Morning SPAC News Roundup: February 16, 2024
At the SPAC of Dawn
A great number of SPACs entered 2024 in a sense of drift with many attempting to carry combinations to close that had been pending for a year or more and uncertainty loomed with SEC and Fed decisions still in the air.
But, the SPAC market has undeniably begun waking from its January slumber in February.
Four deals have closed in the last 36 hours, which is the same number that did so in the entire month of January. That brings February’s total to eight closings, and this pace could quicken even more through the second half of the month.
There are already 11 more completion votes slated for the next two weeks and four more SPACs have announced that their S-4s have been declared effective by the SEC in the past two days – none more surprising than that of Digital World (NASDAQ:DWAC).
Also, there is currently a tie at both first and second place in our Let’s Settle This poll predicting which underwriter will price the most SPAC IPOs in 2024, so in the spirit of election season, record your prediction HERE and give us a winner! Results will be revealed with the Afternoon Roundup at about 1:30 pm ET.
Deals and Funding
- Keyarch Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:KYCH) has raised a $13 million PIPE at $10 per share for its combination with Zooz. Last week, the SPAC noted it was in talks with investors for a PIPE of up to $60 million.
News and Rumors
- Bloomberg: Bridger Aerospace (NASDAQ:BAER) CEO Tim Sheehy, who took his company public in a combination with Jack Creek in January 2023, faces an uphill fundraising challenge in his run for Senate against Democratic Sen. John Tester.
- Law360: Executives at battery-maker Microvast (NASDAQ:MVST) and Tuscan, which took it public in July 2021, now face an investor lawsuit in Delaware alleging misleading statements in the de-SPAC process.
Closings
- Chenghe (NASDAQ:CHEA) has closed its combination with Taiwan Color Optics, which will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the name Semilux and the ticker symbol “SELX” later today.
Votes
- Lakeshore Acquisition II Corp. (NASDAQ:LBBB) has secured shareholder approval for its combination with Nature’s Miracle, but 1,246,563 more shares were redeemed at the vote leaving 100,097 public shares outstanding and about $1.1 million in the SPAC’s trust account.