Morning Roundup: November 20, 2023

At the SPAC of Dawn

Public companies of all stripes tend to bury news ahead of holidays and SPACs are no different.

Four SPACs have announced their intent to liquidate since market close on Friday and three of these had previously agreed to business combinations. The last cluster of broken deals and liquidated SPACs this dense similarly landed on a festive occasion during Halloween.

One hundred eighty more SPACs that have either announced a combination or are still searching have a month or less left on their initial deadlines. Most of these can either auto-extend or have votes already on the calendar, but this week could see still more news of things coming to an end with SPAC teams as much of the country is passing the casserole.

News and Rumors

• Bloomberg: Tim Hortons (NASDAQ:THCH), which completed its combination with Silver Crest (NASDAQ:SLCR) in 2022, opened its first outlet in Singapore Friday as the iconic Canadian chain joins a host of coffee brands expanding in the wealthy city-state.
• PR Newswire: ScanTech Identification Beam Systems, which announced its combination with Mars (NASDAQ:MARX) in September, has entered into a definitive contract with Visiontec Systems to provide CT screening systems to one of the largest, most diverse power producers in North America.
• Verge: Sam Altman, who serves as CEO of the SPAC AltC and chairman of nuclear power firm Oklo, which are merging with each other, was abruptly fired Friday from another executive post as CEO of OpenAI.
• BBC: Moving quickly, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) snapped up Altman, announcing that he will lead the company’s new advanced AI research team.

Liquidations

• World View and Leo Holdings Corp. II (NYSE: LHC) intend to mutually agree to terminate their previously announced business combination agreement. As a result, Leo intends to liquidate and will redeem all of the outstanding Class A Ordinary Shares on or about December 4 for $10.95 per share.
• Fat Projects Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: FATP) has terminated its combination with Avanseus Holdings and will liquidate. As of the close of business on November 15, the shares will be deemed cancelled and will represent only the right to receive the redemption amount of approximately $10.96.
• Churchill Capital Corp VI (NYSE: CCVI) has determined to liquidate and redeem all of its outstanding shares of Class A common stock for $10.49. The last day that the company’s securities will trade on the NYSE will be December 1.
• Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ:HWEL) has canceled its December 4 extension vote and will liquidate at about $10.50 per share. Earlier this month, Healthwell I terminated its combination with Starton Therapeutics.