Ivanhoe Capital (IVAN) Announces Preliminary Shareholder Approval

Ivanhoe Capital (NYSE:IVAN) announced this afternoon that it expects to receive shareholder approval at its special meeting set to vote on its combination with EV battery-maker SES tomorrow.

This vote will not be final until after the meeting concludes tomorrow, but considering the good results in a very challenging market environment, a press release of this nature is certainly welcome. The parties expect to close the deal on February 3, providing more than $480 million of cash, less fees and expenses, expected on the balance sheet of the combined company.  Using these numbers, we can estimate that Ivanhoe Capital had redemptions of roughly 71M, representing roughly 26% of its trust, marking it as the best vote this year in terms of redemptions.

Last week, CF Acquisition Corp. V saw 92.6% of its trust redeemed in its merger with Satellogic (NASDAQ:SATL), while Yellowstone saw redemptions of 88.7% in its merger with Sky Harbour (NYSE:SKYH) and Sports Entertainment 55.1% with Super Group (NYSE:SHGC).

The PIPE included $275 million common stock offering includes drawing from multiple industry leading OEM’s and strategic partners, along with premier financial investors. The PIPE investors include: Honda Motor Co. Ltd., General Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, Geely Holding Group, Kia Corporation, SAIC Motor, Koch Strategic Platforms, LG Technology Ventures, Foxconn, Vertex Ventures, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC (certain funds), and Franklin Templeton. SES investors also include SK Inc., Temasek, Tianqi Lithium, and Applied Materials.

In late October, the SPAC entered into an additional PIPE subscription agreement which increased the total PIPE size to $275 million thanks to the additional $75 million subscription at $10.00 per share from an unnamed strategic investor.

Ivanhoe Capital and SES initially announced their $2.6 billion deal on July 13. Singapore-based SES is developing a hybrid lithium-metal rechargeable battery for electric vehicles with full production expected to launch in 2025.

ADVISORS

• Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to SES.
• White & Case LLP is serving as legal advisor to SES.
• Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is serving as sole placement agent on the PIPE offering and as exclusive financial advisor to Ivanhoe.
• Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to Ivanhoe.
• ICR, LLC is serving as communications advisor for SES.