Morning Roundup: November 8, 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.

Futures are flat on news that the Democrats were mostly victorious in yesterday’s local and state-level elections.

The ballots featured far less meaningful action than a mid-term election but included Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear being reelected in deep red Kentucky over a Trump-endorsed candidate and the party regaining control of Virginia’s legislature. Ohio voters also backed ballot measures protecting abortion access and the legalization of marijuana.

Pundits will no doubt spent the next 12 months projecting these results onto the 2024 playing field where far more will be at stake.

In SPAC world, meanwhile, things are perhaps getting more decisive with deal closings picking up pace. With three deals announcing their completion yesterday, that brings November’s tally to five closings one week into the month while October hosted just six during its 31 days.

That still leaves an overhang of 153 announced deals to sort through, and the last SPACs to make it to the finish line showed how the shareholder vote is not always the end of the fight in this market.

November’s finished deals took just under two weeks on average between shareholder vote to close, with Abri SPAC I chugging along for 25 days during this period and Worldwide Webb getting it done in five, despite some significant last-minute adjustments.

News and Rumors

• Bloomberg: Circle is has engaged advisors with an aim to mounting an IPO campaign in early 2024 after its 18-month attempt to complete a combination with Concord ended in termination and the SPAC’s liquidation.
• AdvisorHub: A Citigroup broker now working at Merill Lynch is facing a $56 million-suit alleging he overconcentrated a client’s holdings in de-SPAC Cano Health (NYSE:CANO). The client, former CNN and Fox News host Rick Sanchez, himself served as co-founder and CMO of the company from 2015 to 2018, but the company has shrank since combining with Jaws to 2021 to a stock split-adjusted share price of $0.10.
• Bloomberg Law: Aftermarket auto parts seller Holley (NYSE:HLLY) became the latest de-SPAC to face a lawsuit over allegedly overstating its business prospects during its merger process with Empower in 2021.

Non-Redemption Agreements

• Mobiv Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:MOBV) agreed with investors holding 500,000 shares of its stock to reverse their redemption decisions. These investors will be compensated with 20 newly issued shares in the combined company for each non-redeemed share. The combined company expects to sell or issue 4,729,210 shares to these investors and will issue them an additional 5,000,000 shares if the company’s VWAP trades at or below $0.50 for any five of 10 trading days within 60 days of this agreement being registered with the SEC. Mobiv secured shareholder approval for its combination with EV motorcycle maker SRIVARU in September, but has yet to close.

Liquidations

• CC Neuberger Principal Holdings III (NYSE: PRPC) has determined not to proceed with another one-month extension and will instead liquidate its trust. The per-share redemption price for the shares will be approximately $10.93.
• Monterey Innovation Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:MTRY) announced that its sponsors will not fund the monthly extension payment into the trust, and will liquidate. As of the close of business on November 20, the shares will be deemed to no longer be outstanding and will represent only the right to receive the redemption amount for each share.