Morning Roundup: October 13, 2023

At the SPAC of Dawn

Good morning! Watch this space moving forward as a roundup of evening filings as well as news nuggets to nibble on beside your morning coffee.

Yesterday came the first update in months in the SPAC deal that has captivated retail investors like no other since the boom times as Digital World (NASDAQ:DWAC) gave an update in its work to trim down its PIPE.

But, if a pipe falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

Whether one considers a smaller PIPE for the company a positive or negative, few investors traded on the news with about 194,600 shares changing hands through the day. That was not even its highest trading volume of the month and far below its highs of the quarter, which have featured at least one 1,000,000+ volume day for Digital World in each month until October.

Overall, news-based trading volumes around SPACs appear to have been muted of late with only five of the 13 SPACs announcing deals since September 1 seeing 300,000+ shares traded in a day around their deal announcements.

Those volume leaders were Project Energy (NASDAQ:PEGR), Golden Star (NASDAQ:GODN), Inception Growth (NASDAQ:IGTA), Zalatoris (NYSE:TCOA), and Andretti (NYSE:WNNR)

But, while the spotlight may be wandering from Digital World and announcing SPACs, the new leader in attention may well be EV de-SPAC VinFast (NASDAQ:VFS), which still has most of its shares locked up and spiked high once its deal closed in August.

It has not had a sub-seven-digit day since closing with Black Spade and its daily trading volume in the nine days of October has averaged 4,810,855.

News and Rumors

• Bloomberg: Lotus Cars, which announced a business combination with L Catterton Asia (NASDAQ:LCAA) earlier this year, reached a deal for Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. to be the exclusive provider of auto-loan financing for US consumers buying the British company’s sports cars.
• Bloomberg: A group of investors in Terran Orbital Corp. (NYSE:LLAP), which went public with Tailwind Two last year, is calling on the aerospace and defense company to launch a strategic review and oust its CEO.
• Reuters: Self-driving truck startup Plus has split its Chinese and U.S. operations and struck a deal in which a key shareholder, China’s Full Truck Alliance, will focus on the China unit. Plus previously announced plans to go public by merging with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp V, but called it off, citing regulatory concerns.

Scheduling Notes

• Portage Fintech Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:PFTA) officially changed its name to Perception Capital Corp III following a transition whereby the Perception team took over its sponsor in July.