business and business opportunities.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
Our executive offices are located at 6060 Center Drive, 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90045. We have entered into an administrative support agreement with an affiliate of our sponsor pursuant to which we have agreed to pay the sponsor affiliate a total of up to $17,500 per month for office space and professional, secretarial, administrative and support services provided to us.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
None.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
None.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our Class A ordinary shares are traded on Nasdaq under the symbol FWAC. Our Class A ordinary shares commenced public trading on May 25, 2021. There is no trading market for our Class B ordinary shares.
Holders
As of March 1, 2022, there were 2 holders of record of our Class A ordinary shares and 5 holders of record of our Class B ordinary shares.
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Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our Initial Business Combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of our Initial Business Combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our Initial Business Combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time and we will only pay such dividend out of our profits or share premium (subject to solvency requirements) as permitted under Cayman Islands law. If we incur any indebtedness in connection with a business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
Unregistered Sales
Simultaneously with the consummation of the IPO and the issuance and sale of the shares, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 907,000 Private Placement Shares at a price of $10.00 per Private Placement Share, to the sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $9,070,000. No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to the Private Placement. The Private Placement was conducted as a non-public transaction and, as a transaction by an issuer not involving a public offering, is exempt from registration under the Securities Act in reliance upon Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The Private Placement Shares are identical to the Class A Ordinary Shares sold in the IPO, subject to certain limited exceptions, including that the sponsor has agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Private Placement Shares (except to certain permitted transferees) until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial business combination.
Use of Proceeds
The registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-255292) for our Initial Public Offering was declared effective by the SEC on May 24, 2021. On May 27, 2021, the Company consummated the Initial Public Offering of 27,500,000 Class A ordinary shares, including 2,500,000 shares as a result of the underwriters’ partial exercise of their overallotment option, at an offering price of $10.00 per share. The gross proceeds from the Initial Public Offering were $275,000,000 in aggregate.
A total of $275,000,000 of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and Private Placement (which includes the underwriters’ deferred discount of $9,625,000) was placed in a trust account, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. Transaction costs amounted to approximately $16.1 million, of which approximately $9.6 million was for deferred underwriting commissions. There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from such use as described in the Company’s registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-255292).
Item 6. [Reserved]
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
References to the “Company,” “our,” “us” or “we” refer to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III. The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Overview
Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) was incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on February 19, 2021. The Company was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (the “Business Combination”). The company is an early stage and emerging growth company and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risk associated with early stage and emerging growth companies.
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As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not commenced any operations. All activity for the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”) described below and seeking a Business Combination following the Initial Public Offering. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company will generate non- operating income in the form of interest income from the proceeds derived from the Initial Public Offering. The Company has selected December 31 as its fiscal year end.
The Company’s sponsor is Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor III LLC, a Cayman Islands exempted limited company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on May 24, 2021. On May 27, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 27,500,000 Class A ordinary shares (the “Public Shares”), including 2,500,000 Public Shares as a result of the underwriters’ partial exercise of their over-allotment option, at an offering price of $10.00 per Public Share, generating gross proceeds of $275.0 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $16.1 million, of which approximately $9.6 million was for deferred underwriting commissions.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the private placement (“Private Placement”) of 907,000 Class A ordinary shares (the “Private Placement Shares”), at a price of $10.00 per Private Placement Share to the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $9.1 million.
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering, management agreed that an amount equal to at least $10.00 per Public Share sold in the Initial Public Offering, including the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Shares, are held in a trust account (“Trust Account”), located in the United States, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and is invested only in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (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, until the earlier of: (i) the completion of a Business Combination and (ii) the distribution of the Trust Account as described below.
The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Shares, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. There is no assurance that the Company will be able to complete a Business Combination successfully. The Company must complete one or more initial Business Combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the interest earned on the Trust Account) at the time of the signing of the agreement to enter into the initial Business Combination. However, the Company will only complete a 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 sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”).
The Company will provide the holders of Public Shares (the “Public Shareholders”), with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek shareholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company, solely in its discretion. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially anticipated to be $10.00 per Public Share, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay income taxes). The per-share amount to be distributed to Public Shareholders who redeem their Public Shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriters.
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The Public Shares were classified as temporary equity in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” The Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation of a Business Combination and, only if a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon, voted at a shareholder meeting are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a shareholder vote is not required by law and the Company does not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, the Company will, pursuant to the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which the Company adopted upon the consummation of the Initial Public Offering (the “Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association”), conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, shareholder approval of the transactions is required by law, or the Company decides to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, the Company will offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. Additionally, each Public Shareholder may elect to redeem their Public Shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. If the Company seeks shareholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the initial shareholders (as defined below) agreed to vote their Founder Shares and any Public Shares purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of a Business Combination. In addition, the initial shareholders agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares, Private Placement Shares and Public Shares in connection with the completion of a Business Combination.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Company seeks shareholder approval of its Business Combination and does not conduct redemptions in connection with its Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association provides 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the Class A ordinary shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, without the prior consent of the Company.
The Company’s Sponsor, officers and directors (the “initial shareholders”) agreed not to propose an amendment to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association that would modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to provide holders of its Public Shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with a Business Combination or to redeem 100% of the Company’s Public Shares if the Company does not complete its Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, or May 27, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), or with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of Public Shareholders, unless the Company provides the Public Shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares in conjunction with any such amendment.
If the Company has not completed a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Company will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay its taxes that were paid by the Company or are payable by the Company, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the then-outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish Public Shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the remaining shareholders and the board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (i) and (iii) to the Company’s obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
The initial shareholders agreed to waive their liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares and Private Placement Shares held by them if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the initial shareholders acquire Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriters agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the other funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the assets remaining available for distribution (including Trust Account assets) will be only $10.00 per share initially held in the Trust Account. In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsor agreed to be liable to the Company if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to the Company, or a prospective target business with which the Company has discussed entering into a transaction 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
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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. This liability will not apply with respect to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account or to any claims under the Company’s indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).
Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, the Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. The Company will seek to reduce the possibility that the Sponsor will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (excluding the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which the Company does business, execute agreements with the Company waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account.
Results of Operations
Our entire activity from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 was in preparation for our formation and the Initial Public Offering and, thereafter, seeking an initial Business Combination. We will not be generating any operating revenues until the closing and completion of our initial Business Combination.
For the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had a net loss of approximately $1,101,000, which consisted of approximately $1,039,000 of general and administrative expenses, and $74,000 in general and administrative expenses - related party, partially offset by approximately $12,000 in income from investments held in Trust Account.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately $738,000 in its operating bank account and working capital of approximately $1.6 million.
The Company’s liquidity needs through December 31, 2021 have been satisfied through a payment of $25,000 by the Sponsor to cover for certain expenses in exchange for the issuance of the Founder Shares, the loan of approximately $109,000 from the Sponsor pursuant to the Note, and the proceeds from the consummation of the Private Placement not held in the Trust Account. The Company fully repaid the Note on May 28, 2021. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide the Company Working Capital Loans. As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loan.
Based on the foregoing, management believes that the Company will have sufficient working capital and borrowing capacity from the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors to meet its needs through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or one year from this filing. Over this time period, the Company will be using these funds for paying existing accounts payable, identifying and evaluating prospective initial Business Combination candidates, performing due diligence on prospective target businesses, paying for travel expenditures, selecting the target business to merge with or acquire, and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
Contractual Obligations
Registration and Shareholder Rights
The holders of Founder Shares, Private Placement Shares and Private Placement Shares that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans, were entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement signed upon consummation of the Initial Public Offering. The holders of these securities were entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registered such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the Company’s completion of its Business Combination. However, the registration and shareholder rights agreement provides that the Company will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until termination of the applicable lock-up period, which occurs (i) in the case of the Founder Shares, in accordance with the letter agreement the Company’s initial shareholders entered into and (ii) in the case of the Private Placement Shares, 30 days after the completion of the Company’s Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
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Underwriting Agreement
The Company granted the underwriters a 45-day option from the final prospectus relating to the Initial Public Offering to purchase up to 3,750,000 additional Public Shares to cover over-allotments, if any, at the Initial Public Offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On May 27, 2021, the underwriters partially exercised the over-allotment option to purchase an additional 2,500,000 Class A ordinary shares.
The underwriters were entitled to an underwriting discount of $0.20 per Public Share, or $5.5 million in the aggregate, paid upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.35 per Public Share, or approximately $9.6 million in the aggregate will be payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
This management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to fair value of financial instruments and accrued expenses. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We have identified the following as our critical accounting policies:
Investments Held in Trust Account
The Company’s portfolio of investments is comprised of U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less, or investments in money market funds that invest in U.S. government securities and generally have a readily determinable fair value, or a combination thereof. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of U.S. government securities, the investments are classified as trading securities. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of money market funds, the investments are recognized at fair value. Trading securities and investments in money market funds are presented on the balance sheets at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities is included in income on investments held in the Trust Account in the accompanying statement of operations. The estimated fair values of investments held in the Trust Account are determined using available market information.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. The Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, 27,500,000 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ equity section of the Company’s balance sheet.
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjust the carrying value of redeemable ordinary shares to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Effective with the closing of the Initial Public Offering (including the exercise of the over-allotment option), the Company recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount, which resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital (to the extent available) and accumulated deficit.
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Net Loss per Ordinary Share
The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. Net income (loss) per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period. Accretion associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.
Recent accounting standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging-Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on February 19, 2021 (inception). Adoption of the ASU did not impact the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of December 31, 2021, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations.
JOBS Act
On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an “emerging growth company” and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As such, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates.
Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an “emerging growth company,” we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis) and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the CEO’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our Initial Public Offering or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this item. As of December 31, 2021, we were not subject to any market or interest rate risk. The net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering, including amounts in the Trust Account, will be invested in the Trust Investments. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
We have not engaged in any hedging activities since our inception and we do not expect to engage in any hedging activities with respect to the market risk to which we are exposed.
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Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
This information appears following Item 16 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2021 because of a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting described below.
Previously Reported Material Weakness
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, the Company’s management has concluded that our control around the interpretation and accounting for certain complex features of the Class A ordinary shares, and the presentation of earnings per share was not effectively designed or maintained. This material weakness resulted in the restatement of the Company’s interim financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Additionally, this material weakness could result in a misstatement of the carrying value of complex financial instruments, and related accounts and disclosures, and presentation of earnings per share that would result in a material misstatement of the financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. As a result, our management performed additional analysis as deemed necessary to ensure that our financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted in the United States of America. Accordingly, management believes that the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K present fairly, in all material respects, our financial position, result of operations and cash flows of the periods presented. Management understands that the accounting standards applicable to our financial statements are complex and has since the inception of the Company benefited from the support of experienced third-party professionals with whom management has regularly consulted with respect to accounting issues. Management intends to continue to further consult with such professionals in connection with accounting matters.
Our principal executive officer and principal financial officer performed additional accounting and financial analyses and other post-closing procedures including consulting with subject matter experts related to the accounting for certain complex financial instruments issued by the Company, and the presentation of earnings per share. The Company’s management has expended, and will continue to expend, a substantial amount of effort and resources for the remediation and improvement of our internal control over financial reporting. While we have processes to properly identify and evaluate the appropriate accounting technical pronouncements and other literature for all significant or unusual transactions, we have expanded and will continue to improve these processes to ensure that the nuances of such transactions are effectively evaluated in the context of the increasingly complex accounting standards.
Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in our Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Management’s Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
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Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting, as the circumstances that led to the restatement of our financial statements as noted below.
Our principal executive officer and principal financial officer performed additional accounting and financial analyses and other post-closing procedures including consulting with subject matter experts related to the accounting for certain complex features of the Class A ordinary shares, and the presentation of earnings per share. The Company’s management has expended, and will continue to expend, a substantial amount of effort and resources for the remediation and improvement of our internal control over financial reporting. While we have processes to properly identify and evaluate the appropriate accounting technical pronouncements and other literature for all significant or unusual transactions, we have expanded and will continue to improve these processes to ensure that the nuances of such transactions are effectively evaluated in the context of the increasingly complex accounting standards.
Item 9B. Other Information
None.
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.
Not applicable.
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
Directors and Executive Officers
Our directors and offices are as follows:
Name |
| Age |
| Title |
|
Brendan Wallace | | [39] | | Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director | |
Andriy Mykhaylovskyy | | [35] | | Chief Financial Officer and Director | |
Adeymo Ajao | | [39] | | Director | |
Alana Beard | | [40] | | Director | |
Poonam Sharma Mathis | | [44] | | Director | |
Amanda Parness | | [50] | | Director | |
Brendan Wallace serves as our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Mr. Wallace also serves as a co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall since May 2016, where he also serves as the chairman of the investment committee, Mr. Wallace is also the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Prior to starting Fifth Wall, Mr. Wallace co-founded Identified Inc., a venture-backed data and analytics company, in January 2009, that was subsequently acquired by Workday, Inc. in February 2014. Mr. Wallace also was involved in the founding of Maxi Mobility Spain, S.L. (d/b/a Cabify) in September 2012. Mr. Wallace has been an active investor, leading more than 65 angel investments including Dollar Shave Club, Bonobos, Carbon38, Clutter, Inc., Philz Coffee, Inc., Allbirds, Inc., MasterClass, Roofstock, Inc., Common Living, Inc. Mr. Wallace started his career at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. in the real estate, hospitality, and gaming investment banking before joining The Blackstone Group Inc.’s real estate private equity group where he was involved with the buyout of Hilton Hotels and Equity Office Properties. Mr. Wallace received his B.A. Summa Cum Laude in Political Science from Princeton University in 2004 and received his M.B.A. from Stanford University in 2010. We believe Mr. Wallace is well suited to be a member of our board of directors based on his extensive investment experience.
Andriy Mykhaylovskyy serves as our Chief Financial Officer and director. Mr. Mykhaylovskyy is a Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Fifth Wall since April 2017, where he oversees the firm’s day-to-day operations and investing activities. Mr. Mykhaylovskyy also serves as Chief Financial Officer of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. Prior to joining Fifth Wall, Mr. Mykhaylovskyy was a Principal and founding team member at Evergreen Coast Capital, a technology-focused private equity affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation, from January 2016 to March 2017. Mr. Mykhaylovskyy’s other previous leadership roles include
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serving as the Vice President at The Gores Group from May 2014 to January 2016 and Chief Financial Officer of Identified, Inc., a data and analytics company, from August 2013 to February 2014. Mr. Mykhaylovskyy started his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, where he offered financial advisory and capital-raising services to global industrial corporations, before joining technology-focused private equity firm Francisco Partners as an associate. Mr. Mykhaylovskyy received his B.A. in Economics from Princeton University in 2007 and received his M.B.A. from Stanford University in 2013. We believe Mr. Mykhaylovsky’s financial expertise and experience in evaluating and investing in technology and data analytics companies makes him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.
Adeyemi Ajao has been a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Mr. Ajao has been a director of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II since April 2021. Mr. Ajao is also Co-founder & Managing Partner at Base10 Partners which was founded in January 2017. Mr. Ajao was the co-founder and CEO of Tuenti (The “Spanish Facebook”) from January 2005 to July 2010 which was acquired by Telefonica in 2010 for $100M. He also was the co-founder and CEO of Identified from June 2010 to February 2014 which was acquired by Workday in 2014. He was also a founding investor of Cabify in July 2011 (the largest ridesharing company in Latin America currently valued at over $1B). While at Workday from February 2014 to September 2016, Mr. Ajao led launch to Workday Ventures, the first fund focused on Applied AI for Enterprise Software and was VP of Technology Strategy. Mr. Ajao graduated from Icade University in Spain in 2005 with a Master of Science in Finance and a Juris Doctor. Mr. Ajao graduated from Stanford University in 2010 with a Master of Business Administration. Mr. Ajao also holds a certificate from Stanford University in Machine Learning. We believe Mr. Ajao’s prior leadership experience makes him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.
Alana Beard has been a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Ms. Beard has been a director of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II since April 2021. She is also President of the 318 Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, since January 2021. Ms. Beard is currently a director of SmartRent, Inc. Prior to joining SVB, Alana was a member of the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks organization from April 2012 to January 2020 and an ESPN/ACC women’s college basketball analyst from October 2019 to March 2020. During her career with the Sparks, Ms. Beard was a four-time WNBA All-Star, won the WNBA championship in 2016 and was named WNBA Defensive Player of the Year for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Ms. Beard graduated from Duke University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. We believe Ms. Beard’s prior leadership experience makes her well qualified to serve on our board of directors.
Poonam Sharma Mathis has been a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Ms. Mathis has been a director of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II since April 2021. Ms. Mathis is also a serial entrepreneur, real estate industry veteran and public speaker with a passion for innovating around the built world. Most recently CEO of Raise, she aimed to revolutionize childcare for the future of work. Previously, she founded StealthForce, (the gig economy of real estate; a resource and project management platform for CRE), which was exited in early 2019. Prior to StealthForce, she was Deputy to the Head of Global Real Estate Asset Management at Partners Group AG ($40 billion AUM), and earlier employee 13 at The Gerson Lehrman Group, which was the world’s first institutional expert network. Ms. Mathis earned her Bachelor of Arts at Harvard and Master of Business Administration at Wharton, and spent over a decade in real estate development and investment. Twice named a top female CEO in CREtech, she has been featured in The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Harvard Business Review, NBC News, and more. She is also an author and experienced public speaker (ULI, ICSC, CRETech, etc.) who has published four books in five languages which have been printed worldwide. We believe Ms. Mathis’s prior leadership experience makes her well qualified to serve on our board of directors.
Amanda Parness has been a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Ms. Parness has been a director of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II since April 2021. In January 2020, Ms. Parness became CEO and Founder of Spring Advisory Services. From May 2019 to December 2019, Ms. Parness was Managing Director, Head of U.S. Private Equity Funds at Caisse de Depot et Investment du Quebec (CDPQ). From September 1998 to May 2019, Ms. Parness was a Managing Principal at GoldPoint Partners, New York Life Insurance Company’s private equity subsidiary. Ms. Parness was a Financial Analyst in the Equity Research Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. from January 1994 to July 1996. Ms. Parness graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, and in 1998 graduated with a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Columbia Business School. We believe Ms. Parness’s prior leadership experience makes her well qualified to serve on our board of directors.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors is divided into three classes, with only one class of directors being appointed in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of shareholders) serving a three-year term. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Alana Beard and Poonam Sharma Mathis, is expected to expire at our first annual meeting of shareholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Amanda Parness and Adeyemi Ajao, is
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expected to expire at our second annual meeting of shareholders. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Brendan Wallace and Andriy Mykhaylovskyy, will expire at our third annual meeting of shareholders.
Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into concurrently with the IPO, upon consummation of an initial business combination and for so long as our sponsor and its permitted transferees collectively hold at least 50% of the number of ordinary shares held by the sponsor following the IPO (after giving appropriate effect to any sub-divisions, reverse share sub-divisions or other similar corporate transactions, or any adjustment to the conversion rate of the founder shares in connection with an initial business combination) through our sponsor, Fifth Wall, will be entitled to nominate one person for appointment to our board of directors.
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint persons to the offices set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association as it deems appropriate. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that our officers may consist of one or more chairperson of the board, chief executive officer, president, chief financial officer, vice presidents, secretary, treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has three standing committees: an audit committee, nominating committee and a compensation committee. Our audit committee, our nominating committee and our compensation committee is composed solely of independent directors. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq and Rule 10A of the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Each committee operates under a charter that was approved by our board and has the composition and responsibilities described below.
Audit Committee
Adeyemi Ajao, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness serve as members of the audit committee and Amanda Parness serves as chair of the audit committee. Our board of directors has determined that each of Adeyemi Ajao, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness is independent within the meaning of Nasdaq listing standards and SEC rules applicable to audit committee members.
Each member of the audit committee meets the financial literacy requirements of Nasdaq and our board of directors has determined that Amanda Parness qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| ● | meeting with our independent registered public accounting firm regarding, among other issues, audits, and adequacy of our accounting and control systems; |
| ● | monitoring the independence of the independent registered public accounting firm; |
| ● | verifying the rotation of the lead (or coordinating) audit partner having primary responsibility for the audit and the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit as required by law; |
| ● | inquiring and discussing with management our compliance with applicable laws and regulations; |
| ● | pre-approving all audit services and permitted non-audit services to be performed by our independent registered public accounting firm, including the fees and terms of the services to be performed; |
| ● | appointing or replacing the independent registered public accounting firm; |
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| ● | determining the compensation and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm (including resolution of disagreements between management and the independent registered public accounting firm regarding financial reporting) for the purpose of preparing or issuing an audit report or related work; |
| ● | establishing procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by us regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or reports which raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies; |
| ● | monitoring compliance on a quarterly basis with the terms of the IPO and, if any noncompliance is identified, immediately taking all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise causing compliance with the terms of the IPO; and |
| ● | reviewing and approving all payments made to our existing shareholders, executive officers or directors and their respective affiliates. Any payments made to members of our audit committee will be reviewed and approved by our board of directors, with the interested director or directors abstaining from such review and approval. |
Nominating Committee
The members of our nominating and corporate governance committee are Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard and Poonam Sharma Mathis. Adeyemi Ajao serves as chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee. Our board of directors has determined that each of Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard and Poonam Sharma Mathis is independent within the meaning of Nasdaq director independence standards.
The nominating committee is responsible for overseeing the selection of persons to be nominated to serve on our board of directors. The nominating committee considers persons identified by its members, management, shareholders, investment bankers and others.
Guidelines for Selecting Director Nominees
The guidelines for selecting nominees, which are specified in the Nominating Committee Charter, generally provide that persons to be nominated:
| ● | should have demonstrated notable or significant achievements in business, education or public service; |
| ● | should possess the requisite intelligence, education and experience to make a significant contribution to the board of directors and bring a range of skills, diverse perspectives and backgrounds to its deliberations; and |
| ● | should have the highest ethical standards, a strong sense of professionalism and intense dedication to serving the interests of the shareholders. |
The nominating committee will consider a number of qualifications relating to management and leadership experience, background and integrity and professionalism in evaluating a person’s candidacy for membership on the board of directors. The nominating committee may require certain skills or attributes, such as financial or accounting experience, to meet specific board needs that arise from time to time and will also consider the overall experience and makeup of its members to obtain a broad and diverse mix of board members. The nominating committee does not distinguish among nominees recommended by shareholders and other persons.
Compensation Committee
Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness serve as members of the compensation committee and Poonam Sharma Mathis serves as chair of the compensation committee. Our board of directors has determined that each of Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness are independent within the meaning of Nasdaq listing standards applicable to compensation committee members.
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We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
| ● | reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation; |
| ● | reviewing and approving the compensation of all of our other Section 16 executive officers; |
| ● | reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans; |
| ● | implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| ● | assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| ● | approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our executive officers and employees; |
| ● | producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and |
| ● | reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors. |
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. A copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
| ● | duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole; |
| ● | duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose; |
| ● | duty to not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion; |
| ● | duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders; |
| ● | duty not to put themselves in a position in which there is a conflict between their duty to the company and their personal interests; and |
| ● | duty to exercise independent judgment. |
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In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge skill and experience of that director.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.
Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to other entities pursuant to which such persons is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. Accordingly, if Fifth Wall or any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which such person has then-current fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to present such opportunity to such entity (including Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II) first, such person will honor such fiduciary, contractual or other obligations to present such opportunity to such entity, in which case such opportunity may not be made available to us and Fifth Wall or such person will only present such opportunity to us if such other entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the transaction would not violate any restrictive covenants or other legal obligations to which such officers and directors are subject, including their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. If any officer or director serving Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II or Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III becomes aware of a business combination opportunity with a proptech company serving the residential real estate industry (and no other parties to which such officers or directors may owe any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations, including in the case of officers and directors associated or affiliated with Fifth Wall, Fifth Wall, wish to pursue such opportunity), such officers and directors will present the opportunity to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. In all other cases, the opportunity will be first presented to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III. Further, Fifth Wall and each of our officers and directors have duties and obligations with respect to confidentiality to other entities and may in the future agree to additional such duties or obligations, which may prevent Fifth Wall and such officers and directors from disclosing such information to us. Fifth Wall and our officers and directors will comply with such duties and obligations of confidentiality to such other entities, in which case, we may not have access to such information. In addition, we may, at our option, pursue an Affiliated Joint Acquisition opportunity with an entity to which Fifth Wall or an officer or director currently has, or may in the future have, a fiduciary or contractual obligation. Any such entity may co-invest with us in the target business at the time of our initial business combination, or we could raise additional proceeds to complete the business combination by making a specified future issuance to any such entity. Any such business combination may require additional consents from third parties outside the control of our directors, officers or Fifth Wall, including any such business combination that requires the consent of the limited partner advisory committee of one or more investment funds managed or advised by Fifth Wall. We may be prevented from pursuing an Affiliated Joint Acquisition or other similar business combination if such consents are not obtained. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
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Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties or similar contractual obligations:
Individual |
| Entity |
| Entity’s Business |
| Affiliation |
|
Brendan Wallace | | Fifth Wall | | Investments and Advisory | | Co-Founder and Managing Partner | |
| | Global Uprising, PBC | | Retail & wholesale products | | Board Member of Portfolio Company | |
| | Honest Networks, Inc. | | Internet service provider | | Board Member of Portfolio Company | |
| | Loft Holdings Ltd | | Real-estate platform to buy, sell, and rent residential and commercial properties. | | Board Member of Portfolio Company | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor I, LLC | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company sponsor | | Manager | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor II, LLC | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company sponsor | | Manager | |
Andriy Mykhaylovskyy | | Fifth Wall | | Investments and Advisory | | Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer | |
| | FHF Ventures, Ltd | | Fund vehicle | | Board Member of Portfolio Company | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Chief Financial Officer | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor I, LLC | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company sponsor | | Manager | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor II, LLC | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company sponsor | | Manager | |
Adeyemi Ajao | | Base10 Partners | | Venture capital | | Co-founder & Managing Partner | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Director | |
Alana Beard | | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Director | |
| | 318 Foundation, Inc. | | Non-Profit | | President | |
| | SmartRent, Inc. | | Corporation | | Director | |
Amanda Parness | | Spring Advisory Services | | Advisory | | Chief Executive Officer | |
| | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Director | |
Poonam Sharma Mathis | | Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II | | Special Purpose Acquisition Company | | Director | |
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
| ● | In the course of their other business activities, our officers and directors may become aware of investment and business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as the other entities with which they are affiliated (including Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II). Our management may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. |
| ● | Our sponsor and its transferees, if any, have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination. Additionally, our sponsor has agreed to waive its redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by it if we fail to consummate our |
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| initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the IPO. However, if our sponsor acquires public shares, it will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO. If we do not complete our initial business combination within such applicable time period, the proceeds of the sale of the Private Placement Shares held in the trust account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, and the Private Placement Shares will expire worthless. |
With certain limited exceptions, the founder shares will not be transferable, assignable by our sponsor or certain of our directors that hold founder shares (or any other permitted assigns, if any) until the earlier of: (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) if the last sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per ordinary share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. With certain limited exceptions, the Private Placement Shares and the Class A ordinary shares, will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our sponsor or its permitted transferees until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. Since our sponsor and officers and directors may directly or indirectly own ordinary shares following the IPO, our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to complete our initial business combination.
| ● | 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. |
| ● | Our sponsor, officers or directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a business combination and financing arrangements as we may obtain loans from our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or any of our officers or directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into Class A ordinary shares at a price of $10.00 per ordinary share at the option of the lender. Such shares would be identical to the Private Placement Shares, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. |
The conflicts described above may not be resolved in our favor.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with (a) a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our officers or directors or (b) a business combination target that we know or should reasonably know is affiliated with a member of our sponsor owning at least 5% of the membership interests in the sponsor, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm, that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context. Furthermore, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid by the company any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination except that following the closing of the IPO, we entered into an administrative support agreement with an affiliate of our sponsor pursuant to which we have agreed to pay the sponsor affiliate a total of up to $17,500 per month for office space and professional, secretarial, administrative and support services provided to us.
In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our sponsor has agreed to vote any founder shares held by it and any public shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination and our officers and directors have also agreed to vote any public shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive approval pursuant to 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. In such case, our sponsor and each member of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares, Private Placement Shares and public shares in favor of our initial business combination.
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Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a company’s memorandum and articles of association may provide for indemnification of officers and directors, except to the extent any such provision may be held by the Cayman Islands courts to be contrary to public policy, such as to provide indemnification against willful default, willful neglect, civil fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides for indemnification of our officers and directors to the maximum extent permitted by law, including for any liability incurred in their capacities as such, except through their own actual fraud, willful default or willful neglect. We entered into agreements with our directors and officers to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
We purchased a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors.
Our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any services provided to us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will only be able to be satisfied by us if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination.
Our indemnification obligations may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
Item 11. Executive Compensation
In May 24, 2021, our sponsor transferred 30,000 founder shares to each of Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness. None of our executive officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee reviews on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than quarterly audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and executive officers for their out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with our activities on our behalf in connection with identifying and consummating an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
After the completion of our initial business combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed business combination. We have not established any limit on the amount of such fees that may be paid by the combined company to our directors or members of management. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of the proposed business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.
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We do not intend to take any action to ensure that members of our management team maintain their positions with us after the consummation of our initial business combination, although it is possible that some or all of our executive officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our initial business combination. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their positions with us may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination. We are not party to any agreements with our executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of March 1, 2022 by:
| ● | each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares; |
| ● | each of our executive officers and directors; and |
| ● | all our executive officers and directors as a group. |
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our ordinary shares beneficially owned by them.
|
| Class B Ordinary Shares |
| Class A Ordinary Shares |
| ||||||
| | Number of | | | | Number of | | | | Approximate | |
| | Shares | | Approximate | | Shares | | Approximate | | Percentage | |
| | Beneficially | | Percentage | | Beneficially | | Percentage | | of Voting | |
Name of Beneficial Owner(1) |
| Owned |
| of Class |
| Owned |
| of Class |
| Control | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|
Fifth Wall Acquisition sponsor III LLC (our sponsor) |
| 6,755,000(2) |
| 98.2 | % | 907,000(2) |
| 3.2 | % | 21.7 | % |
Citadel Advisors LLC(3) |
| — |
| — |
| 2,166,303 |
| 7.6 | % | 6.1 | % |
Empyrean Capital Overseas(4) Master Fund, Ltd. |
| — |
| — |
| 1,750,000 |
| 6.2 | % | 5.0 | % |
Eminence Capital, LP(5) |
| — |
| — |
| 1,682,736 |
| 5.9 | % | 4.8 | % |
Sculptor Capital LP(6) |
| — |
| — |
| 1,550,000 |
| 5.5 | % | 4.4 | % |
Andriy Mykhaylovskyy(7) |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| — | |
Brendan Wallace(7) |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| — | |
Adeyemi Ajao |
| 30,000 |
| * |
| — |
| — |
| * | |
Alana Beard |
| 30,000 |
| * |
| — |
| — |
| * | |
Poonam Sharma Mathis |
| 30,000 |
| * |
| — |
| — |
| * | |
Amanda Parness |
| 30,000 |
| * |
| — |
| — |
| * | |
All officers and directors a group (6 individuals) |
| 120,000 |
| 1.7 | % | — |
| — |
| * | |
* Less than 1%.
(1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of our shareholders is 6060 Center Drive, 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90045. |
(2) | Our sponsor is the record holder of such shares. Andriy Mykhaylovskyy and Brendan Wallace are the managing members of our sponsor and therefore, may be deemed to have beneficial ownership of the ordinary shares held directly by our sponsor. Each such person disclaims any beneficial ownership of the reported shares other than to the extent of any pecuniary interest they may% have therein, directly or indirectly. |
(3) | Information based on the Schedule 13G/A filed on February 14, 2022 by Citadel Advisors LLC (“Citadel Advisors”), Citadel Advisors Holdings LP (“CAH”), Citadel GP LLC (“CGP”), Citadel Securities LLC (“Citadel Securities”), Citadel Securities Group LP (“CALC4”), Citadel Securities GP LLC (“CSGP”) and Mr. Kenneth Griffin. The Class A Ordinary Shares are held by Citadel Multi-Strategy Equities Master Fund Ltd., a Cayman Islands company (“CM”). Citadel Advisors is the portfolio manager for CM. CAH is the sole member of Citadel Advisors. CGP is the general partner of CAH. CALC4 is the non-member manager of Citadel Securities. CSGP is the general partner of CALC4. Mr. Griffin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CGP, and owns a controlling interest in CGP and CSGP. Each of Citadel Advisors, CAH, CGP, Citadel Securities, CALC4, CSGP and Mr. |
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Griffin may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power with respect to the Class A Ordinary Shares. The address of each of Citadel Advisors, CAH, CGP, Citadel Securities, CALC4, CSGP and Mr. Griffin is 131 S. Dearborn Street, 32nd Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60603.
(4) | Information based on the Schedule 13G filed on February 4, 2022 by Empyrean Capital Overseas Master Fund, Ltd. ("ECOMF"), which directly holds the Class A Ordinary Shares, Empyrean Capital Partners, LP ("ECP”), which serves as investment manager to ECOMF with respect to the Class A Ordinary Shares directly held by ECOMF, and Mr. Amos Meron, who serves as the managing member of Empyrean Capital, LLC, the general partner of ECP, with respect to the Class A Ordinary Shares directly held by ECOMF. Each of ECP and Mr. Meron may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power with respect to the Class A Ordinary Shares directly held by ECOMF. The address of each of ECP, ECOMF and Mr. Meron is 10250 Constellation Boulevard, Suite 2950, Los Angeles, CA 90067. |
(5) | Information based on the Schedule 13G filed on February 14, 2022 by Eminence Capital, LP (“Eminence Capital”) and Mr. Ricky C. Sandler. Eminence Capital serves as the management company or investment adviser to, and may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power over the Class A Ordinary Shares held by, various investment funds (the “Eminence Funds”) and separately managed accounts (the “Eminence SMAs,” and together with the Eminence Funds, the “Eminence Funds and SMAs”) under its management and control. The general partner of Eminence Capital is Eminence Capital GP, LLC, the sole managing member of which is Mr. Sandler. Mr. Sandler is the Chief Executive Officer of Eminence Capital and may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power with respect to the Class A Ordinary Shares held by the Eminence Funds and SMAs. The address of each of Eminence Capital LLC and Mr. Sandler is 399 Park Avenue, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10022. |
(6) | Information based on the Schedule 13G filed on February 4, 2022 by Sculptor Capital LP (“Sculptor”), Sculptor Capital II LP (“Sculptor-II”), which is wholly owned by Sculptor, Sculptor Capital Holding Corporation (“SCHC”), Sculptor Capital Holding II LLC (“SCHC-II”), which is wholly owned by Sculptor, Sculptor Capital Management, Inc. (“SCU”), Sculptor Master Fund, Ltd. (“SCMF”), Sculptor Special Funding, LP (“NRMD”), which is wholly owned by SCMF, Sculptor Credit Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd. (“SCCO”), Sculptor SC II LP (“NJGC”) and Sculptor Enhanced Master Fund, Ltd. (“SCEN”). The Class A Ordinary Shares are held in a number of private funds and discretionary accounts (collectively, the “Sculptor Accounts”). Sculptor and Sculptor-II serve as the principal investment managers to the Sculptor Accounts and thus may be deemed beneficial owners of the Class A Ordinary Shares in the Sculptor Accounts managed by Sculptor and Sculptor-II. SCHC-II serves as the sole general partner of Sculptor-II and is wholly owned by Sculptor. SCHC serves as the sole general partner of Sculptor. As such, SCHC and SCHC-II may be deemed to control Sculptor as well as Sculptor-II and, therefore, may be deemed to be the beneficial owners of the Class A Ordinary Shares. SCU is the sole shareholder of SCHC and may be deemed a beneficial owner of the Class A Ordinary Shares. The address of the principal business offices of Sculptor, Sculptor-II, SCHC, SCHC-II, SCU, SCMF, NRMD, SCEN, SCCO and NJGC is 9 West 57 Street, 39 Floor, New York, NY 10019. |
(7) | Does not include any shares indirectly owned as a result of interest held in our sponsor. |
Our sponsor beneficially owns approximately 21.7% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Because of this ownership block, our sponsor may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all other matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of significant corporate transactions including our initial business combination.
Our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have agreed (a) to vote any founder shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (b) not to redeem any founder shares in connection with a shareholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination.
Our sponsor is deemed to be our “promoter” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
On February 24, 2021, we issued 4,312,500 founder shares to our sponsor in exchange for a payment of $25,000 to cover for certain expenses and offering costs on behalf of us. In April 2021, the Company effected a share capitalization for Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding and an aggregate purchase price of approximately $0.003 per ordinary share. All shares and associated amounts have been restated to reflect the share capitalization. On May 24, 2021, our sponsor transferred 30,000 founder shares to each of Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness
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The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares upon completion of the IPO, excluding the Private Placement Shares.
312,500 founder shares were forfeited by our sponsor due to the partial exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option. The shares transferred to certain of our directors were not subject to forfeiture. The founder shares (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder.
Our sponsor purchased 907,000 Private Placement Shares, at a price of $10.00 per ordinary share in a private placement concurrently with the closing of the IPO for an aggregate purchase price of $9,070,000. The Private Placement Shares are identical to the Class A ordinary shares sold in the IPO, subject to certain limited exceptions as described in the IPO prospectus.
Our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us. As more fully discussed in the section of this report entitled “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest,” if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that falls within the line of business of any entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations (including Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II), he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity first, in which case such opportunity may not be made available to us, and Fifth Wall or such person will only present such opportunity to us if such other entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the transaction would not violate any restrictive covenants or other legal obligations to which such officers and directors are subject, including to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. If any officer or director serving Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II or Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III becomes aware of a business combination opportunity with a proptech company serving the residential real estate industry (and no other parties to which such officers or directors may owe any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations, including in the case of officers and directors associated or affiliated with Fifth Wall, Fifth Wall, wish to pursue such opportunity), such officers and directors will present the opportunity to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. II. In all other cases, the opportunity will be first presented to Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III.
No compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid to our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. However, these individuals will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on the reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by such persons in connection with activities on our behalf.
The Company entered into an Administrative Support Agreement (the “Administrative Support Agreement”) with Fifth Wall Ventures Management, LLC (“Management Company”) pursuant to which it agreed to pay Management Company a total of up to $17,500 per month for office space and professional, secretarial, administrative and support services provided to the Company. Upon completion of the initial Business Combination or the Company’s liquidation, the Company will cease paying these monthly fees. For the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, the Company incurred expenses of $74,000, under this agreement.
On February 24, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $300,000 pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). This loan was non-interest bearing and payable upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering. The Company borrowed approximately $109,000 through the Initial Public Offering. The Company repaid the Note in full upon closing of the Initial Public Offering. Subsequent to the repayment, the facility was no longer available to the Company.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete an initial business combination, we will repay such loaned amounts. In the event that the initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into Class A ordinary shares at a price of $10.00 per ordinary share at the option of the lender. The shares would be identical to the Private Placement Shares, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of such loans by our officers and directors, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
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After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to our shareholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, furnished to our shareholders. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of distribution of such tender offer materials or at the time of a general meeting held to consider our initial business combination, as applicable, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation.
We entered into a registration and shareholder rights agreement with respect to the founder shares (including shares issuable upon conversion of the founder shares) and Private Placement Shares. Upon consummation of our initial business combination and for so long as our sponsor and its permitted transferees collectively hold at least 50% of the number of ordinary shares held by the sponsor upon consummation of the IPO (after giving appropriate effect to any share sub-divisions, reverse share sub-divisions or other similar corporate transactions, or any adjustment to the conversion rate of the founder shares in connection with an initial business combination), through our sponsor, Fifth Wall will be entitled to nominate one person for appointment to our board of directors.
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The charter of the audit committee of our board of directors provides for the review, approval and/or ratification of “related party transactions,” which are those transactions required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K as promulgated by the SEC, by the audit committee. At its meetings, the audit committee is provided with the details of each new, existing, or proposed related party transaction, including the terms of the transaction, any contractual restrictions that the company has already committed to, the business purpose of the transaction, and the benefits of the transaction to the company and to the relevant related party. Any member of the committee who has an interest in the related party transaction under review by the committee shall abstain from voting on the approval of the related party transaction, but may, if so requested by the chairperson of the committee, participate in some or all of the committee’s discussions of the related party transaction. Upon completion of its review of the related party transaction, the committee may determine to permit or to prohibit the related party transaction.
Director Independence
Applicable rules of Nasdaq require a majority of a listed company’s board of directors to be comprised of independent directors within one year of listing. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Our board of directors has determined that Adeyemi Ajao, Alana Beard, Poonam Sharma Mathis and Amanda Parness are “independent directors” as defined in Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present, subject to the transition rules described above for newly listed companies.
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The firm of WithumSmith+Brown, PC served as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021. The following is a summary of fees paid to WithumSmith+Brown, PC for services rendered.
Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end financial statements, reviews of our quarterly financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings. The aggregate fees billed by WithumSmith+Brown, PC for audit fees, inclusive of required filings with the SEC for the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, and of services rendered in connection with our initial public offering, totaled approximately $123,600.
Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our year-end financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any audit-related fees during the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.
Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any tax fees during the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.
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All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. We did not pay WithumSmith+Brown, PC any other fees during the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.
Pre-Approval Policy
The audit committee is responsible for appointing, setting compensation and overseeing the work of the independent auditors. In recognition of this responsibility, the audit committee reviews and, in its sole discretion, pre-approves all audit and permitted non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors as provided under the audit committee charter.
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PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules
(a) The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report:
(1) | Financial Statements |
See the “Index” to the Consolidated Financial Statements commencing on page F-1 of this Form 10-K.
(2) | Financial Statement Schedules |
All financial statement schedules are omitted since the required information is not present or is not present in amounts sufficient to require submission of the schedules, or because the information required is included in the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto.
(3) | Exhibits |
We hereby file as part of this Annual Report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index.
Exhibit No. | | Description |
3.1 | | |
4.1 | | |
10.1 | | |
10.2 | | |
10.3 | | |
10.4 | | |
10.5 | | |
10.6 | | |
10.7 | | |
10.8 | | |
31.1 | | |
31.2 | | |
32.1 | | |
32.2 | | |
101.INS | | Inline XBRL Instance Document |
101.CAL | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document |
101.SCH | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document |
101.DEF | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document |
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101.LAB | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document |
101.PRE | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document |
104 | | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) |
Item 16. Form 10-K Summary
None.
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
| FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III | |
| | |
Date: March 30, 2022 | By: | /s/ Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| | Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| Chief Financial Officer |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this Report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Brendan Wallace Brendan Wallace |
| Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director (Principal Executive Officer) |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Andriy Mykhaylovskyy Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| Chief Financial Officer and Director (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Adeymo Ajao Adeymo Ajao |
| Director |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Alana Beard Alana Beard |
| Director |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Poonam Sharma Mathis Poonam Sharma Mathis |
| Director |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Amanda Parness Amanda Parness |
| Director |
| March 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
66
FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III
Index to Financial Statements
F-1
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of
Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders’ deficit and cash flows for the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audit, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/
We have served as the Company's auditor since 2021.
March 30, 2022
PCAOB ID Number
F-2
FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III
BALANCE SHEET
DECEMBER 31, 2021
Assets: |
| | |
Current assets: | | | |
Cash | | $ | |
Prepaid expenses | | | |
Total current assets | | | |
Investments held in Trust Account | |
| |
Total Assets | | $ | |
| | | |
Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit: | |
|
|
Current liabilities: | | | |
Accounts payable | | $ | |
Accrued expenses | | | |
Total current liabilities | | | |
Deferred underwriting commissions | |
| |
Total liabilities | |
| |
| |
|
|
Commitments and Contingencies | |
|
|
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, $ | | | |
| | | |
Shareholders’ Deficit: | |
|
|
Preferred shares, $ | |
| |
Class A ordinary shares, $ | |
| |
Class B ordinary shares, $ | |
| |
Additional paid-in capital | |
| — |
Accumulated deficit | |
| ( |
Total shareholders’ deficit | |
| ( |
Total Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-3
FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III
STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM FEBRUARY 19, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
General and administrative expenses |
| $ | |
General and administrative expenses - related party | | | |
Loss from operations | | | ( |
Other income: | | | |
Income from investments held in Trust Account | | | |
Net loss | | $ | ( |
| |
| |
Weighted average number of shares outstanding of Class A ordinary shares | |
| |
Basic and diluted net loss per share, Class A ordinary shares | | ( | |
Weighted average number of shares outstanding of Class B ordinary shares | |
| |
Basic and diluted net loss per share,Class B ordinary shares | | ( |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-4
FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT
FOR THE PERIOD FROM FEBRUARY 19, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
| | Ordinary shares | | Additional | | | | | Total | ||||||||||
| | Class A | | Class B | | Paid-In | | Accumulated | | Shareholders’ | |||||||||
|
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Deficit |
| Deficit | |||||
Balance - February 19, 2021 (inception) | | | | $ | | | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | |
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | | — | | | — | | | | | | | | | | | — | | | |
Sale of private placement shares to Sponsor | | | | | | | — | | | — | | | | | | — | | | |
Accretion of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption amount | | — | | | — | | — | | | — | | | ( | | | ( | | | ( |
Forfeiture of Class B ordinary shares | | — | | | — | | ( | | | ( | | | | | | — | | | — |
Subsequent measurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption against additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit | | — | | | — | | — | | | — | | | ( | | | | | | |
Net loss | | — | | | — | | — | | | — | | | — | | | ( | | | ( |
Balance - December 31, 2021 | | | | $ | | | | | $ | | | $ | — | | $ | ( | | $ | ( |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-5
FIFTH WALL ACQUISITION CORP. III
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM FEBRUARY 19, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Cash Flows from Operating Activities: |
|
| |
Net loss | | $ | ( |
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: | |
| |
General and administrative expenses paid by Sponsor in exchange for issuance of Class B ordinary shares | | | |
Income from investments held in Trust Account | | | ( |
Changes in operating assets: | |
| |
Prepaid expenses | | | ( |
Accounts payable | | | |
Accrued expenses | |
| |
Net cash used in operating activities | |
| ( |
| | | |
Cash Flows from Investing Activities: | | | |
Cash deposited in Trust Account | | | ( |
Net cash used in investing activities | | | ( |
| |
|
|
Cash Flows from Financing Activities: | |
|
|
Repayment of note payable to related party | | | ( |
Proceeds from note payable to related party | |
| |
Proceeds received from private placement | |
| |
Proceeds received from initial public offering | |
| |
Offering costs paid | | | ( |
Net cash provided by financing activities | |
| |
| |
|
|
Net change in cash | | | |
| | | |
Cash - beginning of the period | |
| |
Cash - end of the period | | $ | |
| |
| |
Supplemental disclosure of noncash financing activities: | |
| |
Offering costs included in accrued expenses | | $ | |
Deferred underwriting commissions in connection with the initial public offering | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-6
NOTE 1. DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Organization and General
Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) was incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on February 19, 2021 (inception). The Company was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (the “Business Combination”). The Company is an early stage and emerging growth company and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risk associated with early stage and emerging growth companies.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not commenced any operations. All activity for the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”) described below, and seeking a Business Combination following the Initial Public Offering. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income from the proceeds derived from the Initial Public Offering (as defined below).
The Company’s sponsor is Fifth Wall Acquisition Sponsor III LLC, a Cayman Islands exempted limited company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement on Form S-1 for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on May 24, 2021. On May 27, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the private placement (“Private Placement”) of
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering, management agreed that an amount equal to at least $
The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Shares, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. There is no assurance that the Company will be able to complete a Business Combination successfully. The Company must complete one or more initial Business Combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least
The Company will provide the holders of Public Shares (the “Public Shareholders”), with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek shareholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company, solely in its discretion. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially anticipated to be $
F-7
These redeemable Public Shares were classified as temporary equity in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” The Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Company seeks shareholder approval of its Business Combination and does not conduct redemptions in connection with its Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association provides 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of
The Company’s Sponsor, officers and directors (the “initial shareholders”) agreed not to propose an amendment to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association that would modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to provide holders of its Public Shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with a Business Combination or to redeem
If the Company has not completed a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Company will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 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 earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay its taxes that were paid by the Company or are payable by the Company, if any (less up to $
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The initial shareholders agreed to waive their liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares and Private Placement Shares held by them if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the initial shareholders acquire Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriters agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission (see Note 6) held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the other funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the assets remaining available for distribution (including Trust Account assets) will be only $
Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, the Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. The Company will seek to reduce the possibility that the Sponsor will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (excluding the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which the Company does business, execute agreements with the Company waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately $
The Company’s liquidity needs through December 31, 2021 have been satisfied through a payment of $
Based on the foregoing, management believes that the Company will have sufficient working capital and borrowing capacity from the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors to meet its needs through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or one year from this filing. Over this time period, the Company will be using these funds for paying existing accounts payable, identifying and evaluating prospective initial Business Combination candidates, performing due diligence on prospective target businesses, paying for travel expenditures, selecting the target business to merge with or acquire, and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
NOTE 2. BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of presentation
The accompanying financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC.
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Emerging growth company
As an emerging growth company, the Company may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Company’s financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Use of estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods.
Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company had approximately $
Investments Held in Trust Account
The Company’s portfolio of investments is comprised of U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less, or investments in money market funds that invest in U.S. government securities and generally have a readily determinable fair value, or a combination thereof. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of U.S. government securities, the investments are classified as trading securities. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of money market funds, the investments are recognized at fair value. Trading securities and investments in money market funds are presented on the balance sheets at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities is included in income on investments held in the Trust Account in the accompanying statement of operations. The estimated fair values of investments held in the Trust Account are determined using available market information.
Concentration of credit risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of cash accounts in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation coverage limit of $
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2021, the Company has not experienced losses on these accounts and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risks on such accounts.
Fair value of financial instruments
The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities which qualify as financial instruments under FASB ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements,” equal or approximate the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheet due to their short-term nature.
Fair Value Measurements
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received for sale of an asset or paid for transfer of a liability, in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. GAAP establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements). These tiers consist of:
| ● | Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical instruments in active markets; |
| ● | Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable such as quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets or quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and |
| ● | Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions, such as valuations derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant inputs or significant value drivers are unobservable. |
In some circumstances, the inputs used to measure fair value might be categorized within different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In those instances, the fair value measurement is categorized in its entirety in the fair value hierarchy based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.
Offering costs associated with the Initial Public Offering
Offering costs consisted of legal, accounting, underwriting commissions and other costs incurred that were directly related to the Initial Public Offering. Offering costs are allocated to the separable financial instruments issued in the Initial Public Offering based on a relative fair value basis, compared to total proceeds received. Offering costs associated with the Class A ordinary shares were charged against the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering. The Company classifies deferred underwriting commissions as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. As part of the Private Placement, the Company issued
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Effective with the closing of the Initial Public Offering
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(including the exercise of the over-allotment option), the Company recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount, which resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital (to the extent available) and accumulated deficit.
Net loss per ordinary share
The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. Net income (loss) per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period. Accretion associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.
The following table presents a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator used to compute basic and diluted net income (loss) per share for each class of ordinary shares:
| | For The Period From February 19, 2021 | ||||
| | (Inception) through December 31, 2021 | ||||
|
| Class A |
| Class B | ||
Basic and diluted net loss per ordinary share: | | |
| | |
|
Numerator: |
| |
|
| |
|
Allocation of net loss | | $ | ( | | $ | ( |
| | | | | | |
Denominator: | |
|
| |
|
|
Basic and diluted weighted average ordinary shares outstanding | |
| | |
| |
| | | | | | |
Basic and diluted net loss per ordinary share | | ( | | ( | ||
Income taxes
FASB ASC Topic 740 “Income Taxes” prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. The Company’s management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Company’s only major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. There were
The Company is considered an exempted Cayman Islands company and is presently not subject to income taxes or income tax filing requirements in the Cayman Islands or the United States. As such, the Company’s tax provision was zero for the period presented. The Company’s management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
Recent accounting standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt—Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging—Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on February 19, 2021 (inception). Adoption of the ASU did not impact the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
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NOTE 3. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING
On May 27, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of
NOTE 4. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
Founder Shares
On February 24, 2021, the Sponsor paid $
The initial shareholders agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of: (A)
Private Placement Shares
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of
The Private Placement Shares will not be transferable or salable until
Related Party Loans
On February 24, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company may repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to the Company. Otherwise, the Working Capital Loans may be repaid only out of funds held outside the Trust Account. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. The Working Capital Loans would either be repaid upon consummation of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the lender’s discretion, up to $
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convertible into shares of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $
Administrative Services Agreement
The Company entered into an Administrative Support Agreement (the “Administrative Support Agreement”) with Fifth Wall Ventures Management, LLC (“Management Company”) pursuant to which it agreed to pay Management Company a total of up to $
In addition, the Sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on the Company’s behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. The Company’s audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to the Sponsor, officers or directors, or the Company’s or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial Business Combination will be made from funds held outside the Trust Account.
NOTE 5. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Registration and Shareholder Rights
The holders of Founder Shares, Private Placement Shares and Private Placement Shares that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans, were entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement signed upon consummation of the Initial Public Offering. The holders of these securities were entitled to make up to
Underwriting Agreement
The Company granted the underwriters a
The underwriters were entitled to an underwriting discount of $
Risks and Uncertainties
Management continues to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry and has concluded that while it is reasonably possible that the virus could have a negative effect on the Company’s financial position, results of its operations, and/or search for a target company, the specific impact is not readily determinable as of the date of the financial statements. The financial statements does not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
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NOTE 6 - CLASS A ORDINARY SHARES SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE REDEMPTION
Some of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of future events. The Company is authorized to issue
The Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption reflected on the balance sheet is reconciled on the following table:
| | | |
Gross proceeds |
| $ | |
Less: | |
|
|
Offering costs allocated to Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | |
| ( |
Plus: | |
|
|
Accretion on Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption amount | |
| |
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | | $ | |
NOTE 7. SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT
Preference Shares—The Company is authorized to issue
Class A Ordinary Shares— The Company is authorized to issue
Class B Ordinary Shares — The Company is authorized to issue
Class A ordinary shareholders and Class B ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to
Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares on a
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NOTE 8. FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS
The following table presents information about the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2021 by level within the fair value hierarchy:
|
| Quoted Prices in |
| Significant Other |
| Significant Other | |||
| | Active Markets | | Observable Inputs | | Unobservable Inputs | |||
Description |
| (Level 1) |
| (Level 2) |
| (Level 3) | |||
Assets - Investments held in Trust Account: | | | | | | | | | |
Money market fund |
| $ | |
| $ | — | | $ | — |
Transfers to/from Levels 1, 2, and 3 are recognized at the beginning of the reporting period. For the period from February 19, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, there were
Level 1 instruments include investments in money market funds invested in US government securities. The Company uses inputs such as actual trade data, quoted market prices from dealers or brokers, and other similar sources to determine the fair value of its investments. No money has been withdrawn from the Trust.
NOTE 9. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date and up to the date financial statements were issued. In February 2022, the Russian Federation and Belarus commenced a military action with the country of Ukraine. As a result of this action, various nations, including the United States, have instituted economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and Belarus. Further, the impact of this action and related sanctions on the world economy are not determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The specific impact on the Company's financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows is also not determinable as of the date of these financial statements. Based upon this review, the Company did not identify any other subsequent events, that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
F-16
Exhibit 4.1
DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company and our affairs are governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (2020 Revision) of the Cayman Islands (the “Companies Act”) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. Pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we are authorized to issue 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares and 20,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, as well as 1,000,000 preference shares, $0.0001 par value each. The following description summarizes certain terms of our shares as set out more particularly in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. The following summary does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to, the applicable provisions of the Companies Act and the common law of the Cayman Islands and our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, a copy of which is included as an exhibit to the Annual Report on Form 10-K of which this exhibit is a part.
Ordinary Shares
Ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders. Except as described below, holders of Class A ordinary shares and holders of Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders except as required by law, the applicable rules of Nasdaq then in effect or as otherwise specified herein. Unless specified in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, as required by applicable provisions of the Companies Act or applicable stock exchange rules or as otherwise specified herein, the affirmative vote of a majority of our ordinary shares that are voted is required to approve any such matter voted on by our shareholders. Approval of certain actions will require a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, being the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares that are voted, and pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association; such actions include amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approving a statutory merger or consolidation with another company. There is no cumulative voting with respect to the appointment of directors, with the result that the holders of more than 50% of the shares voted for the appointment of directors can appoint all of the directors. Our shareholders are entitled to receive ratable dividends when, as and if declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor.
Because our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorizes the issuance of up to 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, if we were to enter into a business combination, we may (depending on the terms of such a business combination) be required to increase the number of Class A ordinary shares which we are authorized to issue at the same time as our shareholders vote on the business combination to the extent we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. As an exempted company, there is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to appoint directors. We may not hold an annual or extraordinary general meeting to appoint new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination. Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.
We will provide our shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares,
subject to the limitations described herein. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters in our initial public offering. Our sponsor has entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which it has agreed to waive its redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by it in connection with the completion of our business combination. However, if our sponsor acquires public shares in or after our initial public offering, it will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. Unlike many blank check companies that hold shareholder votes and conduct proxy solicitations in conjunction with their initial business combinations and provide for related redemptions of public shares for cash upon completion of such initial business combinations even when a vote is not required by law, if a shareholder vote is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association requires these tender offer documents to contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SEC’s proxy rules. If, however, shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will, like many blank check companies, offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive approval pursuant to 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. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of outstanding ordinary shares of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding ordinary shares of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. However, the participation of our sponsor or its advisors or affiliates in privately-negotiated transactions, if any, could result in the approval of our business combination even if a majority of our public shareholders vote, or indicate their intention to vote, against such business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding ordinary shares voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our business combination once a quorum is obtained. We intend to give approximately 30 days (but not less than 10 days nor more than 60 days) prior written notice of any such meeting, if required, at which a vote shall be taken to approve our business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our sponsor, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such
2
shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the ordinary shares sold in the initial public offering (“Excess Shares”). However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our business combination. Our shareholders’ inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce their influence over our ability to complete our business combination, and such shareholders could suffer a material loss in their investment if they sell such Excess Shares on the open market. Additionally, such shareholders will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete the business combination. And, as a result, such shareholders will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose such shares would be required to sell their shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if we receive approval pursuant to 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. In such case, our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination. Additionally, each public shareholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction (subject to the limitation described in the preceding paragraph).
Pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten business days thereafter subject to lawfully available funds therefor, 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 earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise taxes, 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 liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our sponsor, directors and executive officers have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. However, if our sponsor, directors and executive officers acquire public shares in or after our initial public offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our business combination within the prescribed time period.
In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the company after a business combination, our shareholders are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining available for distribution to them after payment of liabilities and after provision is made for each class of shares, if any, having preference over the ordinary shares. Our shareholders have no preemptive or other subscription rights. There are no sinking fund provisions applicable to the ordinary shares, except that we will provide our shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein.
Founder Shares
The founder shares are identical to the Class A ordinary shares, and our sponsor, directors and executive officers have the same shareholder rights as public shareholders, except that (i) the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below, (ii) our sponsor, directors and executive officers have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (A) to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our business combination, (B) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust
3
account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, although our sponsor, directors and executive officers will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our business combination within such time period, (C) not to propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares, (iii) the founder shares are our Class B ordinary shares that will automatically convert into our Class A ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination, or at any time prior thereto at the option of our sponsor, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described herein and (iv) founder shares are subject to registration rights. If we submit our business combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our sponsor and our independent directors have agreed to vote any founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination.
The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis (subject to adjustment for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like), and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares, or equity-linked securities, are issued or deemed issued in connection with the closing of the business combination, including pursuant to a specified future issuance, the ratio at which Class B ordinary shares shall convert into Class A ordinary shares will be adjusted (unless our Class B ordinary shareholders agree to waive such adjustment with respect to any such issuance or deemed issuance, including a specified future issuance) so that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Class B ordinary shares will equal, in the aggregate, 20% of the sum of the total number of Class A ordinary shares outstanding after such conversion plus all Class A ordinary shares and equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with the business combination (after giving effect to any redemptions of Class A ordinary shares by public shareholders) (excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the business combination, the private placement shares, and any private placement shares issued to our sponsor, officers or directors upon conversion of working capital loans). Our Class B ordinary shareholders may also elect to convert their shares of Class B ordinary shares into an equal number of shares of Class A ordinary shares, subject to adjustment as provided above, at any time.
With certain limited exceptions, the founder shares are not transferable, assignable or salable (except to our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with our sponsor, each of whom will be subject to the same transfer restrictions) until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) if the last sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per ordinary share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property.
Register of Members
Under the Companies Act, we must keep a register of members and there should be entered therein:
(i) the names and addresses of the members of the company, a statement of the shares held by each member, which:
(a) distinguishes each share by its number (so long as the share has a number);
(b) confirms the amount paid, or agreed to be considered as paid, on the shares of each member; confirms the number and category of shares held by each member; and
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(c) confirms whether each relevant category of shares held by a member carries voting rights under the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, and if so, whether such voting rights are conditional;
(ii) the date on which the name of any person was entered on the register as a member; and
(iii) the date on which any person ceased to be a member.
For these purposes, “voting rights” means rights conferred on shareholders, including the right to appoint or remove directors, in respect of their shares to vote at general meetings of the company on all or substantially all matters. A voting right is conditional where the voting right arises only in certain circumstances.
Under Cayman Islands law, the register of members of our company is prima facie evidence of the matters set out therein (i.e. the register of members will raise a presumption of fact on the matters referred to above unless rebutted) and a member registered in the register of members will be deemed as a matter of Cayman Islands law to have legal title to the shares as set against its name in the register of members. However, there are certain limited circumstances where an application may be made to a Cayman Islands court for a determination on whether the register of members reflects the correct legal position.
Further, the Cayman Islands court has the power to order that the register of members maintained by a company should be rectified where it considers that the register of members does not reflect the correct legal position. If an application for an order for rectification of the register of members were made in respect of our ordinary shares, then the validity of such shares may be subject to re-examination by a Cayman Islands court.
Preference Shares
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorizes 1,000,000 preference shares and provides that preference shares may be issued from time to time in one or more series. Our board of directors is authorized to fix the voting rights, if any, designations, powers, preferences, the relative, participating, optional or other special rights and any qualifications, limitations and restrictions thereof, applicable to the shares each series. Our board of directors is able to, without shareholder approval, issue preference shares with voting and other rights that could adversely affect the voting power and other rights of the holders of the ordinary shares and could have anti-takeover effects. The ability of our board of directors to issue preference shares without shareholder approval could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change of control of us or the removal of our management team.
Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of a business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of a business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to a business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time, and we will only pay such dividend out of our profits or share premium (subject to solvency requirements) as permitted under Cayman Islands law
If we incur any indebtedness, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
Our Transfer Agent
The transfer agent for our ordinary shares is Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company. We have agreed to indemnify Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company in its roles as transfer agent, its agents and each of its shareholders, directors, officers and employees against all claims and losses that may arise out of acts performed or omitted for its activities in that capacity, except for any claims and losses due to any gross negligence, bad faith or willful misconduct of the indemnified person or entity.
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Certain Differences in Corporate Law
Cayman Islands companies are governed by the Companies Act. The Companies Act is modeled on English Law but does not follow recent English Law statutory enactments, and differs from laws applicable to United States corporations and their shareholders. Set forth below is a summary of certain differences between the provisions of the Companies Act applicable to us and the laws applicable to companies incorporated in the United States and their shareholders.
Mergers and Similar Arrangements. In certain circumstances, the Companies Act allows for mergers or consolidations between two Cayman Islands companies, or between a Cayman Islands exempted company and a company incorporated in another jurisdiction (provided that is facilitated by the laws of that other jurisdiction).
Where the merger or consolidation is between two Cayman Islands companies, the directors of each company must approve and enter into a written plan of merger or consolidation containing certain prescribed information. That plan or merger or consolidation must then be authorized by either (a) a special resolution (usually a majority of two-thirds in value of the voting shares voted at a general meeting) of the shareholders of each company; or (b) such other authorization, if any, as may be specified in such constituent company’s articles of association. No shareholder resolution is required for a merger between a parent company (i.e., a company that owns at least 90% of the issued ordinary shares of each class in a subsidiary company) and its subsidiary company. The consent of each holder of a fixed or floating security interest of a constituent company must be obtained, unless the court waives such requirement. If the Cayman Islands Registrar of Companies is satisfied that the requirements of the Companies Act (which includes certain other formalities) have been complied with, the Registrar of Companies will register the plan of merger or consolidation.
Where the merger or consolidation involves a foreign company, the procedure is similar, save that with respect to the foreign company, the directors of the Cayman Islands exempted company are required to make a declaration to the effect that, having made due enquiry, they are of the opinion that the requirements set out below have been met: (i) that the merger or consolidation is permitted or not prohibited by the constitutional documents of the foreign company and by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the foreign company is incorporated, and that those laws and any requirements of those constitutional documents have been or will be complied with; (ii) that no petition or other similar proceeding has been filed and remains outstanding or order made or resolution adopted to wind up or liquidate the foreign company in any jurisdictions; (iii) that no receiver, trustee, administrator or other similar person has been appointed in any jurisdiction and is acting in respect of the foreign company, its affairs or its property or any part thereof; and (iv) that no scheme, order, compromise or other similar arrangement has been entered into or made in any jurisdiction whereby the rights of creditors of the foreign company are and continue to be suspended or restricted.
Where the surviving company is the Cayman Islands exempted company, the directors of the Cayman Islands exempted company are further required to make a declaration to the effect that, having made due enquiry, they are of the opinion that the requirements set out below have been met: (i) that the foreign company is able to pay its debts as they fall due and that the merger or consolidated is bona fide and not intended to defraud unsecured creditors of the foreign company; (ii) that in respect of the transfer of any security interest granted by the foreign company to the surviving or consolidated company (a) consent or approval to the transfer has been obtained, released or waived; (b) the transfer is permitted by and has been approved in accordance with the constitutional documents of the foreign company; and (c) the laws of the jurisdiction of the foreign company with respect to the transfer have been or will be complied with; (iii) that the foreign company will, upon the merger or consolidation becoming effective, cease to be incorporated, registered or exist under the laws of the relevant foreign jurisdiction; and (iv) that there is no other reason why it would be against the public interest to permit the merger or consolidation.
Where the above procedures are adopted, the Companies Act provides certain limited appraisal rights for dissenting shareholders to be paid a payment of the fair value of his shares upon their dissenting to the merger or consolidation if they follow a prescribed procedure. In essence, that procedure is as follows: (a) the shareholder must give his written objection to the merger or consolidation to the constituent company before the vote on the merger or consolidation, including a statement that the shareholder proposes to demand payment for his shares if the merger or consolidation is authorized by the vote; (b) within 20 days following
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the date on which the merger or consolidation is approved by the shareholders, the constituent company must give written notice to each shareholder who made a written objection; (c) a shareholder must within 20 days following receipt of such notice from the constituent company, give the constituent company a written notice of his intention to dissent including, among other details, a demand for payment of the fair value of his shares; (d) within seven days following the date of the expiration of the period set out in paragraph (b) above or seven days following the date on which the plan of merger or consolidation is filed, whichever is later, the constituent company, the surviving company or the consolidated company must make a written offer to each dissenting shareholder to purchase his shares at a price that the company determines is the fair value and if the company and the shareholder agree the price within 30 days following the date on which the offer was made, the company must pay the shareholder such amount; and (e) if the company and the shareholder fail to agree a price within such 30 day period, within 20 days following the date on which such 30 day period expires, the company (and any dissenting shareholder) must file a petition with the Cayman Islands Grand Court to determine the fair value and such petition must be accompanied by a list of the names and addresses of the dissenting shareholders with whom agreements as to the fair value of their shares have not been reached by the company. At the hearing of that petition, the court has the power to determine the fair value of the shares together with a fair rate of interest, if any, to be paid by the company upon the amount determined to be the fair value. Any dissenting shareholder whose name appears on the list filed by the company may participate fully in all proceedings until the determination of fair value is reached. These rights of a dissenting shareholder are not available in certain circumstances, for example, to dissenters holding ordinary shares of any class in respect of which an open market exists on a recognized stock exchange or recognized interdealer quotation system at the relevant date or where the consideration for such ordinary shares to be contributed are shares of any company listed on a national securities exchange or ordinary shares of the surviving or consolidated company.
Moreover, Cayman Islands law has separate statutory provisions that facilitate the reconstruction or amalgamation of companies in certain circumstances, schemes of arrangement will generally be more suited for complex mergers or other transactions involving widely held companies, commonly referred to in the Cayman Islands as a “scheme of arrangement” which may be tantamount to a merger.
In the event that a merger was sought pursuant to a scheme of arrangement (the procedures for which are more rigorous and take longer to complete than the procedures typically required to consummate a merger in the United States), the arrangement in question must be approved by a majority in number of each class of shareholders and creditors with whom the arrangement is to be made and who must in addition represent three-fourths in value of each such class of shareholders or creditors, as the case may be, that are present and voting either in person or by proxy at an annual general meeting, or extraordinary general meeting summoned for that purpose. The convening of the meetings and subsequently the terms of the arrangement must be sanctioned by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. While a dissenting shareholder would have the right to express to the court the view that the transaction should not be approved, the court can be expected to approve the arrangement if it satisfies itself that:
· we are not proposing to act illegally or beyond the scope of our corporate authority and the statutory provisions as to majority vote have been complied with;
· the shareholders have been fairly represented at the meeting in question;
· the arrangement is such as a businessman would reasonably approve; and
· the arrangement is not one that would more properly be sanctioned under some other provision of the Companies Act or that would amount to a “fraud on the minority.”
If a scheme of arrangement or takeover offer (as described below) is approved, any dissenting shareholder would have no rights comparable to appraisal rights (providing rights to receive payment in cash for the judicially determined value of the shares), which would otherwise ordinarily be available to dissenting shareholders of United States corporations.
Squeeze-out Provisions. When a tender offer is made and accepted by holders of 90% of the shares to whom the offer relates within four months, the offeror may, within a two-month period, require the holders of the remaining shares to transfer such shares on the terms of the offer. An objection can be made to the Grand
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Court of the Cayman Islands, but this is unlikely to succeed unless there is evidence of fraud, bad faith, collusion or inequitable treatment of the shareholders.
Further, transactions similar to a merger, reconstruction and/or an amalgamation may in some circumstances be achieved through means other than these statutory provisions, such as a share capital exchange, asset acquisition or control, or through contractual arrangements of an operating business.
Shareholders’ Suits. Maples and Calder (Cayman) LLP, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, is not aware of any reported class action having been brought in a Cayman Islands court. Derivative actions have been brought in the Cayman Islands courts, and the Cayman Islands courts have confirmed the availability for such actions. In most cases, we will be the proper plaintiff in any claim based on a breach of duty owed to us, and a claim against (for example) our officers or directors usually may not be brought by a shareholder. However, based both on Cayman Islands authorities and on English authorities, which would in all likelihood be of persuasive authority and be applied by a court in the Cayman Islands, exceptions to the foregoing principle apply in circumstances in which:
· a company is acting, or proposing to act, illegally or ultra vires (beyond the scope of its authority);
· the act complained of, although not beyond the scope of the authority, could be effected if duly authorized by more than the number of votes which have actually been obtained; or
· those who control the company are perpetrating a “fraud on the minority.”
A shareholder may have a direct right of action against us where the individual rights of that shareholder have been infringed or are about to be infringed.
Enforcement of Civil Liabilities. The Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States and provides less protection to investors. Additionally, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to sue before the Federal courts of the United States.
We have been advised by 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, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, and or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands Court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
Special Considerations for Exempted Companies. We are an exempted company with limited liability under the Companies Act. The Companies Act distinguishes between ordinary resident companies and exempted companies. Any company that is registered in the Cayman Islands but conducts business mainly outside of the Cayman Islands may apply to be registered as an exempted company. The requirements for an exempted company are essentially the same as for an ordinary company except for the exemptions and privileges listed below:
· an exempted company does not have to file an annual return of its shareholders with the Registrar of Companies;
· an exempted company’s register of members is not open to inspection;
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· an exempted company does not have to hold an annual general meeting;
· an exempted company may issue shares with no par value;
· an exempted company may obtain an undertaking against the imposition of any future taxation (such undertakings are usually given for 20 years in the first instance);
· an exempted company may register by way of continuation in another jurisdiction and be deregistered in the Cayman Islands;
· an exempted company may register as a limited duration company; and an exempted company may register as a segregated portfolio company.
“Limited liability” means that the liability of each shareholder is limited to the amount unpaid by the shareholder on the ordinary shares of the company (except in exceptional circumstances, such as involving fraud, the establishment of an agency relationship or an illegal or improper purpose or other circumstances in which a court may be prepared to pierce or lift the corporate veil).
Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contains provisions designed to provide certain rights and protections that apply to us until the completion of our initial business combination. These provisions cannot be amended without a special resolution. As a matter of Cayman Islands law, a resolution is deemed to be a special resolution where it has been approved by either (i) the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds (or any higher threshold specified in a company’s articles of association) of a company’s shareholders entitled to vote and so voting at a general meeting for which notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution has been given; or (ii) if so authorized by a company’s articles of association, by a unanimous written resolution of all of the company’s shareholders. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that special resolutions must be approved either by at least two-thirds of our shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company (i.e., the lowest threshold permissible under Cayman Islands law), or by a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders.
Further, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that a quorum at our general meetings will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of outstanding ordinary shares of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding ordinary shares of the company entitled to vote at such meeting; provided that a quorum in connection with any meeting that is convened to vote on a business combination or any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or during any extended time that we have to consummate a business combination beyond 24 months as a result of a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity shall be a majority of the ordinary shares entitled to vote at such meeting being individuals present in person or by proxy or if a corporation or other non-natural person by its duly authorized representative or proxy.
Our sponsor and its permitted transferees, if any, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Specifically, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides, among other things, that:
· If we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten 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
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earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to fund our working capital requirements (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), 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 liquidating 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, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the requirements of other applicable law;
· Prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional securities 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 our initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to (x) extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (y) amend the foregoing provisions;
· Although we do not intend to enter into a business combination with (a) a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our officers or directors or (b) a target business that we know or should reasonably know is affiliated with a member of our sponsor owning at least 5% of the membership interests in the sponsor, we are not prohibited from doing so. In the event (a) we enter into such a transaction, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm that such a business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view;
· If a shareholder vote on our initial business combination is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will offer to redeem our public shares pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act. Whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on Nasdaq, we will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above;
· We must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination;
· If our shareholders approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, we will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A common share upon such approval at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein; and
· We will not effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.
In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001.
The Companies Act permits a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands to amend its memorandum and articles of association with the approval of a special resolution, which requires the approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of such company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general
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meeting or by way of unanimous written resolution. A company’s articles of association may specify that the approval of a higher majority is required but, provided the approval of the required majority is obtained, any Cayman Islands exempted company may amend its memorandum and articles of association regardless of whether its memorandum and articles of association provides otherwise. Accordingly, although we could amend any of the provisions relating to our structure and business plan which are contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we view all of these provisions as binding obligations to our shareholders and neither we, nor our officers or directors, will take any action to amend or waive any of these provisions unless we provide dissenting public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares.
Anti-Money Laundering - Cayman Islands
If any person in the Cayman Islands knows or suspects, or has reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting, that another person is engaged in criminal conduct or money laundering or is involved with terrorism or terrorist financing and property and the information for that knowledge or suspicion came to their attention in the course of business in the regulated sector or other trade, profession, business or employment, the person will be required to report such knowledge or suspicion to (i) the Financial Reporting Authority of the Cayman Islands, pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands if the disclosure relates to criminal conduct or money laundering or (ii) a police officer of the rank of constable or higher, or the Financial Reporting Authority, pursuant to the Terrorism Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, if the disclosure relates to involvement with terrorism or terrorist financing and property. Such a report shall not be treated as a breach of confidence or of any restriction upon the disclosure of information imposed by any enactment or otherwise.
Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of our Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provides that our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors. As a result, in most circumstances, a person can gain control of our board only by successfully engaging in a proxy contest at two or more annual general meetings.
Our authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and preference shares are available for future issuances without shareholder approval and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved Class A ordinary shares and preference shares could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.
Authorized but Unissued Ordinary Shares and Preference Shares
Our authorized but unissued ordinary shares and preference shares are available for future issuances without shareholder approval and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved ordinary shares and preference shares could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.
Securities Eligible for Future Sale
The 27,500,000 Class A ordinary shares sold in our initial public offering are freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, except for any Class A ordinary shares purchased by one of our affiliates within the meaning of Rule 144 under the Securities Act. All of the outstanding founder shares (6,875,000 founder shares) and all of the outstanding private placement shares (907,000 private placement shares) are restricted securities under Rule 144, in that they were issued in private transactions not involving a public offering.
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Rule 144
Pursuant to Rule 144, a person who has beneficially owned restricted shares for at least six months would be entitled to sell their securities provided that (i) such person is not deemed to have been one of our affiliates at the time of, or at any time during the three months preceding, a sale and (ii) we are subject to the Exchange Act periodic reporting requirements for at least three months before the sale and have filed all required reports under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the 12 months (or such shorter period as we were required to file reports) preceding the sale.
Persons who have beneficially owned restricted shares for at least six months but who are our affiliates at the time of, or at any time during the three months preceding, a sale, would be subject to additional restrictions, by which such person would be entitled to sell within any three-month period only a number of securities that does not exceed the greater of:
· 1% of the total number of ordinary shares then outstanding; or
· the average weekly reported trading volume of the Class A ordinary shares during the four calendar weeks preceding the filing of a notice on Form 144 with respect to the sale.
Sales by our affiliates under Rule 144 are also limited by manner of sale provisions and notice requirements and to the availability of current public information about us.
Restrictions on the Use of Rule 144 by Shell Companies or Former Shell Companies
Rule 144 is not available for the resale of securities initially issued by shell companies (other than business combination related shell companies) or issuers that have been at any time previously a shell company. However, Rule 144 also includes an important exception to this prohibition if the following conditions are met:
· the issuer of the securities that was formerly a shell company has ceased to be a shell company;
· the issuer of the securities is subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act;
· the issuer of the securities has filed all Exchange Act reports and material required to be filed, as applicable, during the preceding 12 months (or such shorter period that the issuer was required to file such reports and materials), other than Form 8-K reports; and
· at least one year has elapsed from the time that the issuer filed current Form 10 type information with the SEC reflecting its status as an entity that is not a shell company.
As a result, our sponsor will be able to sell their founder shares and our sponsor will be able to sell its private placement shares pursuant to Rule 144 without registration one year after we have completed our initial business combination.
Registration and Shareholder Rights
The holders of the founder shares and private placement shares that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans (including shares issuable upon conversion of the founder shares), private placement shares issued to our sponsor simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement signed in conjunction with our initial public offering. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination. However, the registration and shareholder rights agreement provides that we will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until termination of the applicable lock-up period, which occurs (i) in the case of the founder shares, as described in the following paragraph, and (ii) in the case of the private placement shares, 30 days after the completion of our initial
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business combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Except as described herein, our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until (a) one year after the completion of our initial business combination, or (b) following the completion of the company’s initial business combination, the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our sponsor with respect to any founder shares. We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this document as the lock-up. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per ordinary share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, the founder shares will be released from the lock-up.
In addition, pursuant to the registration and shareholder rights agreement, upon consummation of an initial business combination and for so long as our sponsor and its permitted transferees collectively hold at least 50% of the number of ordinary shares held by the sponsor upon the completion of our initial public offering (after giving appropriate effect to any share sub-divisions, reverse share sub-divisions or other similar corporate transactions, or any adjustment to the conversion rate of the founder shares in connection with an initial business combination) our sponsor, Fifth Wall, will be entitled to nominate one person for appointment to our board of directors.
13
EXHIBIT 31.1
CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a)
UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002
I, Brendan Wallace, certify that:
1. | I have reviewed this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III; |
2. | Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report; |
3. | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report; |
4. | The registrant’s other certifying officers and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant and have: |
a. | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared; |
b. | [Reserved]; |
c. | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and |
d. | Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and |
5. The registrant’s other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):
a. | All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and |
b. | Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting. |
Date: March 30, 2022 | | |
| By: | /s/ Brendan Wallace |
| | Brendan Wallace |
| | Chief Executive Officer |
| | (Principal Executive Officer) |
EXHIBIT 31.2
CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a)
UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002
I, Andriy Mykhaylovskyy, certify that:
1. | I have reviewed this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III; |
2002EBased on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;
3. | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report; |
4. | The registrant’s other certifying officers and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant and have: |
a. | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared; |
b. | [Reserved]; |
c. | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and |
d. | Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and |
5. | The registrant’s other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions): |
a. | All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and |
b. | Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting. |
Date: March 30, 2022 | | |
| By: | /s/ Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| | Chief Financial Officer |
| | (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |
EXHIBIT 32.1
CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO
18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002
In connection with the Annual Report of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I, Brendan Wallace, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that, to my knowledge:
(1) | the Report fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and |
(2) | the information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Company. |
Date: March 30, 2022 | | |
| | /S/ Brendan Wallace |
| Name: | Brendan Wallace |
| Title: | Chief Executive Officer |
| | (Principal Executive Officer) |
EXHIBIT 32.2
CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO
18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002
In connection with the Annual Report of Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. III (the “Company”) on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I, Andriy Mykhaylovskyy, Chief Financial Officer of the Company, certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that, to my knowledge:
(1) | the Report fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and |
(2) | the information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Company. |
Date: March 30, 2022 | | |
| | /S/ Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| Name: | Andriy Mykhaylovskyy |
| Title: | Chief Financial Officer |
| | (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |