Morning SPAC News Roundup: March 27, 2024

At the SPAC of Dawn

Much of the attention yesterday was on tracking the swings of the newly-completed Trump Media (NASDAQ:DJT) deal with the FT going as far to suggest it may “make SPACs great again.”

Not all of the day’s data points were on the positive side of the ledger, however. IB Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:IBAC) put another SPAC on the board with its IPO, but it broke price by the end of trading, finishing at $9.99. This was the first SPAC to do so Colombier II‘s November IPO (NYSE:CLBR).

Interestingly, Colombier II’s search thesis is essentially to find more conservative-aligned combination targets like Trump Media, so its day-one drop may have been a demonstration that institutional investor perspective on this sort of play varies from its retail fans.

IB did notably fall farther than Colombier II on a NAV-basis, however, as it came to market with its trust overfunded to $10.05 per unit. IB’s slip could have in theory been caused by a small number of its IPO investors hitting the sell button, but it nonetheless indicates SPAC world is pumping the breaks on some new issuance.

News and Rumors

• PR: OneSpaWorld (NASDAQ:OSW) has raised $52.1 million by converting all outstanding warrants into shares in the company as it hit the five-year anniversary of its combination with Haymaker this month.
• Bloomberg: Borrowing costs to short Trump Media (NASDAQ:DJT) have risen to 150% but about $100 million has already been put to work doing so. So far, short sellers have lost -$158 million on the year trying to short Trump Media’s SPAC partner Digital World, however.

Deals and Funding

• 8-K: Viveon Health (NYSE:VHAQ) has signed a non-redemption agreement with certain institutional investors to not redeem an unspecified number of shares at the SPAC’s upcoming extension vote. In return, these investors will be issued 150,000 additional shares and the sponsor will forfeit an equal number.

Votes & Closings

• Concord III (NYSE:CNDB) has completed its combination with GCT Semiconductor and the combined company will begin trading n the NYSE under the symbol “GCTS” later today. GCT netted about $50 million in gross proceeds as a part of the deal.
• Arrowroot (NASDAQ:ARRW) has again postponed its special meeting to complete its combination with AI software firm iLearningEngines and will now gather it at 9 am ET April 1.