Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp. II (MUDS) to Liquidate Trust
Mudrick II (NASDAQ:MUDS) announced this afternoon that it intends to dissolve and liquidate its trust after being unable to complete a business combination.
The SPAC had a transaction deadline of September 10, but will now redeem all of its outstanding shares of Class A common stock issued as part of the units sold in its IPO, effective as of the close of business on September 12, 2022. Net of taxes and up to $100,000 of dissolution expenses, MUDS expects shareholders to receive a redemption price of $10.16 per share.
The redemption amount is expected to be paid on or prior to September 23, to the beneficial owners of public shares held in street name, but will be paid to record holders of public shares after delivery of their public shares to Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company on or after September 12.
The news comes just a few weeks after MUDS terminated its business combination with online jewelry retailer Blue Nile on August 9. While most SPACs typically point towards unfavorable market conditions as their reason for termination, Blue Nile decided to part ways in order to enter into a different transaction agreement to be acquired by Sterling Jewelers Inc. (NYSE:SIG).
Sterling agreed to acquire Blue Nile for $360 million in an all cash transaction, just over half of what Blue Nile’s enterprise value, or $683 million, would have been in the SPAC deal. The cash to Blue Nile’s balance sheet in the SPAC transaction was expected to be $372 million, but that was assuming no redemptions, and had a minimum cash closing condition of $195.5M. MUDS and Blue Nile had announced the $683 million deal on June 13, just weeks prior to the termination.
Blue Nile marked the second deal termination for MUDS following its first unsuccessful combination with collectible card-maker Topps. The deal was terminated in August 2021 after the company announced it would not see a renewal of its foundational contract with Major League Baseball (MLB) for producing its signature cards.
MUDS announced the pricing of its upsized $275 million IPO nearly two years ago on December 7, 2020 and initially aimed to combine with a distressed or post-restructured middle market business valued at $750 million to $2 billion. This marks the 22nd SPAC to liquidate in 2022 thus far, and the 3rd this week. MUDS was led by CEO and Chairman Jason Mudrick alongside VP Victor Danh, VP and Director David Kirsch and CFO Glenn Springer.