Social Capital Hedosophia III (IPOC) Shareholders Approve Clover Health Deal

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corporation III (NYSE:IPOC) shareholders approved its business combination with Medicaid insurer Clover Health at a special meeting earlier today.

The company said in a press release that 65% of shares participated in the vote and about 99.5% voted in favor of the deal. Social Capital III initially announced its $3.7 billion deal with Clover Health on October 6. Clover is the fastest-growing private insurer covering members through the Medicaid Advantage program.

The parties aim to close the transaction tomorrow, January 7, which will be the last day Social Capital III will trade on the NYSE. The combined entity’s shares and warrants are then to transfer to the Nasdaq and trade under the ticker symbols “CLOV” and “CLOVW,” respectively beginning January 8.

Clover CEO Vivek Garipalli told CNBC at the time of the deal announcement that the company was initially set on an IPO track in early 2020. But, uncertainty about potential healthcare policy changes under a new administration made a SPAC-listing an easier path. That political change is now a reality, but has not dampened market enthusiasm for Clover as it opened at $15.39 ahead of the vote.

This was a significantly more confident trading value that Social Capital I (NYSE:SPCE) had going into the morning of its approval vote for Virgin Galactic in 2019, which opened at $10.62 at the time. But, the Clover transaction for now remains the market’s second favorite Chamath Palihapitiya SPAC production, with Social Capital II’s (NYSE:OPEN) deal with OpenDoor opening at $26.69 ahead of its December 17 approval vote and now trades above $27.