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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
or
For the transition period from to
Commission file number: 001-41150
Southport Acquisition Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (917) 503-9722
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class TradingSymbol(s) Name of each exchange on whichregistered
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 ☐No☒
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 ☐No☒
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. Yes☒No ☐
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. Yes☒No ☐
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):
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒
Emerging growth company ☒
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☒ No ☐
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, computed as of June 30, 2022 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter), was $228,160,000.
As of May 30, 2023, there were 27,200,000 shares of Class A common stock and 1,550,000 shares of Class B common stock of the registrant issued and outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
None.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 2
Item 1. Business 3
Item 1A. Risk Factors 10
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 50
Item 2. Properties 50
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 50
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 50
Item 6. [Reserved] 51
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 54
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 54
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 54
Item 9B. Other Information 55
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 55
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 56
Item 11. Executive Compensation 62
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 67
Item 15. Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules 68
Index to Financial Statements F-1
Signatures 70
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report, including, without limitation, statements under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Those 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,” “intends,” “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 a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements in this report may include, for example, statements about:
● our ability to select an attractive target business or businesses;
● our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading;
● the lack of an active trading market for our securities;
● the Trust Account not being subject to claims of third parties; or
● our financial performance.
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 “Item 1A. 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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PART I
Unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, references in this report to: (i) “we,” “us,” “our,” “the Company” or “our Company” are to Southport Acquisition Corporation; (ii) “founder shares” are to shares of our Class B common stock initially purchased by our sponsor in a private placement prior to our IPO (as defined herein), and the shares of our Class A common stock issued upon the conversion thereof; (iii) “initial business combination” has the meaning set forth in the immediately following paragraph; (iv) “management” or our “management team” are to our officers and directors; (v) “permitted withdrawals for tax” are to amounts withdrawn from interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account (as defined herein) in order to pay our taxes; (vi) “private placement warrants” are to our warrants purchased by our sponsor in the Private Placement (as defined herein); (vii) “public shares” are to shares of our Class A common stock included in the units sold in our IPO (whether they were purchased in our IPO or thereafter in the open market); (viii) “public stockholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our sponsor and management team to the extent our sponsor and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that the status of our sponsor and each member of our management team as a “public stockholder” shall only exist with respect to such public shares; (ix) “public warrants” are to our warrants included in the units sold in our IPO (whether they were purchased in our IPO or thereafter in the open market) and to the private placement warrants if held by third parties other than our sponsor or its permitted transferees; (x) “sponsor” are to Southport Acquisition Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company; (xi) “underwriter” are to BofA Securities, Inc., the underwriter of our IPO; and (xii) “warrants” are to the public warrants and the private placement warrants.
Item 1.Business.
General
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation on April 13, 2021 and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this report as our “initial business combination.” We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, we are a “shell company” as defined under the Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.
On December 14, 2021, we consummated our initial public offering (our “IPO”) of 23,000,000 units (the “units”), each unit consisting of one share of Class A common stock of the Company, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class A Common Stock”) and one-half of one warrant of the Company, each whole warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock for $11.50 per share (subject to adjustment). The 23,000,000 units sold in our IPO include 3,000,000 units sold to BofA Securities, Inc., the underwriter for our IPO (the “underwriter”), pursuant to the underwriter’s full exercise of its option under the underwriting agreement for our IPO to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional units solely to cover over-allotments. The units were sold at a price of $10.00 per unit, and our IPO generated gross proceeds of $230,000,000. Simultaneously with the closing of our IPO, we consummated a private placement (the “Private Placement”) with our sponsor of an aggregate of 11,700,000 warrants (the “private placement warrants”) at a price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, generating gross proceeds to the Company of $11,700,000.
On December 14, 2021, a total of $234,600,000 of the net proceeds from our IPO and the Private Placement were deposited in a trust account (the “Trust Account”) established for the benefit of the Company’s public stockholders at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee. The net proceeds deposited into the Trust Account remain on deposit in the Trust Account earning interest and are available for a business combination, assuming no redemptions, before fees and expenses associated with our initial business combination. Pursuant to the underwriting agreement for our IPO, the underwriter was entitled to a deferred fee of $0.35 per unit sold, or $8,050,000 in the aggregate, payable to the underwriter from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that we complete a business combination within the prescribed time period. However, on August 22, 2022, the underwriter delivered a letter to the Company pursuant to which the underwriter waived its entitlement to the payment of the deferred underwriting fee.
Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account that may be released to us to pay our tax obligations (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), the proceeds deposited in the Trust Account will not be released from the Trust Account until the earliest of (a) the completion of our initial business combination, (b) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide our public stockholders the right to have their public shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial
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business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any extended time we have to consummate our initial business combination beyond June 14, 2023 as a result of a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (an “Extension Period”) or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, and (c) the redemption of all of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period, subject to applicable law. The proceeds held in the Trust Account may only be invested in U.S. government securities 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 of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations.
Our sponsor, Southport Acquisition Sponsor LLC, is a Delaware limited liability company that is owned by Jeb Spencer, our Chief Executive Officer, and other investors, including certain of our directors. Our sponsor is controlled by Mr. Spencer and Mr. Jared Stone, the Chairman of our board of directors.
While efforts to identify a target business may span many industries, our focus will be predominantly within the financial software space with particular focus on mortgage and real estate verticals in the United States. We plan to look for a leading financial services software or Financial Technology (“FinTech”) partner, with particular focus on mortgage and real estate software verticals, that generates between $50 million and $100 million of revenues and is valued between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Acquisition Criteria
The maturity and judgment of our management team will guide our acquisition process. When evaluating candidate companies, we expect to use the following non-exclusive guidelines and characteristics for determining opportunities:
1. Competitive Advantage
We will look for mission-critical companies with leading position, technology and product capability. Our focus will be on businesses whose products or services are differentiated which creates strong barriers to entry and opportunity to create value by implementing best practices. We will opportunistically pursue a business with proven technology and market acceptance and that can be scaled for additional growth in the future.
2. Promising Financial Model
We expect to target a business that has historically been an efficient, leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) technologies. We will look to invest in companies that we believe have a large market opportunity for growth over the next five years driven by a differentiated strategy and a defensible competitive advantage.
3. Experienced Management Team
Our team has an accomplished track record and deep understanding of the financial software industry. We believe our management team’s multifaceted expertise in assessing a target’s technology and potential will be an advantage in this industry. We intend to seek a business whose performance we believe we can improve by leveraging our transactional, financial, managerial and investment experience, as well as our extensive networks and insights. We believe our management team has the right skills and capabilities to enhance a target’s results and consolidate its competitive positions in its sectors.
4. Favorable Competitive Environment in an Attractive Growing Market
We will seek companies operating in growing industries with favorable dynamics and potential for consolidation. While we will target businesses with large markets with the potential to grow substantially through organic means, we will prioritize those targets that have platform opportunities to expand their addressable markets. By targeting strategic, product, customer segment and technology acquisitions, we expect our potential target business will be positioned to use its public currency and cash position to ideally generate accretive transactions that benefit shareholders.
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5. Attractive Terms
We intend to focus on a target business that gives our investors access to market-leading technologies, exceptional management and a large market opportunity at an attractive price. We believe an initial business combination with us would offer private companies seeking access to the public markets and liquidity for their investors and shareholders an attractive alternative to a traditional initial public offering. By focusing on a partnership with the potential to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns, we believe we have the potential to be a preferred partner for leading financial software companies.
These guidelines and characteristics are important, but not exhaustive. The merits of any particular initial business combination will be based on these guidelines and characteristics, as well as other considerations that our management team may deem relevant. Ultimately, we believe our management team is well suited to identify and execute on acquisition opportunities that have the potential to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our stockholders.
In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above guidelines and characteristics, we will disclose the same in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this report, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (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.
Acquisition Process
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct an extensive due diligence review which will encompass, as applicable and among other things, commercial and industry due diligence, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, and a review of financial and other information about the target and its industry. To help facilitate this evaluation, we will rely on input from our management team, sponsor and directors, including third party diligence providers if and as necessary.
So long as we maintain a listing for our securities on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”), our initial business combination must occur with one or more businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount held in the Trust Account). We refer to this as the “80% of net assets test.” If our securities are no longer listed on the NYSE, we will not be obligated to satisfy the 80% of net assets test. Our board of directors will make the determination as to the fair market value of our initial business combination. The fair market value of the target businesses or assets 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 our board of directors in evaluating the fair market value of the target businesses or assets. The proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents used by us in connection with any proposed initial business combination will provide public stockholders 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 to independently determine the fair market value of the target businesses or assets, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board will not be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of any applicable target business or asset, it may be unable to do so if the board is less familiar or experienced with such target business or asset, there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target assets or the prospects of the target business, including if such business is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and our board determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. Since any opinion, if obtained, would merely state that the fair market value of the target businesses or assets meets the 80% threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of a target business or asset or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our stockholders. However, if required under applicable law, any proxy
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statement that we deliver to stockholders and file with the SEC in connection with a proposed initial business combination will include such opinion.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business or businesses for the post-transaction company to meet certain objectives of the target management team or stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires an interest in the target or assets sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares of Class A common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target or issue a substantial number of new shares of Class A common stock to third parties in connection with financing our initial business combination. 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 of Class A common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. If the initial 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 the purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
If our initial business combination is paid for using equity, equity-linked or debt securities or loans or not all of the funds released from the Trust Account are used for the aforementioned purposes or redemption of our public shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the Trust Account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of post-transaction businesses, for payment of principal of or interest on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We may seek to raise additional funds in connection with the completion of our initial business combination through an offering of equity, equity-linked or debt securities or loans, and we may effectuate our initial business combination using the proceeds of such offerings or loans rather than using the amounts held in the Trust Account. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would expect to complete such financing only simultaneously with the completion of our business combination. In the case of our initial business combination funded with assets other than the Trust Account assets, our tender offer documents or proxy materials disclosing the business combination would disclose the terms of the financing and, only if required by law or we decide to do so for business or other reasons, we would seek stockholder approval of such financing. There are no prohibitions on our ability to raise funds through an offering of equity, equity-linked or debt securities or loans in connection with our initial business combination. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities or otherwise.
Redemption Rights for Public Stockholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account (net of permitted withdrawals for tax), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. At completion of our initial business combination, we will be required to purchase any public shares properly delivered for redemption and not withdrawn. The amount in the Trust Account is initially anticipated to be $10.20 per public share. However, the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the $10.20 per public share initially held in the Trust Account due to claims of creditors (see “Risk Factors—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 our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share” and other risk factors herein). The redemption right will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no
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redemption rights upon completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our sponsor, directors and officers 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 and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either: (1) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination; or (2) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct 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 require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our Company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would typically require stockholder approval. If we structure a business combination transaction with a target business in a manner that requires stockholder approval, we will not have discretion as to whether to seek a stockholder vote to approve the proposed business combination. We may conduct redemptions of our public shares without a stockholder vote unless stockholder approval is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other reasons. If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:
If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:
● file proxy materials with the SEC.
Submission of Our Initial Business Combination to a Stockholder Vote
In the event that we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the Company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the Company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our sponsor, directors and officers will count towards this quorum and have agreed to vote any founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds and agreements may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares without voting, and if they do vote, irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. In addition, our sponsor, directors and officers 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 and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of a business combination.
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Limitation on Redemption upon Completion of our Initial Business Combination if We Seek Stockholder Approval
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder 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 public shares, without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our affiliates to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the public shares could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us or our affiliates at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the public shares, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their public shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we will have only until June 14, 2023, unless an Extension Period applies, to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within such period, we will: (1) cease all operations, except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account (net of permitted withdrawals for tax and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, and our warrants will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period.
Corporate Information
Our offices are located at 1745 Grand Avenue, Del Mar, California 92014, and our telephone number is (917) 503-9722. The information that is or may be contained on or accessible through any website that we may maintain is not part of this report and is not incorporated herein by reference.
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 in Current Reports on Form 8-K.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure makes us an attractive business combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we offer target businesses an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination. In this situation, the owners of the target business would exchange their shares of stock in the target business for shares of our Class A common stock or for a combination of shares of our Class A common stock and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. Although there are various costs and obligations associated with being a public company, we believe target businesses will find this method a more certain and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. In a typical initial public offering, there are additional expenses incurred in marketing, road show and public reporting efforts that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a business combination with us.
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Furthermore, once a proposed business combination is completed, the target business will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriter’s ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring. Once public, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital and an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with stockholders’ interests. It can offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
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 (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 stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. These exemptions will be available to us for a period of five years following the completion of our IPO or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier. Accordingly, the reports we file with the SEC may not be comparable to those of other public companies and our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
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 intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
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 completion of our IPO, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.235 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the end of such fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter, 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” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
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 common stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year or the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter. 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.
Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies 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. Additionally, the number of blank check companies looking for business combination targets has increased significantly in recent years and many of these blank check companies are sponsored by entities or persons that have significant experience with completing business combinations. 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
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stockholders 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. Any of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.
Facilities
We currently maintain our executive offices at 1745 Grand Avenue, Del Mar, California 92014. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have one officer and do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period to our Company will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should carefully consider the following risk factors and all the other information contained in this report, including the financial statements. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, liquidity or results of operations 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. The risk factors described below are not necessarily exhaustive and you are encouraged to perform your own investigation with respect to us and our business.
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to:
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We have no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We have no operating results, and we did not commence operations until after the closing of our IPO in December 2021. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination with one or more target businesses. We do not yet have any 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.
Past performance by our management team may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or of the future performance of any business we may acquire.
Information or other references herein regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, members of our management team is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance, including related to acquisitions, of our management team or its affiliates or of businesses associated with our management team is not a guarantee: (1) that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate; or (3) that we will be able to adequately assess the risks of a potential transaction. You should not rely on the historical record and performance of our management team or its affiliates or of businesses associated our management team as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. Further, our management team has been involved with a number of public and private companies, which have achieved different levels of performance. An investment in us is not an investment in our sponsor or in any other entity in which our sponsor or our management team is affiliated and does not in any way create an advisory relationship between our sponsor, our management team or any such entity, on the one hand, and any of our stockholders, on the other hand.
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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, 2022, we had $50,858 in cash held outside the Trust Account and a working capital deficit of $929,527, respectively. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial business combination may not be successful. In addition, management is currently evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry and its effect on the Company’s financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and/or search for a target company. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. 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.
Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our 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 stockholders do not support such initial business combination.
We may not hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements or if we decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons. For instance, the rules of the NYSE currently allow us to engage in a tender offer in lieu of a stockholder meeting but would still require us to obtain stockholder approval if we were seeking to issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock to a target business as consideration in any business combination. Therefore, if we were structuring a business combination that required us to issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock, we would seek stockholder approval of such business combination. However, except as required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow stockholders to sell their public 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 stockholder approval. Even if we seek stockholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our outstanding public shares do not approve of the business combination we consummate.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote, and depending on the number of stockholders who vote, our sponsor, officers and directors may have almost enough votes to approve our initial business combination based on the shares held by them.
Our sponsor, directors and officers have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree) to vote any founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our sponsor’s founder shares, we would need only 8,625,001, or 37.5% (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) or 1,437,501, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted) of the 23,000,000 shares sold in our IPO to be voted in favor of a transaction in order to have our initial business combination approved. We expect that our sponsor and its permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our outstanding shares of common stock at the time of any such stockholder vote. Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, it is more likely that the necessary stockholder approval will be received than would be the case if our sponsor and its permitted transferees agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public stockholders. Although none of our sponsor, directors or officers have any current intention to purchase our public shares, they are not restricted from doing so and there is no limit to the number of our public shares they may purchase. If they purchase any of our public shares and retain such shares until any stockholders vote on our initial business combination, the approval of our initial business combination by our stockholders will be even more likely.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding our initial business combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your public shares from us for cash, unless we seek stockholder approval of such initial business combination.
Since our board of directors may complete our initial business combination without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the initial business combination. Accordingly, if we do not seek stockholder approval, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be
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limited to exercising your redemption rights applicable to the outstanding public shares within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their public shares for cash may make our financial condition and liquidity 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 prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders 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 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination (including, potentially, with the same target). 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 stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our public 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 public stockholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of public 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 cash in the Trust Account to meet such requirements or arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of public shares is 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 common stock results in the issuance of shares of Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B common stock at the time of our initial business combination. 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 stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our public 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 public 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 increases. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not be entitled to 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 public shares in the open market; however, at such time our Class A common stock 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 to be expended in connection with the redemption of our public shares until we liquidate or you are able to sell your public shares in the open market.
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The requirement that we complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, unless an Extension Period applies, 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 stockholders.
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 by June 14, 2023, unless an Extension Period applies. 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.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period, in which case we would cease all operations, except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public stockholders may receive only $10.20 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we must complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, unless an Extension Period applies. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will: (1) cease all operations, except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account (net of permitted withdrawals for tax and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.20 per share, or less than $10.20 per share, on the redemption of their public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share” and other risk factors herein.
If the net proceeds from our IPO and the Private Placement not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient, it could limit the amount 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 management team or our sponsor or any of their respective affiliates to fund our search, to pay our taxes and to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain such loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and subsequent sanctions against Russia, Belarus and related individuals and entities and the status of debt and equity markets, as well as protectionist legislation in our target markets.
Global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. In response to such invasion, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”) deployed additional military forces to eastern Europe, and the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries have announced various sanctions and restrictive actions against Russia, Belarus and related individuals and entities, including the removal of certain financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system. Certain countries, including the United States, have also provided and may continue to provide military aid or other assistance to Ukraine during the ongoing military conflict, increasing geopolitical tensions with Russia. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the resulting measures that have been taken, and
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could be taken in the future, by NATO, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries have created global security concerns that could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine is highly unpredictable, the conflict could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in energy and other commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions. Additionally, Russian military actions and the resulting sanctions could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets.
Any negative impact on the global economy, capital markets or other geopolitical conditions resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions could adversely affect our search for a business combination and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination. The extent and duration of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting sanctions and any related market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial, particularly if current or new sanctions continue for an extended period of time or if geopolitical tensions result in expanded military operations on a global scale. Any such disruptions may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If these disruptions or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected. In addition, the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the impact of sanctions against Russia and the potential for retaliatory acts from Russia, could result in increased cyber-attacks against U.S. companies.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the status of debt and equity markets.
The COVID-19 pandemic has in the past adversely affected the economies and financial markets worldwide, and could materially and adversely affect the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel or limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers in order to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner, or if the COVID-19 pandemic causes a prolonged economic downturn. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, and the inability to accurately predict the future impact of the pandemic on businesses, has also made determinations and negotiations of valuation more difficult, which could make it more difficult to consummate a business combination transaction.
The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate our initial business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate our initial business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be materially adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other events, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic and other events may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risk factors described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those related to the market for our securities.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies 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 special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies 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 special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital, or the imposition of unattractive covenants to obtain such 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.
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.
In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense and/or accept less favorable terms. Furthermore, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
In addition, after completion of any initial business combination, our directors and officers could be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to such initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or public warrants from the public, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our common stock.
If we seek stockholder 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, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may purchase public shares or public warrants or a combination thereof 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 or other duty to do so.
Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such public stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates purchase public shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling public stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The price per share paid in any such transaction may be different than the amount per share a public stockholder would receive if it elected to redeem its public shares in connection with our initial business combination. The purpose of such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of our initial 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 such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of our initial 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 such public warrants outstanding or to vote such public warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business
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combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. 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 common stock and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Further, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, or officers or any of their respective affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares.
If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination despite our compliance with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its public shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem public shares. For example, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer or proxy materials documents mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In addition, we will require that beneficial holders identify themselves. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the Trust Account only upon the earlier to occur of: (1) the completion of our initial business combination, and then only in connection with those public shares that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (2) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide our public stockholders the right to have their public shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period, or with respect to any other provision relating to stockholder rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (3) the redemption of all of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the prescribed time period for any reason, compliance with Delaware law may require that we submit a plan of dissolution to our then-existing stockholders for approval prior to the distribution of the proceeds held in the Trust Account. In that case, public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond June 14, 2023 or longer to the extent there is any applicable Extension Period before they receive funds from the Trust Account. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder 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 such warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
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The NYSE 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, Class A common stock and warrants are listed on the NYSE under the symbols “PORT.U,” “PORT” and “PORT.W,” respectively. Although our securities are currently listed on the NYSE, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on the NYSE in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on the NYSE prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. In general, we must maintain a minimum of 300 public holders. Additionally, immediately upon the consummation of our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with NYSE listing requirements that are more rigorous than the NYSE’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE. For instance, our stock price would generally be required to be at least $4 per share, our global market capitalization would be required to be at least $150,000,000, the aggregate market value of our publicly held shares would be required to be at least $40,000,000 and we would be required to have a minimum of 400 round lot holders. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If the NYSE delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list such securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such 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 limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
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 common stock and warrants are listed on the NYSE, our units, Class A common stock and warrants will qualify as covered securities under such 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 the NYSE, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities, including in connection with our initial business combination.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of certain other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds from our IPO and the Private Placement are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been identified, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the U.S. securities laws. However, because we have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet of our Company 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 we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our IPO had been subject to Rule 419, that rule would have prohibited the release of any interest earned on funds held in the Trust Account to us unless and until the funds in the Trust Account were released to us in connection with our completion of our initial business combination.
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If we seek stockholder 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 stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our public shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our public shares.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder 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 our public shares, without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not restrict our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. As a result, you will continue to hold the Excess Shares and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your Excess Shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
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 within the prescribed time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.20 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of the Trust Account, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense 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 greater technical, human and other resources 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. Additionally, the number of blank check companies looking for business combination targets has increased compared to recent years and many of these blank check companies are sponsored by entities or persons that have significant experience with completing business combinations. While we believe there will be numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds from our IPO and the Private Placement, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. Although our management team and our sponsor and any of their respective affiliates may invest or further invest, as applicable, in us in the future, they are under no obligation or other duty to do so.
This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we are obligated to pay cash for public shares that are redeemed, it will potentially 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 and completing our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.20 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of the Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share” and other risk factors herein.
If the funds not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient to allow us to operate until at least June 14, 2023, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
The funds available to us outside of the Trust Account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate until at least June 14, 2023, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Management’s plan to address this need for capital through potential additional loans from certain of our affiliates is discussed in the section of this report titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” We believe that the funds available to us outside of the Trust Account will be sufficient to allow us to operate until June 14, 2023; 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
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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 unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.20 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of the Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share” and other risk factors herein.
If the funds not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient, it could limit the amount 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 management team or our sponsor or any of their respective affiliates to fund our search, to pay our taxes and to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain such loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds from our IPO and the Private Placement, as of December 31, 2022, only $50,858 was available to us outside the Trust Account to fund our working capital requirements. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our management team, sponsor or directors or any of their respective affiliates to operate or may be forced to liquidate. None of our management team or our sponsor or any of their respective affiliates is under any obligation or other duty to loan funds to us in such circumstances. Any such loans would be repaid only from funds held outside the Trust Account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Account. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.20 per share, or less in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share” and other risk factors herein.
The securities in which we invest the proceeds held in the Trust Account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the interest income available for payment of taxes or reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.20 per share.
The funds in the Trust Account may only be invested in direct U.S. Treasury obligations having a maturity of 185 days or less, or in certain money market funds which invest only in direct U.S. Treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. 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 of very low or negative yields, the amount of interest income (which we may withdraw to pay income taxes, if any) would be reduced. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the Trust Account, plus any interest income. If the balance of the Trust Account is reduced below $234,600,000 as a result of negative interest rates, the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.20 per share.
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, liquidity, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your 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 a significant negative effect on our financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and the price of our securities. 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
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contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain a stockholder or warrant holder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
If we have not completed our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, or during any Extension Period, our public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond such prescribed time period before redemption from the Trust Account.
If we have not completed our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, or during any Extension Period, we will distribute the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals for tax and less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), pro rata to our public stockholders by way of redemption and cease all operations except for the purposes of winding up of our affairs, as further described herein. Any redemption of public stockholders from the Trust Account shall be effected prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to windup, liquidate the Trust Account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public stockholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution are subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond June 14, 2023 before the redemption proceeds of the Trust Account become available to them and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from the Trust Account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the redemption of our public shares or our liquidation unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and then only in cases where public stockholders have properly sought to redeem their shares of Class A common stock. Only upon redemption of our public shares or our liquidation will public stockholders be entitled to distributions if we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior thereto.
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 our public stockholders may be less than $10.20 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 or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account for the benefit of our public stockholders, 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 perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Making such a request of potential target businesses may make our acquisition proposal less attractive to them and, to the extent prospective target businesses refuse to execute such a waiver, it may limit the field of potential target businesses that we might pursue. 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 we are 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 by June 14, 2023, or during any Extension Period, 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 our public stockholders could be less than the $10.20 per public share initially held in the Trust Account, due to claims of such creditors.
Our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below: (1) $10.20 per
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public share; or (2) 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 $10.20 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals for tax and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses, except as to any claims by a third party (including such target business) who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the Trust Account (whether any such waiver is enforceable) and except as to any claims under our indemnity or contribution of the underwriter against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently investigated or 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 and, therefore, our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations.
We have also not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification 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 of public shares could be reduced to less than $10.20 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 independent 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 stockholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the Trust Account are reduced below the lesser of: (1) $10.20 per public share; or (2) 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 $10.20 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals for tax, 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 may choose not to do so in certain instances. For example, the cost of such legal action may be deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or the independent directors may determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. 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 stockholders may be reduced below $10.20 per share.
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and officers, and our obligation to indemnify our directors and officers may have certain adverse consequences.
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 (and any other persons who may become an officer or director prior to the initial business combination will also be required to waive) any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the Trust Account and not to seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the Trust Account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will 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 by June 14, 2023 or during any Extension Period. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage stockholders 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 stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
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If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy 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 stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by our public stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our public stockholders. 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, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our public stockholders and the per share amount that would otherwise be received by our public stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy 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 law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our public stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the Trust Account, the per share amount that would otherwise be received by our public stockholders in connection with our liquidation would 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;
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
● adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
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 total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business 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
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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.
On March 30, 2022, the SEC announced the proposal of new rules and amendments concerning special purpose acquisition companies such as the Company that, if adopted, would provide a safe harbor for special purpose acquisition companies from the definition of “investment company” under Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act, provided that they satisfy certain conditions that limit a special purpose acquisition company’s duration, asset composition, business purpose and activities. The duration component of the proposed safe harbor rule would require a special purpose acquisition company to file a Current Report on Form 8-K with the SEC announcing that it has entered into an agreement with the target company (or companies) to engage in an initial business combination no later than 18 months after the effective date of the special purpose acquisition company’s registration statement for its initial public offering. The special purpose acquisition company would then be required to complete its initial business combination no later than 24 months after the effective date of its registration statement for its initial public offering. Although the proposed rules, including the proposed safe harbor rule, have not yet been adopted, there is uncertainty in the SEC’s view of the applicability of the Investment Company Act to a special purpose acquisition company that does not complete its initial business combination within the proposed time frame set forth in the proposed safe harbor rule or otherwise falls outside of the other provisions of the safe harbor.
We may not have entered into a definitive business combination agreement within 18 months after the effective date of our registration statement relating to the Public Offering, and may not complete our business combination within 24 months of such date. As a result, it is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. If we were deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we might be forced to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead be required to liquidate. If we are required to liquidate, our investors would not be able to realize the benefits of owning stock in a successor operating business, including the potential appreciation in the value of our stock and warrants following such a transaction, and our warrants would expire worthless.
We do not believe that our principal activities currently subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the Trust Account have been invested only 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 do not believe we are an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. The Trust Account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of: (i) the completion of our primary business objective, which is a business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide our public stockholders the right to have their public shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, or during any Extension Period, or with respect to any other provision relating to stockholder rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (iii) absent a business combination, our return of the funds held in the Trust Account to our public stockholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. Because we have invested the proceeds only in permitted instruments, we believe we are not an investment company subject to the Investment Company Act.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may materially and adversely affect us, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination.
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, our business combination may be contingent on our ability to comply with certain laws and regulations and any post-business combination company may be subject to additional laws and regulations. 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, including as a result of changes in economic, political, social and governmental policies, and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as
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interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on us, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination.
For example, on March 30, 2022, the SEC announced the proposal of new rules and amendments concerning special purpose acquisition companies such as the Company that, if adopted, would, among other things: (i) require special purpose acquisition companies to include additional and/or enhanced disclosure about conflicts of interest, compensation paid to sponsors, sources of dilution, and the fairness of proposed business combination transactions in certain instances, (ii) amend the financial statement requirements applicable to business combination transactions involving shell companies, including special purpose acquisition companies, (iii) prohibit special purpose acquisition companies from taking advantage of the liability safe harbor in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding forward-looking statements in SEC filings and with respect to business combination transactions, (iv) deem underwriters (as defined under the Securities Act) in a special purpose acquisition company’s initial public offering to be underwriters in any subsequent business combination transaction when certain conditions are met, and (v) implement new and more onerous requirements regarding the use of financial projections in filings with the SEC, including in connection with business combination transactions. There can be no assurance as to if or when the new proposed rules and amendments will be adopted by the SEC or, if adopted, as to any changes that may be made to such proposed rules and amendments prior to their adoption or as to when the new rules and amendments would become effective, or whether any of the proposed rules will adversely affect the likelihood of special purpose acquisition companies, including us, being able to consummate their initial business combinations.
Our stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of the Trust Account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination by June 14, 2023, or during any Extension Period, may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the prescribed time period in the event we do not complete our initial business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.
Because we do not intend to comply with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, consultants, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of the Trust Account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.
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We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination and you will not be entitled to any of the corporate protections provided by such a meeting.
We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination (unless required by the NYSE) and thus may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting of stockholders be held for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with a company’s bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to our consummation of our initial business combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL. Until we hold an annual meeting of stockholders, public stockholders may not be afforded the opportunity to discuss company affairs with management. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, (a) as holders of our Class A common stock, our public stockholders will not have the right to vote on the election of our directors, and (b) only holders of a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of our Class B common stock may remove a member of our board of directors with or without cause.
Although we included the sale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act in the registration statement for our IPO, that registration statement may not be current or another registration statement covering such sale of the shares of Class A common stock may not be in place when a holder of the warrants desires to exercise the warrants, thus precluding such holder from being able to exercise its warrants except on a “cashless basis.” If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of warrants is not registered, qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless.
Although we included the sale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants in the registration statement for our IPO, because the warrants are not exercisable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, we do not currently intend to file a post-effective amendment to the registration statement for our IPO (our “IPO registration statement”) or file a new registration statement covering the sale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants until after the initial business combination has been consummated. 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 commercially reasonable efforts to file a post-effective amendment to our IPO registration statement or a new registration statement, in our discretion, with the SEC and, within 60 business days after such closing, have an effective registration statement covering the sale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed. 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, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the sale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case the number of shares of our Class A common stock that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula, subject to a maximum number of shares equal to 0.361 of a share of our Class A common stock per whole warrant (subject to adjustment) in the case of such warrant exercise during the 30-day redemption period referred to in the warrant agreement. However, no warrant will 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 sale of the shares issuable 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. Notwithstanding the above, if our Class A common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of 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 we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or make available a current prospectus, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the sale of the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under applicable state blue sky 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 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 applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the sale of the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant 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 shares of Class A common stock included in those units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a
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corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of our public warrants. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the shares of Class A common stock underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to do so. 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 sale of the underlying shares of Class A common stock for sale under all applicable state securities laws. In addition, we have not committed to register or qualify the sale of the shares issuable upon exercise of warrants under any non-U.S. securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants.
The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the shares of Class A common stock, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.
In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the shares of Class A common stock. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to file a registration statement for the sale of the security underlying the warrants within 15 business days of the closing of an initial business combination.
If you exercise your public warrants on a “cashless basis,” you will receive fewer shares of Class A common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
There are circumstances in which the exercise of the public warrants may be required or permitted to be made on a cashless basis. First, if a registration statement covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th business day following the consummation of our initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we shall have failed to maintain an effective registration statement or to make available a current prospectus, exercise warrants on a cashless basis pursuant to the exemption provided by Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act, provided that such exemption is available; if that exemption, or another exemption, is not available, holders will not be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis.
Second, if we call the warrants for redemption in the circumstances described in Exhibit 4.5 to this report under the caption “Description of Securities—Public Warrants—Redemption of warrants for cash when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00,” warrant holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption if we require or permit that warrants be exercised on a cashless basis in connection with such redemption. In the event of any such exercise on a cashless basis, a holder would pay the warrant exercise price by surrendering the warrants being exercised for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the warrants being exercised, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of our Class A common stock (defined above) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value, and the number of shares of our Class A common stock received by a holder upon exercise will be fewer than it would have been had such holder exercised the warrant for cash. For example, if the holder is exercising 875 warrants at $11.50 per share through a cashless exercise when the shares of our Class A common stock have a fair market value of $17.50 per share when there is no effective registration statement, then, upon the cashless exercise, the holder will receive 300 shares of our Class A common stock. The holder would have received 875 shares of our Class A common stock if the exercise price was paid in cash. This will have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our Company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of shares of our Class A common stock upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold.
Third, if we call the warrants for redemption in the circumstances described in Exhibit 4.5 to this report under the caption “Description of Securities—Public Warrants—Redemption of warrants for cash when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00,” holders who wish to exercise their warrants may do so on a cashless basis. In the event of an exercise on a cashless basis under those circumstances, a holder would receive that number of shares determined by reference to an agreed table based on the redemption date and the “fair market value” of Class A common stock.
In any of these cases, this will have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our Company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of shares of our Class A common stock upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold.
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Our warrants are accounted for as a warrant liability and were recorded at fair value upon issuance, and any changes in fair value of our warrants in each period will be 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 23,200,000 warrants outstanding (comprised of the 11,500,000 public warrants and 11,700,000 private placement warrants). We account for these warrants as a warrant liability, which means that we recorded them at fair value upon issuance and that any changes in their fair value in each period will be reported in earnings. Changes in the inputs and assumptions for the valuation model we use to determine the fair value of such liability may have a material impact on the estimated fair value of the embedded derivative liability. The share price of our Class A common stock represents the primary underlying variable that impacts the value of the derivative instruments. Additional factors that impact the value of the derivative instruments include the volatility of our stock price, discount rates and stated interest rates. As a result, our results of operations will fluctuate quarterly, based on various factors, such as the share price of our common stock, many of which are outside of our control. In addition, we may change the underlying assumptions used in our valuation model, which could result in significant fluctuations in our results of operations. If our stock price is volatile, we expect that we will recognize non-cash gains or losses on our warrants or any other similar derivative instruments each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material. 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.
The grant of registration rights to our sponsor and its permitted transferees 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 common stock.
Pursuant to a registration rights agreement that we entered into in connection with our IPO, our sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of their founder shares after those shares convert to shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of the private placement warrants and the shares of Class A common stock 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 the resale of such warrants or the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such 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 common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to complete. This is because the stockholders 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 common stock that is expected when the common stock owned by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, the private placement warrants owned by our sponsor or its permitted transferees or warrants issued in connection with working capital loans are registered for resale.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating target businesses in a particular industry, sector or geography, nor have we identified 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.
We may seek to complete a business combination with an operating company in any industry, sector or geography. However, we will not, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet identified or approached 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 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.
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Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain a stockholder or warrant holder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may seek acquisition opportunities in acquisition targets that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination in sectors which may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise if such business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our Company. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition 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 contained in this report 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 adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors relevant to such acquisition. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain a stockholder or warrant holder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may engage one or more financial advisors to provide services to us in the future, which may include acting as an advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. These financial incentives may cause such advisors to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such services, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more financial advisors to provide services to us in the future, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing transactions. We may pay such advisors fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation. Such advisors’ financial interests tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
Although we have identified general guidelines and characteristics 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 guidelines and characteristics, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with such guidelines and characteristics.
Although we have identified general guidelines and characteristics for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have attributes entirely consistent with such guidelines and characteristics. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines and characteristics, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our guidelines and characteristics. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general guidelines and characteristics, a greater number of public stockholders 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 stockholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general guidelines and characteristics. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.20 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of the Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek acquisition opportunities with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings, which could subject us to volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and 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 sales 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 and with limited historical financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel.
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Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.
A slowdown in economic growth in the markets that our target business operates in may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations, the value of our securities and the trading price of our shares following our business combination.
Following the business combination, our results of operations, liquidity and financial condition may be dependent on, and may be adversely affected by, conditions in financial markets in the global economy, and, particularly in the markets where the target business operates. The specific economy could be adversely affected by various factors, such as political or regulatory action, including business corruption, social disturbances, terrorist attacks and other acts of violence or war, natural calamities, interest rates, inflation, commodity and energy prices and various other factors which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations, the value of our securities and the trading price of our shares following the business combination.
We are generally not required to obtain an opinion regarding fairness from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our Company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that the price we are paying is fair to our Company from a financial point of view.
In addition, if our board of directors is not able to determine the fair market value of the target businesses or assets, in connection with the rules of the NYSE that require that an initial business combination be with one or more businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount), we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.
Other than the two circumstances described above, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm.
If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.