Kingswood (KWAC) Delisted From NYSE

Kingswood (KWAC) Delisted From NYSE

Kingswood Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:KWAC) Class A common shares, units, and warrants were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) after market close this afternoon.

The regulatory team from the NYSE announced that it has immediately suspended the SPAC and has determined to begin the delisting process due to Section 802.01B of the NYSE’s Listed Company Manual. Kingswood had fallen below the NYSE’s continued listing standard which requires a SPAC to maintain an average global market capitalization of at least $50 million and average global market capitalization attributable to its publicly-held shares of at least $40 million in each case over a consecutive 30 trading day period.

KWAC will have a right to a review this determination by a Committee of the Board of Directors of the Exchange and an opportunity to appeal the decision once NYSE completes the necessary procedures with the SEC.

What’s most interesting is that this news comes just days after Kingswood announced its $208 million combination with broker-dealer aggregator Wentworth Management Services LLC. But, Kingswood teased this combination with Wentworth five days before its May 18 extension deadline where it offered an additional $60,969 per month for six months to extend to November 24. However, shareholders redeemed 87.3% of shares for cash, but May was a challenging month for the capital markets overall. As a comparison, SPACs that are still searching have faced, on average, 55.3% redemptions through extension votes so far this year.

Kingswood brought an estimated $15.1 million into the transaction from its current trust and has not yet supplemented this with a PIPE. Its materials suggest that the parties intend to raise an additional $15 million from some additional mechanism yet to be announced, however.

New York City-based Wentworth Management Services LLC specializes in consolidating independent broker-dealers to capture economies of scale needed. It and Kingswood are to become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Binah Capital Group as a part of transaction.