IX Acquisition Corp 10-K, filed Apr 13, 2022
IX Acquisition Corp. (IXAQF)
About this 10-K
IX Acquisition Corp filed this 10-K on April 13, 2022, covering the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM________TO_________
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
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 Section 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.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a 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. (Check one):
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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 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 Act). Yes
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As of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the registrant’s securities were
As of April 13, 2022, the Registrant had
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this report may constitute “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this report may include, for example, statements about:
| ● | our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses; |
| ● | our ability to complete our initial business combination; |
| ● | our expectations around the performance of the prospective target business or businesses; |
| ● | our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination; |
| ● | our officers and directors allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination; |
| ● | our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination; |
| ● | our pool of prospective target businesses; |
| ● | the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of potential acquisition opportunities; |
| ● | our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; |
| ● | the lack of a market for our securities; |
| ● | the use of proceeds not held in the Trust Account or available to us from interest income on the Trust Account balance; |
| ● | the Trust Account not being subject to claims of third parties; or |
| ● | our financial performance following the Public Offering. |
The forward-looking statements contained in this report are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described under the heading “Risk Factors”. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
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SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in the section titled “Risk Factors,” alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Such risks include, but are not limited to:
| ● | 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. |
| ● | Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination. |
| ● | Your only opportunity to effect your 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 seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, anchor investors and management team have 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 a business combination with a target. |
| ● | The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure. |
| ● | The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (“Memorandum and Articles of Association”) to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders. |
| ● | The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, including the efforts to mitigate its impact, has and may continue to have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, as well as any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination. |
| ● | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or warrants from public shareholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our securities. |
| ● | 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 submitting or tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed. |
| ● | 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 $10.05 per share. |
| ● | You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss. |
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| ● | The Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions. |
| ● | You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies. |
| ● | Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.05 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on our redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. |
| ● | If the net proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (through at least April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, it could limit the amount of cash available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination. |
| ● | We have no operating history and are subject to a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution requirement if we do not complete an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. As such, there is a risk that we will be unable to continue as a going concern if we do not consummate an initial business combination by the applicable deadline. If we are unable to effect an initial business combination by the deadline, we will be forced to liquidate. |
| ● | Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.” |
| ● | Past performance by our management team and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the company. |
| ● | Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies (each, a “SPAC”), our sponsor will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue certain shares to consummate an initial business combination. |
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PART I
References in this report to “we,” “us”, “our” or the “Company” refer IX Acquisition Corp. References to our “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors, and references to the “sponsor” refer to IX Acquisition Sponsor, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. References to “anchor investors” refer to the 16 qualified institutional buyers or institutional accredited investors, each of which is not affiliated with us, our sponsor, our directors or any member of our management, that purchased an aggregate of 115% of the units and an aggregate of 1,747,879 Class B ordinary shares.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated on March 1, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the Company is a “shell company” as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.
On October 12, 2021, we consummated our initial public offering (“Public Offering”) of 23,000,000 units, including the issuance of 3,000,000 units as a result of the underwriters’ full exercise of their over-allotment option. Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share. The units were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds, before expenses, of $230,000,000.
On March 11, 2021, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 5,750,000 of the Company’s Class B ordinary shares (the “Founder Shares”) for a purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share. On October 12, 2021, the Company sold an aggregate of 1,747,879 Founder Shares to the anchor investors for their purchase of the units in the Public Offering. The number of Founder Shares outstanding was determined based on the Company’s expectation that the total size of the Public Offering would be a maximum of 23,000,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option was exercised in full, and therefore that such Founder Shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the Public Offering. Prior to our sponsor’s initial investment of $25,000, the Company had no assets, tangible or intangible.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, pursuant to the Sponsor Private Placement Warrants Purchase Agreement, the Company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 6,150,000 warrants (the “Sponsor Private Placement Warrants”) to the sponsor at a purchase price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant, generating gross proceeds to the Company of $6,150,000, a portion of which was added to the proceeds from the Public Offering held in the Trust Account. Simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, pursuant to the Underwriters Private Placement Warrants Purchase Agreement, the Company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 1,000,000 warrants (the “Underwriters Private Placement Warrants,” and together with the Sponsor Private Placement Warrants, the “Private Placement Warrants”) to Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (“Cantor”) and Odeon Capital Group, LLC (“Odeon”) at a purchase price of $1.00 per Underwriters Private Placement Warrant, generating gross proceeds to the Company of $1,000,000, a portion of which was added to the proceeds from the Public Offering held in the Trust Account. No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to such sale. The issuance of the Private Placement Warrants was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Warrants sold in the Public Offering, except that the Private Placement Warrants, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, (i) are not redeemable by us, (ii) may not (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such Private Placement Warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by such holders until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) are entitled to registration rights. If the Company does not consummate its initial business combination within 18 months from the closing the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Underwriters Private Placement Warrants have been deemed compensation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and are therefore subject to the lock-up restrictions imposed by FINRA Rule 5110(e) pursuant to which these securities will not be sold, transferred, assigned, pledged, or hypothecated, or be the subject of any hedging, short sale, derivative, put or call transaction that would result in the economic disposition of the securities by any person for a period of 180 days immediately following the commencement of sales of the Public Offering except as permitted under FINRA
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Rule 5110(e)(2) including to any member who participated in the Public Offering and the officers or partners, registered persons or affiliates thereof. In addition, for as long as the Underwriters Private Placement Warrants are held by Cantor, Odeon, the other underwriters or their designees or affiliates, they may not be exercised after five years from the commencement of sales of the Public Offering. We have granted Cantor and Odeon or their designees or affiliates certain registration rights relating to these securities. The underwriters may not exercise their demand and “piggyback” registration rights after five and seven years, respectively, after the effective date of the registration statement relating to the Public Offering and may not exercise demand rights on more than one occasion.
Upon the closing of the Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Warrants, $231,150,000 was placed in a trust account with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee (the “Trust Account”). We are not permitted to withdraw any of the principal or interest held in the Trust Account, except for the withdrawal of interest to pay our taxes and up to $100,000 of interests to pay dissolution expenses, as applicable, if any, until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, subject to applicable law, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association (A) to 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 have not consummated our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (April 12, 2023) or (B) with respect to any material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. 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 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.
After the payment of underwriting discounts and commissions (excluding the deferred portion of $12,100,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions payable upon consummation of our initial business combination if consummated) and approximately $550,000 in expenses relating to the Public Offering, approximately $1,450,000 of the net proceeds of the Public Offering and Private Placement was not deposited into the Trust Account and was initially available to us for working capital purposes. The net proceeds deposited into the Trust Account remain on deposit in the Trust Account earning interest. As of December 31, 2021, there was approximately $231,151,505 in investments and cash held in the Trust Account and $611,620 of cash held outside the Trust Account.
Effecting Our Initial Business Combination
General
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following the Public Offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of the Public Offering and the private placement of the Private Placement Warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination, shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any industry or sector and in any region, we intend to focus on industries that complement our management team’s background so we can capitalize on their ability to identify, acquire and support the operations of a successful business. We therefore intend to focus on companies in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (“TMT”) and Information and Communication Technology (“ICT”) industries, specifically the telecommunications infrastructure, internet and technology and digital services sectors operating in Europe and emerging markets (which may include a business based in the U.S., which has operations or opportunities in Europe and emerging markets or a business based in Europe and emerging markets which has operations or opportunities in the U.S.); however, we may decide to enter into an initial business combination with a target business that is not based in, and does not have any operations or opportunities in, Europe and emerging markets.
Business Strategy and Acquisition Criteria
We believe our sponsor’s and management team’s deal sourcing, investing and operating expertise, as well as their network of contacts, will uniquely position us to take advantage of proprietary opportunities in the telecommunications infrastructure, internet and technology and digital services sectors, where we believe opportunities exist to employ a “buy and build” (roll-up) strategy to consolidate assets across fragmented subsectors, creating new majors with improved efficiencies and network effects through scale. We believe this expertise and industry insight will allow us to generate a number of acquisition opportunities.
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As a result of our investing and operating expertise, we believe there are a number of high-quality telecommunications infrastructure, internet and technology and digital services sector businesses in Europe and emerging markets with adequate scale to be attractive public companies in the United States, in particular operating within the following sectors of the TMT and ICT industries:
We believe the following factors represent a strong rationale for pursuing our business strategy:
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Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to acquire one or more businesses that we believe:
These criteria and guidelines are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general criteria and guidelines as well as other considerations, factors, criteria and guidelines 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 and guidelines in our shareholder communications related to our initial business combination, which would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.
In addition to any potential business candidates we may identify on our own, we anticipate that other target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment market participants, private equity funds and large business enterprises seeking to divest non-core assets or divisions.
Sourcing and Evaluation of Business Combination Targets
We utilize the networks and industry experience of our management team and independent directors, as well as investment market participants, private equity groups, investment banking firms, family offices, lenders, attorneys, consultants, accounting firms, large business enterprises and other trusted advisors, to identify potential business combination targets. 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. However, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by us prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination.
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as applicable, 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.
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We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, management team or independent directors, or from completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or independent directors. If we seek to complete our initial business combination with a target that is affiliated with our sponsor, management team or independent directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or a 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.
Members of our management team and our independent directors directly or indirectly own Founder Shares and/or Private Placement Warrants and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors is included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity and may only decide to present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity and consummating the same would not violate any restrictive covenants to which such officers and directors are subject. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides 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. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our founders and our directors and officers may sponsor, form or participate in other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target, particularly in the event that there is overlap among investment mandates. However, we do not currently expect that any such other blank check company would materially affect our ability to identify and pursue business combination opportunities or complete our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
In accordance with the rules of Nasdaq, our initial business combination must occur with one or more target businesses that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the deferred underwriting discounts held in trust) at the time of signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. We refer to this as the 80% of net assets test. The fair market value of the target or targets will be determined by our board of directors based upon one or more standards generally accepted by the financial community (such as actual and potential sales, earnings, cash flow and/or book value). Even though our board of directors will rely on generally accepted standards, our board of directors will have discretion to select the standards employed. In addition, the application of the standards generally involves a substantial degree of judgment. Accordingly, investors will be relying on the business judgment of the board of directors in evaluating the fair market value of the target or targets. The proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents used by us in connection with any proposed transaction will provide public shareholders with our analysis of our satisfaction of the 80% of net assets test, as well as the basis for our determinations. If our board of directors is not able independently to determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or an independent valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-business combination 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-business combination company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-business combination 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, or the Investment Company Act. Even
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if the post-business combination 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-business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new 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-business combination 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 shareholder approval, as applicable. We do not currently intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial business combination. Subject to foregoing, our management will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting one or more prospective target businesses, although we will not be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations. If our securities are not then listed on the Nasdaq for whatever reason, we would no longer be required to meet the foregoing 80% of net asset test.
To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders Upon Consummation of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public 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 calculated 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions 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 representative of the underwriters. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any Founder Shares they hold and any public shares they may acquire during or after the Public Offering in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, and the anchor investors will not be entitled to redemption rights with respect to any Founder Shares held by them, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
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 under the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the 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 under the Exchange Act.
Resources and Competition
Our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides that we will have only 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (until April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within such 18-month period (April 12, 2023), 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 (which interest shall be net of
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taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and 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 to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and requirements of other applicable law.
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other SPACs, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies and 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 public shareholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination and our outstanding warrants, 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.
Facilities
We currently utilize office space at Arch 124, Salamanca Street, London SE1 7HX, United Kingdom from IX Acquisition Services LLC and the members of our management team. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have four officers: Guy Willner, Karen Bach, Noah Aptekar and Victoria Reid. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the business combination process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Available Information
We are required to file Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q with the SEC on a regular basis, and are required to disclose certain material events (e.g., changes in corporate control, acquisitions or dispositions of a significant amount of assets other than in the ordinary course of business and bankruptcy) in a Current Report on Form 8-K. The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s Internet website is located at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, the Company will provide copies of these documents without charge upon request from us in writing at Arch 124, Salamanca Street, London SE1 7HX, United Kingdom, or by telephone at +44 (0) (203) 983-0450.
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 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). As such, we are eligible to 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, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can 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. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the Public Offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A common stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
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Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is equal to or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th and (2) our annual revenues were equal to or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates is equal to or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th.
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 on Form 10-K and the prospectus associated with the Public Offering, 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.
Risks Relating to our Search for, and Consummation of or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination
Concentration of ownership among our sponsor and the anchor investors may prevent other investors from influencing significant corporate decisions or adversely affect the trading price of our ordinary shares.
Our sponsor and the anchor investors own collectively substantially all of our outstanding ordinary shares. As a result, these shareholders have substantial control over us and are able to exercise significant influence over all matters requiring shareholder approval (although we have no knowledge of any affiliation or other agreement or arrangement, as to voting of our securities or otherwise, among any such persons). For example, in the event that the anchor investors continue to hold shares included in the units purchased in the Public Offering and vote such shares in favor of our initial business combination (although they are not contractually obligated to, their interest in our Founder Shares may provide an incentive for them to do so), we would not need any additional public shares sold in the Public Offering to be voted in favor of our initial business combination to have our initial business combination approved. This potential concentration of influence could be disadvantageous to other shareholders with interests different from those of our sponsor and the anchor investors. In addition, this significant concentration of share ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our ordinary shares because investors often perceive disadvantages in owning shares in companies with principal shareholders and might make it more difficult to complete a business combination with targets that would prefer to enter into a transaction with a SPAC with less concentrated ownership.
Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our Founder Shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination if the business combination would not require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Except as required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Even if we seek shareholder approval, the holders of our Founder Shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if a majority of our public shareholders do not approve of the business combination we complete.
As the number of SPACs evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to find a target or to consummate an initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of SPACs that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for SPACs have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many SPACs preparing for an initial public offering, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available to consummate an initial business combination.
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In addition, because there are more SPACs 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 (including the recent outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine), 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 and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, anchor investors and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our sponsor and anchor investors own 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares. Our initial shareholders and management team also may from time to time purchase Class A ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides that, if we seek shareholder approval of an initial business combination, such initial business combination will be approved if we obtain approval by way of an ordinary resolution under Cayman Islands law which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders who attend and vote at our general meeting. As a result, in addition to the Founder Shares owned by our sponsor and anchor investors, we would need as little as 1,250,001, or 6.25%, of our public shares sold in the Public Offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming that only a quorum is present at the meeting and the over-allotment option is not exercised). Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial shareholders, anchor investors and management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholder approval for such initial business combination. In the event that the anchor investors hold all units purchased in the Public Offering until prior to consummation of our initial business combination and vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination, in addition to the Founder Shares, no affirmative votes from other public shareholders would be required to approve our initial business combination. The anchor investors are not required to vote any of their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or for or against any other matter presented for a shareholder vote.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding our initial business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with a 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. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would 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 make us unable to satisfy a minimum cash 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 will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the Trust Account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the
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cash in the Trust Account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares are submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the Trust Account or arrange for third party financing. Raising additional third party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B ordinary shares results in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the representative of the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The per share amount we will distribute to shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the Trust Account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the Trust Account until we liquidate the Trust Account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the Trust Account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with your exercise of redemption rights 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 18 months after the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the 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.
The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, including the efforts to mitigate its impact, has and may continue to have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, as well as any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination.
The COVID-19 pandemic, including efforts to combat it, has and may continue to adversely affect our search for a business combination. In addition, the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in a widespread health crisis that has and may continue to adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide. As such, the business of any potential target business with which we may consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected.
In response to the pandemic, public health authorities and local, national and international governments have implemented measures that may directly or indirectly impact our ability to search for and acquire any target business, including measures such as voluntary or mandatory quarantines, restrictions on travel and orders to limit the activities of non-essential workforce personnel. We may be unable to complete a business combination if concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner.
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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 or the personnel of any target business, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and complete a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a target business will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extended period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to complete a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately complete a business combination.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. For example, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues to grow and, while the extent of the impact of the conflict on us will depend on future developments, it could limit our ability to complete our initial business combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will (i) 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and 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 other requirements of applicable law.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or public warrants from public shareholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and Nasdaq rules. 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. None of the funds in the Trust Account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. Such purchases may include a contractual acknowledgment that such shareholder, although still the record holder of such shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights.
In the event that our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
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Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, proxy materials or tender offer documents, 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 tender or submit public shares for redemption. For example, we intend to require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent, or to deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, we intend to require a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we had net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the completion of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants and filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our 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 Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the Public Offering without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” 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. Our shareholders’ inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce their influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and shareholders could suffer a material loss on their investment in us if they sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, our shareholders will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, our shareholders will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell their shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
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Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well-established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess similar or greater technical, human and other resources to ours or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
If the net proceeds of the Public Offering and sale of Private Placement Warrants not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (through at least April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, it could limit the amount of cash available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of the Public Offering, only $1,450,000 was available to us initially outside the Trust Account to fund our working capital requirements, of which $611,620 is outstanding as of December 31, 2021. We believe that the funds available to us outside of the Trust Account will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (through at least April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, 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 or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors 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 entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement 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 required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Except for the Committed Sponsor Loans, neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the Trust Account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans (which amount includes the Committed Sponsor Loans) may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, 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. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Account. Consequently, our public shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.05 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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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 shareholders may be less than $10.05 per 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 (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the Trust Account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim 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 consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. The underwriters of the Public Offering as well as our independent registered public accounting firm will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the Trust Account.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.05 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 the registration statement relating to the Public Offering, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below the lesser of (i) $10.05 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 $10.05 per public 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 did it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the Public Offering 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 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. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the Trust Account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.05 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the Trust Account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.05 per 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 $10.05 per public 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 obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.05 per share.
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If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up petition or an involuntary winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up petition or an involuntary winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy 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. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up petition or an involuntary winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the Trust Account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
| ● | restrictions on the nature of our investments; and |
| ● | restrictions on the issuance of securities, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. |
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
| ● | registration as an investment company with the SEC; |
| ● | adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and |
| ● | reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are not subject to. |
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will is to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our principal activities 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. The Trust Account is 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 Memorandum and Articles of Association to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public
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shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023); and (iii) absent an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, our return of the funds held in the Trust Account to our public shareholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that, immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offense and may be liable for a fine of $18,293 and to imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual general meeting until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our shareholders to appoint directors.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to appoint directors. Until we hold an annual general meeting, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to appoint directors and to discuss company affairs with management. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being appointed in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term. In addition, as holders of our Class A ordinary shares, our public shareholders will not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors until after the consummation of our initial business combination.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
Our efforts to identify a prospective initial business combination target will not be limited to a particular industry, sector or geographic region. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association prohibits us from effectuating a business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a
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financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete 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 a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, 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 their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek business combination opportunities with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue, cash flow or earnings, which could subject us to volatile revenues, cash flows or earnings or difficulty in retaining key personnel.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with an early-stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenues or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include investing in a business without a proven business model or with limited historic financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm, and consequently, our shareholders may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or from a valuation or appraisal firm that 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 proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
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We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
We may choose to issue notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the Trust Account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the Trust Account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
| ● | default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; |
| ● | acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant; |
| ● | our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand; |
| ● | our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding; |
| ● | our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares; |
| ● | using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes; |
| ● | limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate; |
| ● | increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and |
| ● | limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from the Public Offering and the private placement of warrants provided us with $219,050,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account $12,100,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the Trust Account).
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
| ● | solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or |
| ● | dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services. |
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
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We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our business combination strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
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 or warrant holders do not agree.
Our Memorandum and Articles of Association 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.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, SPACs have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our Memorandum and Articles of Association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination and that our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, SPACs have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, SPACs have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our Memorandum and Articles of Association requires a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of at least two-thirds of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and amending our warrant agreement requires a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the Private Placement Warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the Private Placement Warrants, 50% of the then outstanding Private Placement Warrants. In addition, our Memorandum and Articles of Association requires us to provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association (A) to 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 an initial business combination within 18 months of the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-
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initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our Memorandum and Articles of Association or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
The provisions of our Memorandum and Articles of Association that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our Trust Account) may be amended with the approval of holders of not less than two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company (or 65% of our ordinary shares with respect to amendments to the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our Trust Account), which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other SPACs. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our Memorandum and Articles of Association to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of the Public Offering and the private placement of warrants into the Trust Account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public shareholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by special resolution, under Cayman Islands law which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of at least two-thirds of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our Trust Account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our ordinary shares. Our initial shareholders and anchor investors, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our Memorandum and Articles of Association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our Memorandum and Articles of Association which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other SPACs, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our Memorandum and Articles of Association.
Our sponsor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to 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 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) or with respect to any other provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares. Our shareholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, officers, directors or director nominees for any breach of these agreements.
Certain agreements related to the Public Offering may be amended without shareholder approval.
Each of the agreements related to the Public Offering to which we are a party, other than the warrant agreement and the investment management trust agreement, may be amended without shareholder approval. Such agreements are the underwriting agreement; the letter agreement among us and our initial shareholders, sponsor, officers and directors; the registration rights agreement among us and our initial shareholders; the Underwriters Private Warrants Purchase Agreement and the Sponsor Private Placement Warrants Purchase Agreement. These agreements contain various provisions that our public shareholders might deem to be material. For example, our letter agreement and the underwriting agreement contain certain lock-up provisions with respect to the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants and other securities held by our initial shareholders, sponsor, officers and directors. Amendments to such agreements would require the consent of the applicable parties thereto and would need to be approved by our board of directors, which may do so for a variety of reasons, including to facilitate our initial business combination. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to any of these agreements prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board of directors, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to any such agreement. Any amendment entered into in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to such initial business combination, and any other material amendment to any of our material agreements will be disclosed in a filing with the SEC. Any such amendments would not require approval from our shareholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities. For example, amendments to the lock-up provision discussed above
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may result in our initial shareholders selling their securities earlier than they would otherwise be permitted, which may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
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.
We have not selected any specific business combination target but intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants. As a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the Trust Account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemption by public shareholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. Further, we may be required to obtain additional financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, or to fund the purchase of other companies. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete 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 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 initial shareholders control 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 initial shareholders and anchor investors own 20% 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 Memorandum and Articles of Association. If our initial shareholders and anchor investors purchase any additional Class A ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were appointed by our sponsor, is divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. We may not hold an annual general meeting of the company to elect new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual general meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for appointment to the board of directors and our initial shareholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that the proxy statement with respect to the vote on an initial business combination include historical and pro forma financial statement disclosure. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“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 statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
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Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 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 initial business combination.
Section 404 of 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. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer, and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business 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 business combination.
Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, our shareholders may face difficulties in protecting their interests, and their 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 officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs are governed by our 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 are also subject to the federal securities laws of the United States. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders’ derivative action in a Federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by Maples and Calder, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, 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 management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
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The nominal purchase price paid by our sponsor for the Founder Shares may result in significant dilution to the implied value of the public shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination.
We offered our units at an offering price of $10.00 per unit and the amount in our Trust Account was initially funded at $10.05 per public share, implying an initial value of $10.05 per public share. However, prior to the Public Offering, our sponsor paid a nominal aggregate purchase price of $25,000 for the Founder Shares, or approximately $0.004 per share. As a result, the value of the public shares may be significantly diluted upon the consummation of our initial business combination, when the Founder Shares are converted into public shares. For example, the following table shows the dilutive effect of the Founder Shares on the implied value of the public shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination, assuming that our equity value at that time is $219,050,000, which is the amount we would have for our initial business combination in the Trust Account after payment of $12,100,000 of deferred underwriting commissions, no interest is earned on the funds held in the Trust Account, and no public shares are redeemed in connection with our initial business combination, and without taking into account any other potential impacts on our valuation at such time, such as the trading price of our public shares, the business combination transaction costs, any equity issued or cash paid to the target’s sellers or other third parties, or the target’s business itself, including its assets, liabilities, management and prospects, as well as the value of our public and private warrants. At such valuation, each of our ordinary shares would have an implied value of $7.62 per share upon consummation of our initial business combination, which would be a 23.8% decrease as compared to the initial implied value per public share of $10.00 (the price per unit in the Public Offering, assuming no value to the public warrants).
Public shares |
| | 23,000,000 |
Founder shares |
| | 5,750,000 |
Total shares |
| | 28,750,000 |
Total funds in trust available for initial business combination (less deferred underwriting commissions) | | $ | 219,050,000 |
Initial implied value per public share | | $ | 10.05 |
Implied value per share upon consummation of initial business combination | | $ | 7.62 |
The value of the Founder Shares following completion of our initial business combination is likely to be substantially higher than the nominal price paid for them, even if the trading price of our ordinary shares at such time is substantially less than $10.05 per share.
Upon the closing of the Public Offering, our sponsor invested in us an aggregate of $6,175,000, comprised of the $25,000 purchase price for the Founder Shares and the $6,150,000 purchase price for the Sponsor Private Placement Warrants. Assuming a trading price of $10.00 per share upon consummation of our initial business combination, the Founder Shares would have an aggregate implied value of $43,815,000. Even if the trading price of our ordinary shares was as low as $1.07 per share, and the Private Placement Warrants were worthless, the value of the Founder Shares would be equal to the sponsor’s initial investment in us. As a result, our sponsor is likely to be able to recoup its investment in us and make a substantial profit on that investment, even if our public shares have lost significant value. Accordingly, our management team, which owns interests in our sponsor, may have an economic incentive that differs from that of the public shareholders to pursue and consummate an initial business combination rather than to liquidate and to return all of the cash in the trust to the public shareholders, even if that business combination were with a riskier or less-established target business. For the foregoing reasons, you should consider our management team’s financial incentive to complete an initial business combination when evaluating whether to redeem your shares prior to or in connection with the initial business combination.
We have no operating history and are subject to a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution requirement if we do not complete an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. As such, there is a risk that we will be unable to continue as a going concern if we do not consummate an initial business combination by the applicable deadline. If we are unable to effect an initial business combination by the deadline, we will be forced to liquidate.
We are a blank check company, and as we have no operating history and are subject to a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution requirement, there is a risk that we will be unable to continue as a going concern if we do not consummate an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. There can be no assurance that we will complete a business combination by this time. If we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, we will (i) cease all operations except for
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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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and 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 to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and requirements of other applicable law.
Our sponsor, which has committed to fund the committed sponsor loans to us upon our request, may not have the necessary funds to do so.
While our sponsor has committed to loan us up to an aggregate of $1,400,000, at our request, for working capital purposes on or after January 15, 2022, we cannot provide any assurances that such funding will occur. We are an early-stage company without operating revenues or significant financial support. Accordingly, a failure by our sponsor to fund the Committed Sponsor Loans may impact our ability to obtain director and officer insurance on favorable terms, fund our activities or consummate an initial business combination.
Risks Relating to the Post-Business Combination Company
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause our shareholders to lose some or all of their investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges 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 debt financing to partially finance the initial business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, 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 their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the Trust Account that are available for distribution to public shareholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
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Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to 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. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding Class A ordinary shares subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority shareholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain control of the target business.
Risks Relating to Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
| ● | costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations; |
| ● | rules and regulations regarding currency redemption; |
| ● | complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals; |
| ● | laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected; |
| ● | exchange listing and/or delisting requirements; |
| ● | tariffs and trade barriers; |
| ● | regulations related to customs and import/export matters; |
| ● | local or regional economic policies and market conditions; |
| ● | unexpected changes in regulatory requirements; |
| ● | challenges in managing and staffing international operations; |
| ● | longer payment cycles; |
| ● | tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States; |
| ● | currency fluctuations and exchange controls; |
| ● | rates of inflation; |
| ● | challenges in collecting accounts receivable; |
| ● | cultural and language differences; |
| ● | employment regulations; |
| ● | underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems; |
| ● | corruption; |
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| ● | protection of intellectual property; |
| ● | social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances; |
| ● | regime changes and political upheaval; |
| ● | terrorist attacks 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, we may be unable to complete such initial business combination, or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’ ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event that we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the Cayman Islands to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the Cayman Islands or the United States. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of non-compliance.
We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
Risks Relating to our Management Team
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and executive officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, 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 to not seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the Trust Account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors 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
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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.
Past performance by our management team and their affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, our management team or businesses associated with them is presented for informational purposes only. While members of our management team have prior SPAC experiences, such past performances do not guarantee either (i) success with respect to any business combination we may consummate or (ii) that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination. You should not rely on the historical record of the performance of our management team’s or businesses associated with them as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or is likely to, generate going forward.
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside of our management’s areas of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive business combination opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors in the Public Offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue a business combination outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to ascertain or assess adequately all of the relevant risk factors. Accordingly, any shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We are dependent upon our executive officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our executive officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our executive officers 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.
Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual 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. Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional fiduciary or
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contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. 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 law. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides 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.
In addition, our sponsor and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other SPACs similar to us or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. As a result, our sponsor, officers and directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other SPACs with which they may become involved. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our executive officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, executive officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.
The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a business combination. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders’ rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
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. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. 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 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 one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders, 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.
Since our sponsor, executive officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial 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 March 11, 2021, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 5,750,000 Founder Shares for a purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets,
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tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the Founder Shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of Founder Shares issued.
The number of Founder Shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of the Public Offering would be a maximum of 23,000,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option was exercised in full, and therefore that such Founder Shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the Public Offering. The Founder Shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. Our sponsor, Cantor and Odeon purchased an aggregate of 7,150,000 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $7,150,000 in the aggregate, in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering. Of those 7,150,000 Private Placement Warrants, our sponsor purchased 6,150,000 Sponsor Private Placement Warrants and Cantor and Odeon purchased 1,000,000 Underwriter Private Placement Warrants in the aggregate. Moreover, our sponsor has committed to loan us an aggregate of up to $1,400,000 for working capital purposes, at our request, on or after January 15, 2022. Such working capital loans (the “Committed Sponsor Loans”) will be convertible into Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or up to $1,400,000 in the aggregate. The personal and financial interests of our executive officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the date that is 18 months following the closing of the Public Offering (April 12, 2023) nears, assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
From time to time, we and members of our management team may be subject to legal proceedings, regulatory disputes, and governmental inquiries that could cause us to incur significant expenses, divert our management’s attention, and materially harm our financial condition.
From time to time, we may be subject to claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other proceedings involving competition and antitrust, securities, tax, commercial disputes, and other matters that could adversely affect our financial condition. Litigation and regulatory proceedings may be protracted and expensive, and the results are difficult to predict. Additionally, such litigation and regulatory proceedings require a great deal of financial resources and attention from us and our management team. Adverse outcomes with respect to litigation or any of these legal proceedings may result in significant settlement costs or judgments, or penalties and fines, and could negatively affect our ability to identify and complete an initial business combination and may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
Members of our management team have been involved in a wide variety of businesses. Such involvement has, and may lead to, media coverage and public awareness. As a result, members of our management team and the related companies may from time to time be involved in civil disputes or governmental investigations unrelated to our business. Any such claims or investigations may be detrimental to our reputation and could negatively affect our ability to identify and complete an initial business combination and may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
Risks Relating to our Securities
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 $10.05 per share.
The proceeds held in the Trust Account are 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 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 payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses. 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 $10.05 per share.
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You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the Trust Account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our 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 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if our plan to redeem our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination is not completed for any reason, compliance with Cayman Islands law may require that we submit a plan of dissolution to our then-existing shareholders for approval prior to the distribution of the proceeds held in our Trust Account. In that case, public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination before they receive funds from our Trust Account. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the Trust Account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the Trust Account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
We may issue our shares to investors in connection with our initial business combination at a price that is less than the prevailing market price of our shares at that time.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may issue shares to investors in private placement transactions (so-called PIPE transactions) at a price of $10.00 per share or which approximates the per-share amounts in our Trust Account at such time, which is generally approximately $10.00. The purpose of such issuances will be to enable us to provide sufficient liquidity to the post-business combination entity. The price of the shares we issue may therefore be less, and potentially significantly less, than the market price for our shares at such time.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units are listed on Nasdaq. Our Class A ordinary shares and warrants are separately listed on Nasdaq. Although following the Public Offering we meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in Nasdaq’s listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum market capitalization (generally $50,000,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 400 public holders). Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and we would be required to have a minimum of 400 round lot holders with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500. 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 and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
| ● | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; |
| ● | reduced liquidity for our securities; |
| ● | a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; |
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| ● | a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and |
| ● | a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
Warrant holders will not be permitted to exercise their warrants unless we register and qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares or certain exemptions are available.
If the issuance of the Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of the warrants is not registered, qualified or exempt from registration or qualification under the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, holders of warrants will not be entitled to exercise such warrants and such warrants may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units.
We have not registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days, after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the registration under the Securities Act of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and thereafter will use our best efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following our initial business combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current or correct or the SEC issues a stop order.
If the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, under the terms of the warrant agreement, holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do so for cash and, instead, will be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption.
In no event will warrants be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration or qualification is available.
If our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, not permit holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants to do so for cash and, instead, require them to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act; in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities (other than upon a cashless exercise as described above) or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws.
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Holders of public warrants may only be able to exercise their public warrants on a “cashless basis” under certain circumstances, and if such holders do so, such holder will receive fewer Class A ordinary shares from such exercise than if such holder were to exercise such warrants for cash.
The warrant agreement provides that in the following circumstances holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do for cash and will, instead, be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act: (i) if the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the terms of the warrant agreement; (ii) if we have so elected and the Class A ordinary shares is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act; and (iii) if we have so elected and we call the public warrants for redemption. If such holders exercise their public warrants on a cashless basis, such holders would pay the warrant exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of Class A ordinary shares equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of our Class A ordinary shares (as defined in the next sentence) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” is the average reported closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent or on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, as applicable. As a result, such holder would receive fewer Class A ordinary shares from such exercise than if such holders were to exercise such warrants for cash.
The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders, anchor investors and holders of our Private Placement Warrants may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in the Public Offering, our initial shareholders, anchor investors and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the Class A ordinary shares into which Founder Shares are convertible, holders of our Private Placement Warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the Private Placement Warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such warrants or the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of such warrants. The registration rights will be exercisable with respect to the Founder Shares and the Private Placement Warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such Private Placement Warrants. 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 Class A 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 shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares that is expected when the ordinary shares owned by our initial shareholders, holders of our Private Placement Warrants or holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the Founder Shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our Memorandum and Articles of Association. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our Memorandum and Articles of Association authorizes the issuance of up to 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 20,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. As of December 31, 2021, there were 177,000,000 and 14,250,000 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares are automatically convertible into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein and in our Memorandum and Articles of Association. As of December 31, 2021, there were no preference shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business
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combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth therein. However, our Memorandum and Articles of Association provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the Trust Account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares (a) on any initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to (x) extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (beyond April 12, 2023) or (y) amend the foregoing provisions. These provisions of our Memorandum and Articles of Association, like all provisions of our Memorandum and Articles of Association, may be amended with a shareholder vote. The issuance of additional ordinary shares or preference shares:
| ● | may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in the Public Offering; |
| ● | may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A ordinary shares; |
| ● | could cause a change in control if a substantial number of Class A ordinary shares is issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and |
| ● | may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants. |
Unlike some other similarly structured SPACs, our initial shareholders 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), including 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, excluding 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 and any Private Placement Warrants 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 SPACs 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.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants have been issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash or shares (at a ratio different than initially provided), shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share subdivisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like and for certain issuances of Class A ordinary shares and equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination) for
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any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met on the date we give notice of redemption. We will not redeem the warrants unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period, except if the warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We issued 11,500,000 warrants to purchase 11,500,000 Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered by the prospectus relating to the Public Offering and, simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 7,150,000 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share. Moreover, our sponsor has committed to loan us an aggregate of up to $1,400,000 for working capital purposes, at our request, on or after January 15, 2022. Such Committed Sponsor Loans will be convertible into Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or up to $1,400,000 in the aggregate. To the extent we issue ordinary shares to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Our warrants are accounted for as a warrant liability and were recorded at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value each period reported in earnings, which may have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities or may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
We have 18,650,000 warrants outstanding (comprised of the 11,500,000 warrants included in the units and the 7,150,000 Private Placement Warrants). We currently account for these warrants as a warrant liability, which means that we will record them at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value each period reported in earnings. The impact of changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities. In addition, potential targets may seek a business combination partner that does not have warrants that are accounted for as a warrant liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in
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connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
An investment in shares of our Class A common stock may result in uncertain or adverse United States federal income tax consequences.
An investment in shares of our Class A common stock may result in uncertain United States federal income tax consequences. For instance, it is unclear whether the redemption rights with respect to our Class A ordinary shares suspend the running of a United States holder’s holding period for purposes of determining whether any gain or loss realized by such holder on the sale or exchange of Class A ordinary shares is long-term capital gain or loss and for determining whether any dividend we pay would be considered “qualified dividends” for United States federal income tax purposes. Prospective investors are urged to consult their tax advisors with respect to these and other tax consequences when purchasing, holding or disposing of our securities.
Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate or challenges by tax authorities could harm our future results.
We are not subject to income taxes in the Cayman Islands but we may become subject to income taxes in various other jurisdictions in the future. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in the allocation of our pre-tax earnings and losses among countries with differing statutory tax rates, in certain non-deductible expenses as a result of acquisitions, in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or in federal, state, local or non-U.S. tax laws and accounting principles, including increased tax rates, new tax laws or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents. Increases in our effective tax rate would adversely affect our operating results. In addition, we may be subject to income tax audits by various tax jurisdictions throughout the world. The application of tax laws in such jurisdictions may be subject to diverging and sometimes conflicting interpretations by tax authorities in these jurisdictions. Although we believe our income tax liabilities are reasonably estimated and accounted for in accordance with applicable laws and principles, an adverse resolution of one or more uncertain tax positions in any period could have a material impact on the results of operations for that period.
General Risk Factors
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 incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results, and we have not commenced operations until obtaining funding through the Public Offering. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we 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 internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our 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. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances
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could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
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, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies 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 accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Provisions in our Memorandum and Articles of Association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our Memorandum and Articles of Association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference shares, which may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Provisions in our Memorandum and Articles of Association and Cayman Islands law may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
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, fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our 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 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. 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
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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 insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
We may engage one or both of the underwriters of the Public Offering or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us, 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. The 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, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more of our 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. 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 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.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
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 SPACs has changed. 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. There can be no assurance that these trends will not continue.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate 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, accept less favorable terms or both. However, 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, even after we were to complete an initial business combination, our directors and officers could still be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to the 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.
Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
As of December 31, 2021, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur costs in pursuit of our financing and acquisition plans. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to consummate an initial business combination will be successful. If we are unable to raise additional funds to alleviate liquidity needs and complete a business combination within 18 months from the closing of the
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Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, then we will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The liquidity condition and date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Management intends to complete an initial business combination on or before 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. However, it is uncertain whether management will succeed in doing so. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this report do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to continue as a going concern.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.
Our executive offices are located at Arch 124, Salamanca Street, London SE1 7HX, United Kingdom. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
As of December 31, 2021, to the knowledge of our management, there was no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such, and we and the members of our management team have not been subject to any such proceeding.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not applicable.
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PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.
Market Information
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq under the symbols “IXAQU,” “IXAQ” and “IXAQW”, respectively.
Holders
As of April 13, 2022, there was one holder of record of our units, one holder of record of our Class A ordinary shares, 38 holders of record of our Class B ordinary shares and three holders of record of our warrants. The number of holders of record does not include a substantially greater number of “street name” holders or beneficial holders whose units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
Unregistered Sales
The sales of the Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants to our sponsor, Cantor, Odeon and our initial shareholders as described herein were deemed to be exempt from registration under the Securities Act, in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act as transactions by an issuer not involving a public offering.
Use of Proceeds
On October 6, 2021, our registration statement on Form S-l (File No. 333-259567) was declared effective by the SEC, and on October 12, 2021 we consummated our Public Offering of 23,000,000 units, including the issuance of 3,000,000 units as a result of the underwriters’ full exercise of their over-allotment option, at an offering price to the public of $10.00 per unit for an aggregate offering price of $230,000,000. Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one Warrant. Each whole Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share.
A total of $231,150,000, comprised of $224,000,000 of the proceeds from the Public Offering (which amount includes the deferred underwriting fee of $12,100,000) and $7,150,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, was placed in a Trust Account maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee. In addition, the underwriters agreed to defer approximately $12,100,000 in underwriting discounts, which amount will be payable when and if a business combination is consummated. No payments were made by us to directors, officers or persons owning ten percent or more of our ordinary shares or to their associates, or to our affiliates. There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from the Public Offering as described in our final prospectus dated October 8, 2021, which was filed with the SEC.
ITEM 6. RESERVED
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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and the notes related thereto which are included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those set forth under “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report includes “forward-looking statements” that are not historical facts and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected and projected. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report including, without limitation, statements in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding the Company’s financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “seek” and variations and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect management’s current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. For information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Summary of Risk Factors,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The Company’s securities filings can be accessed on the EDGAR section of the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on March 1, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. We have not selected any business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the forward purchase agreements (or backstop agreements we may enter into or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing or other sources.
Results of Operations
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities for the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 were organizational activities, those necessary to prepare for the Public Offering, and, after the Public Offering, identifying target companies for a business combination. We do not expect to generate any operating revenues until after the completion of our initial business combination. We generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on investments held in the Trust Account after the Public Offering. We incur expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses.
For the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had net income of $9,337,120, which resulted from a gain on change in the fair value of warrant liabilities of $13,216,000, an unrealized gain on investments held in the Trust Account in the amount of $1,505 and interest income of $11 offset in part by operating and formation costs of $615,847, expensed offering costs of $2,120,549, and a loss on the sale of private placement warrants of $1,144,000.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
For the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $710,467, which was due to a non-cash gain on the change in fair value of warrant liabilities of $13,216,000, changes in working capital of $94,631,
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unrealized gain on investments in the Trust Account of $1,505, offset in part by our net income of $9,337,120, expensed offering costs added back to net income of $2,120,549, and a non-cash loss on the sale of private placement warrants of $1,144,000.
For the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, net cash used in investing activities of $231,150,000 was the result of the amount of net proceeds from the Public Offering being deposited to the Trust Account.
For the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 net cash provided by financing activities of $232,472,087 was comprised of $225,992,331 in proceeds from the issuance of units in the Public Offering net of underwriter’s discount paid, $25,000 from the issuance of Class B ordinary shares, $250,000 from the issuance of a promissory note to our sponsor, and $7,130,019 in proceeds from the sale of Private Placement Warrants, offset in part by the payment of $671,768 for offering costs associated with the Public Offering, $3,495 from advance to related party, and repayment of the outstanding balance on the promissory note to our sponsor of $250,000.
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash of $611,620 held outside the Trust Account. We intend to use the funds held outside the Trust Account primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
On October 12, 2021, we consummated the Public Offering of 23,000,000 units, including 3,000,000 units that were issued pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise of their over-allotment option in full, at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $230,000,000.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, the Company consummated the sale of 7,150,000 warrants (the “Private Placement Warrants”) at a price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant in a private placement to our sponsor, Cantor and Odeon generating gross proceeds of $7,150,000 ($19,982 of which was not yet funded by the sponsor and is recorded as a subscription receivable, which was paid on April 12, 2022).
Upon the closing of the Public Offering on October 12, 2021, an amount of $231,150,000 from the net proceeds of the sale of the units in the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants was placed in the Trust Account.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the Trust Account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the Trust Account (less taxes payable and deferred underwriting commissions), to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest income (if any) to pay income taxes, if any. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the Trust Account. We expect the interest income earned on the amount in the Trust Account (if any) will be sufficient to pay our income taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the Trust Account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
Prior to the completion of our initial business combination and subsequent to the Public Offering, we will use the proceeds from the Public Offering held outside the Trust Account, as well as have access to certain funds from loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team. We will use these funds primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following the Public Offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our initial business combination. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to consummate our initial business combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of our initial business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination.
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Going Concern
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had $611,620 in cash held outside of the Trust Account and working capital surplus of $502,916. The Company has incurred and expects to continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its acquisition plans. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of time within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued. Management plans to address this uncertainty through the business combination. There is no assurance that the Company’s plans to consummate the business combination will be successful or successful within 18 months from the closing of the Public Offering (by April 12, 2023) assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2021.
Contractual Obligations
Registration and Shareholder Rights Agreement
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants and public warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants issued upon conversion of the working capital loans) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on the effective date of the registration statement for the 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 consummation of a business combination. We have granted Cantor and Odeon or their designees or affiliates certain registration rights relating to these securities. The underwriters may not exercise their demand and “piggyback” registration rights after five and seven years, respectively, after the effective date of the registration statement relating to the Public Offering and may not exercise demand rights on more than one occasion. The Company bears the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Promissory Note - Related Party
On March 11, 2021, our sponsor agreed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $300,000 to cover expenses related to the Public Offering pursuant to a promissory note (the “Promissory Note”). This loan is non-interest bearing and payable on the earlier of (i) December 31, 2021 or (ii) the consummation of the Public Offering. The outstanding balance under the Promissory Note was repaid on October 12, 2021 upon the closing of the Public Offering, as such, no amounts are outstanding at December 31, 2021.
Underwriting Agreement
In connection with the Public Offering, the underwriters were granted a 45-day option from the date of the prospectus to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional units to cover over-allotments. On October 12, 2021, the underwriters fully exercised the over-allotment option to purchase an additional 3,000,000 units at an offering price of $10.00 per Unit, generating additional gross proceeds of $30,000,000 to the Company.
The underwriters were paid a cash underwriting discount of $0.20 per Unit (excluding over-allotment units) in the Public Offering, or $4,000,000 in the aggregate, upon the closing of the Public Offering. In addition, $0.50 per unit (excluding over-allotment units) and $0.70 per over-allotment unit (totaling $12,100,000 in the aggregate) is payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee is 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.
Administrative Support Agreement
The Company has entered into an agreement with IX Acquisition Services LLC, an entity owned by an affiliate of our sponsor, to pay a total of $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services. During the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, the Company incurred expenses of $26,301 under the administrative support agreement as well an additional operational expenses of $23,699 paid to IX Acquisition Services LLC.
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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results could materially differ from those estimates. We have identified the following critical accounting policies:
Warrant Liabilities
The Company evaluated the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants, in accordance with ASC 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity”, and ASC 815-40, “Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity”, and concluded that a provision in the warrant agreement related to certain tender or exchange offers precludes the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants from being accounted for as components of equity. As the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants meet the definition of a derivative as contemplated in ASC 815, they are recorded as derivative liabilities on the balance sheet and measured at fair value at inception (on the date of the Public Offering) and at each reporting date in accordance with ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, with changes in fair value recognized in the statement of operations in the period of change. The determination of fair value for the warrant liabilities represents a significant estimate within the financial statements.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
All of the 23,000,000 Class A ordinary shares sold as part of the units in the Public Offering and subsequent exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option contain a redemption feature which allows for the redemption of such public shares in connection with the Company’s liquidation, if there is a shareholder vote or tender offer in connection with the business combination and in connection with certain amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association. In accordance with SEC and its staff’s guidance on redeemable equity instruments, which has been codified in ASC 480-10-S99, redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require ordinary shares subject to redemption to be classified outside of permanent equity. Therefore, all public shares have been classified outside of permanent equity, as temporary equity.
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of redeemable ordinary shares to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. Increases or decreases in the carrying amount of redeemable ordinary shares are affected by charges against additional paid in capital and accumulated deficit.
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
Net income per ordinary share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted-average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period. Remeasurement associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from net income per share as the redemption value approximates fair value. Therefore, the income per share calculation allocates income shared pro rata between Class A and Class B ordinary shares. As a result, the calculated net income per share is the same for Class A and Class B ordinary shares. Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture are included in the calculation of basic income per share beginning at the Public Offering date, as the over-allotment option was exercised in full and no Founder Shares remained subject to forfeiture. Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture are included in the calculation of diluted income per share at the date that the Founder Shares were issued. The Company has not considered the effect of the exercise of the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants to purchase an aggregate of 18,650,000 shares in the calculation of diluted income per share, since the exercise of the warrants is contingent upon the occurrence of future events.
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company evaluates its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging” ("ASC 815"). Derivative instruments are initially recorded at fair value on the grant date and re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statements of operations. Derivative assets and liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date.
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Founder Shares Attributable to Anchor Investors
A total of eight anchor investors purchased 1,980,000 units in the Public Offering at the offering price of $10.00 per unit; six anchor investors purchased 980,000 units in the Public Offering at the offering price of $10.00 per unit; one anchor investor purchased 780,000 units in the Public Offering at the offering price of $10.00 per unit; and one anchor investor purchased 500,000 units in the Public Offering at the offering price of $10.00 per unit.
Each anchor investor entered into separate investment agreements with the Company and the sponsor pursuant to which each anchor investor purchased a specified number of Founder Shares, or an aggregate of 1,747,879 Founder Shares, from the sponsor for $0.004 per share, or an aggregate purchase price of $6,992 at the closing of the Public Offering. Pursuant to the investment agreements, the anchor investors have agreed to (a) vote any Founder Shares held by them in favor of the business combination and (b) subject any Founder Shares held by them to the same lock-up restrictions as the Founder Shares held by the sponsor and independent directors.
The Company estimated the fair value of the Founder Shares attributable to the anchor investors to be $13,860,681 or $7.93 per share recognized upon the Public Offering. The Company determined the fair value based on a stock price simulation performed by a third party. The excess of the fair value of the Founder Shares sold over the purchase price of $6,992 (or $0.004 per share) was determined to be an offering cost in accordance with Staff Accounting Bulletin Topic 5A. Accordingly, the offering cost will be allocated to the separable financial instruments issued in the Public Offering based on a relative fair value basis, compared to total proceeds received. Offering costs allocated to derivative warrant liabilities will be expensed immediately in the statement of operations. Offering costs allocated to the public shares were charged to temporary equity upon the completion of the Public Offering. The determination of the fair value of the Founder Shares attributed to the Anchor Investors was determined to represent a significant accounting estimate.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-06, Debt - Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-0) and Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40) (“ASU 2020-06”) to simplify accounting for certain financial instruments. ASU 2020-06 eliminates the current models that require separation of beneficial conversion and cash conversion features from convertible instruments and simplifies the derivative scope exception guidance pertaining to equity classification of contracts in an entity’s own equity. The new standard also introduces additional disclosures for convertible debt and freestanding instruments that are indexed to and settled in an entity’s own equity. ASU 2020-06 amends the diluted earnings per share guidance, including the requirement to use the if-converted method for all convertible instruments. ASU 2020-06 is effective for the Company on January 1, 2024 and should be applied on a full or modified retrospective basis, with early adoption permitted beginning on January 1, 2021. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on March 1, 2021 (inception). The adoption of ASU 2020-06 did not have a material impact on the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK.
As a “smaller reporting company,” we are not required to provide the information called for by this Item.
48
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
F-1
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of IX Acquisition Corp.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of IX Acquisition Corp. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders’ deficit and cash flows for the period from March 1, 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 March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Explanatory Paragraph – Going Concern
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As more fully described in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company’s business plan is dependent on the completion of a business combination and the Company’s cash and working capital as of December 31, 2021 may not be sufficient to complete its planned activities for a reasonable period of time, which is considered to be one year from the issuance date of the financial statements. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
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/ Marcum LLP
Marcum LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.
Hartford, CT
April 13, 2022
F-2
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
BALANCE SHEET
DECEMBER 31, 2021
ASSETS | | | |
Current assets: | | | |
Cash | | $ | |
Prepaid expenses | |
| |
Due from related party | | | |
Total current assets | | $ | |
| |
| |
Prepaid expenses - non-current | | | |
Investments held in trust account | | | |
TOTAL ASSETS | | $ | |
| | | |
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT | |
|
|
Current liabilities: | | | |
Accounts payable | | $ | |
Accrued offering costs | | | |
Accrued expenses | | | |
Total current liabilities | | | |
| | | |
Warrant liabilities | |
| |
Deferred underwriting fee payable | |
| |
Total Liabilities | |
| |
| |
|
|
Commitments (Note 6) | |
|
|
Class A ordinary shares, $ | | | |
| |
|
|
Shareholders’ Deficit: | |
|
|
Preference shares, $ | |
| |
Class A ordinary shares, $ | |
| |
Class B ordinary shares, $ | |
| |
Additional paid-in capital | |
| |
Subscription Receivable | | | ( |
Accumulated deficit | |
| ( |
Total Shareholders’ Deficit | |
| ( |
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-3
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 1, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Operating and formation costs | | $ | |
Loss from operations | | | ( |
Unrealized gain on investments held in Trust Account | | | |
Interest income | | | |
Loss on sale of private placement warrants | | | ( |
Expensed offering costs | | | ( |
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities | | | |
Net income | | $ | |
| |
| |
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class A ordinary shares | | | |
Basic net income per share, Class A ordinary shares | | $ | |
Diluted net income per share, Class A ordinary shares | | $ | |
Basic weighted average shares outstanding, Class B ordinary shares | |
| |
Basic net income per share, Class B ordinary shares | | $ | |
Diluted weighted average shares outstanding, Class B ordinary shares | | | |
Diluted net income per share, Class B ordinary shares | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-4
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 1, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
| | Ordinary Shares | | Additional | | | | | | | | Total | ||||||||||
| | Class A | | Class B | | Paid-in | | Subscription | | Accumulated | | Shareholders' | ||||||||||
|
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Receivable |
| Deficit |
| Deficit | ||||||
Balance at March 1, 2021 (Inception) | | | | $ | | | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | |
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Fair value of Founder Shares transferred to Anchor Investors |
| | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | |
| | ||
Purchase of Private Placement Warrants from Sponsor | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ( | | | | | | ( |
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares to redemption amount |
| | | | | | | | | | | | ( | | | | | | ( | | | ( |
Net income |
| — | |
| | | — | | | | |
| | | | — | |
| | |
| |
Balance at December 31, 2021 |
| | | $ | | | | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | ( | | $ | ( | | $ | ( |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-5
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 1, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
Cash Flows from Operating Activities: |
|
| |
Net income | | $ | |
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash used in operating activities: | |
| |
Unrealized gain on investments held in Trust Account | | | ( |
Expensed offering costs | | | |
Loss on sale of private placement warrants | |
| |
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities | | | ( |
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | | | |
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: | |
|
|
Proceeds from issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | |
| |
Proceeds from issuance of promissory note to related party | | | |
Repayment of promissory note - related party | | | ( |
Advance to related party | | | ( |
Proceeds from initial public offering, net of underwriter's discount paid | |
| |
Proceeds from sale of private placement warrants | |
| |
Offering costs paid | |
| ( |
Net cash provided by financing activities | |
| |
| |
|
|
Net change in cash | | | |
| | | |
Cash - beginning of period | |
| |
Cash - end of period | | $ | |
| |
| |
Supplemental disclosure of noncash investing and financing activities: | |
| |
Offering costs included in accrued offering costs | | $ | |
Excess fair value of Founder Shares attributable to Anchor Investors | | $ | |
Purchase of Private Placement Warrants by subscription receivable | | $ | |
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to redemption value | | $ | |
Deferred underwriting fee payable | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
F-6
IX ACQUISITION CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2021
NOTE 1. DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION, BUSINESS OPERATIONS, AND GOING CONCERN
IX Acquisition Corp. (the “Company”) is a blank check company incorporated in the Cayman Islands on March 1, 2021. The Company was formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar Business Combination with one or more businesses (a “Business Combination”). The Company is not limited to a particular industry or geographic region for purposes of consummating a Business Combination. The Company is an early stage and emerging growth company and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risks 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 March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (“Initial Public Offering”), which is described below. 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 registration statement for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on October 6, 2021. On October 12, 2021, the Company consummated the Initial Public Offering of
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the sale of
Transaction costs amounted to $
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering on October 12, 2021, an amount of $
The Company will provide its holders of the outstanding 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. All public shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially
F-7
$
The Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $
Notwithstanding the above, if the Company seeks shareholder approval of a Business Combination and it does not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, the Company’s 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 initial shareholders (as described in Note 5) have agreed to (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to any Founder Shares and Public Shares they hold in connection with the completion of an initial Business Combination, (ii) waive their redemption rights with respect to any Founder Shares and Public Shares they hold in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to redeem
The Company will have until
The underwriters have 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
F-8
event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the assets remaining available for distribution will be less than the Initial Public Offering price per Unit ($
In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsor has 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 (1) $
Going Concern Consideration
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had $
Risks and Uncertainties
Management continues to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic 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 do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
NOTE 2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying financial statements are presented in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC.
Emerging Growth Company
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), and it 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 independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 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
F-9
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 the financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires the Company’s 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 expenses during the reporting period. The most significant estimates are related to the fair value of the warrants.
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 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 did
Investments Held in Trust Account
At December 31, 2021, the assets held in the Trust Account were in U.S. Treasury securities.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
All of the
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of redeemable ordinary shares to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. Increases or decreases in the carrying amount of redeemable ordinary shares are affected by charges against additional paid in capital and accumulated deficit.
F-10
As of December 31, 2021, the Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption reflected in the balance sheet are reconciled in the following table:
Gross proceeds |
| $ | |
Less: | |
|
|
Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants | |
| ( |
Issuance costs allocated to Class A ordinary shares | |
| ( |
Plus: | |
|
|
Remeasurement of carrying value to redemption value | |
| |
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | | $ | |
Offering Costs associated with the Initial Public Offering
The Company complies with the requirements of ASC Topic 340, Other Assets and Deferred Costs and SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin Topic 5A - Expenses of Offering. Offering costs consist principally of professional and registration fees incurred through the balance sheet date that are related to the Initial Public Offering. Offering costs directly attributable to the issuance of an equity contract to be classified in equity are recorded as a reduction in equity. Offering costs for equity contracts that are classified as assets and liabilities are expensed immediately. The Company incurred offering costs amounting to $
Income Taxes
The Company accounts for income taxes under ASC 740, Income Taxes (“ASC 740”). ASC 740 requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for both the expected impact of differences between the financial statements and tax basis of assets and liabilities and for the expected future tax benefit to be derived from tax loss and tax credit carry forwards. ASC 740 additionally requires a valuation allowance to be established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of deferred tax assets will not be realized.
ASC 740 also clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise’s financial statements and prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement process for financial statements recognition and measurement of a tax position 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. ASC 740 also provides guidance on derecognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim period, disclosure and transition. Based on the Company’s evaluation, it has been concluded that there are no significant uncertain tax positions requiring recognition in the Company’s financial statements. Since the Company was incorporated on March 1, 2021, the evaluation was performed for the upcoming 2021 tax year which will be the only period subject to examination.
The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. There were
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
Net income per ordinary share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted-average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period. Remeasurement associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from net income per share as the redemption value approximates fair value. Therefore, the income per share calculation allocates income shared pro rata between Class A and Class B ordinary shares. As a result, the calculated net income per share is the same for Class A and Class B ordinary shares. Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture are included in the calculation of basic income per share beginning at the Initial Public Offering date, as the over-allotment option was exercised in full and no Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5) remained subject to forfeiture (see Note 5). Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture are included in the calculation of diluted income per share at the date that the Founder Shares were issued. The Company has not considered the effect of the exercise of the Public Warrants (as defined in Note 3) and Private Placement Warrants (as defined in Note 4) to purchase an aggregate of
F-11
The following table reflects the calculation of basic and diluted net income per ordinary share (in dollars, except per share amounts):
|
| For the Period from March 1, 2021 | ||||
| | (Inception) through December 31, 2021 | ||||
| | Class A |
| Class B | ||
Numerator: |
| |
|
| |
|
Net income - Basic | | $ | | | $ | |
Effect of dilutive securities: | | | | | | |
Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture | | | ( | | | |
Net income - Diluted | | $ | | | $ | |
| | | | | | |
Denominator: |
| |
|
| |
|
Weighted average shares outstanding - Basic |
| | |
| | |
Effect of dilutive securities: | | | | | | |
Class B ordinary shares subject to forfeiture | |
| — | |
| |
Weighted average shares outstanding - Diluted | | $ | | | $ | |
| | | | | | |
Basic net income per share | | $ | | | $ | |
Diluted net income per share | | $ | | | $ | |
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of a cash account in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage of $
Warrant Liabilities
The Company evaluated the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants, in accordance with ASC 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity”, and ASC 815-40, “Derivatives and Hedging -- Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity”, and concluded that a provision in the warrant agreement related to certain tender or exchange offers precludes the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants from being accounted for as components of equity. As the public warrants and Private Placement Warrants meet the definition of a derivative as contemplated in ASC 815, they are recorded as derivative liabilities on the balance sheet and measured at fair value at inception (on the date of the Public Offering) and at each reporting date in accordance with ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, with changes in fair value recognized in the statement of operations in the period of change. The determination of fair value for the warrant liabilities represents a significant estimate within the financial statements.
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company evaluates its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging” ("ASC 815"). Derivative instruments are initially recorded at fair value on the grant date and re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statements of operations. Derivative assets and liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
ASC 820 establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes and ranks the level of observability of inputs used to measure investments at fair value. The observability of inputs is impacted by a number of factors, including the type of investment, characteristics specific to the investment, market conditions and other factors. 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). Investments with readily available quoted prices or for which fair value can be measured from quoted prices in active markets will typically have a higher degree of input observability and a lesser degree of judgment applied in determining fair value.
The carrying amounts reflected in the balance sheet for cash, due from related party, and accounts payable approximate fair value due to their short-term nature.
F-12
The three levels of the fair value hierarchy under ASC 820 are as follows:
Level 1—Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical investments at the measurement date are used.
Level 2—Pricing inputs are other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the investment, either directly or indirectly. Level 2 pricing inputs include quoted prices for similar investments in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar investments in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the investment, and inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means.
Level 3—Pricing inputs are unobservable and include situations where there is little, if any, market activity for the investment. The inputs used in determination of fair value require significant judgment and estimation.
In some cases, the inputs used to measure fair value might fall within different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, the level in the fair value hierarchy within which the investment is categorized in its entirety is determined based on the lowest level input that is significant to the investment. Assessing the significance of a particular input to the valuation of an investment in its entirety requires judgment and considers factors specific to the investment. The categorization of an investment within the hierarchy is based upon the pricing transparency of the investment and does not necessarily correspond to the perceived risk of that investment.
See Note 9 for additional information on assets and liabilities measured at fair value.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-06, Debt — Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-0) and Derivatives and Hedging — Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40) (“ASU 2020-06”) to simplify accounting for certain financial instruments. ASU 2020-06 eliminates the current models that require separation of beneficial conversion and cash conversion features from convertible instruments and simplifies the derivative scope exception guidance pertaining to equity classification of contracts in an entity’s own equity. The new standard also introduces additional disclosures for convertible debt and freestanding instruments that are indexed to and settled in an entity’s own equity. ASU 2020-06 amends the diluted earnings per share guidance, including the requirement to use the if-converted method for all convertible instruments. ASU 2020-06 is effective for the Company on January 1, 2024 and should be applied on a full or modified retrospective basis, with early adoption permitted beginning on January 1, 2021. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on March 1, 2021 (inception). The adoption of ASU 2020-06 did not have a material impact on the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
NOTE 3. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING
Pursuant to the Initial Public Offering, which was consummated on October 12, 2021, the Company sold
NOTE 4. PRIVATE PLACEMENT
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Sponsor, Cantor and Odeon purchased an aggregate of
Each Private Placement Warrant is exercisable to purchase
F-13
NOTE 5. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
Founder Shares
On March 11, 2021, the Sponsor was issued
The initial shareholders have agreed that, subject to certain limited exceptions, the Founder Shares will not be transferred, assigned, or sold until the earlier of (i)
A total of eight Anchor Investors purchased
Each Anchor Investor entered into separate investment agreements with the Company and the Sponsor pursuant to which each Anchor Investor purchased a specified number of Founder Shares, or an aggregate of
The Company estimated the fair value of the Founder Shares attributable to the Anchor Investors to be $
Promissory Note — Related Party
On March 11, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $
Due from Related Party
Due from related party consists of amounts owed from IX Acquisition Services LLC, due to expenses paid by the Company on behalf of IX Acquisition Services LLC, which were settled in full on April 12, 2022.
F-14
Administrative Support Agreement
The Company has entered into an agreement with IX Acquisition Services LLC, an entity owned by an affiliate of the Sponsor, to pay a total of $
Related Party Loans
The Sponsor has committed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $
NOTE 6. COMMITMENTS
Registration and Shareholder Rights Agreement
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants and Public Warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on the effective date of the registration statement for the Company’s 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 consummation of a Business Combination. The Company has granted Cantor and Odeon or their designees or affiliates certain registration rights relating to these securities. The underwriters may not exercise their demand and “piggyback” registration rights after five and seven years, respectively, after the effective date of the registration statement relating to the Initial Public Offering and may not exercise demand rights on more than one occasion. The Company bears the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Underwriting Agreement
In connection with the Initial Public Offering, the underwriters were granted a 45-day option from the date of the prospectus to purchase up to
The underwriters were paid a cash underwriting discount of $
NOTE 7. WARRANTS
As of December 31, 2021, there were
F-15
Public Warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of shares. No fractional shares will be issued upon exercise of the Public Warrants. The Public Warrants will become exercisable on the later of (a)
The Company will not be obligated to deliver any Class A ordinary shares pursuant to the exercise of a warrant and will have no obligation to settle such warrant exercise unless a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to the Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants is then effective and a prospectus relating thereto is current, subject to the Company satisfying the obligations described below with respect to registration. No warrant will be exercisable and the Company will not be obligated to issue Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of a warrant unless the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon such warrant exercise have been registered, qualified or deemed to be exempt under the securities laws of the state of residence of the registered holder of the warrants. In the event that the conditions in the two immediately preceding sentences are not satisfied with respect to a warrant, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In no event will the Company be required to net cash settle any warrant.
The Company has agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than fifteen business days after the closing of an initial Business Combination, the Company will use its best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants. The Company will use its best efforts to cause the same to become effective and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement, and a current prospectus relating thereto, until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. If a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the sixtieth (60th) business day after the closing of an initial Business Combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when the Company will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption. Notwithstanding the above, if the Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, the Company may, at its option, require holders of Public Warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event the Company so elects, the Company will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, and in the event the Company does not so elect, the Company will use its best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
Redemption of warrants for cash-Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may call the warrants for redemption:
| ● | in whole and not in part; |
| ● | at a price of $ |
| ● | upon not less than |
| ● | if, and only if, the closing price of the ordinary shares equals or exceeds $ |
The Company will not redeem the warrants for cash unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period, except if the warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. If and when the warrants become redeemable by the Company, the Company may exercise its redemption right even if the Company is unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
F-16
If the Company calls the warrants for redemption as described above, the Company’s management will have the option to require all holders that wish to exercise warrants to do so on a “cashless basis.” In determining whether to require all holders to exercise their warrants on a “cashless basis,” the Company’s management will consider, among other factors, its cash position, the number of warrants that are outstanding and the dilutive effect on the Company’s shareholders of issuing the maximum number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the warrants. In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of Class A ordinary shares equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares (defined below) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” will mean the average reported closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants.
In addition, if (x) the Company issues additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of an initial Business Combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $
The Private Placement Warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until
The accounting treatment of derivative financial instruments requires that the Company record the warrants as derivative liabilities at fair value upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. The Public Warrants have been allocated a portion of the proceeds from the issuance of the Units equal to its fair value. The warrant liabilities are subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date. With each such re-measurement, the warrant liabilities will be adjusted to its current fair value, with the change in fair value recognized in the Company’s statement of operations. The Company will reassess the classification at each balance sheet date. If the classification changes as a result of events during the period, the warrants will be reclassified as of the date of the event that causes the reclassification.
F-17
NOTE 8. STOCKHOLDERS’ 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
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 the Company’s shareholders except as required by law. Unless specified in the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association, or as required by applicable provisions of the Companies Act or applicable stock exchange rules, the affirmative vote of a majority of the ordinary shares that are voted is required to approve any such matter voted on by the shareholders. Approval of certain actions will require a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, being the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the ordinary shares that are voted, and pursuant to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association; such actions include amending the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association and approving a statutory merger or consolidation with another company. The Company’s board of directors is divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. 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. The Company’s shareholders are entitled to receive ratable dividends when, as and if declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor. Prior to the Company’s initial Business Combination, (i) only holders of the Founder Shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors and (ii) in a vote to continue the Company in a jurisdiction outside the Cayman Islands (which requires the approval of at least two thirds of the votes of all ordinary shares), holders of the Company’s Class B ordinary shares will have ten votes for every Class B ordinary share and holders of the Class A ordinary shares will have one vote for every Class A ordinary share. These provisions of the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by not less than 90% of the ordinary shares who attend and vote at the Company’s general meeting which shall include the affirmative vote of a simple majority of the Class B ordinary shares. Holders of the Public Shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors prior to the initial Business Combination. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial Business Combination, holders of a majority of the Founder Shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. In connection with the initial Business Combination, the Company may enter into a shareholders agreement or other arrangements with the shareholders of the target with respect to voting and other corporate governance matters following completion of the initial Business Combination.
NOTE 9. FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS
The following table presents information about the Company’s financial assets that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2021, and indicates the fair value hierarchy of the valuation inputs the Company utilized to determine such fair value:
Description |
| Amount at Fair Value |
| Level 1 |
| Level 2 |
| Level 3 | ||||
December 31, 2021 | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |
Assets |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Investments held in Trust Account: |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
US Treasury Securities | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | — | | $ | — |
Liabilities | |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Warrant liability – Public Warrants | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | — | | $ | — |
Warrant liability – Private Placement Warrants | | $ | | | $ | — | | $ | — | | $ | |
Total Liabilities | | $ | | | $ | | | $ | — | | $ | |
F-18
The Company utilized a Monte-Carlo simulation model for the initial valuation of the Public Warrants. The subsequent measurement of the Public Warrants as of December 31, 2021 is classified as Level 1 due to the use of an observable market quote in an active market under the ticker IXAQW. The quoted price of the Public Warrants was $
The Company utilized a probability-adjusted Black-Scholes method to value the Private Placement Warrants at each reporting period, with changes in fair value recognized in the statement of operations. The estimated fair value of the Private Placement Warrant liabilities are determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in pricing models are assumptions related to expected share-price volatility, expected life, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield. The Company estimates the volatility of its ordinary shares based on historical volatility that matches the expected remaining life of the warrants. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero-coupon yield curve on the grant date for a maturity similar to the expected remaining life of the warrants. The expected life of the warrants is assumed to be equivalent to their remaining contractual term. The dividend rate is based on the historical rate, which the Company anticipates to remain at zero.
Transfers to/from Levels 1, 2 and 3 are recognized at the end of the reporting period. The estimated fair value of the Public Warrants transferred from a Level 3 measurement to a Level 1 fair value measurement after the Public Warrants were separately listed and traded.
The following table provides the significant inputs to the Monte-Carlo method for the fair value of the Public Warrants:
|
| At October 12, |
| |
| | 2021 (Initial |
| |
| | Measurement) |
| |
Stock price | | $ | | |
Exercise price | | $ | | |
Expected term (in years) | |
| | |
Volatility | |
| | % |
Risk-free rate | |
| | % |
Fair value | | $ | | |
The following table provides the significant inputs to the probability-adjusted Black-Scholes method for the fair value of the Private Placement Warrants:
|
| At October 12, |
| | |
| |
| | 2021 (Initial | | At December 31, |
| ||
| | Measurement) | | 2021 |
| ||
Stock price | | $ | | | $ | | |
Exercise price | | $ | | | $ | | |
Dividend yield | |
| — | % |
| — | % |
Expected term (in years) | |
| | |
| | |
Volatility | |
| | % |
| | % |
Risk-free rate | |
| | % |
| | % |
Fair value | | $ | | | $ | | |
The following table provides a summary of the changes in the fair value of the Company’s Level 3 financial instruments that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis:
Fair value as of March 1, 2021 (inception) |
| $ | — |
Initial measurement of Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants as of October 12, 2021 | |
| |
Transfer of Public Warrants to Level 1 measurement | |
| ( |
Change in fair value of Private Placement Warrants | |
| ( |
Fair value at December 31, 2021 | | $ | |
The Company recognized gains in connection with changes in the fair value of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants of $
F-19
NOTE 10. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Based upon this review, other than as disclosed in Note 4 and Note 5 regarding the subscription receivable and due from related party payments, respectively, the Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
F-20
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE.
None.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.
Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
As required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021. Based upon their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of the evaluation date, our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15 (e) and 15d -15 (e) under the Exchange Act) were effective.
Management’s Report on Internal Control 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.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
During the most recently completed fiscal quarter, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION.
None.
ITEM 9C. DISCLOSURE REGARDING FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS THAT PREVENT INSPECTIONS.
Not applicable.
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PART III
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE.
Directors and Executive Officers
Our directors and executive officers are as follows:
Name |
| Age |
| Position |
| | | | |
Guy Willner |
| 58 |
| Executive Chairman and Director |
| | | | |
Karen Bach |
| 52 |
| Chief Executive Officer and Director |
| | | | |
Noah Aptekar |
| 34 |
| Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer and Director |
| | | | |
Victoria Reid |
| 46 |
| Director |
| | | | |
Ian Spence |
| 51 |
| Director |
| | | | |
Andrew Bartley |
| 58 |
| Director |
| | | | |
Eduardo Marini |
| 42 |
| Director |
| | | | |
Shannon Grewer |
| 46 |
| Director |
Guy Willner, Executive Chairman and Director
Guy Willner, our Executive Chairman and Director, is the co-founder, Chairman and former CEO of IXcellerate, a datacenter operator in Russia providing co-location and peering services for financial institutions, multinational corporations, international carriers, hyperscale operators and major content operators. He has also served as the co-founder and Chairman of IXAfrica since 2018 and director of IXcellerate UK Ltd since 2011 and previously served as the CEO of IXEurope (LSE: IXE) from 1999 to 2007. Mr. Willner founded IXEurope in 1998 and oversaw the company’s growth from a sole datacenter in London to a network of 14 datacenters located in four countries (France, UK, Germany and Switzerland) and eight cities, fueled, in part, by the company successfully executing eight acquisitions between 2004 and 2006. This rapid expansion resulted in IXEurope winning first place in the 2002 UK Sunday Times Tech Track awards as the fastest growing technology company in the UK, and Mr. Willner was a finalist in the 2003 Ernst and Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year awards. With his team, the company was successfully listed on London’s AIM market (LSE: IXE) in April 2006. That same year, the company received the Queen’s Award for International Trade in recognition of its spectacular growth across Europe. In September 2007, IXEurope was purchased by Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) for $555 million, and Mr. Willner remained as the President of Equinix’s European sector through June 2008. Mr. Willner invested in and joined the board of directors of Teraco Data Environments (South Africa) in 2008 and remained as a shareholder and board member until 2014 when the company was sold to Permira. In 2018, Mr. Willner founded IXAfrica, a hyperscale datacenter operator in Kenya that is projected to be the largest hyperscale datacenter campus in East Africa by 2025. Mr. Willner holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Oxford Brookes University.
Karen Bach, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Karen Bach, our Chief Executive Officer and Director, is the Chairman of Consult Red Ltd (IoT and connected devices IT services), Dem Dx (health tech and clinical reasoning/diagnostics) and DeepMatter Plc (digitization of chemistry and drug discovery, LSE: DMTR). She is also a non-executive director of Escape Hunt Plc (entertainment and escape rooms, LSE: ESC). From 2012 to 2019, Ms. Bach served as the Independent Chairman of IXcellerate Ltd. (datacenter). She has also served as a Chairman of Aferian Plc (media tech, LSE: AFRN), non-executive director of Datapharm Ltd. (health-pharma tech) and Belvoir Lettings Plc (LSE: BLV), and trustee of the Learning Foundation. Ms. Bach brings significant international experience, as she served as Chief Financial Officer at growing technology businesses such as IXEurope Plc (LSE: IXE), ACS Plc and Kewill Plc, in addition to blue chip multi-national corporations, including EDS France, MCI WorldCom, General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ernst & Young. Ms. Bach obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Bradford, graduated from the EM Strasbourg Business School and is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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Noah Aptekar, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer and Director
Noah Aptekar, our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer and Director, has extensive experience in innovation, finance and operations in high-technology industries, with particular expertise on terrestrial and space-based telecommunications. From August 2016 through March 2020, Mr. Aptekar worked for SpaceX, the largest US-based “unicorn” company, where he brought financial discipline to the production division, which accounted for approximately one-third of the company’s employees actively engaged in the production and manufacturing of vehicles, and was responsible for financial planning, cost analysis and budget management activities for the division’s nine-figure annual operating and capital spend. Most recently, he was the project lead for one of the largest future budget items for SpaceX, the Starlink User Terminal. Furthermore, at SpaceX, Mr. Aptekar identified and implemented operational efficiencies to control cost and reduce risk while overseeing the development of a new consumer electronics manufacturing facility. Between 2012 and 2014, while working for Colorado’s then-Governor John W. Hickenlooper in the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Mr. Aptekar co-created the $100+ million Advanced Industries fund, which matches private investments with high-tech businesses and entrepreneurs. He also established and managed the due diligence and investment committee processes for the Advanced Industries fund. One of the first recipients of Advanced Industries funding, Lightning Hybrids, announced in December 2020 its participation in an initial business combination with GigCapital3 Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GIK.U) and began trading publicly as Lightning eMotors (NYSE: ZEV) beginning in May 2021. Another of the first recipients of Advanced Industries funding, Solid Power, Inc (“Solid Power”), announced in June 2021 its participation in an initial business combination with Riverstone Holdings LLC’s Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III (“DCRC”) (NASDAQ: DCRC). Solid Power’s business combination closed in December 2021 with the company receiving gross proceeds from the transaction of approximately $542.9 million from its fully committed $195 million PIPE and the receipt of approximately $347.9 million of cash from DCRC’s trust account net of redemptions. Of the shares voted at the special meeting of DCRC stockholders on December 7, 2021, over 99.9% voted to approve the business combination. In addition, only 0.6% of the shares held by DCRC’s public stockholders were redeemed. Currently, Mr. Aptekar is the principal of Next Century Innovations, a global consulting company. Mr. Aptekar has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Yale University and has taken courses in pursuit of a Master of Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Victoria Reid, Vice President
Victoria Reid, our Vice President, has been the Vice President of Business Development at IDC-G since 2016. In 2014, Ms. Reid was part of the team at IXcellerate that successfully engaged Japanese Bank Sumitomo to becoming shareholders and investors in the company. In 2016, Ms. Reid supported Guy Willner on the successful launch of IXAfrica, with an initial campus in Kenya that is projected to be the largest hyperscale datacenter campus in East Africa by 2025. In 2018, Ms. Reid supported the team that secured an investment by Goldman Sachs into IXcellerate. Ms. Reid attended Edinburgh Napier University.
Ian Spence, Director
Ian Spence, our director, is the founder and Chairman of Megabuyte, an origination, transaction support and data analytics platform enabling investors, advisers and chief executive officers to identify, benchmark monitor, and filter UK mid-market technology companies. Considered one of the technology sector’s most informed and influential commentator, Megabuyte’s research service is a valuable resource for over 2,000 industry leaders. In addition to directing day-to-day operations, Mr. Spence has overall responsibility for managing accounts, developing business and setting the strategic direction of the company. Recently, Mr. Spence has been twice recognized by Debretts and The Sunday Times as one of the 20 most influential people in the UK technology sector. Prior to founding Megabuyte, from 1994 to 2005, Mr. Spence was a successful technology analyst at various firms including Robert W. Baird, and he holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Andrew Bartley, Director
Andrew Bartley, our director, is a former Chief Investment Officer for TMT at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). There, Mr. Bartley principally originated, structured and managed complex equity, mezzanine and senior debt financings in the TMT and infrastructure sectors in emerging markets. During the course of his career, Mr. Bartley has held various non-executive director roles in a variety of companies, including serving as a non-executive director for IXcellerate and working alongside our Chairman Guy Willner and our Chief Executive Officer Karen Bach, and has been responsible for billions in debt and equity financings in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Prior to joining the IFC, he worked for Monenco Agra in project management and systems engineering. Mr. Bartley holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering from the University of Bristol, UK, and an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
50
Eduardo Marini, Director
Eduardo Marini, our director, is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of green4T, a leading IT infrastructure services provider operating in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Prior to co-founding green4T in 2016, Mr. Marini was the Vice President and interim CEO of Aceco TI, a leader in design, construction, and maintenance of high-availability datacenters in Latin America, formerly owned by the global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Before joining Aceco TI, Mr. Marini was a private equity investor with General Atlantic (GA), a global private equity firm focused on growth investments. While at GA, he held various non-executive director roles and oversaw new investments in Latin America in the technology and financial services sectors, having completed one of the most successful investments by GA to date in XP Inc. (NASDAQ:XP), an investment management company currently valued at more than $20 billion. His experience also includes private equity and investment banking roles at Actis, Lazard, and Bank of America, both in Brazil and in the United States. Mr. Marini is a licensed attorney and holds an LL.B. degree from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Shannon Grewer, Director
Shannon Grewer, our director, is a corporate lawyer with significant experience working with early-stage companies in emerging markets. She spent 15 years working in Washington, D.C. with several major international law firms, where she regularly advised clients across multiple sectors, including power, oil and gas, mining, banking, retail, consumer goods, entertainment and aviation. Ms. Grewer has significant transactional experience in project finance, private equity and corporate acquisitions and divestitures as well. She spent four years as the General Counsel for Towershare, the largest independent tower company based in the Middle East. Ms. Grewer has also led Towershare’s raise of the necessary capital to transition from three employees to more than one hundred employees in Dubai and Pakistan, oversaw multiple tower acquisitions, and closed a successful exit for the company’s investors through a sale to Edotco. She continued to work as a consultant to Edotco and advised on telecommunications infrastructure deals across the Edotco portfolio of companies for two years. In 2020, she helped a team of former Edotco executives raise significant capital from Digital Colony to launch a new infrastructure sharing company focused on Southeast Asia. She is currently working as an acting General Counsel to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines, Inc. In addition to telecommunications, Ms. Grewer has negotiated infrastructure projects, including mining, power and commercial agriculture in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Ms. Grewer holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a juris doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of seven members and 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 general meeting) serving a three-year term. In accordance with Nasdaq rules, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Mr. Marini and Mr. Spence, will expire at our first annual general meeting. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Ms. Grewer and Mr. Bartley, will expire at the second annual general meeting. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Mr. Willner, Ms. Bach and Mr. Aptekar, will expire at the third annual general meeting.
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 officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our Memorandum and Articles of Association.
Director Independence
The Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person who has no material relationship with the listed company (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the company). Our board of directors has determined that Ian Spence, Eduardo Marini, Shannon Grewer and Anrew Bartley are “independent directors” as defined in Nasdaq’s listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present..
Board Committees
Our board of directors has two standing committees: an audit committee and a compensation committee. Each committee operates under a charter that has been approved by our board and has the composition and responsibilities described below. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, Nasdaq rules and Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be
51
comprised solely of independent directors, and Nasdaq rules require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. The charter of each committee is available on our website.
Audit Committee
We established an audit committee of the board of directors. The members of our audit committee are Andrew Bartley, Shannon Grewer and Ian Spence. Mr. Bartley serves as chairman of the audit committee.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bartley qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
Compensation Committee
We established a compensation committee of the board of directors. The members of our Compensation Committee are Shannon Grewer, Andrew Bartley, and Ian Spence. Ms. Grewer serves as chairman of the compensation committee. We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
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
52
adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, as indicated above, other than the payment to IX Acquisition Services LLC of $10,000 per month, for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support and reimbursement of expenses, no compensation of any kind, including finders, consulting or other similar fees, will be paid to any of our existing shareholders, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates, prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate the consummation of an initial business combination. Accordingly, it is likely that prior to the consummation of an initial business combination, the compensation committee will only be responsible for the review and recommendation of any compensation arrangements to be entered into in connection with such initial business combination.
Director Nominations
We do not have a standing nominating committee though we intend to form a corporate governance and nominating committee as and when required to do so by law or Nasdaq rules. In accordance with Nasdaq Rule 5605(e)(2), a majority of the independent directors may recommend a director nominee for selection by our board of directors. Our board of directors believes that the independent directors can satisfactorily carry out the responsibility of properly selecting or approving director nominees without the formation of a standing nominating committee. The directors who will participate in the consideration and recommendation of director nominees are Ms. Grewer, Mr. Spence and Mr. Bartley. In accordance with Nasdaq Rule 5605(e)(1)(A), all such directors are independent. As there is no standing nominating committee, we do not have a nominating committee charter in place.
The board of directors will also consider director candidates recommended for nomination by our shareholders during such times as they are seeking proposed nominees to stand for election at the next annual general meeting of the company (or, if applicable, an extraordinary general meeting of the company). Our shareholders that wish to nominate a director for appointment to our board of directors should follow the procedures set forth in our Memorandum and Articles of Association.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, our board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our shareholders.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, (i) as a member of the compensation committee or board of directors of another entity, one of whose executive officers served on our compensation committee, or (ii) as a member of the compensation committee of another entity, one of whose executive officers served on our board of directors.
Code of Ethics
We adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. We filed a copy of our form of Code of Ethics and our audit committee charter as exhibits to the registration statement. You will be able to review these documents by accessing our public filings at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, 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.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION.
None of our executive officers or directors has received any cash compensation for services rendered. We will pay IX Acquisition Services LLC a total of $10,000 per month for office space, administrative and support services. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease making these payments. Our sponsor, its service providers, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred or such agreed-upon compensation as contracted 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.
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It is possible that some or all of our officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements with the post-transaction company after our initial business combination. Any such arrangements will be disclosed in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed business combination, to the extent they are known at such time.
The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business, but we do not believe that such arrangements will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS.
We have no compensation plans under which equity securities are authorized for issuance.
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of December 31, 2021, 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 officers and directors; and |
| ● | all our officers and directors as a group. |
The following table is based on 28,750,000 ordinary shares outstanding at April 13, 2022, of which 23,000,000 were Class A ordinary shares and 5,750,000 were Class B ordinary shares. 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.
|
| Number of |
| Percentage of |
|
| | Shares | | Outstanding |
|
| | Beneficially | | Ordinary |
|
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | | Owned | | Shares |
|
IX Acquisition Sponsor, LLC(2)(3) | | 4,002,121 | | 13.9 | % |
Noah Aptekar(3) |
| — |
| — | |
Guy Willner |
| — |
| — | |
Karen Bach |
| — |
| — | |
Victoria Reid |
| — |
| — | |
Ian Spence |
| — |
| — | |
Andrew Bartley |
| — |
| — | |
Eduardo Marini |
| — |
| — | |
Shannon Grewer |
| — |
| — | |
Radcliffe Capital Management, L.P. (4) |
| 1,958,795 |
| 6.8 | % |
LMR Master Fund Ltd(5) |
| 1,980,000 |
| 6.9 | % |
Beryl Capital Management LLC(6) |
| 1,980,000 |
| 6.9 | % |
Magnetar Financial LLC(7) |
| 1,974,800 |
| 6.8 | % |
Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. (8) |
| 1,980,000 |
| 6.9 | % |
CaaS Capital Management LP (9) | | 1,580,389 | | 5.4 | % |
All officers and directors as a group (eight individuals) |
| — |
| — | |
*Less than one percent
| (1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following entities or individuals is Arch 124, Salamanca Street, London SE1 7HX, United Kingdom. |
| (2) | Interests shown consist solely of Founder Shares, classified as Class B ordinary shares. Such 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, as described elsewhere herein. |
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| (3) | Our sponsor is the record holder of such shares. IX Acquisition Sponsor Manager, LLC is the manager of the sponsor. Noah Aptekar is the sole member of IX Acquisition Sponsor Manager, LLC and has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held of record by the sponsor. Mr. Aptekar disclaims any beneficial ownership of the shares held by the sponsor, except to the extent of his pecuniary interest therein. |
| (4) | According to a Schedule 13G/A filed on February 16, 2022, on behalf of Radcliffe Capital Management, L.P., RGC Management Company, LLC, Steven B. Katznelson, Christopher Hinkel, Radcliffe SPAC Master Fund, L.P. and Radcliffe SPAC GP, LLC, the aforementioned persons have beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such person is 50 Monument Road, Suite 300, Bala Cynwyd, PA 1904. |
| (5) | According to a Schedule 13G/A filed on February 14, 2022, on behalf of LMR Master Fund Ltd, LMR Partners LLP, LMR Partners Limited, LMR Partners LLC, LMR Partners AG, Ben Levine and Stefan Renold, the aforementioned persons have beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such person is 9th Floor, Devonshire House, 1 Mayfair Place, London, W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom. |
| (6) | According to a Schedule 13G/A filed on February 11, 2022, on behalf of Beryl Capital Management LLC, Beryl Capital Management LP, Beryl Capital Partners II LP and David A. Witkin, the aforementioned persons have beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such person is 1611 S. Catalina Ave., Suite 309, Redondo Beach, CA 90277. |
| (7) | According to a Schedule 13G filed on February 4, 2022 on behalf of Magnetar Financial LLC, Magnetar Capital Partners LP, Supernova Management LLC and Alec N. Litowitz, the aforementioned persons have beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such person is 1603 Orrington Avenue, 13th Floor, Evanston, Illinois 60201. |
| (8) | According to a Schedule 13G filed on February 9, 2022 on behalf of Polar Asset Management Partners Inc., the aforementioned entity has beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such entity is 16 York Street, Suite 2900, Toronto, ON, Canada M5J 0E6. |
| (9) | According to a Schedule 13G filed on March 21, 2022 on behalf of CaaS Capital Management LP, CaaS Capital Management GP LLC and Siufu Fu, the aforementioned persons have beneficial ownership of the securities reported above and the business address of each such person is 800 Third Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10022. |
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE.
On March 11, 2021, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 5,750,000 Founder Shares for a purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share. The number of Founder Shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of the Public Offering would be a maximum of 23,000,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option was exercised in full, and therefore that such Founder Shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the Public Offering.
Our sponsor, Cantor and Odeon purchased an aggregate of 7,150,000 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $7,150,000 in the aggregate, in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering. The Private Placement Warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to the Founder Shares or Private Placement Warrants, which will expire worthless if we do not consummate a business combination within the allotted 18-month period.
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, 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 his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us, in accordance with applicable laws.
We entered into an Administrative Services Agreement with IX Acquisition Services LLC pursuant to which we will pay a total of $10,000 per month for office space, administrative and support services to such affiliate. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees. Accordingly, in the event the consummation of our initial
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business combination takes the maximum 18 months assuming there is no amendment to our Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the period of time to consummate an initial business combination, IX Acquisition Services LLC will be paid a total of $180,000 ($10,000 per month) for office space, administrative and support services and will be entitled to be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses.
Our 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 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.
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 (except in the case of the Committed Sponsor Loans), loan us funds as may be required. If we complete an initial business combination, we would 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 (which amount includes the Committed Sponsor Loans) may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants issued to the initial holders. 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. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, 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. Marcum LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriters of the offering, will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the Trust Account.
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.
Registration Rights
The holders of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on October 6, 2021. 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 the Company’s initial business combination. However, the registration 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, on the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share subdivisions, 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, or (y) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property, and (ii) in the case of the Private Placement Warrants, and the respective Class A ordinary shares underlying such warrants, 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. We have granted Cantor and Odeon or their designees or affiliates certain registration rights relating to the Underwriters Private Placement Warrants. The underwriters may not exercise their demand and “piggyback” registration rights after five and seven years, respectively, after the effective date of the registration statement relating to the Public Offering and may not exercise demand rights on more than one occasion. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Administrative Services
We will reimburse our IX Acquisition Services LLC for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of the Company’s management team in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per month in the event such space and/or services are utilized
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and the Company does not pay a third party directly for such services, from the date of closing of the Public Offering. Upon completion of a business combination or the Company’s liquidation, the Company will cease paying these monthly fees.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES.
The following is a summary of fees paid or to be paid to Marcum LLP, or Marcum, 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 Marcum for audit fees, inclusive of required filings with the SEC for the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, and of services rendered in connection with our initial public offering, totaled $87,035.
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 consultations concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay Marcum for consultations concerning financial accounting and reporting standards for the period from March 1, 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 Marcum for services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice for the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.
All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. We did not pay Marcum for other services for the period from March 1, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021.
Pre-Approval Policy
Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of the Public Offering. As a result, the audit committee did not pre-approve all of the foregoing services, although any services rendered prior to the formation of our audit committee were approved by our board of directors. Since the formation of our audit committee, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will pre-approve all auditing services and permitted non-audit services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit).
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PART IV
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES.
| (a) | The following documents are filed as part of this report: |
| (1) | Financial Statements |
Reference is made to the Index to Financial Statements of the Company under Item 8 of Part II above.
| (2) | Financial Statement Schedule |
All financial statement schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or the amounts are immaterial, not required, or the required information is presented in the financial statements and notes thereto in Item 8 of Part II above.
| (3) | Exhibits |
We hereby file as part of this report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index.
Exhibit |
| Description |
3.1 | | |
4.1 | | |
4.2 | | |
4.3 | | |
4.4 | | |
4.5 | | |
10.1 | | |
10.2 | | |
10.3 | | |
10.4 | | |
10.5 | | |
10.6 | |
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| ||
10.7 | | |
14.1 | | |
31.1 | | |
31.2 | | |
32.1 | | |
32.2 | | |
101.INS | | Inline XBRL Instance Document |
101.SCH | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document |
101.CAL | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document |
101.DEF XBRL | | Inline Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document |
101.LAB XBRL | | Inline Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document |
101.PRE XBRL | | Inline Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document |
104 | | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) |
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
April 13, 2022 | | |
| | |
| | |
| IX ACQUISITION CORP. | |
| | |
| By: | /s/ Karen Bach |
| Name: | Karen Bach |
| Title: | Chief Executive Officer |
| | |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Name |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Guy Willner | | Executive Chairman and Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Guy Willner | | | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Karen Bach | | Chief Executive Officer and Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Karen Bach | | (Principal Executive Officer) | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Noah Aptekar | | Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer and Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Noah Aptekar | | (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Ian Spence | | Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Ian Spence | | | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Andrew Bartley | | Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Andrew Bartley | | | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Eduardo Marini | | Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Eduardo Marini | | | | |
| | | | |
/s/ Shannon Grewer | | Director | | April 13, 2022 |
Shannon Grewer | | | | |
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