TradeUP Acquisition Corp. (UPTD) Closes Estrella Biopharma Deal

TradeUP (NASDAQ:UPTD) announced this morning that it has closed its combination with Estrella Biopharma and its shares and warrants will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbols “ESLA” and “ESLAQ” on October 2.

This will be the first time that TradeUp sub-unit’s will split into shares and their accompanied 1/2 warrants. The SPAC secured shareholder approval for the deal way back on July 31, but TradeUP has spent the past two months securing additional committed financing for the combination.

Estrella is to receive $23.1 million in gross proceeds in the end made up of $10 million in PIPE cash, $9.75 million from a preferred offering and about $300,000 in debt, according to the parties’ press release.

That leaves about $3.05 million in equity coming from TradeUp shares. The SPAC saw 98% redemptions reduce its trust to about $829,703 in the final vote, but it also issued 250,000 TradeUp shares to White Lion Capital as a part of a its commitments in a common stock agreement that may see it purchase up to $50 million in stock post-close.

TradeUp initially announced its $398 million combination with Estrella Biopharma in October 2022. Emeryville, California-based Estrella is developing three potential cancer therapies aimed at improving the effectiveness of T-cell treatments.

In March, it gained FDA clearance to start Phase I/II trials for its EB-103 drug candidate, which uses its CD19 t-cell therapy to combat b-cell lymphoma.

ADVISORS

• US Tiger Securities, Inc. has acted as financial advisor to TradeUP.
• Robinson & Cole LLP acted as legal advisor to TradeUP.
• Winston & Strawn LLP acted as legal advisor to Estrella.