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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGECOMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
☒ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023
OR
☐TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from to
Commission file number: 001-40583
ALTC ACQUISITION CORP.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (212) 380-7500
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
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 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 has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). 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.
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 Exchange Act). Yes ☒ No ☐
The aggregate market value of the Registrant’s shares of Class A common stock outstanding, other than shares held by persons who may be deemed affiliates of the Registrant, at June 30, 2023, was $521,500,000.
As of March 29, 2024, there were 30,600,521 shares of Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value, and 12,500,000 shares of Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value, issued and outstanding.
Documents Incorporated by Reference: None.
Auditor Firm ID: Auditor Name: Auditor Location:
688 Marcum LLP New York, NY
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS 1
PART I 2
Item 1. Business. 2
Item 1A. Risk Factors. 16
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments. 40
Item 1C. Cybersecurity. 40
Item 2. Properties. 40
Item 3. Legal Proceedings. 40
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures. 41
PART II 42
Item 6. [Reserved]. 43
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk. 47
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. 48
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures. 48
Item 9B. Other Information. 49
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections. 49
PART III 49
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance. 49
Item 11. Executive Compensation. 59
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services. 65
PART IV 66
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules. 66
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This annual report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”) includes, and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the company may include, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “continue,” or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Such statements include, but are not limited to, possible business combinations and the financing thereof, and related matters, as well as all other statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report. Factors that might cause or contribute to such a discrepancy include, but are not limited to, those described in our other Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings. Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report may include, for example, statements about:
● our ability to complete our initial business combination;
● our pool of prospective target businesses;
● our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading;
● the lack of a 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 Annual 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
References in this Annual Report to “we,” “us,” the “Company,” “company” or “our company” are to AltC Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation. References to “management” or our “management team” are to our officers and directors. References to our “Sponsor” are to AltC Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. References to our “initial stockholders” are to the holders of our founder shares prior to our initial public offering.
Item 1.Business.
Introduction
We are a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Annual Report as our initial business combination. On July 11, 2023, the Company entered into the Merger Agreement (as defined below) by and among AltC, AltC Merger Sub and Oklo (each as defined below). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, the Merger Sub will merge with and into the Oklo, with Oklo being the surviving entity in the merger. Please see “— 2023 Developments” for additional information. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the company is a “shell company” as defined under the Exchange Act because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash. Our team is led by our co-founders Sam Altman and Michael Klein. Mr. Altman is an entrepreneurial and thought leader with a proven track-record of growth investing within the technology industry. He is also the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, a leading AI research and deployment company, and the Chairman of Y Combinator. OpenAI’s mission is to ensure artificial general intelligence (“AGI”) benefits all of humanity. OpenAI began as a research lab in 2015, with a focus on building AGI. OpenAI’s primary, fiduciary duty is to humanity, with the commitment to safely deploy AGI for the benefit of all, and to avoid enabling uses of AI or AGI that harm humanity or unduly concentrate power. Prior to founding OpenAI, Mr. Altman served as President of Y Combinator, a leading Silicon Valley startup accelerator. During his tenure as President, Mr. Altman led the expansion of Y Combinator’s portfolio to approximately 400 companies per year. Under Mr. Altman’s leadership, Y Combinator successfully executed investments in premiere companies including Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash, Instacart, and Coinbase. Mr. Altman is recognized as having been a major force in leading Y Combinator’s launch into deep or “hard” technology companies, directly working with founders on long-term strategies to develop their technology to build companies with massive impact. Mr. Altman also launched Y Combinator Continuity, a Y Combinator fund focused on growth-stage companies. Mr. Altman is regarded as an entrepreneurial leader and visionary due to his track record of identifying promising opportunities and nurturing their growth to become prominent and established players with massive impact.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Altman co-founded Loopt, Inc., a provider of mobile location-based services, and served as its Chief Executive Officer until it was acquired by Green Dot Corporation in March 2012, after which he held a number of senior executive positions at Green Dot through December 2013, and served as a member of its Board of Directors from March 2013 through December 2016. Mr. Altman has invested in several private companies, including Reddit, Inc., which operates a social sharing and aggregation website, Helion Energy, Inc. and Oklo, Inc., two companies focused on clean energy solutions. He currently serves as Chairman of Helion and Oklo.
Our other co-founder, Michael Klein, is also the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company, LLC (together with its affiliates, “M. Klein and Company”), which he founded in 2012. M. Klein and Company is a global strategic advisory firm that provides its clients a variety of advice tailored to their objectives. Mr. Klein is a strategic advisor to global companies, boards of directors, senior executives, governments and institutional investors. Mr. Klein’s background in strategic advisory work was built during his 37 year career, including more than two decades at Citigroup Inc. (“Citi”) and its predecessors, during which he initiated and executed strategic advisory transactions. He began his career as an investment banker in the M&A Advisory Group at Salomon Brothers and subsequently became Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Citi Markets and Banking, with responsibilities for Global Corporate and Investment Banking and Global Transaction Services across Citi. In his role as Co- CEO, he was responsible for all relationship, advisory, underwriting, and capital markets issuance activity.
We were incorporated as Churchill Capital Corp VIII on February 1, 2021 and changed our name to AltC Acquisition Corp. on February 24, 2021. Our executive offices are located at 640 Fifth Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10019 and our telephone number is (212) 380-7500. Our corporate website address is http://altcacquisitioncorp.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this Annual Report. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.
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Company History
In March 2021, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 43,125,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On March 9, 2021, the Sponsor forfeited 14,375,000 founder shares for no consideration. Immediately following our initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”), our Sponsor surrendered 16,250,000 shares of Class B common stock for no consideration, resulting in an aggregate of 12,500,000 founder shares outstanding. Up to an additional 1,250,000 shares of Class B common stock were subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares was exercised. The number of founder shares to be held after the Initial Public Offering was determined based on the expectation that the founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares of common stock upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering (excluding the private placement shares). Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by our Sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to us by the number of founder shares issued.
On July 12, 2021, we completed our Initial Public Offering of 50,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, at a price of $10.00 per share (the “public shares”), generating gross proceeds of $500,000,000.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 1,450,000 private placement shares, at a price of $10.00 per private placement share, for an aggregate purchase price of $14,500,000, in a private placement. The proceeds from the private placement shares were added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the trust account. If the company does not complete a business combination within the combination window, the proceeds from the sale of the private placement shares will be used to fund the redemption of the public shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law).
2023 Developments
On July 11, 2023, AltC entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization (as it may be amended, modified, supplemented or waived from time to time, the “Merger Agreement”), by and among AltC, AltC Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation and a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of AltC (“Merger Sub”) and Oklo Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Oklo”), which, among other things, provides for the merger of Merger Sub with and into Oklo, with Oklo surviving such merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of AltC (the “Merger,” and together with the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement and the related agreements, the “Transactions” or the “business combination”). Following the consummation of the business combination, AltC will change its name to Oklo Inc.
Merger Agreement
On July 11, 2023, the company entered into the Merger Agreement, as fully disclosed in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on July 11, 2023. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, the parties thereto intend to enter into a business combination transaction by which Merger Sub will merge with and into Oklo, with Oklo being the surviving entity in the merger.
The proposed merger is expected to be consummated after the required approval by the stockholders of the company and Oklo and the satisfaction of certain other conditions as further described in the Merger Agreement. The aggregate consideration to be paid to the stockholders of Oklo (including, holders of Simple Agreements for Future Equity (as defined in the Merger Agreement) between Oklo and the “Investors” party thereto and vested and unvested Oklo options) on the date of the closing (the “Closing Date”) of the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement (the “Closing”) will be equal to (a) $850,000,000 plus, (b) an amount equal to the net proceeds raised by Oklo prior to the consummation of the Transactions through the sale (or series of related sales) of its equity securities in a bona fide equity financing transaction (subject to certain limitations), if any, following the execution of the Merger Agreement but prior to the Closing, which consideration will be paid entirely in shares of Class A common stock of the company in an amount equal to $10.00 per share. During the five-year period following the Closing (the “Earnout Period”), the company will issue to eligible holders of pre-Closing securities of Oklo up to 15,000,000 additional shares of Class A common stock in the aggregate, in tranches equal to 7,500,000 shares of Class A common stock, 5,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and 2,500,000 shares of Class A common stock, upon the satisfaction of certain price targets set forth in the Merger Agreement, which price targets will be based upon (a) the closing sale price of one share of Class A common stock as quoted on the New York Stock Exchange or the exchange on which the shares of Class A common stock are then traded, for any 20 trading days within any 60 consecutive trading day period within the Earnout Period or (b) if the company undergoes a change of control, the price per share received by stockholders of the company in such change of control transaction.
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Extension of our Completion Window
Pursuant to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, the company previously had until July 12, 2023 to complete a business combination or windup and liquidate, unless it had executed a letter of intent, agreement in principle or definitive agreement for an initial business combination by such date. In connection with execution of the Merger Agreement on July 11, 2023, the company had until October 12, 2023 pursuant to the terms of its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to complete the business combination, windup, or pursue an extension.
On October 5, 2023, the stockholders of the company approved a proposal to adopt an amendment to the company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation to extend the date by which the company has to consummate a business combination from October 12, 2023 to July 12, 2024 (or such earlier date as determined by the company’s board of directors).
Related Agreements
Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement
In connection with the Closing, the company’s Registration Rights Agreement, dated July 7, 2021, will be amended and restated, and the company, Sponsor and certain persons and entities receiving Class A common stock in connection with the Merger (the “New Holders” and, together with Sponsor, the “Reg Rights Holders”) will enter into an Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement, attached as Exhibit D to the Merger Agreement (the “A&R Registration Rights Agreement”). Pursuant to the A&R Registration Rights Agreement, the company will agree to use commercially reasonable efforts to (i) file with the SEC (at the company’s sole cost and expense) a registration statement registering the resale of certain securities held by or issuable to the Reg Rights Holders within 30 business days after the Closing (the “Resale Registration Statement”) and (ii) cause the Resale Registration Statement to become effective as soon as reasonably practicable after the filing thereof. In certain circumstances, the Reg Rights Holders may demand in the aggregate up to five underwritten offerings and will be entitled to customary piggyback registration rights.
Amended and Restated Sponsor Agreement
In connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement, the company amended and restated each of those certain letter agreements, dated July 7, 2021, from each of the persons undersigned thereto (the “Initial Insiders”) and that certain letter agreement, dated November 10, 2021, from Peter Lattman (together with, the Initial Insiders, the “Insiders”) (the “Amended and Restated Sponsor Agreement”), pursuant to which, among other things, each of the Sponsor and the Insiders agreed (i) to vote any of such Insider’s shares of the company’s securities in favor of the related transactions and other SPAC Stockholder Matters (as defined in the Amended and Restated Sponsor Agreement), (ii) not to redeem any of such Insider’s shares of Class A common stock or the company’s Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share in connection with the stockholder redemption, (iii) to pay any amounts in excess of the expense cap of $25,000,000 (such amount, the “Excess Amount”) in either cash or by forfeiting a number of shares of Class A common stock, at a price of $10.00 per share (provided that any Excess Amount greater than $15,000,000 shall be paid only in cash), (iv) not to transfer (a) 40% of such Insider’s shares for a period of 12 months after the Closing, unless the closing share price of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share for 20 trading days within any 60 consecutive trading day period commencing after the Closing Date, (b) 30% of such Insider’s shares for a period of 24 months after the Closing, unless the closing share price of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $14.00 per share for 20 trading days within any 60 consecutive trading day period commencing after the Closing Date, and (c) 30% of such Insider’s shares for a period of 36 months after the Closing, unless the closing share price of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $16.00 per share for 20 trading days within any 60 consecutive trading day period commencing after the Closing Date, and (v) to be bound to certain other obligations as described therein. The Sponsor has also agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to enter into an agreement or agreements with one or more third parties to not redeem their shares of Class A common stock in connection with the related transactions, which agreements may, if reasonably necessary, include incentives in the form of Founder Shares (which will convert to Class A common stock at the Closing), in amounts and on such terms as the Sponsor and the company shall mutually agree.
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Also pursuant to the Amended and Restated Sponsor Agreement, the Sponsor (or an affiliated co-investor of the Sponsor) has agreed to, subject to the other terms and conditions included therein, immediately prior to Closing, purchase in a private placement up to 5,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at a purchase price of $10.00 per share, equal to an amount up to $50,000,000 (the “Sponsor Commitment”). The amount of the Sponsor Commitment that the Sponsor (or an affiliated co-investor of the Sponsor) will be required to fund will be equal to (i) $250,000,000 minus (ii) the Available Closing SPAC Cash (as defined in the Merger Agreement) before accounting for the funding of any Sponsor Commitment (the “Sponsor Commitment Purchase Price”); which amount, under no circumstances shall exceed the maximum amount of the Sponsor Commitment. In addition, so long as Available Closing SPAC Cash, prior to the funding of any Sponsor Commitment is equal to at least $200,000,000 or more, Oklo must request that the Sponsor Commitment be funded and if the Sponsor pays the Sponsor Commitment Purchase Price, then Oklo must stipulate that the Minimum Cash Condition (as defined in the Merger Agreement) is deemed satisfied. If Available Closing SPAC Cash, prior to the funding of any Sponsor Commitment is less than $200,000,000, Oklo is not required to request the Sponsor Commitment, but if Oklo does request it, the Minimum Cash Condition will be deemed waived. The Sponsor’s obligation to fund the Sponsor Commitment Purchase Price is conditioned upon (i) the satisfaction (or waiver by the company) of the conditions set forth in Section 10.01 and Section 10.03 of the Merger Agreement (other than those conditions that by their terms are to be satisfied at the Closing), (ii) the substantially concurrent consummation of the Closing, and (iii) if Oklo waives the Minimum Cash Condition, the Available Closing SPAC Cash equaling an amount of at least $125,000,000 (which such amount, for the avoidance of doubt, will include the Sponsor Commitment Purchase Price). Any shares purchased pursuant to the Sponsor Commitment by the Sponsor, an Insider or an affiliated co-investor thereof will be subject to the Sponsor Lockup (as defined in the Merger Agreement).
Pursuant to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, the company previously had until July 12, 2023 to complete a Business Combination or windup and liquidate, unless it had executed a letter of intent, agreement in principle or definitive agreement for an initial business combination by such date. In connection with execution of the Merger Agreement on July 11, 2023, the company had until October 12, 2023 pursuant to the terms of its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to complete the Business Combination, windup, or pursue an extension.
On October 5, 2023, the stockholders of the company approved a proposal to adopt an amendment to the company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation to extend the date by which the company has to consummate a Business Combination from October 12, 2023 to July 12, 2024 (or such earlier date as determined by the company’s board of directors) (the “Charter Amendment”).
Initial Business Combination
It is a requirement under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that any initial business combination must occur with one or more operating businesses that together have a fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (net of amounts disbursed as permitted withdrawals and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. As of July 11, 2023, the date of the execution of the Merger Agreement, the balance of the funds in the trust account was approximately $510.0 million (excluding up to $17.5 million of deferred underwriting fees) and 80% thereof represents approximately $408.0 million. In reaching its conclusion on the 80% asset test, our board used as a fair market value the $850.0 million equity value for Oklo, which was implied based on the terms of the business combination agreed to by the parties in negotiating the Merger Agreement.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires the affirmative vote of a majority of our board of directors, which must include a majority of our independent directors, to approve our initial business combination (or such other vote as the applicable law or stock exchange rules then in effect may require).
Corporate Information
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. 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
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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.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following July 12, 2026, (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 Class A common stock and our Class B common stock (collectively, our “common stock”) that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of the prior fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Financial Position
As of December 31, 2023, we would have had $296,560,538 of funds available for our business combination, assuming no further redemptions and after payment of $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting fees. Based on redemptions in other recent SPAC initial business combinations, we may yet experience high levels of redemptions in connection with any extension vote or our initial business combination.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business.
By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:
Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we closely scrutinized the management of the prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is highly unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
Following our initial business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
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 shares of common stock 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 (net of permitted withdrawals), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account as of the closing of the Initial Public Offering was $10.00 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute
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to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. 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. 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 or extension. Our Sponsor, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares, private placement shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination (the “letter agreement”).
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A common stock 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 company 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 currently intend to conduct redemptions pursuant to a stockholder vote unless stockholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement and we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC 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:
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, we and our Sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase shares of our Class A common stock in the open market if we elect to redeem our public shares through a tender offer, to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public stockholders not tendering more than a specified number of public shares, which number will be based on the requirement that we may not redeem public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, 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. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete such initial business combination.
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.
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We expect that a final proxy statement would be mailed to public stockholders at least 10 days prior to the stockholder vote. However, we expect that a draft proxy statement would be made available to such stockholders well in advance of such time, providing additional notice of redemption if we conduct redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation. Although we are not required to do so, we currently intend to comply with the substantive and procedural requirements of Regulation 14A in connection with any stockholder vote even if we are not able to maintain our NYSE listing or Exchange Act registration.
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, unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or stock exchange rules, 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 initial stockholders, officers and directors will count towards this quorum and have agreed to vote any founder shares, private placement 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 or extension. In addition, our Sponsor, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares, private placement shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of a business combination.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we 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 related to our initial business combination. Redemptions of our public shares may also be subject to a higher net tangible asset test or cash requirement pursuant to an agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (1) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners; (2) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes; or (3) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
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 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 shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, 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 shares sold in the Initial Public Offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us or our Sponsor or 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 shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, 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 shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
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Tendering stock certificates in connection with a tender offer or redemption rights
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 documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, rather than simply voting against the initial business combination at the holder’s option. The tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements, which 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. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the business combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Pursuant to the tender offer rules, the tender offer period will be not less than 20 business days and, in the case of a stockholder vote, a final proxy statement would be mailed to public stockholders at least 10 days prior to the stockholder vote. However, we expect that a draft proxy statement would be made available to such stockholders well in advance of such time, providing additional notice of redemption if we conduct redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.
There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.
The foregoing is different from the procedures used by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the stockholders’ vote on an initial business combination, and a holder could simply vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights. After the business combination was approved, the company would contact such stockholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the stockholder then had an “option window” after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the company’s stock in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her shares to the company for cancellation. As a result, the redemption rights, to which stockholders were aware they needed to commit before the stockholder meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completion of the business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming holder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.
Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the tender offer materials or the date of the stockholder meeting set forth in our proxy materials, as applicable. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.
If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.
If our initial proposed business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a business combination with a different target until the end of the completion window (as defined below).
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Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if no Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we have until July 12, 2024 to complete our initial business combination (the period from the closing of the Initial Public Offering until July 12, 2024, the “completion window”). If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within such period (or any such extended date that may be approved pursuant to an extension vote), 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, 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 (net of permitted withdrawals 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.
Our initial stockholders, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our Sponsor or any of our officers and directors acquires public shares after the Initial Public Offering, it will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation 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 within the completion window, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, 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 related to our initial business combination.
We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay taxes or make other permitted withdrawals, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the private placement shares, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account and any permitted withdrawals or expenses for the dissolution of the trust, the per share redemption amount received by stockholders upon our dissolution would be $10.41 as of December 31, 2023. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per share redemption amount received by stockholders will not be substantially less than $10.00. Please see “Item 1A. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein. Under Section 281(b) of the DGCL, our plan of dissolution must provide for all claims against us to be paid in full or make provision for payments to be made in full, as applicable, if there are sufficient assets. These claims must be paid or provided for before we make any distribution of our remaining assets to our stockholders. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
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Although we 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, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where 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. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a 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 transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (1) $10.00 per public share in the aggregate or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, except as to any claims by a third party that 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 of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company and, therefore, our Sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for such obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our Sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 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 will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below: (1) $10.00 per public share in the aggregate or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, and our Sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in 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. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per share redemption price will not be substantially less than $10.00 per share. Please see “Item 1A. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our Sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (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 monies held in the trust account. Our Sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. As of December 31, 2023, we had access to approximately $303.6 million in the trust account with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, stockholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.
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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 our 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 completion window may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If the 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.
Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our 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 completion window, 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. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, 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, 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 (net of permitted withdrawals 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. Accordingly, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the expiration of the completion window and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with those procedures. 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 well beyond the third anniversary of such date.
Because we will not be complying 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 subsequent ten years. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations are 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, etc.) or prospective target businesses. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we 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. As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust account is remote.
Further, our Sponsor may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below: (1) $10.00 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 $10.00 per share due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.
If 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 stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by 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 stockholders. Furthermore, our board may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—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.”
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Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, if they redeem their respective shares for cash in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance and timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares or if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek stockholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a stockholder’s voting in connection with our initial business combination alone will not result in a stockholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such stockholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above.
Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains certain requirements and restrictions relating to the Initial Public Offering that will apply to us until the consummation of our initial business combination. These provisions (other than amendments relating to the election and removal of directors, which require the approval of a majority of the Class B common stock then outstanding) cannot be amended without the approval of the holders of at least 65% of our common stock. Our initial stockholders, who collectively beneficially own 32.4% of our common stock, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Prior to an initial business combination, we may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that:
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In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (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.
Certain Potential Conflicts of Interest Relating to M. Klein and Company and Our Officers and Directors
Our Sponsor is an affiliate of M. Klein and Company. Mr. Klein is the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company and acts as a strategic advisor to its clients. Mr. Klein has a fiduciary duty to M. Klein and Company, as well as to other entities in which he serves as a director or officer. As a result, Mr. Klein may have a duty to offer acquisition opportunities to clients of M. Klein and Company or to other entities he owes a fiduciary duty. Mr. Klein had no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the company unless presented to him solely in his capacity as an officer or director of the company and after he has satisfied his contractual and fiduciary obligations to other parties.
As a result, M. Klein and Company’s clients may have competed with us for acquisition opportunities in the same industries and sectors as we targeted for our initial business combination. If any of them decided to pursue any such opportunity, we would have been precluded from procuring such opportunities. In addition, investment ideas generated within M. Klein and Company, including by Mr. Klein and other persons who may make decisions for the company, may have been suitable both for us and for M. Klein and Company or any of its clients, and would have been directed initially to such persons rather than to us. None of Mr. Klein, M. Klein and Company or members of our management team who are also employed by M. Klein and Company had any obligation to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they became aware unless it was offered to them solely in their capacity as a director or officer of the Company and after they had satisfied their contractual and fiduciary obligations to other parties.
In addition, Mr. Klein and M. Klein and Company may have sponsored or formed other blank check companies similar to ours, including during the period in which we were seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may have presented additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. In particular, M. Klein and Company, Mr. Klein and the Strategic and Operating Partners are actively engaged in Churchill Capital Corp VII, a special purpose acquisition corporation that completed its initial public offering in February 2021, and Churchill Capital Corp IX, a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company that is in the process of completing its initial public offering as of the date of this report. Churchill Capital Corp VII, like us, is able to pursue initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and has until August 17, 2024 to do so (absent an extension in accordance with its charter). Any such companies, including Churchill Capital Corp VII and Churchill Capital Corp IX, may have presented or may present, as applicable, additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target and may present additional conflicts of interest in completing our initial business combination. In addition, Mr. Taragin, our Chief Financial Officer, is Chief Financial Officer of M. Klein and Company, Churchill Capital Corp VII and Churchill Capital Corp IX.
The potential conflicts described above may limit our ability to complete a business combination or other transactions. These circumstances could give rise to numerous situations where interests may conflict.
Additionally, the engagement of M. Klein and Company, or another affiliate of our Sponsor, as our lead financial advisor in connection with our initial business combination may present certain conflicts of interest. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—We may engage M. Klein and Company, or another affiliate of our Sponsor, as our lead financial advisor on our business combinations and other transactions. Any fee in connection with such engagement may be conditioned upon the completion of such transactions. This financial interest in the completion of such transactions may influence the advice such affiliate provides.” There can be no assurance that these or other conflicts of interest with the potential for adverse effects on the company and investors will not arise.
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Limitations on Our Access to Investment Opportunities Sourced by M. Klein and Company
M. Klein and Company may have competed with us for acquisition opportunities that we targeted for our initial business combination. If M. Klein and Company decided to pursue any such opportunity or determined in its sole discretion not to offer such opportunity to us, we may have been precluded from procuring such opportunities. In addition, investment ideas generated within M. Klein and Company or by persons who may make decisions for us may have been suitable for both us and for M. Klein and Company may have been directed to M. Klein and Company or other third parties rather than to us. M. Klein and Company does not have any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties to our company, including, without limitation, to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they become aware.
Our management team, in their other endeavors (including any affiliation they may have with M. Klein and Company), may have chosen or been required to present potential business combinations or other transactions to M. Klein and Company or third parties, before they presented such opportunities to us. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Certain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity or other transaction should be presented” in Part I of this Annual Report.
Not All Members of Our Management Team are Independent of M. Klein and Company
Our management team is responsible for the management of our affairs. Mr. Klein is the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company and acts as a strategic advisor to its clients. Mr. Klein has a fiduciary duty to M. Klein and Company, as well as to other entities in which he serves as a director or officer. As a result, Mr. Klein may have a duty to offer acquisition opportunities to clients of M. Klein and Company. Mr. Klein will have had no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the company unless presented to him in his capacity as an officer or director of the company or to other entities he owes a fiduciary duty. Please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest” in Part III of this Annual Report for additional information regarding conflicts of interest relating to our management team.
Sponsor Indemnity
Our Sponsor, an affiliate of M. Klein and Company, 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 transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below: (1) $10.00 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 $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case, net of permitted withdrawals, except as to any claims by a third party that 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 of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company and, therefore, our Sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for such obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our Sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. We believe the likelihood of our Sponsor having to indemnify the trust account is limited because we will endeavor to have all vendors and prospective target businesses as well as other entities execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account.
Facilities
We currently maintain our executive offices at 640 Fifth Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10019. The cost for this space is included in the $30,000 per month fee that we pay an affiliate of our Sponsor for office space, administrative and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have two officers 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 but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time 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.
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Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
Our public shares are registered under the Exchange Act and we have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site at http://www.sec.gov that contains such reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accounting firm.
We are required to evaluate our internal control procedures beginning with this Annual Report as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2022 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer an emerging growth company will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by 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, 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. 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.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following July 12, 2026, (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 exceeds $700 million as of the end of the prior fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Legal Proceedings
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such, and we and the members of our management team have not been subject to any such proceeding in the 12 months preceding the date hereof.
Item 1A.Risk Factors.
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report, the prospectus associated with our Initial Public Offering and the registration statement of which such prospectus forms a part before making a decision to invest in our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with:
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● our public shareholders’ ability to exercise redemption rights;
● being declared an investment company under the Investment Company Act;
● complying with changing laws and regulations;
● the performance of the prospective target business or businesses;
● our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses;
● our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; and
Risks Relating to Consummation of or Inability to Consummate an Initial Business Combination
Holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote for our proposed business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.
In connection with our proposed initial business combination, holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Holders of our founder shares and private placement shares hold 32.4% of our common stock. 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. Please see “Item 1. Business—Manner of Conducting Redemptions” for additional information.
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Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote in favor such initial of the business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote.
Our initial stockholders, officers and directors 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 founder shares and private placement shares, we would need 7,600,261, or 26.1%, of the 29,150,521 public shares that remain outstanding to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted) in order to have such initial business combination approved. Holders of our founder shares and private placement shares hold 32.4% of our common stock. Accordingly, it is more likely that the necessary stockholder approval will be received than would be the case if our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees agreed to vote their founder shares and private placement shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public stockholders.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash and the stockholder vote regarding the approval of such business combination.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time set forth in our proxy documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination and voting on such business combination.
The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their shares for cash may prevent us from completing the initial business combination.
The Merger Agreement has a Minimum Cash Condition that requires as a closing condition that we have 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 consummate the business combination. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a business combination and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial 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 or liquidate. If we are able to consummate the business combination, the per-share value of shares held by non-redeeming stockholders will reflect our obligation to pay the deferred underwriting commissions.
The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we entered into the Merger Agreement, we did not know how many stockholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we had to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that would be submitted for redemption. Since the Merger Agreement contains a Minimum Cash Condition, we needed to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements or may need to arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of 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. In addition, the amount of deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters is not required to be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the business combination or optimize our capital structure.
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The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your stock.
Because the Merger Agreement contains a Minimum Cash Condition, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful increases. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your stock in the open market; however, at such time our 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 in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your stock in the open market.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, in which case we will 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 would only receive approximately $10.41 per share based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023, or less than such amount in certain circumstances.
Pursuant to our amended and restated charter, we must consummate our initial business combination within the completion window. There can be no assurances that we will be able to complete the business combination or to find a suitable alternative target business within such 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. For example, the U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns have increased the possibility of credit-rating downgrades and economic slowdowns, or a recession in the United States. Financial markets also may be adversely affected by current or anticipated military conflict, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, terrorism, sanctions or other geopolitical events globally, which could cause or continue to cause, as applicable, market disruptions, including significant volatility in energy and other commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions, and adversely affect the global economy and financial markets leading to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets. Any negative impact on the global economy, capital markets or other geopolitical conditions resulting from downgrades to the U.S. government’s sovereign credit rating or its perceived creditworthiness, the war in Ukraine and subsequent actions could adversely affect our search for a business combination and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination.
If we have not completed our initial business combination within the completion window, 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, 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 (net of permitted withdrawals 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 $10.41 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less than $10.41 per share in certain circumstances where a third party brings a claim against us that the Sponsor is unable to indemnify (as described herein), on the redemption of their shares. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.
If permitted withdrawals and other sources of working capital are insufficient, it could limit the amount available to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain such loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
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If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our Sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our Sponsor, members of our management team nor 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. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because of insufficient funds, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.41 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less in certain circumstances. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.
Our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may elect to purchase shares from the public, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our common stock.
At any time prior to the stockholder special meeting in connection with the business combination, during a period when they are not then aware of any material nonpublic information regarding our public shares, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may (although they are under no obligation to do so) purchase public shares from public stockholders in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market and separate from the redemption process in connection with the stockholder special meeting in connection with the business combination. Our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates will only make open market purchases to the extent the price per public share so acquired is no higher than the redemption price that would be available in connection with the redemption procedures described in the proxy statement/prospectus/consent solicitation statement filed in connection with the stockholder special meeting. In addition, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates will waive any redemption rights with respect to any public shares purchased in open market purchases and will not vote any public shares purchased in open market purchases in favor of the business combination proposal.
As of the date of this report, no such transactions have occurred nor are they planned to occur. However any such purchase arrangements might include, without limitation, that in the event shares are purchased in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. Similarly, our Sponsor, and our directors, officers or advisors or any of our respective affiliates may (although they are under no obligation to do so) enter into arrangements or contractual acknowledgements with public stockholders, including to (i) confirm that such stockholder, although still the record holder of public shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights or (ii) protect such stockholders against potential loss in value of their shares, including through the granting of put options and the transfer to such stockholders of shares owned by our Sponsor for nominal value.
The purposes of such purchases and arrangements would be to reduce the number of public shares that may be redeemed in connection with the stockholder special meeting, and to increase the likelihood of satisfaction of the requirements to consummate the business combination where it appears that such requirements would otherwise not be met, and may, in the case of purchases, include a business decision to increase such purchaser's ownership of shares at an attractive price. If such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on NYSE or another national securities exchange or reducing the liquidity of the trading market for such securities.
If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for redeeming its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
If a stockholder fails to receive our proxy materials such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy materials that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly redeem 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 up to two business days prior to the 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 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, 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 shares of Class A common stock that such
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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 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 within the completion window; and (3) the redemption of all of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the completion window 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 our trust account. In that case, public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond the completion window before they receive funds from our trust account. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares, potentially at a loss.
If the funds available to us outside of the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. However, our affiliates are not obligated to make loans to us in the future, and we may not be able to raise additional financing from unaffiliated parties necessary to fund our expenses. Any such event in the future may negatively impact the analysis regarding our ability to continue as a going concern at such time.
We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, including permitted withdrawals and loans or additional investments from our Sponsor, will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.41 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or writeoffs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
We cannot assure you that our due diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain a stockholder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
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If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 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 within the completion window, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the per share amount initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors.
Our Sponsor has agreed that it will indemnify us if and to the extent losses to which it may become subject as a result of any claims by a vendor (other than our independent public accountants) for services rendered or products sold to it, or a prospective target business with which it has entered into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per share of our Class A common stock or (ii) the actual amount per share of Class A common stock held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share of Class A common stock is then held in the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets less a price per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of amounts withdrawn to fund our working capital requirements), subject to an annual limit of $1,000,000, and/or to pay our taxes. Such indemnification obligation (x) shall not apply to any claims by a third party that executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) and (x) shall not apply to any claims under our indemnity of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are our securities. We have 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 could be reduced to less than $10.00 per share of Class A common stock. In such event, we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination, and our public shareholders would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of their shares of Class A common stock. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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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) $10.00 per public share or (2) the actual amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, 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 $10.00 per share.
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 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 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 by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public 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 stockholders and the per share amount that would otherwise be received by our 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 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.
We may be subject to a 1% U.S. federal excise tax in connection with redemptions of our Class A common stock.
On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IR Act”) was signed into law. The IR Act provides for, among other things, a 1% U.S. federal excise tax on certain repurchases (including redemptions) of stock by publicly traded U.S. corporations after December 31, 2022. The excise tax is imposed on the repurchasing corporation itself, not its stockholders from whom the shares are repurchased (although it may reduce the amount of cash distributable in a current or subsequent redemption). The amount of the excise tax is 1% of the fair market value of any shares repurchased by the repurchasing corporation during a taxable year, which may be potentially netted by the fair market value of certain new stock issuances by the repurchasing corporation during the same taxable year. In addition, a number of exceptions apply to this excise tax. The U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) has been given authority to provide regulations and other guidance to carry out, and prevent the abuse or avoidance of, this excise tax.
On December 27, 2022, the Treasury published Notice 2023-2, which provided clarification on some aspects of the application of the excise tax. The notice generally provides that if a publicly traded U.S. corporation completely liquidates and dissolves, distributions in such complete liquidation and other distributions by such corporation in the same taxable year in which the final distribution in complete liquidation and dissolution is made are not subject to the excise tax.
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Because any such excise tax would be payable by us and not by the redeeming holder, it could cause a reduction in the value of our Class A common stock, cash available with which to effectuate a business combination or cash available for distribution in a subsequent liquidation. Whether and to what extent we would be subject to the excise tax in connection with an initial business combination will depend on a number of factors, including (i) the structure of the initial business combination, (ii) the fair market value of the redemptions and repurchases in connection with the initial business combination, (iii) the nature and amount of any “PIPE” or other equity issuances in connection with the initial business combination (or any other equity issuances within the same taxable year of the initial business combination) and (iv) the content of any subsequent regulations, clarifications, and other guidance issued by the Treasury. However, to mitigate this uncertainty, any funds held in the trust account prior to the termination of such account, including any interest thereon, will not be used to pay for any excise tax liabilities with respect to any redemptions of the Class A common stock, prior to or in connection with an extension of the completion window, an initial business combination or our liquidation.
Changes in laws, regulations or rules, or a failure to comply with any laws, regulations or rules, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, investments and results of operations.
We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments and the NYSE. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC, the NYSE and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations or rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations or rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including its ability to consummate our initial business combination, investments and results of operations.
On January 24, 2024, the SEC adopted final rules (the “2024 SPAC Rules”) relating to, among other items, enhancing disclosures in initial business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amending the financial statement requirements applicable to transactions involving shell companies; enhancing disclosure requirements related to projections, including requiring disclosure of all material bases of the projections and all material assumptions underlying the projections; increasing the potential liability of certain participants in proposed initial business combination transactions; and the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. The 2024 SPAC Rules will become effective July 1, 2024. In the event our initial business combination has not been consummated by such date, such rules may materially adversely affect our ability to consummate our initial business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.
See also “—We may be subject to a 1% U.S. federal excise tax in connection with redemptions of our Class A Common stock” and “—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, 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, without limitation, restrictions on the nature of our investments, restrictions on the issuance of securities, and restrictions on the enforceability of agreements entered into by us, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete a business combination. In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including, without limitation, registration as an investment company with the SEC (which may be impractical and would require significant changes in, among other things, our capital structure); adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and compliance with other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading in 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 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.
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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 following such a transaction.
We do not believe that our principal activities currently subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, from the time beginning with the consummation of our Initial Public Offering, 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 or cash. 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 subsequently holding all funds in the trust account in cash, which may include demand deposit accounts (as described in the following paragraph), 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 Initial Public Offering was not intended for persons seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of: (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 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 within the completion window; 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 only in permitted instruments, we believe we are not an investment company. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to consummate our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the redemption of their shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.
To mitigate the risk of us being deemed to have been operating as an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended), all funds in the trust account are held and will be held in cash (which may include demand deposit accounts) until the earlier of consummation of our business combination or liquidation. Furthermore, such cash (which may include demand deposit accounts) is held in bank accounts, which exceed federally insured limits as guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”). While we have only placed our trust account deposits with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., only a small portion of the funds in our trust account will be guaranteed by the FDIC.
We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon the conversion of the Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions described herein. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 500,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 100,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share and 1,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. There are 469,399,479 and 87,500,000 authorized but unissued shares of Class A and Class B common stock, respectively, available for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon the conversion of the Class B common stock. Shares of Class B common stock are automatically convertible into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein. There are no shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding.
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We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock, and may issue shares of preferred stock, in order to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination (although our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or on our initial business combination or that would entitle holders thereof to receive funds from the trust account). We may also issue shares upon conversion of the Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions described herein. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the trust account or (2) vote on any initial business combination. The issuance of additional shares of common or preferred stock:
● may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock.
Resources could be wasted in researching initial business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, including the proposed business combination with Oklo, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the private placement shares, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may materially negatively impact our operations and profitability.
As of December 31, 2023, we had access to approximately $303.6 million in the trust account that we may use to complete our initial business combination (which includes $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account). We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive, geographic and regulatory risks. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
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This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive, geographic and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our stockholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (such 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. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our Sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their respective affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of not less than 65% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and the trust agreement to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions (other than amendments relating to the appointment of directors, which require the approval by a majority of the Class B common stock then outstanding) related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to fund the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances and to provide redemption rights to public stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of at least 65% of our common stock, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that it may be amended by holders of a majority of our common stock, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL, or applicable stock exchange rules. We may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or on our initial business combination. Our initial stockholders, who beneficially own 32.4% of our common stock, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and/or trust agreement and have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation which governs our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other blank check companies, and this may increase our ability to complete our initial business combination with which you do not agree. Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation 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 within the completion window, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. These agreements are contained in letter agreements that we have entered into with each of our Sponsor, officers and directors. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our Sponsor, officers or directors for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
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We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.
Although we believe that the funds available in our trust account will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet held a stockholder vote on the proposed business combination with Oklo, we cannot say so for certain. If the funds available in our trust account prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing (including from M. Klein and Company) or to abandon the proposed business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. M. Klein and Company is not obligated to provide, or seek, any such financing or, except as expressly set forth herein, to provide any other services to us. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account.
Our initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not be tax-efficient to our stockholders. As a result of our business combination, our tax obligations may be more complex, burdensome and uncertain.
Although we will attempt to structure our initial business combination in a tax-efficient manner, tax structuring considerations are complex, the relevant facts and law are uncertain and may change, and we may prioritize commercial and other considerations over tax considerations. For example, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to any requisite stockholder approval, we may structure our business combination in a manner that requires stockholders to recognize gain or income for tax purposes, effect a business combination with a target company in another jurisdiction, or reincorporate in a different jurisdiction (including, but not limited to, the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located). We do not intend to make any cash distributions to stockholders to pay taxes in connection with our business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, a stockholder may need to satisfy any liability resulting from our initial business combination with cash from its own funds or by selling all or a portion of the shares received. In addition, stockholders may also be subject to additional income, withholding or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after our initial business combination.
In addition, we may effect a business combination with a target company that has business operations outside of the United States, and possibly, business operations in multiple jurisdictions. If we effect such a business combination, we could be subject to significant income, withholding and other tax obligations in a number of jurisdictions with respect to income, operations and subsidiaries related to those jurisdictions.
Due to the complexity of tax obligations and filings in other jurisdictions, we may have a heightened risk related to audits or examinations by U.S. federal, state, local and non-U.S. taxing authorities. This additional complexity and risk could have an adverse effect on our after-tax profitability and financial condition.
Risks Relating to Our Securities
The NYSE may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to transact in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our Class A common stock is currently listed on the NYSE. We cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on the NYSE in the future and 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 Our continued eligibility for listing may depend on, among other things, the number of public shares that are redeemed in connection with the initial business combination.
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Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the NYSE’s initial listing requirements, which 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. 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 Class A common stock is listed on the NYSE, our Class A common stock 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.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.