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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
 
FORM
10-K
 
 
(Mark One)
☒
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the period from
January 11
, 2021 through December 31, 2021
 
☐
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from
                    
to
                    
 
 
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
 
 
Cayman Islands
  
001-40218
  
98-1577353
(State or other jurisdiction
of incorporation or organization)
  
(Commission
File Number)
  
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)
   
2021 Fillmore St. #2089
San Francisco, California
  
94115
(Address of principal executive offices)
  
(Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (415)
683-6773
Not Applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 
Title of Each Class:
   
Trading
Symbol:
   
Name of Each Exchange
on Which Registered:
Units, each consisting of one Class A Ordinary Share, $0.0001 par value, and
one-fifth
of one redeemable warrant
   
PLMIU
   
The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Class A Ordinary Shares included as part of the units
   
PLMI
   
The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Redeemable warrants included as part of the Units, each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A Ordinary Share at an exercise price of $11.50
   
PLMIW
   
The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
 
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation
S-T
(§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a
non-accelerated
filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule
12b-2
of the Exchange Act.
 
Large accelerated filer   ☐    Accelerated filer   ☐
       
Non-accelerated filer   ☒    Smaller reporting company   ☒
       
         Emerging growth company   ☒
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as
defined in Rule
12b-2
of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐
The registrant’s units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share, $0.0001 par value, and one-fifth of one redeemable warrant, began trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (the “Nasdaq”) on March 15, 2021. Commencing May 6, 2021, holders of the units were permitted to elect to separately trade the Class A ordinary shares and warrants included in the units.
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting common stock held by
non-affiliates
of the registrant as of June 30, 2021 (the last business day of the registrants most recently completed second fiscal quarter), was approximately $309,959,066 (based on the closing sales price of the ordinary shares on June 30, 2021 of $9.71)
As of April 21, 2022, 
31,921,634 Class A ordinary shares, and 7,980,409 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class B ordinary shares”) , were issued and outstanding.
Documents Incorporated by Reference: None.
 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
  
 
ii
 
  
 
iii
 
  
 
v
 
 
  
 
1
 
Item 1.
 
  
 
1
 
Item 1A.
 
  
 
25
 
Item 1B.
 
  
 
62
 
Item 2.
 
  
 
62
 
Item 3.
 
  
 
62
 
Item 4.
 
  
 
62
 
 
  
 
63
 
Item 5.
 
  
 
63
 
Item 6.
 
  
 
63
 
Item 7.
 
  
 
63
 
Item 7A.
 
  
 
66
 
Item 8.
 
  
 
66
 
Item 9.
 
  
 
67
 
Item 9A.
 
  
 
67
 
Item 9B.
 
  
 
67
 
Item 9C.
 
  
 
67
 
 
  
 
68
 
Item 10.
 
  
 
68
 
Item 11.
 
  
 
78
 
Item 12.
 
  
 
79
 
Item 13.
 
  
 
80
 
Item 14.
 
  
 
81
 
 
  
 
82
 
Item 15.
 
  
 
82
 
Item 16.
 
  
 
82
 
 
i
CERTAIN TERMS
Unless otherwise stated in this Annual Report on Form
10-K
(this “Report”), or the context otherwise requires, references to:
 
  •  
“amended and restated memorandum and article of association” are to the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that the company adopted prior to the consummation of the initial public offering;
 
  •  
“Companies Act” are to the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands as the same may be amended from time to time;
 
  •  
“council members” are to members of our Leadership Council;
 
  •  
“directors” are to our current directors;
 
  •  
“founder shares” are to our Class B ordinary shares initially issued to our sponsor in a private placement prior to the initial public offering and the Class A ordinary shares that will be issued upon the automatic conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination or earlier at the option of the holders thereof (for the avoidance of doubt, such Class A ordinary shares will not be “public shares”);
 
  •  
“initial shareholders” are to all of our shareholders immediately prior to the date of this report, including all of our officers, Industry Advisors and directors to the extent they hold ordinary shares;
 
  •  
“management” or our “management team” are to our executive officers and directors;
 
  •  
“ordinary shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares and our Class B ordinary shares;
 
  •  
“private placement warrants” are to the warrants issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering and upon conversion of working capital loans, if any;
 
  •  
“public shares” are to our Class A ordinary shares sold as part of the units;
 
  •  
“public shareholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our sponsor and management team to the extent our sponsor and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that our sponsor’s and each member of our management team’s status as a “public shareholder” will only exist with respect to such public shares
 
  •  
“senior advisors” are to members of our senior advisory team;
 
  •  
“sponsor” are to Plum Partners, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company;
 
  •  
“warrants” are to our redeemable warrants, which includes the public warrants as well as the private placement warrants to the extent that they are no longer held by the initial purchasers of the private placement warrants or their permitted transferees; and
 
  •  
“we,” “us,” “our,” “company” or “our company” are to Plum Acquisition Corp. I, a Cayman Islands exempted company.
 
ii
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Report, including, without limitation, statements under the heading “management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “may,” “will,” “potential,” “projects,” “predicts,” “continue,” or “should,” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. There can be no assurance that actual results will not materially differ from expectations. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our ability to consummate any acquisition or other business combination and any other statements that are not statements of current or historical facts. These statements are based on management’s current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to various factors, including, but not limited to:
 
  •  
our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses;
 
  •  
our ability to complete our initial business combination;
 
  •  
our expectations around the performance of a prospective target business or businesses;
 
  •  
our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination;
 
  •  
our officers and directors allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination;
 
  •  
our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination;
 
  •  
our pool of prospective target businesses;
 
  •  
our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the recent
COVID-19
pandemic;
 
  •  
the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of potential business combination opportunities;
 
  •  
our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading;
 
  •  
the lack of a market for our securities;
 
  •  
the use of proceeds not held in the trust account or available to us from interest income on the trust account balance;
 
  •  
the trust account not being subject to claims of third parties; or
 
  •  
our financial performance following our initial public offering.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Report are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurances that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described under the heading “Risk Factors.” Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions
 
iii
prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. These risks and others described under “Risk Factors” may not be exhaustive.
 
iv
SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
The following is a summary of the principal risks described below in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form
10-K.
We believe that the risks described in the “Risk Factors” section are material to investors, but other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also adversely affect us. The following summary should not be considered an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing us, and it should be read in conjunction with the “Risk Factors” section and the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form
10-K.
 
  •  
We are a recently incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
 
  •  
Past performance by our management team or our Industry Advisors or their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
 
  •  
Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.
 
  •  
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
 
  •  
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
 
  •  
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
 
  •  
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
 
  •  
The requirement that we consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
 
  •  
Certain of our officers and directors have direct and indirect economic interests in us and/or our sponsor after the consummation of the initial public offering and such interests may potentially conflict with those of our public shareholders as we evaluate and decide whether to recommend a potential business combination to our public shareholders.
 
  •  
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the recent coronavirus
(COVID-19)
outbreak and the status of debt and equity markets.
 
  •  
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, executive officers, Industry Advisors, directors or their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants.
 
v
  •  
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
 
  •  
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
 
  •  
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
 
  •  
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
 
  •  
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
 
  •  
If the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for the 24 months following the closing of this the IPO, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and our ability to complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
 
  •  
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
 
  •  
Our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to continue operating, including our ability to raise additional capital and take measures to conserve liquidity and our proximity to our liquidation date expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
 
 
vi
PART I
 
Item 1.
Business
General
Plum Acquisition Corp. I (the “Company” or “Plum”) is a blank check company, newly incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Report as our initial business combination. We have not identified any potential business combination target.
Ursula Burns, Kanishka Roy and Mike Dinsdale established Plum with the mission of creating a platform, built by operators for operators, to enable great private companies to become outstanding public companies and listed stocks. We believe there is an opportunity to create replicable infrastructure to launch multiple SPACs, featuring different members of our large extended team over time. We seek to establish ourselves as the first-stop SPAC platform for high-quality companies in the US and Europe that can benefit from our
large 48-person extended
team, our decades of operational experience leading technology companies, our direct access
to Fortune-500 company
partnerships, help with internationalization, and our proprietary
 Accelerating Through the Bell
 operational playbook that helps companies list and grow in the public markets. Our platform is also aligned with the incentives and outcome of investors as we are funding all of our risk capital internally as a sign of confidence and commitment to a successful outcome.
We have founded, led, advised, and invested in companies that have invented entire sectors, scaled to become market leaders, and delivered exceptional returns for investors. Through these experiences, we have developed a deep respect for leaders of rapidly scaling technology companies. As a result, we are motivated by a passion for working to maximize the value of their exemplary private companies as they transition to the public markets.
We believe the broad and diversified experience of our founders equips us to add significant value to our partner company. Ms. Burns has extensive international experience leading large companies confronting massive technology change in their industries. Ms. Burns most recently served as Chairman and CEO of VEON Ltd. Previously, Ms. Burns was the CEO of Xerox and the first African American woman to lead an S&P 500 company, and has considerable experience partnering with small and large companies, both public
and Pre-IPO, through
her substantial board service. Mr. Roy is a technology and finance veteran with over 20 years of experience as a technology investment banker, public company executive, and growth investor. At Morgan Stanley, Mr. Roy was the Global Head of Tech M&A Origination, helping to initiate and execute industry defining mergers. Most recently, Mr. Roy was Global CFO at SmartNews, a high-growth multibillion dollar private AI company with over 20 million monthly active users. Mr. Dinsdale has defined the “modern unicorn” CFO for over 20 years, with strategic expertise in building high growth international companies in Consumer and B2B SaaS. Most recently, Mr. Dinsdale was the CFO for Gusto, a leader in SMB payroll and human resources software. Prior to that, Mr. Dinsdale was CFO of two generational, market-leading software companies in DoorDash and DocuSign.
We believe that the combined experience of our team and our differentiated long-term strategy positions us as an optimal partner for companies seeking to access the public markets. Plum is focused on investments that relate directly to the experience of its team. We seek to partner with a scaled, high-quality company that leverages platform models in the enterprise software, SMB software and infrastructure, or disruptive marketplace models in verticals where we have extensive expertise, such as business automation, health and wellbeing, fintech and insuretech.
We will seek to identify businesses with distinct Machine Learning
and AI-driven advantages
to create new markets and disrupt existing ones to drive outsized market share and investor returns. We intend to focus on investment opportunities with sustainable and predictable
top-line
growth, recurring revenue dynamics, network effects or aggregator dynamics, compelling unit economics, and brand. We expect to align investors with a visionary management team to support long-term value creation.
 
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We will seek to acquire an asset with the most promising potential for returns and enhance those returns with concerted support from our team of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) experts. We believe there is a powerful, positive correlation between DEI efforts and value creation. For example, a 2018 report by McKinsey examined trends in the impact of diversity on financial performance and found that “[t]he statistically significant correlation between a more diverse leadership team and financial outperformance…continues to hold true… The penalty for bottom-quartile for diversity persists… Not only were [these companies] not leading, they were lagging.” As such, we are committed to leveraging our team and networks to help our future partner company hire diverse candidates for their management team and board and to help further develop an inclusive and equitable workplace.
We also are undertaking a “2 and 20 pledge.” Our sponsor intend to donate interests in our sponsor equivalent to an aggregate of 105,000 founder shares to DEI related causes following the consummation of our initial business combination. We also commit to filling at least 20% of our board seats with candidates who bring gender, racial and/or ethnic diversity. We currently exceed this threshold with 60% diverse board members. We believe that our DEI strategy, along with our 2 and 20 pledge, will be highly appealing to market-leading companies across all sectors that prioritize attracting and retaining the best talent and standing out for thought leadership in the market.
All of Plum’s risk capital comes from its management team, board, and Leadership Council. This backing is intended to express the confidence of the team and align our interests with those of our investors. We also believe it will align us with the investors and management team of our eventual partner company. Beyond meaningful capital commitments from each member of our team, we believe that our incentive structure drives both alignment and productivity from our team: members of our board and Leadership Council, as well as our senior advisors, are eligible for a performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares for their contributions toward the success of Plum. Furthermore, we intend to align ourselves with our eventual partner company
through lock-up or
other provisions that incentivize long-term value creation and signal our commitment to delivering attractive returns to all stakeholders. We believe such flexibility
on lock-up to
be an important key to attracting high-quality growth companies.
Our Management Team and Our Sponsor
 
     
Management Members
   
Biography
Ursula Burns
   
•  Served as Chairperson & CEO of Xerox and CEO of VEON
 
•  Board director of Exxon Mobil, Uber, Waystar, Endeavor and IHS Holdings
 
•  Former directorships include American Express, Boston Scientific, and Nestle
 
•  Under President Barack Obama, led the White House national program on STEM and served as chair of the President’s Export Council
   
Kanishka Roy
   
•  Served as Global Head of Tech M&A Origination at Morgan Stanley
 
•  Global CFO of private AI unicorn SmartNews
 
•  Software Investment Banker at Oppenheimer & Co.
   
Mike Dinsdale
   
•  Served as CFO of Gusto, Doordash and Docusign
 
•  Venture Partner at Akkadian Ventures
 
•  Defined the “modern unicorn” CFO for over 20 years
Our management team consists of Ursula Burns, Kanishka Roy and Mike Dinsdale. We are supported by our 8-person Board of
Directors, 19-person Leadership
Council,
and 17-person Senior
Advisory Team.
Ursula Burns is our Executive Chairwoman and a director.
Ms. Burns has extensive international experience leading large companies confronting technology change in their industries. Ms. Burns most recently served as Chairman and CEO of VEON Ltd (“VEON”), a position she held from 2018 until 2020, having previously served as Chairman, beginning in 2017. Prior to VEON, Ms. Burns served as the CEO of Xerox from 2010 to 2016 and is the first, and still only, African-American woman to have led an S&P 500 company. Following the company’s split into Conduent and the new Xerox, she was named the Chairwoman of the new Xerox company. In addition to her work experience, Ms. Burns, who regularly appears on Fortune’s and Forbes’s list of the world’s most powerful women, is a board director of Exxon Mobil, and Uber. Ms. Burns was appointed by President Barack Obama to help lead the White House national program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) from 2009
 
2
to 2016, and she served as chair of the President’s Export Council from 2015 to 2016 after having served as vice chair from 2010 to 2015. Ms. Burns holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Kanishka Roy is our President,
Co-Chief
Executive Officer and a director.
Mr. Roy is a technology and finance veteran, with over 20 years of experience as a technology investment banker, public company executive, and growth investor. From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Roy helped leading Software and Internet companies with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets transactions. Mr. Roy also served as the Global Head of Tech M&A Origination for Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for initiating large, industry-transforming mergers, helping clients take a long-term view of the competitive landscape and implementing winning M&A playbooks to maximize shareholder value. Over his career, Mr. Roy has participated in over $100 billion of M&A transactions. Most recently, from 2019 to 2020, he was Global CFO at SmartNews, a multi-billion-dollar private AI company with over 20 million monthly average users, and led the strategic finance and growth of a rapidly growing company across multiple geographies. Mr. Roy started his career as a software engineer at two software startups, both of which were acquired by larger public companies, and also worked in executive strategy roles at IBM. Mr. Roy holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Mike Dinsdale is our
Co-Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a director.
Mr. Dinsdale has embodied the “modern unicorn” CFO for over 20 years, with strategic expertise in building high-growth international companies that consistently exceed growth targets. Mr. Dinsdale has successfully secured over $1 billion in financing and been part of great teams generating more than $100 billion in value. Most recently, Mr. Dinsdale was the CFO for Gusto from 2017 to 2020 and prior to that was CFO at two generational, market leading software companies: DoorDash, from 2016 to 2017, and DocuSign, where he also served as Chief Growth Officer, from 2010 to 2016. In addition to his role at Plum, Mr. Dinsdale serves as a Venture Partner at Akkadian Ventures, a late-stage venture fund, and as a board member for private software companies. Mr. Dinsdale earned a BS in engineering from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from McMaster University. Mr. Dinsdale holds the CFA designation and competed with the Canadian National Sailing Team in the 1996 Olympic trials. He also serves on the Board of Directors for WildAid.
Our Independent Directors
 
     
Directors
   
Biography
   
Mr. Lane Bess   
•  Served as COO of Zscaler and President & CEO of Palo Alto Networks
 
•  Serves on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University
   
Ms. Kelly Breslin Wright   
•  Served as Executive Vice President of Sales at Tableau Software
 
•  Grew Tableau revenue from $0 to more than $800mm
 
•  Board Director of Fastly, Lucid, and Even
   
Ms. Jennifer Ceran   
•  Served as CFO of Smartsheet and VP Finance at Box
 
•  Former CFO at Quotient (fka Coupons.com)
 
•  Board director of True Platform, Klaviyo, Riskified, NerdWallet, and Wyze Labs
   
Mr. Alok Sama   
•  Served as President & CFO of SoftBank Group International
 
•  Board member of Arm Holdings, Fortress Investments Group, SoFi, Brightstar Corp, SoftBank Energy, SoftBank Group Capital, and Airtel Africa
   
Mr. Kevin Turner   
•  Served as COO of Microsoft
 
•  President & CEO of Core Scientific
 
•  Former CEO of Sam’s Club, CIO of Walmart
Our independent directors all have significant skin in the game, sponsoring approximately 25% of
the at-risk capital,
and are further incentivized to generate exceptional returns through a performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares.
Our 8-person Board
of Directors includes all three members of the management team.
 
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Lane Bess is a director.
Mr. Bess has more than 35 years of experience and a proven track record as an executive for rapidly growing, publicly traded, and privately held companies serving the enterprise and consumer markets. Mr. Bess helped build three companies valued over $1bn in the internet security industry. Mr. Bess helped attain early funding and acted as CEO of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) from 2008–2011, where he led the late fundraising and scaled the company from its
early go-to-market to
a revenue run rate exceeding $200 million on the path to its IPO. He also was instrumental in building Zscaler (ZS) as COO from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Bess was EVP of Worldwide Sales and General Manager of publicly traded Trend Micro Inc. (Nikkei), growing worldwide revenues to over $1 billion annually, from 2002 to 2007. Mr. Bess currently operates his own $100 million venture investment firm, Bess Ventures, which he started in 2015, where he leverages funds generated from his operational success to help other firms create their path to positive outcomes. Some of the firm’s notable investments include Arista Networks, Nutanix Inc., ThoughtSpot, Rubrik, and Zscaler. Mr. Bess has a BS in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University and holds a Masters Degree from the University of Dayton. Lane also serves as a Trustee on the Board of Carnegie Mellon University.
Kelly Breslin Wright is a director.
Ms. Wright has over 30 years of experience in leadership, sales, operations, and strategy. Ms. Wright is currently a Board Director at Fastly (NYSE:FSLY), Lucid, and Even. She has advised multiple tech companies, including Asana and Dropbox. She
teaches Go-To-Market Strategy
as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Prior to her current work as a board director and advisor, Ms. Wright spent 12 years at Tableau Software, where she led worldwide sales and field operations as Executive Vice President of Sales. She joined Tableau as the company’s first salesperson and tenth employee in 2005, and she helped grow Tableau into a multi-billion dollar public company as a key member of the executive team. Ms. Wright grew Tableau’s revenue and field operations from zero to more than $800 million in revenues and managed over half of Tableau’s global team as the company expanded to 3,400 employees. Before Tableau, Ms. Wright spent time at Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, Bank of America, Dale Carnegie Training, and AtHoc. She earned her BA from Stanford University and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Wright is active on over a
dozen women-on-board organizations
and speaks regularly on topics including
sales, go-to-market, growth,
culture, transformation, leadership, and diversity.
Jennifer Ceran is a director.
Ms. Ceran is a senior finance leader with more than 30 years of experience working at high growth, brand name private and public companies. Ms. Ceran is now CFO Emeritus at Smartsheet, a leading SaaS platform that unifies collaboration, workflows and content management into a single, flexible work environment. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Ceran also served as Vice President of Finance for Box, Inc., a leading content management company, where she was responsible for helping the founders scale the company and prepare for a successful IPO. From 2003 to 2012, Ms. Ceran held various positions at eBay Inc., a
global e-commerce and
payments company, including Vice President (VP) and Treasurer, VP Financial Planning and Analysis, and VP Investor Relations. Ms. Ceran also ran their first Finance Leadership Development Program, a program to develop top finance talent. Ms. Ceran has received numerous recognitions during her career. Ms. Ceran was recognized by Treasury and Risk Management Magazine from 2006 through 2009 as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” In 2011, she was ranked first in the
 Institutional Investor
 list of investor-relations leaders in the internet industry. In 2017, Ms. Ceran received the honorable Puget Sound Business Journal CFO of the year award. Ms. Ceran is on the boards of True Platform, Klaviyo, Riskified, NerdWallet and Wyze Labs. Ms. Ceran holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and BAs in Communications and French from Vanderbilt University.
Alok Sama is a director.
Mr. Sama is currently a Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus LLC and to The Raine Group, joining in 2020 and 2019, respectively. He was formerly President & CFO of SoftBank Group International (“SBGI”) and Chief Strategy Officer for SoftBank Group (“SBG”), departing in 2020. While at SoftBank, Mr. Sama led the $59 billion merger of Sprint
and T-Mobile, the
$34 billion acquisition of ARM Holdings Plc, the $10 billion disposition of SoftBank’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding, the $8.6 billion sale of Supercell Oy to Tencent Holdings, and the restructuring of SoftBank’s holding in Yahoo Japan. Mr. Sama was also responsible for multiple growth capital investments across technology verticals, including ride sharing, fintech, and communications. Mr. Sama represented SoftBank as a Board member at Arm Holdings, Fortress Investment Group, SoFi, Brightstar Corp, Softbank Energy, SoftBank Group Capital, and Airtel Africa. Mr. Sama was also a Senior
 
4
Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he led the firm’s communications practice in Europe and TMT practice in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Sama co-founded Baer
Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm focused on India with over $300 million in assets, in partnership with the Baer family and Dubai Holdings. He continues to be a Director of Baer Capital. He is a member of the CNBC Global CFO Council, and a former Chairman of the London Chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).
Kevin Turner is a director.
Mr. Turner is a highly unique CEO and executive who has served and excelled at two of the most admired companies in the world, Walmart and Microsoft. Since 2018, Mr. Turner has served as President and CEO of Core Scientific, the largest Blockchain hosting company in the U.S. As Microsoft’s former Chief Operating Officer from 2005 to 2016, Mr. Turner led the company’s global sales, marketing and services organization of 70,000+ employees in more than 190 countries through the transition of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella all while serving as COO. Under Mr. Turner’s leadership, the sales and marketing group delivered more than $91.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016. Mr. Turner oversaw worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and partner channels, as well as Microsoft Stores and corporate support functions, including Information Technology, Worldwide Licensing & Pricing, and Operations. Mr. Turner spent nearly 20 years
at Wal-Mart Stores,
where he rose through the ranks and was named the youngest corporate officer ever
at Wal-Mart at
age 29. Mr. Turner held various leadership positions
at Wal-Mart,
including becoming the Chief Information Officer
for Wal-Mart Stores,
and as his last assignment he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of SAM’S CLUB, a $37 billion division
of Wal-Mart Stores.
He was appointed Chairman of Zayo Group in 2020 and Vice Chairman of the Board for Albertsons Companies, receiving his first appointment with the company in 2017. He served as a Board Director for Nordstrom from 2010 to 2020, and Vice Chairman of Citadel and CEO of Citadel Securities from 2016 to 2017.
Leadership Council and Senior Advisory Team
Our Leadership Council includes individuals with a track record of success that positions them to add value to potential partner companies, advise our management team and board, and bring unique insights and connectivity around deal sourcing and diligence. This team, with approximately 17% sponsorship of the
at-risk
capital, is comprised of a diverse set of leaders, including the former CEO of Ericsson, a former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, a former CEO of Young & Rubicam, prominent Venture Capitalists, current public company CEOs,
and C-level executives
at blue chip public companies.
Our Senior Advisory Team is comprised of individuals with an array of diverse and relevant experience, including unicorn founders, public company CEOs, and industry leaders in technology. These individuals are not investors in our SPAC, but they are eligible for our performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares. These individuals serve
in ad-hoc roles
and add value to Plum through the strength of their connectivity with relevant company executives and boards.
Overall, members of our extended team are current CEOs, Board Members, Advisors, or Investors at companies such as Gusto, Grammarly, ThoughtSpot, Teneo, Databricks, Fastly, Rubrik, Even, Waystar, Builder.ai, Wyze, MapBox, Side, GitLab, Hashicorp, Folloze, ShotSpotter, ThredUp, Core Scientific, Lucid, Pendo, Outreach, Digital Ocean, Illumio, Notion, Punchh, LiveRamp, SmartNews, True, DeepInstinct, Crunchbase, Nutanix, SQream, Klaviyo, Riskified, Calm, Zayo, SmartSheet, Cybereason, NerdWallet, Uber, Softcat, ZeroFox, HIS, Advanced Computer Software, etc.
Our team members are also current Partners, Advisors, or LPs at firms such as Bessemer, Durable, IVP, DST, Wing Ventures, TPG, Akkadian, Warburg Pincus, Trinity Ventures, Cross Creek, Cadian, HWVP, Twenty Acer, Gagarin, Raine, Hutt Capital, Rothschild, Elderstreet, NEA, Highland, Generation, Soma Capital, Hg Capital, General Catalyst, EQT, Menlo Ventures, Accel, Dockyard, Lightspeed, etc.
 
5
Select Leadership Council Member Nominees
 
     
Select Nominees
   
Biography
   
Mr. Alan Black   
•  Former CFO of ZenDesk
 
•  Former CEO of Intelliden; Board Member at Looker
   
Mr. Brian Gentile   
•  Managing Director & Executive Coach at 10xCEO
 
•  Former Chairman & CEO at Jaspersoft, Advisor Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts
   
Ms. Danielle Brown   
•  Chief People Officer at Gusto; former Chief Diversity Officer at Intel and Google
   
Mr. David Sable   
•  Former CEO of Young & Rubicam; Senior Advisor at WPP
 
•  Former Chairman at WMLY&R, Vice Chairman & COO at Wunderman
   
Ms. Glenda McNeal   
•  President, Enterprise Strategic Partnerships at American Express
 
•  Public Company Board Member at Nordstrom
   
Mr. Jan Frykhammar   
•  Former CEO and CFO of Ericsson
 
•  Public and private board member, advisor at multiple technology companies
   
Ms. Patricia Nakache   
•  General Partner at Trinity Ventures
 
•  Board Member at ThredUp; former Board Member at Care.com
   
Ms. Patti Hart   
•  CEO of IGT; Chairman & CEO at Pinnacle, Excite@Home
 
•  Former Board Member at Yahoo! And Plantronics
   
Mr. Ralph Clark   
•  President & CEO of ShotSpotter (NYSE: SSTI) and GuardianEdge
 
•  Founder & CEO of Blue Makoi
   
Mr. Sean O’Malley   
•  Head of Strategy at Cadian Capital; former Managing Director at Blackstone
   
Ms. Valerie Jarrett   
•  Sr. Advisor to Pres. Obama in Intergovernmental Affairs
 
•  Board Member at Lyft, 2U, Ralph Lauren; Chairwoman of the Chicago Stock Exch.
   
Mr. Van Jones   
•  Host of the Van Jones Show on CNN
 
•  CEO of REFORM Alliance; President of The Dream Corps
   
Ms. Vivian Chow   
•  Chief Accounting Officer at DocuSign
 
•  Board Member at LiveRamp
 
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Our Business Strategy
The number of high-quality private technology companies is increasing overall, as is the number of those who are choosing to stay private longer. Many of these companies avoid IPOs due to the inherent uncertainty around valuation at IPO, as well as the perception that many IPOs are mispriced, especially for the high growth technology companies we will target. In addition, the time-consuming IPO process represents a meaningful distraction from management’s core operational responsibilities. Direct listings to date have been executed only by well-known companies, and there is limited opportunity to raise primary capital in tandem. This means that direct listings are not a viable option for the vast majority of technology companies. And most other SPACs in the market today are transactional in nature, without a long-term platform, or the infrastructure and team to help companies after the public listing.
This status quo poses serious problems for quality high-growth companies that would attract significant investor interest if there were a more optimized path to public markets with a trusted and experienced partner to guide them. We believe that Plum fills this role. We are a purpose-built platform to help companies list publicly and build the capacity and infrastructure needed to continue scaling in the public markets.
Plum’s operational expertise is key to helping high-quality potential partner companies maximize their value. According to McKinsey: “SPACs that are led
or co-led by
operators rather than solely by investors tend to outperform throughout the deal cycle. One year after taking a target
public, operator-led SPACs
traded about 10 percent higher than their sector index and much better than other SPACs (a premium of about 40 percent).”
We have architected Plum to fully capitalize on the benefits of operator-driven SPACs, with a large and proven team of 8 directors, 19 Leadership Council members, and
a 17-person Senior
Advisory Team. This extended team gives us a large surface area of personal, professional, and subject matter driven relationships to identify and partner with the most promising private companies. Each team member was selected for their proprietary network and access to special situations in the U.S. and abroad, including large sourcing networks on the ground in Europe, creating a path for transition of these exciting companies to a U.S. listing.
Each of the individuals on the Plum team understands, through hard-earned experience, the importance of helping companies accelerate their vision and build massive scale without sacrificing the culture that made them successful in the first place. From our own experience, we believe both our operational approach and our company-centric worldview will be advantageous in helping us to attract a very strong eventual partner company.
We have developed a
clear value-add playbook
for public company growth and have staffed ourselves appropriately to execute on a variety of formalized initiatives in service of our eventual partner company. Most of our team of operators have chosen to work with Plum over other SPACs, and to invest in our risk capital, because we offer them the chance to leverage their skills and expertise for the benefit of our eventual partner company. We have formalized
this value-add process
through our playbook,
 Accelerating Through the Bell
. This playbook consists of plays from tested, successful operators to help our partner
company de-risk its
listing and enhance its growth post-listing.
 
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We believe our approach stands in stark contrast to many SPACs that rely on the stature, experience, and network of a few individuals. It is our view that these SPACs lack sufficient depth of team members and skillsets to have a credible claim to helping
companies de-risk their
listing and maintain, or even accelerate, their growth after listing.
We believe that the value of our operator driven approach to success is highly differentiated by virtue of the size, playbook, financial alignment, credibility in DEI, and the diverse skillsets and backgrounds of our team. We further believe that our model is one that will be very positively received by high-performing companies for many reasons:
 
  •  
Conviction and Aligned Incentives for Investors: We are funding all of our risk capital internally. We believe this indicates a high level of confidence and commitment on the part of our team. This investment also creates alignment between our team, IPO investors, and future PIPE investors because we are all focused on maximizing the long-term value of our business combination.
 
  •  
Focus on Long-Term Value Creation for the Partner Company: Self-funding the entirety of our risk capital also closely aligns us with our eventual partner company’s outcome. Our willingness to tie our promote
lock-up
to company stock-price performance should also be attractive to companies. We plan to carefully curate our IPO and PIPE investors, focusing on long-term investors with a track record of supporting high-quality growth companies. In addition, we believe that our performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares provides meaningful motivation to our Board of Directors, Leadership Council, and Senior Advisory Team to help us deliver the best possible returns to our shareholders.
 
  •  
Decentralized and Proprietary Deal Sourcing: Each member of our
48-person
extended team has been selected for their personal networks and access to Tech companies and boards in the U.S. and Europe. The breadth and connectivity of this extended team, combined with our incentive structure, increases our ability to source proprietary opportunities without relying on bankers for deal flow, and reduces the likelihood that we will have to participate in competitive bid processes or “SPAC-offs”.
 
  •  
Incremental Value through DEI Focus and Execution: Core to our thesis is evidence that there is tremendous value to be unlocked when both management teams and investors prioritize DEI. We will draw upon a diverse, world-class team for public board construction and to assist our future partner company on its own DEI journey, along with specific DEI strategies and initiatives that have worked at world-class companies such as Intel and Google.
 
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  •  
Proprietary Accelerating Through the Bell Operational Playbook: We believe our public growth playbook, with a focus on short-term tactical plays, medium-term growth plays, and longer-term culture-defining plays, will provide our eventual partner company with a strong competitive edge and make our SPAC an attractive partner. Each play is owned by a highly regarded executive with a proven track record of success in that specific area. For example, one of the individuals running our public investor relations strategy was instrumental in executing the Shopify and Zendesk IPOs, among others; the individual in charge of
go-to-market
acceleration play served as the sales leader during Tableau’s ramp from $800 million in revenue; one of the individuals in charge of the international growth play led his company’s entry into more than 18 countries.
Our Acquisition Criteria
We do not think that there is
a one-size fits-all list
of criteria that we can use to evaluate companies. However, wise and flexible employment of our investment principles is the north star of our investment decision process:
 
  •
Large Addressable Market: We will seek to invest in companies that offer room for compelling, long-term growth in their key markets. Large addressable markets have been a hallmark of our previous successful investments. We believe green field or rapidly growing markets often create the largest absolute returns.
 
  •
Experienced and Visionary Management Team: Seasoned and visionary management teams are necessary for success in our model. We intend to acquire a company with forward-thinking leaders with a demonstrated history of success, and whose interests and vision are aligned with those of our team and shareholders.
 
  •
Robust Growth: While many things must fall in place for an investment to succeed, we believe that growth is the primary driver of returns. We believe that revenue growth, not cost cutting, leverage, or other strategies, is the most important driver of long-term value.
 
  •
Strong Business Model: We believe business models that enable reinvestment win in the long-haul. As such, the most investable companies must show, through compelling unit economics and business model, both the ability to deliver impressive cash flows and productively reinvest over the long term.
 
  •
Competitive Moat: Real, sustainable accumulating advantages enable companies to compound value. We favor businesses with strong structural advantages, including various forms of network effects, aggregator dynamics, and brand.
 
  •
Visible Market Opportunity: We seek to invest in businesses with recurring or
re-occurring
business models that provide good revenue visibility and ample data, allowing us to clearly understand growth drivers. We intend to invest in those businesses where future revenue cannot be confounded by significant market, technology, or regulatory risks.
Potential Conflicts of Interest
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review which will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and key employees, document reviews and inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us. We will also utilize our management team’s operational and capital planning experience.
 
9
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or council member. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our sponsor, officers, directors or council members, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
Members of our management team, board of directors or Leadership Council may directly or indirectly own our founder shares, ordinary shares and/or private placement warrants following the initial public offering, and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors were to be included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Each of our officers, directors and council members presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer, director or Advisor is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers, directors or council members becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such other entity, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
In addition, our sponsor and our officers, directors and council member may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
So long as our securities are then listed on Nasdaq, our initial business combination must occur with one or more target businesses that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or an independent valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board will not be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of a target business or businesses, it may be unable to do so if the board is less familiar or experienced with the target company’s business, there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the company’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. Since any opinion, if obtained, would merely state that the fair market value of the target business meets the 80% of net assets threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of a target business or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our shareholders. However, if required under applicable law, any proxy statement that we deliver to shareholders and file with the SEC in connection with a proposed transaction will include such opinion.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-business combination company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-business combination company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-business combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it
 
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not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-business combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-business combination company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor. If our securities are not then listed on Nasdaq for whatever reason, we would no longer be required to meet the foregoing 80% of net asset test.
To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure will make us an attractive business combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we offer a target business an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger or other business combination with us. In a business combination transaction with us, the owners of the target business may, for example, exchange their shares of stock in the target business for our Class A ordinary shares (or shares of a new holding company) or for a combination of our Class A ordinary shares and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. We believe target businesses will find this method a more expeditious and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. The typical initial public offering process takes a significantly longer period of time than the typical business combination transaction process, and there are significant expenses in the initial public offering process, including underwriting discounts and commissions, that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a business combination with us.
 
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Furthermore, once a proposed business combination is completed, the target business will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriters’ ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring or have negative valuation consequences. Once public, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital, an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with shareholders’ interests and the ability to use its shares as currency for acquisitions. Being a public company can offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
While we believe that our structure and our management team’s backgrounds will make us an attractive business partner, some potential target businesses may view our status as a blank check company, such as our lack of an operating history and our ability to seek shareholder approval of any proposed initial business combination, negatively.
Financial Position
With funds available for a business combination of approximately $319 million held in the Trust Account, we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our initial business combination using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the target business to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third-party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available to us.
Effecting Our Initial Business Combination
General
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following the initial public offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of the initial public offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of the initial public offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing or other sources. We may seek to complete our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.
If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or used for redemptions of our Class A ordinary shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-business combination company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We have not selected any business combination target. Additionally, we have not engaged or retained any agent or other representative to identify or locate any suitable acquisition candidate, to conduct any research or take any measures, directly or indirectly, to locate or contact a target business, other than our officers and directors. Accordingly, there is no current basis for investors to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the target business with which we may ultimately complete our initial business combination. Although our management will assess the risks inherent in a particular target business with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a target business may encounter.
 
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Furthermore, some of those risks may be outside of our control, meaning that we can do nothing to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely affect a target business.
We may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account, or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our initial business combination. We are not currently a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities, the incurrence of debt or otherwise.
Sources of Target Businesses
We anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various affiliated and unaffiliated sources, including, investment market participants, private equity groups, investment banking firms, consultants, accounting firms and large business enterprises. Target businesses may be brought to our attention by such unaffiliated sources as a result of being solicited by us through calls or mailings. These sources may also introduce us to target businesses in which they think we may be interested on an unsolicited basis, since some of these sources will have read this Report and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates and other affiliated sources may also bring to our attention target business candidates that they become aware of through their business contacts as a result of formal or informal inquiries or discussions they may have, as well as attending trade shows or conventions. In addition, we expect to receive a number of proprietary deal flow opportunities that would not otherwise necessarily be available to us as a result of the business relationships of our officers and directors. While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of finder’s fees is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. We have agreed to pay our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor a total of $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative support and to reimburse our sponsor for
any out-of-pocket expenses
related to identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination. In addition, pursuant to our Administrative Services Agreement we may make payments or reimbursements to our sponsor or its affiliates, for the reasonable salaries and other services provided to us prior to or in connection with our initial business combination by its employees, consultants and/or members, who may include our officers, leadership council members, senior advisors or directors, and may also pay certain fees to our sponsor or its respective affiliates. Some of our officers and directors may enter into employment or consulting agreements with the post-business combination company following our initial business combination. The presence or absence of any such fees or arrangements will not be used as a criterion in our selection process of an acquisition candidate.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or council members. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our sponsor, officers, directors or council members, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
 
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Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including and other entities that are affiliates of our sponsor, pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity.
Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. See “Management—Conflicts of Interest.”
Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct an extensive due diligence review which may encompass, as applicable and among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities and a review of financial and other information about the target and its industry. We will also utilize our management team’s operational and capital planning experience. If we determine to move forward with a particular target, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the business combination transaction.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of, and negotiation with, a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination. The company will not pay any consulting fees to members of our management team, or their respective affiliates, for services rendered to or in connection with our initial business combination. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:
 
  •
subject us to negative economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact on the particular industry in which we operate after our initial business combination; and
 
  •
cause us to depend on the marketing and sale of a single product or limited number of products or services.
Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. The determination as to whether any of the members of our management team will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
 
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We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, we will seek shareholder approval if it is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
Under Nasdaq’s listing rules, shareholder approval would typically be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
 
  •
We issue ordinary shares that will be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of our ordinary shares then-outstanding;
 
  •
Any of our directors, officers or substantial shareholders (as defined by Nasdaq rules) has a 5% or greater interest (or such persons collectively have a 10% or greater interest), directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired or otherwise and the present or potential issuance of common stock could result in an increase in outstanding common shares or voting power of 5% or more; or
 
  •
The issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares will result in our undergoing a change of control.
The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination in those instances in which shareholder approval is not required by law will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on business and reasons, which include a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
 
  •
the timing of the transaction, including in the event we determine shareholder approval would require additional time and there is either not enough time to seek shareholder approval or doing so would place the company at a disadvantage in the transaction or result in other additional burdens on the company;
 
  •
the expected cost of holding a shareholder vote;
 
  •
the risk that the shareholders would fail to approve the proposed business combination;
 
  •
other time and budget constraints of the company; and
 
  •
additional legal complexities of a proposed business combination that would be time-consuming and burdensome to present to shareholders.
Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, council members or their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, executive officers, council members or their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to
 
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acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any
material non-public information
not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, council members or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights or submitted a proxy to vote against our initial business combination, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares and any proxy to vote against our initial business combination. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will be required to comply with such rules.
The purpose of any such transaction could be to (i) vote in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (ii) reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination or (iii) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Our sponsor, officers, directors, council members and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the shareholders with whom our sponsor, officers, directors, council members or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated transactions by either the shareholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by shareholders (in the case of Class A ordinary shares) following our mailing of tender offer or proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsor, officers, directors, council members or their affiliates enter into a private transaction, they would identify and contact only potential selling or redeeming shareholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our initial business combination, whether or not such shareholder has already submitted a proxy with respect to our initial business combination but only if such shares have not already been voted at the shareholder meeting related to our initial business combination. Our sponsor, executive officers, directors, council members or their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase shares from based on the negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will be restricted from purchasing shares if such purchases do not comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws.
Our sponsor, officers, directors, council members and/or their affiliates will be restricted from making purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or
Rule 10b-5 of
the Exchange Act. We expect any such purchases would be reported by such person pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any, divided by the number of then-outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share.
The per-share amount
we will distribute to
 
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investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Further, we will not proceed with redeeming our public shares, even if a public shareholder has properly elected to redeem its shares, if a business combination does not close. Our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with (i) the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares.
Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). However, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceeds the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or whether we were deemed to be a foreign private issuer (which would require a tender offer rather than seeking shareholder approval under SEC rules). Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would typically require shareholder approval. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote unless shareholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other reasons. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on Nasdaq, we will be required to comply with the Nasdaq rules.
If we held a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
 
  •
conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules; and
 
  •
file proxy materials with the SEC.
 
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In the event that we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public shareholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon, voted at a shareholder meeting are voted in favor of the business combination. In such case, our sponsor and each member of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares and public shares in favor of our initial business combination. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or vote at all. In addition, our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with (i) the completion of a business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
 
  •
conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule
13e-4
and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers; and
 
  •
file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we and our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with
Rule 10b5-1 to
purchase Class A ordinary shares in the open market, in order to comply with
Rule 14e-5 under
the Exchange Act.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with
Rule 14e-1(a) under
the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public shareholders not tendering more than the number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public shareholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete such initial business combination.
Limitation on Redemption upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Shareholder Approval
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the initial public offering, which we refer to as “Excess Shares,” without our prior
 
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consent. We believe this restriction will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then- current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the initial public offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our shareholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in the initial public offering without our prior consent, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights
Public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” will be required to either tender their certificates (if any) to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, mailed to such holders, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/ Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option, in each case up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote to approve the business combination. The proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate the applicable delivery requirements, which will include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Accordingly, a public shareholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Given the relatively short period in which to exercise redemption rights, it is advisable for shareholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.
There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker a fee of approximately $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.
The foregoing is different from the procedures used by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the shareholders’ vote on an initial business combination, and a holder could simply vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights. After the business combination was approved, the company would contact such shareholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the shareholder then had an “option window” after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the company’s shares in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her shares to the company for cancellation. As a result, the redemption rights, to which shareholders were aware they needed to commit before the shareholder meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completion of the business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming shareholder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.
 
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Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to two business days prior to the initially scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the business combination, unless otherwise agreed to by us. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.
If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public shareholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.
If our initial proposed business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a business combination with a different target until 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that we will have only 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering to consummate an initial business combination. If we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii) to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
Our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares they hold if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame).
Our sponsor, executive officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any, divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time. This redemption right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsor, any executive officer, director, or any other person.
 
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We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the $1,800,000 held outside the trust account plus up to $100,000 of funds from the trust account available to us to pay dissolution expenses, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account,
the per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders upon our dissolution would be $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public shareholders. We cannot assure you that the
actual per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders will not be less than $10.00. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (except our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including, but not limited, to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third-party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third-party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third-party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third-party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. The representative of the underwriters will not execute an agreement with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third-party for services rendered or products sold to us (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third-party or prospective target business that executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the representative of the underwriters of the initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third-party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to
 
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satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of
the per-share redemption
price will not be less than $10.00 per public share.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (except our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to $1,800,000 following the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, shareholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors, however such liability will not be greater than the amount of funds from our trust account received by any such shareholder. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,200,000, we may fund such excess with funds from the funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $1,200,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
If we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per public share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.”
As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares, or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. Public shareholders who redeem their Class A ordinary shares in connection with a shareholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, with respect to such Class A ordinary shares so redeemed. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a shareholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote.
 
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Comparison of Redemption or Purchase Prices in Connection with Our Initial Business Combination and If We Fail to Complete Our Initial Business Combination.
The following table compares the redemptions and other permitted purchases of public shares that may take place in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering:
 
    
Redemptions in Connection
with Our Initial Business
Combination
   
Other Permitted Purchases
of Public Shares by Our
Affiliates
   
Redemptions if We Fail to
Complete an Initial
Business Combination
Calculation of redemption price   
Redemptions at the time of our initial business combination may be made pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a shareholder vote. The redemption price will be the same whether we conduct redemptions pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a shareholder vote. In either case, our public shareholders may redeem their public shares for cash equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination (which is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share), including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any, divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares, subject to the limitation that no redemptions will take place if all of the redemptions would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 and any limitations (including, but not limited, to cash requirements) agreed to in connection with the negotiation of terms of a proposed business combination.
   
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, council members or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit to the prices that our sponsor, directors, officers, council members or their affiliates may pay in these transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going- private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will be required to comply with such rules.
   
If we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, we will redeem all public shares at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount, then on deposit in the trust account (which is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share), including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares.
 
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Redemptions in Connection
with Our Initial Business
Combination
   
Other Permitted Purchases
of Public Shares by Our
Affiliates
   
Redemptions if We Fail to
Complete an Initial
Business Combination
Impact to remaining shareholders   
The redemptions in connection with our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for our remaining shareholders, who will bear the burden of the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable.
   
If the permitted purchases described above are made, there would be no impact to our remaining shareholders because the purchase price would not be paid by us.
   
The redemption of our public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for the shares held by our sponsor, who will be our only remaining shareholder after such redemptions.
 
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Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies, operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public shareholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination and our outstanding warrants, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.
Facilities
We currently maintain our executive offices at 2021 Fillmore St. #2089, San Francisco, California 94115. The cost for our use of this space is included in the $10,000 per month fee we will pay to our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, unless waived by our sponsor.,administrative and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have three executive officers. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the business combination process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
 
Item 1A.
Risk Factors
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Report, before making a decision to invest in our units. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Relating to our Search for, and Consummation of or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination
We are a recently incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a recently incorporated exempted company, incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination with one or more target businesses. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
 
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Past performance by our management team or our council members or their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience or performance of our management team or council members and their respective affiliates is not a guarantee of either (i) our ability to successfully identify and execute a transaction or (ii) success with respect to any business combination that we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team and council members or their respective affiliates as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. Our management has no experience in operating special purpose acquisition companies.
Our shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote before we complete our initial business combination if the business combination would not require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. For instance, if we were seeking to acquire a target business where the consideration we were paying in the transaction was all cash, we would typically not be required to seek shareholder approval to complete such a transaction. Except for as required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares do not approve of the business combination we complete.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of any target businesses. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder approval. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor and members of our management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our sponsor owned, on
an as-converted basis,
20% of our outstanding ordinary shares immediately following the completion of the initial public offering. Our sponsor and members of our management team also may from time to time purchase Class A ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, if we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon, voted at a shareholder meeting are voted in favor of the business combination. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our sponsor and each member of our management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholder approval for such initial business combination.
 
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You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. Public shareholders who redeem their Class A ordinary shares in connection with a shareholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, with respect to such Class A ordinary shares so redeemed. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If a large number of shares are submitted for redemption, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for additional third-party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination.
The per-share amount
we will distribute to shareholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions.
 
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The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the initial public offering may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the time frame described above. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the recent
coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
and the status of debt and equity markets.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, which has and is continuing to spread throughout China and other parts of the world, including the United States. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) a
“Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” On January 31, 2020, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for the United States to aid the U.S. healthcare community in responding
to COVID-19, and
on March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak as a “pandemic.”
The COVID-19 outbreak
has and a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases could result in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected.
Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating
to COVID-19 continues
to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to
which COVID-19 impacts
our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity
of COVID-19 and
the actions to
contain COVID-19 or
treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed
by COVID-19 or
other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted
by COVID-19 and
other events, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity in third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all.
 
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We may not be able to consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the initial public offering, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and consummate an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the initial public offering. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. For example, the outbreak
of COVID-19 continues
to grow both in the U.S. and globally and, while the extent of the impact of the outbreak on us will depend on future developments, it could limit our ability to complete our initial business combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the outbreak
of COVID-19 may
negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire. If we have not consummated an initial business combination within such applicable time period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law. In either such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per public share, or less than $10.00 per public share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and
the per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, management team, council members, directors and their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, executive officers, council members, directors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares or warrants in such transactions.
In the event that our sponsor, executive officers, council members, directors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares.
The purpose of any such transaction could be to (1) vote in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (2) reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination or (3) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A ordinary shares or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements. See “Business—Effecting Our Initial Business Combination—Permitted Purchases and Other Transactions with Respect to Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, executive officers, council members, directors or their affiliates will select which shareholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.
 
 
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If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly redeem or tender public shares. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. See “Business—Effecting Our Initial Business Combination—Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights.”
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to find a target or to consummate an initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, more effort and more resources to identify a suitable target and to consummate an initial business combination. In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the
 
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time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and
the per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
If the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for the 24 months following the closing of the initial public offering, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and our ability to complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, only approximately $1,800,000 was available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, together with funds available from loans from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the initial public offering; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate, and our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team are under no obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Of the funds available to us, we expect to use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund
a “no-shop” provision
(a provision in letters of intent designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business.
In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,200,000, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, unless funded by the proceeds of loans available from our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $1,200,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such increase or decrease. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, its affiliates, members of our management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor their affiliates is under any obligation to us in such circumstances. Any such advances may be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor, its affiliates or members of our management team as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.00 per public share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and
the per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share” and other risk factors herein.
 
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We may seek business combination opportunities with a high degree of complexity that require significant operational improvements, which could delay or prevent us from achieving our desired results.
We may seek business combination opportunities with large, highly complex companies that we believe would benefit from operational improvements. While we intend to implement such improvements, to the extent that our efforts are delayed or we are unable to achieve the desired improvements, the business combination may not be as successful as we anticipate.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination. If we are not able to achieve our desired operational improvements, or the improvements take longer to implement than anticipated, we may not achieve the gains that we anticipate. Furthermore, some of these risks and complexities may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks and complexities will adversely impact a target business. Such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offence and may be liable for a fine of $18,292.68 and imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual meeting of shareholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or shareholder meetings to elect directors. Until we hold an annual meeting of shareholders, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to elect directors and to discuss company affairs with management. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of shareholders) serving a three-year term.
We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors which may or may not be outside of our management’s area of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside of our management’s area of expertise if a business combination target is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination target, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors in the initial public offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination target. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the
 
32
information contained in this Report regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Unlike some other similarly structured blank check companies, our sponsor will receive additional Class A ordinary shares if we issue shares to consummate an initial business combination.
The founder shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares (which such Class A ordinary shares delivered upon conversion will not have any redemption rights or be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account if we fail to consummate an initial business combination) at the time of our initial business combination or earlier at the option of the holders thereof at a ratio such that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on
an as-converted basis,
20% of the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares issued and outstanding upon completion of the initial public offering, plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the Company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, deemed issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor, any of its affiliates or any members of our management team upon conversion of working capital loans. In no event will the Class B ordinary shares convert into Class A ordinary shares at a rate of less
than one-to-one. This
is different than some other similarly structured blank check companies in which the initial shareholders will only be issued an aggregate of 20% of the total number of shares to be outstanding prior to the initial business combination.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, council members, directors or their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Class A ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all Class A ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination that our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds, extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law, meaning the approval of holders of at
least two-thirds of
our ordinary shares who
 
33
attend and vote at a shareholder meeting of the company, and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require us to provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any of the securities offered through our initial public offering, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities.
Our sponsor controls a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Upon closing of the initial public offering, our sponsor owns, on
an as-converted basis,
20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares (assuming it does not purchase any units in the initial public offering). Accordingly, it may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. If our sponsor purchases any additional Class A ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase its control. Neither our sponsor nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Report. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were elected by our sponsor, is and will be divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being elected in each year. We may not hold an annual meeting of shareholders to elect new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for election and our sponsor, because of its ownership position, will control the outcome, as only holders of our Class B ordinary shares will have the right to vote on the election of directors and to remove directors prior to our initial business combination. Accordingly, our sponsor will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our sponsor.
After our initial business combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all of our assets will be located outside the United States; therefore investors may not be able to enforce federal securities laws or their other legal rights.
It is possible that after our initial business combination, a majority of our directors and officers will reside outside of the United States and all of our assets will be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights, to effect service of process upon all of our directors or officers or to enforce judgments of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors and officers under United States laws.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 following the completion of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and filed a Current Report on
Form 8-K, including
an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check
 
34
companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if the initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write- down
or write-off assets,
restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may
be non-cash items
and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of
assuming pre-existing debt
held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and
the per-share redemption
amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per public share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (except our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements, they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third-party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third-party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third-party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third-party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the ten years following redemption. Accordingly,
the per-share redemption
amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to our initial public offering registration statement, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third-party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for
 
35
services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third-party or prospective target business that executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third-party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims.
However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per public share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
 
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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and
the per-share amount
that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
or an involuntary bankruptcy
or winding-up petition
is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account,
the per-share amount
that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
We may pursue business combination opportunities in any sector, except that we are not, under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the price we are paying is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our shareholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
 
37
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the initial public offering, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. Our underwriters are entitled to receive deferred commissions that will released from the trust only on a completion of an initial business combination. These financial incentives may cause them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after the initial public offering, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the initial public offering, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing financial advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing. We may pay such underwriter or its affiliate fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation; provided that no agreement will be entered into with any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates and no fees or other compensation for such services will be paid to any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates prior to the date that is 60 days from the date of this Report, unless FINRA determines that such payment would not be deemed underwriters’ compensation in connection with the initial public offering. The underwriters are also entitled to receive deferred commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial business combination. The fact that the underwriters’ or their respective affiliates’ financial interests tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such additional services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate a business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for
the year ending December 31, 2022. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
 
38
The provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of a special resolution which requires the approval of the holders of at
least two-thirds of
our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a shareholder meeting of the company, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to the rights of a company’s shareholders, without approval by a certain percentage of the company’s shareholders. In those companies, amendment of these provisions typically requires approval by between 90% and 100% of the company’s shareholders. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that any of its provisions related to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of the initial public offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public shareholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by special resolution, meaning holders of at
least two-thirds of
our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a shareholder meeting of the company, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of at least 65% of our ordinary shares; provided that the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association governing the appointment or removal of directors prior to our initial business combination may only be amended by a special resolution passed by not less
than two-thirds of
our ordinary shares who attend and vote at our shareholder meeting which shall include the affirmative vote of a simple majority of our Class B ordinary shares. Our sponsor and its permitted transferees, if any, who collectively beneficially own, on
an as-converted basis,
20% of our Class A ordinary shares upon the closing of the initial public offering, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern
our pre-business combination
behavior more easily than some other blank check companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
Our sponsor, executive officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at
a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any, divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares. Our shareholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, this agreement and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, executive officers or directors for any breach of this agreement. As a result, in the event of a breach, our shareholders would need to pursue a shareholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors may be amended without shareholder approval.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors contains provisions relating to transfer restrictions of our founder shares and private placement warrants, indemnification of the trust account, waiver of redemption rights and participation in liquidating distributions from the trust account. The letter agreement may be amended without shareholder approval (although releasing the parties from the restriction not to transfer the founder
 
39
shares for 180 days following the date of our final prospectus will require the prior written consent of the representative). While we do not expect our board to approve any amendment to the letter agreement prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to the letter agreement. Any such amendments to the letter agreement would not require approval from our shareholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet selected any prospective target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The current economic environment may make it difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any holders who choose to retain their securities following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following the initial public offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect
the per-share amount
available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
 
40
  •
default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; 
 
  •
acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
 
  •
our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
 
  •
our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding;
 
  •
our inability to pay dividends on our Class A ordinary shares;
 
  •
using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
 
  •
limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
 
  •
increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
 
  •
limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants provided us with $319,216,340 that we may use to complete our initial business combination.
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single-target business or multiple-target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
 
  •
solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
 
  •
dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
 
41
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or GAAP, or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International
Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
If we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our trust account.
If we have not consummated an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind
 
42
up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public shareholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their Class A ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we do not complete our initial business combination and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
 
  •
restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
 
  •
restrictions on the issuance of securities,
each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
 
  •
registration as an investment company with the SEC;
 
  •
adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
 
  •
reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under
Rule 2a-7 promulgated
under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments, and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we intend to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. An investment in our securities is not
 
43
intended for persons who are seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares; or (iii) absent our completing an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public shareholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we have not consummated our initial business combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per public share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
If we are unable to raise additional capital, we may be required to take additional measures to conserve liquidity, which could include, but not necessarily be limited to, suspending the pursuit of a Business Combination. We cannot provide any assurance that new financing will be available to us on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Further, our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial business combination may not be successful. We currently have a mandatory liquidation date of March 18, 2023 to complete a Business Combination. Although we expect to complete a business combination on or prior to March 18, 2023, it is uncertain whether we will be able to do so. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern through our liquidation date. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this Report do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate a Business Combination or our inability to continue as a going concern.
Risks Relating to our Securities
The securities in which we invest the proceeds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the interest income available for payment of taxes or reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that
the per-share redemption
amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
The net proceeds of the initial public offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants are be held in an interest-bearing trust account. The proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in direct U.S. Treasury obligations having a maturity of 185 days or less, or in certain money market funds which invest only in direct U.S. Treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. Treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event of very low or negative yields, the amount of interest income (which we may withdraw to pay our taxes, if any) would be reduced. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders are entitled to receive
their pro-rata share
of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income. If the balance of the trust account is reduced below $319,216,340, as a result of negative interest rates, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the initial public offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
 
44
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum amount in shareholders’ equity (generally $50,000,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders).
Additionally, our units will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination and, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our shareholders’ equity would generally be required to be at least $5.0 million and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders (with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500). We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on
an over-the-counter market.
If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
 
  •
a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
 
  •
reduced liquidity for our securities;
 
  •
a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
 
  •
a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
 
  •
a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, and, as a result, qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of covered securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the founder shares at a ratio greater
than one-to-one at
the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
 
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Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorize the issuance of up to 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. There are 468,078,366 and 42,109,591 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares, if any. The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares (which such Class A ordinary shares delivered upon conversion will not have any redemption rights or be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account if we fail to consummate an initial business combination) at the time of our initial business combination or earlier at the option of the holders thereof as described herein and in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. As of December 31, 2021, there were no preference shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares in connection with our redeeming the warrants as described in “Description of Securities—Warrants—Public Shareholders’ Warrants” or upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater
than one-to-one at
the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth herein. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that prior to or in connection with our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination or on any other proposal presented to shareholders prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, like all provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, may be amended with a shareholder vote. The issuance of additional ordinary or preference shares:
 
  •
may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in the initial public offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than
one-to-one
basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares;
 
  •
may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A ordinary shares;
 
  •
could cause a change in control if a substantial number of Class A ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;
 
  •
may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us;
 
  •
may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants; and
 
  •
may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
Holders of Class A ordinary shares will not be entitled to vote on any election of directors we hold prior to our initial business combination.
Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the election of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the election of directors during such time. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, you may not have any say in the management of our company prior to the consummation of an initial business combination.
We are not registering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
 
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We are not registering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the issuance of such shares, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the above requirements, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case, the number of Class A ordinary shares that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum amount of shares equal to 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment). However, no warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration is available. Notwithstanding the above, if our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. Exercising the warrants on a cashless basis could have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of Class A ordinary shares upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants included as part of units sold in the initial public offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying ordinary shares. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of our Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or correct any mistake, including to conform the provisions of the warrant agreement to the description of the terms of the warrants and the warrant agreement set forth in the final prospectus related to our initial public offering, or defective provision, (ii) amending the provisions relating to cash dividends on ordinary shares as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement or (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or
 
47
desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within a
30 trading-day period
ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, we expect would be substantially less than the market value of your warrants.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within a
30 trading-day period
ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met, including that holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of Class A ordinary shares determined based on the redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us as so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We issued warrants to purchase 6,384,327 of our Class A ordinary shares as part of the units sold in our initial public offering and, simultaneously issued in a private placement an aggregate of 6,256,218 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. In addition, if the sponsor, its affiliates or a member of our management team makes any working capital loans, it may convert up to $1,500,000 of such loans into up to an additional 1,500,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.50 per warrant. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares in connection with our redemption of our warrants.
 
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To the extent we issue ordinary shares for any reason, including to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because each unit
contains one-fifth of
one redeemable warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.
Each unit
contains one-fifth of
one redeemable warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number the number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one whole warrant to purchase one whole share. We have established the components of the units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination since the warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate
for one-fifth of
the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses.
Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if a unit included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Unlike most blank check companies, if (i) we issue additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share, (ii) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the consummation of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 per share redemption trigger price will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. This may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.
In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to register the issuance of the security underlying the warrants within twenty business days of the closing of an initial business combination.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions will include a staggered board of directors, the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference shares, and the fact that prior to the completion of our initial business combination only holders of our Class B ordinary shares, which have been issued to our sponsor, are entitled to vote on the election of directors, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
 
 
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The grant of registration rights to our sponsor may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into on or prior to the closing of the public initial offering, our sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of the Class A ordinary shares into which founder shares are convertible, the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of such warrants. The registration rights will be exercisable with respect to the founder shares and the private placement warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such private placement warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our securities that is expected when the securities owned by our sponsor or its permitted transferees are registered for resale.
Risks Relating to our Sponsor and Management Team
We are dependent upon our executive officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our executive officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with,
or key-man insurance
on the life of, any of our directors or executive officers.
The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be totally dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post- combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management, director or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
 
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Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. In addition, pursuant to an agreement entered into on or prior to the closing of the initial public offering, our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for election to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our executive officers, council members and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our executive officers, council members and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers, council members and directors is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers, council members and directors are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’, council members’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination. For a complete discussion of our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs, please see “Management—Officers and Directors.”
Our officers, council members and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including another blank check company, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses or entities. Our sponsor, officers, council members and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. In addition, our sponsor, officers, council members and directors may participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company prior to completion of our initial business combination. As a result, our sponsor, officers, council members or directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other blank check company with which they may become involved. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
 
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Our sponsor, officers, council members and directors also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer , on the one hand, and us, on the other.
Our executive officers, council members, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our executive officers, council members, directors, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.
The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a business combination. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders’ rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, council members, directors which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, executive officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses or entities affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors, initial shareholders or council members. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Management—Conflicts of Interest.” Our sponsor, officers, council members and directors may sponsor, form or participate in other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers, council members and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria and guidelines for a business combination as set forth in “Business—Effecting Our Initial Business Combination—Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination” and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, council members, directors, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public shareholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
 
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Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. Upon the loss of control of a target business, new management may not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-business combination company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-business combination company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-business combination company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new Class A ordinary shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding Class A ordinary shares subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority shareholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain control of the target business.
Since our sponsor, executive officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they may acquire during or after the initial public offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On January 13, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain expenses on our behalf in consideration of 8,625,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. If we increase or decrease the size of our offering, we will effect a share capitalization or a share surrender or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B ordinary shares immediately prior to the consummation of the initial public offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on
an as-converted basis,
at 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares upon the consummation of the initial public offering. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, on April 14, 2021, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 6,256,218 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at a price of $1.50 per warrant ($9,384,327 in the aggregate), in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering. If we do not consummate an initial business within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The personal and financial interests of our executive officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as
the 24-month anniversary
of the closing of the initial public offering nears, which is the deadline for our consummation of an initial business combination.
Certain of our officers and directors have direct and indirect economic interests in us and/or our sponsor after the consummation of the initial public offering and such interests may potentially conflict with those of our public shareholders as we evaluate and decide whether to recommend a potential business combination to our public shareholders.
 
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Certain of our officers and directors may own membership interests in our sponsor and indirect interests in our Class B ordinary shares and private placement warrants which may result in interests that differ from the economic interests of the investors in the initial public offering, which includes making a determination of whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. There may be a potential conflict of interest between our officers and directors that hold membership interests in our sponsor and our public shareholders that may not be resolved in favor of our public shareholders. See “Management—Conflicts of Interest.”
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and executive officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
General Risk Factors
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
Our Warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our Warrants could have a material effect on our financial results.
On April 12, 2021, the Acting Director of the Division of Corporation Finance and Acting Chief Accountant of the SEC together issued a statement regarding the accounting and reporting considerations for warrants issued by special purpose acquisition companies entitled “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”)” (the “SEC Statement”). Specifically, the SEC Statement focused on warrants that have certain settlement terms and provisions related to
 
54
certain tender offers or warrants which do not meet the criteria to be considered indexed to an entity’s own stock, which terms are similar to those contained in the warrant agreement governing our Warrants. As a result of the SEC Statement, we reevaluated the accounting treatment of our 6,384,326 Public Warrants and 6,256,218 Private Placement Warrants, and determined that the Warrants should be reclassified as derivative liabilities measured at fair value, with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings.
As a result, included on our balance sheet as of December 31, 2021 contained elsewhere in this Annual Report are derivative liabilities related to embedded features contained within our Warrants. Accounting Standards Codification
815-40,
“Derivatives and Hedging —Contracts on an Entity’s Own Equity”, provides for the remeasurement of the fair value of such derivatives at each balance sheet date, with a resulting
non-cash
gain or loss related to the change in the fair value being recognized in earnings in the statement of operations. As a result of the recurring fair value measurement, our financial statements and results of operations may fluctuate quarterly, based on factors, which are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we expect that we will recognize
non-cash
gains or losses on our Warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
Following issuance of the SEC Staff Statement on April 12, 2021, and after consultation with our independent registered public accounting firm, our management and our audit committee concluded that, in light of the SEC Statement, it was appropriate to restate our previously issued audited balance sheet as of March 18, 2021, which we filed with the SEC on Form
8-K
on March 24, 2021, to account for the warrants as liabilities measured at fair value, rather than equity securities (the “Restatement”). See “—Our warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our warrants could have a material effect on our financial results.” As a result of these events, which led to the Restatement, we have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.
Additionally, our management
re-evaluated
our application of ASC
480-10-S99-3A
to our accounting classification of public shares. After consultation with our independent registered public accounting firm, our management and our audit committee concluded that it was appropriate to restate our previously issued Restated Balance Sheet and unaudited interim financial statements included in our current report on Form
8-K
filed with the SEC on March 24, 2021 and our Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q
for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2021 and June 30, 2021, filed with the SEC on May 28, 2021 and August 16, 2021, respectively. As part of such process, we identified an additional material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. We continue to evaluate steps to remediate the material weakness. If we identify any new material weakness in the future, any such newly identified material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and the price of our securities may decline as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to “emerging growth companies” or “smaller reporting companies,” this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
 
55
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A ordinary shares held
by non-affiliates exceeds
$700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply
to non-emerging growth
companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of
Regulation S-K. Smaller
reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held
by non-affiliates exceeds
$250 million as of the prior June 30, or (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held
by non-affiliates exceeds
$700 million as of the prior June 30. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United
 
56
States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision
may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, you may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited.
We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or executive officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs are governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. We are also subject to the federal securities laws of the United States. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders derivative action in a Federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands Court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
 
57
An investment in us may result in uncertain or adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.
An investment in us may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences. For instance, because there are no authorities that directly address instruments similar to the units we are issuing in the initial public offering, the allocation an investor makes with respect to the purchase price of a unit between the Class A ordinary shares and
the one-fifth of
a warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share included in each unit could be challenged by the IRS or courts. Furthermore, the U.S. federal income tax consequences of a cashless exercise of warrants included in the units we are issuing in the initial public offering is unclear under current law. Finally, it is unclear whether the redemption rights with respect to our ordinary shares suspend the running of a U.S. Holder’s holding period for purposes of determining whether any gain or loss realized by such holder on the sale or exchange of Class A ordinary shares is long-term capital gain or loss and for determining whether any dividend we pay would be considered “qualified dividends” for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Prospective investors are urged to consult their tax advisors with respect to these and other tax consequences when holding or disposing of our securities.
Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the election of directors, upon the listing of our shares on Nasdaq, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of Nasdaq rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
After completion of the initial public offering, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the election of directors. As a result, Nasdaq may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq corporate governance standards. Under Nasdaq corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:
 
  •
we have a board that includes a majority of “independent directors,” as defined under the rules of Nasdaq;
 
  •
we have a compensation committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and
 
  •
we have a nominating committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities.
We do not intend to utilize these exemptions and intend to comply with the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq, subject to
applicable phase-in rules.
However, if we determine in the future to utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.
We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. Holder of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current and subsequent taxable years may depend on whether we qualify for the
PFIC start-up exception
and the timing of our initial business combination. Depending on the particular circumstances the application of
the start-up exception
may be subject to uncertainty, and there cannot be any assurance that we will qualify for
the start-up exception.
Accordingly, there can be no assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for any taxable year, however, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. Holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, including a PFIC Annual Information Statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. We urge U.S. investors to consult their tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules with respect to their particular circumstances.
 
58
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders.
We may, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval under the Companies Act, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a shareholder or warrant holder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder or warrant holder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant holders to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrant holders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
 
  •
costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations;
 
  •
rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
 
  •
complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;
 
  •
laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
 
  •
exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;
 
  •
tariffs and trade barriers;
 
  •
regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
 
  •
local or regional economic policies and market conditions;
 
  •
unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
 
  •
longer payment cycles;
 
  •
tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
 
  •
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
 
  •
rates of inflation;
 
59
  •
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
 
  •
cultural and language differences;
 
  •
employment regulations;
 
  •
underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
 
  •
corruption;
 
  •
protection of intellectual property;
 
  •
social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;
 
  •
regime changes and political upheaval;
 
  •
terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars; and
 
  •
deterioration of political relations with the United States.
We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such initial business combination, or, if we complete such combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our initial business combination, our management may resign from their positions as officers or directors of the company and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination will remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue may be derived from our operations in any such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and social conditions and government policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial business combination and if we effect our initial business combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’ ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event we acquire
a non-U.S. target,
all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of
 
60
such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the Cayman Islands to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk
of non-compliance.
We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the SEC, which are charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from seeking a business combination target.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
 
61
Item 1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
 
Item 2.
Properties
We currently maintain our executive offices at 2021 Fillmore St. #2089, San Francisco, California 94115. The cost for our use of this space is included in the $10,000 per month fee we will pay to our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, administrative and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
 
Item 3.
Legal Proceedings
To the knowledge of our management, there is no litigation currently pending or contemplated against us, any of our officers or directors in their capacity as such or against any of our property.
 
Item 4.
Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
 
62
PART II
 
Item 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
(a) Market Information
Our units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq. Our units commenced public trading on March 15, 2021 under the symbol “PLMIU” Our Class A ordinary shares and warrants began separate trading on May 6, 2021, under the symbols “PLMI” and “PLMIW,” respectively.
(b) Holders
As of April 21, 2022, there was one holder of record of our units, one holder of record of our Class A ordinary shares, one holder of record of our Class B ordinary shares and two holders of record of our warrants.
(c) Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of a business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of a business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to a business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any share dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
(d) Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
(e) Performance Graph
Not applicable.
(f) Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings.
On January 13, 2021 the sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain of our offering costs in consideration of 8,625,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001.
With the underwriters’ over-allotment remaining option expired in May 2021, the initial shareholders forfeited 644,591 shares to the Company for no consideration so that the initial shareholders would collectively own 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares after the IPO. As of December 31, 2021, there were 7,980,409 shares of Class B Ordinary Shares issued and outstanding.
On March 18, 2021, we completed our initial public offering of 30,000,000 units, at a price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $300.0 million.
On April 14, 2021 the Company sold an additional 1,921,634 units for gross proceeds in connection with the underwriters’ partial exercise of their overallotment option for total gross proceeds of approximately $19.2 million.
Concurrently with the closing of the initial public offering, our sponsor purchased 6,000,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one ordinary share at $11.50 per share generating gross proceeds of $9.0 million, in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. Simultaneously with the closing of the over-allotment option, our sponsor purchased an additional 256,218 private placement warrants generating additional proceeds of $0.4 million. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants was added to the proceeds from the initial public offering held in the trust account. If the company does not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. The private placement warrants are substantially similar to the warrants underlying the units issued in the initial public offering, except that they are non-redeemable and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees. The sponsor and the company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their private placement warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial business combination. The sale of the private placement warrants was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to such sales.
Use of Proceeds
In connection with the initial public offering and the exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, we incurred offering costs of approximately $18.3 million (including underwriting commissions of approximately $6.3 million and deferred underwriting commissions of approximately $11.2 million). Other incurred offering costs consisted principally preparation fees related to the initial public offering. After deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions (excluding the deferred portion, which amount will be payable upon consummation of the initial business combination, if consummated) and the initial public offering expenses, $319.2 million of the net proceeds from our initial public offering and certain of the proceeds from the private placement of the private placement warrants (or $10.00 per Unit sold in the initial public offering) was placed in the trust account. The net proceeds of the initial public offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants are held in the trust account and invested as described elsewhere in this Report.
There has been no material change in the planned use of the proceeds from the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants as is described in our final prospectus related to our initial public offering.
(g) Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
 
Item 6.
Selected Financial Data.
Not applicable.
 
Item 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
References in this report (the “Quarterly Report”) to “we,” “us” or the “Company” refer to Plum Acquisition Corp. I. References to our “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors, and references to the “Sponsor” refer to Plum Partners, LLC. The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the condensed financial statements and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this Quarterly Report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q
includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act that are not historical facts, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected and projected. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Form
10-Q
including statements in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding the Company’s financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “seek” and variations and similar words and expressions are
 
63
intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect management’s current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The Company’s securities filings can be accessed on the EDGAR section of the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on January 11, 2021 and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. We intend to consummate an initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our Public Offering (the “Public Offering”) that closed on March 18, 2021 (the “Closing Date”) and the Private Placement, and from additional issuances of, if any, our equity and our debt, or a combination of cash, equity and debt.
Results of Operations
For the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had a loss from operations of $2,916,919. In addition to the loss from operations, we recognized other income of $9,510,936 consisting of an unrealized gain on our warrant liabilities of $9,177,618, gain on our over-allotment liabilities of $881,755, and interest income of $16,264 partially offset by transaction costs related to our IPO of $564,701. Through December 31, 2021, our efforts have been limited to organizational activities, activities relating to identifying and evaluating prospective acquisition candidates and activities relating to general corporate matters. We have not generated any realized income, other than interest income. The unrealized gain on the warrant liabilities resulted from the change in fair value of our warrant liabilities and had no impact on cash. As of December 31, 2021, $319,232,602 was held in the Trust Account. We had cash outside of trust of $107,224 at December 31, 2021 and $1,055,936 accounts payable and accrued expenses as of December 31, 2021.
Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account that may be released to us to pay taxes, if any, the proceeds in the Trust will not be released from the Trust Account (1) to us, until the completion of our initial Business Combination, or (2) to the Public Shareholders, until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial Business Combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholders properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of the public shares if we do not complete an initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO (the “Combination Period”) or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of the Class A ordinary shares, and (iii) the redemption of the public shares if we have not consummated a Business Combination within the Combination Period, subject to applicable law.
Liquidity, Capital Resources and Going Concern
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash outside our Trust Account of $107,224 available for working capital needs. We intend to use the funds held outside the Trust Account for identifying and evaluating prospective acquisition candidates, performing business due diligence on prospective target businesses, traveling to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses, reviewing corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, selecting the target business to acquire and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
In March and April 2021, we sold 31,921,634 units (the “Units” and, with respect to the shares of Class A ordinary shares included in the Units being offered, the “Public Shares”) at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $319,216,340.
Additionally, we sold 6,256,218 warrants (the “Private Warrants”), at a price of $1.50 per Private Warrant, generating gross proceeds of $9,384,327.
Following the sale of our Units and the sale of the Private Warrants, a total of $319,216,340 ($10.00 per Unit) was placed in the Trust Account. We incurred $18,336,269 in Initial Public Offering related costs, including $6,384,327 of underwriting fees, $11,172,572 of deferred underwriting discount and $779,370 of other costs with $564,701 which was allocated to the Public Warrants and Private Warrants, included in the statement of operations and $17,771,568 included in temporary equity.
 
 
64
As of December 31, 2021, we had marketable securities held in the Trust Account of $319,232,602 (including $16,262 of income) consisting of money market funds. Income on the balance in the Trust Account may be used to pay taxes. Through December 31, 2021, we did not withdraw any interest earned on the Trust Account to pay our taxes.
For the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, cash used in operating activities was $2,138,406. Net income of $6,594,017 was primarily offset by an unrealized gain on the change in the fair value of our warrant liabilities of $9,177,618, gain on the change in fair value of our over-allotment liabilities of $881,755, and payments generating prepaid assets of $392,425. Partially offsetting the net income was $564,701 from IPO related transaction costs. Other operational activities include an increase in payables of $1,055,936 and amounts due to related parties of $115, 000.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the Trust Account, to acquire a target business and to pay our expenses relating thereto. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the Trust Account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
Further, our sponsor, officers and directors or their respective affiliates have committed to loan us funds as may be required (the “Working Capital Loans”). If we complete a business combination, we would repay the Working Capital Loans. In the event that a business combination does not close, we may use a portion of proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans, but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Such Working Capital Loans would be evidenced by promissory notes. The notes would either be repaid upon consummation of a business combination, without interest, or, at the lender’s discretion, or converted upon consummation of a business combination into additional Private Warrants at a price of $1.50 per Private Warrant. As of December 31, 2021, no Working Capital Loans have been issued.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB ASC 205-40, Presentation of Financial Statements—Going Concern”, management has determined that the Company has and will continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its acquisition plans which raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our initial Business Combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our Public Shares upon consummation of our initial Business Combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such Business Combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Accounts. In addition, following our initial Business Combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Further, management has determined that if the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination by March 18, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution as well as the Company’s working capital deficit raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after the Combination Period. The Company intends to complete a Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date.
Off-Balance
Sheet Arrangements
We have no obligations, assets or liabilities which would be considered
off-balance
sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2021. We do not participate in transactions that create relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, often referred to as variable interest entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating
off-balance
sheet arrangements.
We have not entered into any
off-balance
sheet financing arrangements, established any special purpose entities, guaranteed any debt or commitments of other entities, or entered into any
non-financial
agreements involving assets.
Contractual obligations
We do not have any long-term debt, capital lease obligations, operating lease obligations or long-term liabilities.
Critical Accounting Policies
The accompanying financial statements of the Company are presented in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Warrant Liabilities
We account for the Warrants as either equity-classified or liability-classified instruments based on an assessment of the specific terms of the Warrants and applicable authoritative guidance in Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity (“ASC 480”) and ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”). The assessment considers whether the Warrants are freestanding financial instruments pursuant to ASC 480, meet the definition of a liability pursuant to ASC 480, and meet all of the requirements for equity classification under ASC 815, including whether the Warrants are indexed to the Company’s own ordinary shares and whether the holders of the Warrants could potentially require “net cash settlement” in a circumstance outside of the Company’s control, among other conditions for equity classification. This assessment, which requires the use of professional judgment, is conducted at the time of issuance of the Warrants and as of each subsequent quarterly period end date while the Warrants are
 
65
outstanding. For issued or modified warrants that meet all of the criteria for equity classification, such warrants are required to be recorded as a component of additional
paid-in
capital at the time of issuance. For issued or modified warrants that do not meet all the criteria for equity classification, liability-classified warrants are required to be recorded at their initial fair value on the date of issuance, and each balance sheet date thereafter. Changes in the estimated fair value of such warrants are recognized as a
non-cash
gain or loss on the statements of operations. We account for the Public and Private warrants in accordance with guidance contained in ASC
815-40.
Such guidance provides that because the warrants do not meet the criteria for equity treatment thereunder, each warrant must be recorded as a liability.
Redeemable Shares of Class A Ordinary shares
All of the 31,921,634 shares of Class A ordinary shares included in the Units sold as part of the Public Offering contain a redemption feature as described in the prospectus for the Public Offering. In accordance with FASB ASC 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity”, redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require the security to be classified outside of permanent equity. The Charter provides a minimum net tangible asset threshold of $5,000,001. The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and will adjust the carrying value of the security at the end of each reporting period. Increases or decreases in the carrying amount of redeemable shares will be affected by charges against additional
paid-in
capital.
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Earnings and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. The potential ordinary shares for outstanding warrants to purchase the Company’s shares were excluded from diluted earnings per share for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 because the warrants are contingently exercisable, and the contingencies have not yet been met. As a result, diluted net income per common share is the same as basic net income per common share for the periods.
Recent accounting standards
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”)
2020-06,
Debt — Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic
470-20)
and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic
815-40)
(“ASU
2020-06”)
to simplify accounting for certain financial instruments. ASU
2020-06
eliminates the current models that require separation of beneficial conversion and cash conversion features from convertible instruments and simplifies the derivative scope exception guidance pertaining to equity classification of contracts in an entity’s own equity. The new standard also introduces additional disclosures for convertible debt and freestanding instruments that are indexed to and settled in an entity’s own equity. ASU
2020-06
amends the diluted earnings per share guidance, including the requirement to use the if converted method for all convertible instruments. ASU
2020-06
is effective January 1, 2022 and should be applied on a full or modified retrospective basis, with early adoption permitted beginning on January 1, 2021. The Company adopted ASU
2020-06
effective January 1, 2021. The adoption of ASU
2020-06
did not have an impact on the Company’s financial statements.
Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
 
Item 7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this item.
 
Item 8.
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
This information appears following Item 15 of this Report and is included herein by reference.
 
66
Item 9.
Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
 
Item 9A.
Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
As required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021. Based upon their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2021 due to the material weakness in our internal controls over accounting and reporting complex financial instruments including the proper classification of warrants as liabilities and redeemable Class A ordinary shares as temporary equity and prepaid expenses between current and non-current, and under accrual of liabilities. In light of this material weakness, we performed additional analysis as deemed necessary to ensure that our unaudited interim financial statements were prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Accordingly, management believes that the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K present fairly in all material respects our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented.
Regarding the restatements to the March 31, 2021, and June 30, 2021 quarterly financial statements included in the Company’s Form 10-Qs, as filed with the SEC on June 4, 2021 and August 16, 2021, respectively, as well as the Company’s balance sheet included on the Company’s Form 8-K, as filed with the SEC on March 24, 2021, certain redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require ordinary shares subject to redemption to be classified outside of permanent equity. The Company had previously classified a portion of the Class A ordinary shares in permanent equity. The Company restated its financial statements to classify all Class A ordinary shares as temporary equity and any related impact, as the threshold in its charter would not change the nature of the underlying shares as redeemable and thus would be required to be disclosed outside of permanent equity. It is noted that the non-cash adjustments to the financial statements do not impact the amounts previously reported for our cash and cash equivalents or total assets. In light of this material weakness, we performed additional analysis as deemed necessary to ensure that our unaudited interim financial statements were prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. In light of the material weakness, we have enhanced our processes to identify and appropriately apply applicable accounting requirements to better evaluate and understand the nuances of the complex accounting standards that apply to our financial statements. Our plans at this time include providing enhanced access to accounting literature, research materials and documents and increased communication among our personnel and third-party professionals with whom we consult regarding complex accounting applications. The elements of our remediation plan can only be accomplished over time, and we can offer no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.
Management’s Report on Internal Controls over Financial Reporting
This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
 
Item 9B.
Other Information
None.
 
Item 9C.
Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections
Not applicable.
 
67
PART III
 
Item 10.
Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance Directors and Executive Officers
As of the date of this Annual Report on Form
10-K,
our directors and officers are as follows:
 
Name
   
Age
   
Position
Ursula Burns    63    Executive Chairwoman and Director
Kanishka Roy    46    President,
Co-Chief
Executive Officer and Director
Mike Dinsdale    49   
Co-Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Director
Lane Bess    60    Director
Kelly Breslin Wright    51    Director
Jennifer Ceran    58    Director
Alok Sama    59    Director
Kevin Turner    56    Director
Ursula Burns is our Executive Chairwoman and a director.
    
Ms. Burns has extensive international experience leading large companies confronting technology change in their industries. Ms. Burns most recently served as Chairman and CEO of VEON Ltd (“VEON”), a position she held from 2018 until 2020, having previously served as Chairman, beginning in 2017. Prior to VEON, Ms. Burns served as the CEO of Xerox from 2010 to 2016 and is the first, and still only, African-American woman to have led an S&P 500 company. Following the company’s split into Conduent and the new Xerox, she was named the Chairwoman of the new Xerox company. In addition to her work experience, Ms. Burns, who regularly appears on Fortune’s and Forbes’s list of the world’s most powerful women, is a board director of Exxon Mobil, and Uber. Ms. Burns was appointed by President Barack Obama to help lead the White House national program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) from 2009 to 2016, and she served as chair of the President’s Export Council from 2015 to 2016 after having served as vice chair from 2010 to 2015. Ms. Burns holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Kanishka Roy is our President,
Co-Chief
Executive Officer and a director.
    
Mr. Roy is a technology and finance veteran, with over 20 years of experience as a technology investment banker, public company executive, and growth investor. From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Roy helped leading Software and Internet companies with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets transactions. Mr. Roy also served as the Global Head of Tech M&A Origination for Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for initiating large, industry-transforming mergers, helping clients take a long-term view of the competitive landscape and implementing winning M&A playbooks to maximize shareholder value. Over his career, Mr. Roy has participated in over $100 billion of M&A transactions. Most recently, from 2019 to 2020, he was Global CFO at SmartNews, a multi-billion-dollar private AI company with over 20 million monthly average users, and led the strategic finance and growth of a rapidly growing company across multiple geographies. Mr. Roy started his career as a software engineer at two software startups, both of which were acquired by larger public companies, and also worked in executive strategy roles at IBM. Mr. Roy holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Mike Dinsdale is our
Co-Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a director.
    Mr. Dinsdale has embodied the “modern unicorn” CFO for over 20 years, with strategic expertise in building high-growth international companies that consistently exceed growth targets. Mr. Dinsdale has successfully secured over $1 billion in financing and been part of great teams generating more than $100 billion in value. Most recently, Mr. Dinsdale was the CFO for Gusto from 2017 to 2020 and prior to that was CFO at two generational, market leading software companies: DoorDash, from 2016 to 2017, and DocuSign, where he also served as Chief Growth Officer, from 2010 to 2016. In addition to his role at Plum, Mr. Dinsdale serves as a Venture Partner at Akkadian Ventures, a late-stage venture fund, and as a board member for private software companies. Mr. Dinsdale earned a BS in engineering from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from McMaster University. Mr. Dinsdale holds the CFA designation and competed with the Canadian National Sailing Team in the 1996 Olympic trials. He also serves on the Board of Directors for WildAid.
 
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Our independent directors all have significant skin in the game, sponsoring approximately 25% of
the at-risk capital,
and are further incentivized to generate exceptional returns through a performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares.
Our 8-person Board
of Directors will include all three members of the management team.
Lane Bess is a director.
    
Mr. Bess has more than 35 years of experience and a proven track record as an executive for rapidly growing, publicly traded, and privately held companies serving the enterprise and consumer markets. Mr. Bess helped build three companies valued over $1bn in the internet security industry. Mr. Bess helped attain early funding and acted as CEO of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) from 2008–2011, where he led the late fundraising and scaled the company from its
early go-to-market to
a revenue run rate exceeding $200 million on the path to its IPO. He also was instrumental in building Zscaler (ZS) as COO from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Bess was EVP of Worldwide Sales and General Manager of publicly traded Trend Micro Inc. (Nikkei), growing worldwide revenues to over $1 billion annually, from 2002 to 2007. Mr. Bess currently operates his own $100 million venture investment firm, Bess Ventures, which he started in 2015, where he leverages funds generated from his operational success to help other firms create their path to positive outcomes. Some of the firm’s notable investments include Arista Networks, Nutanix Inc., ThoughtSpot, Rubrik, and Zscaler. Mr. Bess has a BS in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University and holds a Masters Degree from the University of Dayton. Lane also serves as a Trustee on the Board of Carnegie Mellon University.
Kelly Breslin Wright is a director.
    Ms. Wright has over 30 years of experience in leadership, sales, operations, and strategy. Ms. Wright is currently a Board Director at Fastly (NYSE:FSLY), Lucid, and Even. She has advised multiple tech companies, including Asana and Dropbox. She
teaches Go-To-Market Strategy
as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Prior to her current work as a board director and advisor, Ms. Wright spent 12 years at Tableau Software, where she led worldwide sales and field operations as Executive Vice President of Sales. She joined Tableau as the company’s first salesperson and tenth employee in 2005, and she helped grow Tableau into a multi-billion dollar public company as a key member of the executive team. Ms. Wright grew Tableau’s revenue and field operations from zero to more than $800 million in revenues and managed over half of Tableau’s global team as the company expanded to 3,400 employees. Before Tableau, Ms. Wright spent time at Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, Bank of America, Dale Carnegie Training, and AtHoc. She earned her BA from Stanford University and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Wright is active on over a
dozen women-on-board organizations
and speaks regularly on topics including
sales, go-to-market, growth,
culture, transformation, leadership, and diversity.
Jennifer Ceran is a director.
    
Ms. Ceran is a senior finance leader with more than 30 years of experience working at high growth, brand name private and public companies. Ms. Ceran is now CFO Emeritus at Smartsheet, a leading SaaS platform that unifies collaboration, workflows and content management into a single, flexible work environment. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Ceran also served as Vice President of Finance for Box, Inc., a leading content management company, where she was responsible for helping the founders scale the company and prepare for a successful IPO. From 2003 to 2012, Ms. Ceran held various positions at eBay Inc., a
global e-commerce and
payments company, including Vice President (VP) and Treasurer, VP Financial Planning and Analysis, and VP Investor Relations. Ms. Ceran also ran their first Finance Leadership Development Program, a program to develop top finance talent. Ms. Ceran has received numerous recognitions during her career. Ms. Ceran was recognized by Treasury and Risk Management Magazine from 2006 through 2009 as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” In 2011, she was ranked first in the
 Institutional Investor
 list of investor-relations leaders in the internet industry. In 2017, Ms. Ceran received the honorable Puget Sound Business Journal CFO of the year award. Ms. Ceran is on the boards of True Platform, Klaviyo, Riskified, NerdWallet and Wyze Labs. Ms. Ceran holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and BAs in Communications and French from Vanderbilt University.
Alok Sama is a director.
    Mr. Sama is currently a Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus LLC and to The Raine Group, joining in 2020 and 2019, respectively. He was formerly President & CFO of SoftBank Group International (“SBGI”) and Chief Strategy Officer for SoftBank Group (“SBG”), departing in 2020. While at SoftBank, Mr. Sama led the $59 billion merger of Sprint
and T-Mobile, the
$34 billion acquisition of ARM
 
69
Holdings Plc, the $10 billion disposition of SoftBank’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding, the $8.6 billion sale of Supercell Oy to Tencent Holdings, and the restructuring of SoftBank’s holding in Yahoo Japan. Mr. Sama was also responsible for multiple growth capital investments across technology verticals, including ride sharing, fintech, and communications. Mr. Sama represented SoftBank as a Board member at Arm Holdings, Fortress Investment Group, SoFi, Brightstar Corp, Softbank Energy, SoftBank Group Capital, and Airtel Africa. Mr. Sama was also a Senior Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he led the firm’s communications practice in Europe and TMT practice in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Sama co-founded Baer
Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm focused on India with over $300 million in assets, in partnership with the Baer family and Dubai Holdings. He continues to be a Director of Baer Capital. He is a member of the CNBC Global CFO Council, and a former Chairman of the London Chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).
Kevin Turner is a director.
    
Mr. Turner is a highly unique CEO and executive who has served and excelled at two of the most admired companies in the world, Walmart and Microsoft. Since 2018, Mr. Turner has served as President and CEO of Core Scientific, the largest Blockchain hosting company in the U.S. As Microsoft’s former Chief Operating Officer from 2005 to 2016, Mr. Turner led the company’s global sales, marketing and services organization of 70,000+ employees in more than 190 countries through the transition of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella all while serving as COO. Under Mr. Turner’s leadership, the sales and marketing group delivered more than $91.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016. Mr. Turner oversaw worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and partner channels, as well as Microsoft Stores and corporate support functions, including Information Technology, Worldwide Licensing & Pricing, and Operations. Mr. Turner spent nearly 20 years
at Wal-Mart Stores,
where he rose through the ranks and was named the youngest corporate officer ever
at Wal-Mart at
age 29. Mr. Turner held various leadership positions
at Wal-Mart, including
becoming the Chief Information Officer
for Wal-Mart Stores,
and as his last assignment he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of SAM’S CLUB, a $37 billion division
of Wal-Mart Stores.
He was appointed Chairman of Zayo Group in 2020 and Vice Chairman of the Board for Albertsons Companies, receiving his first appointment with the company in 2017. He served as a Board Director for Nordstrom from 2010 to 2020, and Vice Chairman of Citadel and CEO of Citadel Securities from 2016 to 2017.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors is divided into three classes, with only one class of directors being elected in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of shareholders) serving a three-year term. In accordance with the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Mr. Bess, Ms. Wright and Ms. Ceran, will expire at our first annual meeting of shareholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Mr. Sama and Mr. Turner, will expire at our second annual meeting of shareholders. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Ursula Burns, Kanishka Roy and Mike Dinsdale, will expire at our third annual meeting of shareholders.
Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into on or prior to the closing of the initial public offering, our sponsor, upon and following consummation of an initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for election to our board of directors, as long as the sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and shareholder rights agreement.
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint persons to the offices set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association as it deems appropriate. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that our officers may consist of one or more chairman of the board, chief executive officer, president, chief financial officer, vice presidents, secretary, treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
 
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Director Independence
Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bess, Ms. Wright, Ms. Ceran, Mr. Sama and Mr. Turner are “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has three standing committees: an audit committee, a nominating committee and a compensation committee. Subject
to phase-in rules
and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq
and Rule 10A-3 of
the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Subject to phase- in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq require that the compensation committee and the nominating committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors.
Audit Committee
We have established an audit committee of the board of directors. Mr. Bess, Ms. Ceran and Mr. Sama serve on our audit committee. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bess, Ms. Ceran and Mr. Sama are independent under the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Mr. Sama will serve as the Chairman of the audit committee.
Under the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules, all the directors on the audit committee must be independent. Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Ms. Ceran qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules.
The audit committee is responsible for:
 
  •
meeting with our independent registered public accounting firm regarding, among other issues, audits, and adequacy of our accounting and control systems;
 
  •
monitoring the independence of the independent registered public accounting firm;
 
  •
verifying the rotation of the lead (or coordinating) audit partner having primary responsibility for the audit and the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit as required by law;
 
  •
inquiring and discussing with management our compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
 
  •
pre-approving
all audit services and permitted
non-audit
services to be performed by our independent registered public accounting firm, including the fees and terms of the services to be performed;
 
  •
appointing or replacing the independent registered public accounting firm;
 
  •
determining the compensation and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm (including resolution of disagreements between management and the independent registered public accounting firm regarding financial reporting) for the purpose of preparing or issuing an audit report or related work;
 
  •
establishing procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by us regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or reports which raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies;
 
  •
monitoring compliance on a quarterly basis with the terms of the initial public offering and, if any noncompliance is identified, immediately taking all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise causing compliance with the terms of the initial public offering; and
 
  •
reviewing and approving all payments made to our existing shareholders, executive officers or directors and their respective affiliates. Any payments made to members of our audit committee will be reviewed and approved by our board of directors, with the interested director or directors abstaining from such review and approval.
 
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Nominating Committee
We have established a nominating committee of our board of directors. The members of our nominating committee are Ms. Wright, Mr. Bess, and Mr. Turner, and Mr. Turner will serve as chairman of the nominating committee. Under the Nasdaq listing standards, we are required to have a nominating committee composed entirely of independent directors. Our board of directors has determined that Ms. Wright, Mr. Bess, and Mr. Turner are independent under the Nasdaq listing standards.
The nominating committee is responsible for overseeing the selection of persons to be nominated to serve on our board of directors. The nominating committee considers persons identified by its members, management, shareholders, investment bankers and others.
Guidelines for Selecting Director Nominees
The guidelines for selecting nominees, which is specified in our nominating committee charter, generally provides that persons to be nominated:
 
  •
should have demonstrated notable or significant achievements in business, education or public service;
 
  •
should possess the requisite intelligence, education and experience to make a significant contribution to the board of directors and bring a range of skills, diverse perspectives and backgrounds to its deliberations; and
 
  •
should have the highest ethical standards, a strong sense of professionalism and intense dedication to serving the interests of the shareholders.
The nominating committee will consider a number of qualifications relating to management and leadership experience, background and integrity and professionalism in evaluating a person’s candidacy for membership on the board of directors. The nominating committee may require certain skills or attributes, such as financial or accounting experience, to meet specific board needs that arise from time to time and will also consider the overall experience and makeup of its members to obtain a broad and diverse mix of board members. The nominating committee does not distinguish among nominees recommended by shareholders and other persons.
Compensation Committee
We have established a compensation committee of our board of directors. The members of our compensation committee are Mr. Bess, Ms. Ceran and Mr. Sama and Mr. Bess serves as chairman of the compensation committee.
Under the Nasdaq listing standards, we are required to have a compensation committee composed entirely of independent directors. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bess, Ms. Ceran and Mr. Sama are independent under the Nasdaq listing standards.
We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
 
  •
reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our executive officers’ performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our executive officers, based on such evaluation;
 
  •
reviewing and approving the compensation of all of our other Section 16 executive officers;
 
  •
reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans;
 
  •
implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans;
 
  •
assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements;
 
72
  •
approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our executive officers and employees;
 
  •
producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and
 
  •
reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors.
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.
Code of Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. A copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on
Form 8-K.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
 
  •
duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole;
 
  •
duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose;
 
  •
directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion;
 
  •
duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders;
 
  •
duty not to put themselves in a position in which there is a conflict between their duty to the company and their personal interests; and
 
  •
duty to exercise independent judgment.
 
73
In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge skill and experience of that director.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at shareholder meetings.
Certain of our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary and contractual duties to other entities. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, he or she will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not expect these duties to materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer on the one hand, and us, on the other.
In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties, contractual obligations or other material management relationships:
 
Individual
   
Entity
   
Entity’s Business
   
Affiliation
Ursula Burns    Teneo Holdings LLC    Public relations and advisory services    Senior Advisor
   Uber Technologies, Inc.    Rideshare    Board Member
   Exxon Mobil Corporation    Energy    Board Member
   Waystar    Financial Technology    Board Member
   IHS Holding Limited    Telecommunication Infrastructure    Board Member
 
74
Individual
   
Entity
   
Entity’s Business
   
Affiliation
Kanishka Roy    Pomegranate Ventures    Private Investment    General Partner
Mike Dinsdale    Akkadian Ventures, LLC    Investment, Management & Fundraising    Venture Partner
   Clause Inc.    Financial Technology    Board Member
   Jirav, Inc.    Financial Technology    Board Member
Lane Bess    Bess Ventures and    Investing    Founder and Principal
Kelly Breslin Wright    Fastly, Inc.    Cloud Computing    Board Member
   Lucid Software Inc.    Software    Board Member
   Even Responsible Finance, Inc.    Financial Software Enterprise Customer    Board Member
Jennifer Ceran    True Capital Partners, LLC    Talent Management    Board Member
   Klaviyo, Inc.    Software    Board Member; Interim CFO
   Riskified Ltd.    Software    Board Member
   NerdWallet, Inc.    Personal Finance    Board Member
   Wyze Labs, Inc.    Consumer Technology    Board Member
Alok Sama    Warburg Pincus LLC    Private Equity    Senior Acvisor
   The Raine Group    Finance    Chief Strategy Officer
Kevin Turner    Albertsons Companies, Inc.    Grocery    Vice Chairman
   Zayo Group Holdings, Inc.    Communications Infrastructure    Chairman
   EdgeConneX, Inc.    Data Center Solutions    Director
   Core Scientific    Blockchain & AI Infrastructure    President & CEO
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
 
  •
Our officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses, on the other hand. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers and directors is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he is entitled to substantial compensation and has substantial time commitments, and our executive officers and directors are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs.
 
75
  •
Our sponsor subscribed for founder shares prior to the date of this Report and purchased private placement warrants in a transaction that will close simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering. 
 
  •
Our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into an agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with (i) the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of our Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of our Class A ordinary shares.
 
76
Additionally, our sponsor has agreed to waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to its founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Except as described herein, our sponsor and our directors and executive officers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earliest of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination and (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within
any 30-trading day
period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Except as described herein, the private placement warrants will not be transferable until 30 days following the completion of our initial business combination. Because each of our executive officers and directors own ordinary shares or warrants directly or indirectly, they may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination.
Our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors is included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors may sponsor, form or participate in other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target, particularly in the event there is overlap among investment mandates.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or council members. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor or any of our sponsor, officers, directors or council members, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on Nasdaq, we will also reimburse our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to us in the amount of $10,000 per month. Pursuant to our Administrative Services Agreement we may make payments or reimbursements to our sponsor or its affiliates, for the reasonable salaries and other services provided to us prior to or in connection with our initial business combination by its employees, consultants and/or members, who may include our officers, leadership council members, senior advisors or directors, and may also pay certain fees to our sponsor or its respective affiliates.
We cannot assure you that any of the above mentioned conflicts will be resolved in our favor.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the ordinary shares, represented in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon, voted at a shareholder meeting are voted in favor of the business combination. In such case, our sponsor and each member of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares and public shares in favor of our initial business combination.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a company’s memorandum and articles of association may provide for indemnification of officers and directors, except to the extent any such provision may be held by the Cayman Islands courts to be contrary to public policy, such as to provide indemnification against willful default, willful neglect, civil fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide for indemnification of our officers and directors to the maximum extent permitted by law, including for any liability incurred in their capacities as such, except through their own actual fraud, willful default or willful neglect. We will enter into agreements with our directors and officers to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. We expect to purchase a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors.
 
77
Our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any services provided to us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will only be able to be satisfied by us if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination.
Our indemnification obligations may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
 
Item 11.
Executive Compensation
Executive Officer and Director Compensation
None of our executive officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date that our securities are first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation, we will reimburse our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to us in the amount of $10,000 per month. Pursuant to our Administrative Services Agreement we may make payments or reimbursements to our sponsor or its affiliates, for the reasonable salaries and other services provided to us prior to or in connection with our initial business combination by its employees, consultants and/or members, who may include our officers, leadership council members, senior advisors or directors, and may also pay certain fees to our sponsor or its respective affiliates. In addition, our sponsor, executive officers, directors, council members or their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any
out-of-pocket
expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review periodically all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, executive officers, directors, council members or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made using funds held outside the trust account. Other than periodic audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and executive officers for their
out-of-pocket
expenses incurred in connection with our activities on our behalf in connection with identifying and consummating an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
After the completion of our initial business combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed business combination. We have not established any limit on the amount of such fees that may be paid by the combined company to our directors or members of management. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of the proposed business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.
 
78
We do not intend to take any action to ensure that members of our management team maintain their positions with us after the consummation of our initial business combination, although it is possible that some or all of our executive officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our initial business combination. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their positions with us may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination. We are not party to any agreements with our executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
 
Item 12.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and management and Related Shareholder Matters
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of April 21, 2022 based on information obtained from the persons named below, with respect to the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares, by:
 
  •
each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our outstanding ordinary shares;
 
  •
each of our executive officers and directors that beneficially owns our ordinary share; and
 
  •
all our executive officers and directors as a group.
In the table below, percentage ownership is based on 31,921,634 Class A ordinary shares (which includes Class A ordinary shares that are underlying the units) and 7,980,409 Class B ordinary shares outstanding as of April 21, 2022. Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. Voting power represents the combined voting power of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares owned beneficially by such person. On all matters to be voted upon, the holders of the Class A ordinary shares and the Class B ordinary shares vote together as a single class. Currently, all of the Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares on a
one-for-one
basis.
 
    
Class B ordinary shares
    
Class A ordinary shares
         
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1)
   
Number of
Shares
Beneficially
Owned(2)
     
Approximate
Percentage
of Class
    
Number of
Shares
Beneficially
Owned
     
Approximate
Percentage
of Class
     
Approximate
Percentage
of Voting
Control
  
Plum Partners, LLC(3)
      7,980,409        100.0 %      —          —          20.0 % 
Ursula Burns(3)
      7,980,409        100.0 %      —          —          20.0 % 
Kanishka Roy(3)
      7,980,409        100.0 %      —          —          20.0 % 
Mike Dinsdale(3)
      7,980,409        100.0 %      —          —          20.0 % 
Lane Bess(4)
      —          —         —          —          —    
Kelly Breslin Wright(4)
      —          —         —          —          —    
Jennifer Ceran(4)
      —          —         —          —          —    
Alok Sama(4)
      —          —         —          —          —    
Kevin Turner(4)
      —          —         —          —          —    
All officers and directors as a group (8 individuals)
      7,980,409        100.0 %      —          —          20.0 % 
 
*
Less than one percent.
(1)
Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following is 2021 Fillmore St. #2089, San Francisco, California 94115.
(2)
Interests shown consist solely of founder shares, classified as Class B ordinary shares. Such shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination on a
one-for-one
basis, subject to adjustment, as described in the section entitled “Description of Securities.”
(3)
Plum Partners, LLC is the record holder of the share reported herein. Plum Partners, LLC is controlled by Ursula Burns, Kanishka Roy and Michael Dinsdale.
(4)
Does not include any shares indirectly owned by this individual as a result of his or her partnership interest in our sponsor or its affiliates.
 
79
Our sponsor has agreed (a) to vote any founder shares and public shares held by it in favor of any proposed business combination and (b) not to redeem any founder shares or public shares held by it in connection with a shareholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination.
Our sponsor, officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoter” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Changes in Control
None.
 
Item 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
On January 13, 2021, the Sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain offering costs in consideration for 8,625,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Founder Shares”). Up to 1,125,000 Founder Shares were subject to forfeiture to the extent that the over-allotment option was not exercised in full by the underwriters. On April 14, 2021 the underwriters partially exercised their over-allotment option buying 1,921,634 Units thus reducing the total number of share subject to forfeiture to 644,591. On May 2, 2021 the underwriters’ over-allotment option expired and 644,591 Founder Shares were forfeited to the Company.
The Sponsor and the Company’s directors and executive officers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until earliest of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination and (B) subsequent to the initial Business Combination, (x) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any
30-trading
day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, or (y) the date on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of the Public Shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property (the
“Lock-up”).
Any permitted transferees would be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of the Sponsor and the directors and executive officers with respect to any Founder Shares.
On January 13, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $300,000 to cover expenses related to the IPO pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). This loan is
non-interest
bearing and payable on the earlier of November 30, 2021 or the completion of the IPO. As of December 31, 2021, the Company has no borrowings under the Note. Borrowings under this note are no longer available.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors, have committed to loan the Company funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company would repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to it. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Up to $1,500,000 of the Working Capital Loans may be convertible into Private Placement Warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of the initial Business Combination, the Company does not expect to seek loans from parties other than the Sponsor its affiliates or any members of the Company’s management team as the Company does not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in the Company’s Trust Account.
On January 31, 2022, the Company issued an unsecured promissory note (the “Note”) in the principal amount of $500,000 to Mike Dinsdale. The Note does not bear interest and is repayable in full upon consummation of a Business Combination. The Company may draw on the Note from time to time, in increments of not less than $50,000, until the earlier of March 18, 2023 or the date on which the Company consummates a Business Combination. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination, the Note shall not be repaid and all amounts owed under it will be forgiven. Upon the consummation of a Business Combination, the Mr. Dinsdale shall have the option, but not the obligation, to convert the principal balance of the Note, in whole or in part, into private placement warrants (as defined in that certain Warrant Agreement, dated March 18, 2021, by and between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company), at a price of $1.50 per private placement warrant. The Note is subject to customary events of default, the occurrence of which automatically trigger the unpaid principal balance of the Note and all other sums payable with regard to the Note becoming immediately due and payable. The Note was issued pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
 
80
The Company will pay the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of the management team. Upon completion of the initial Business Combination or its liquidation, the Company will cease paying these monthly fees. In addition, the Company reimburses the Sponsor for the reasonable costs of salaries and other services provided to the Company by the employees, consultants and or members of the Sponsor or its affiliates. For the period from January 11, 2021 through December 31, 2021, the Company incurred $851,053 in fees for these services, of which $736,053 was for reimbursement of costs of salaries and other services and $115,000 was for office space, secretarial and administrative services.
If any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that falls within the line of business of any entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity. Our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us.
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The audit committee of our board of directors will adopt a charter, providing for the review, approval and/or ratification of “related party transactions,” which are those transactions required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation
S-K
as promulgated by the SEC, by the audit committee. At its meetings, the audit committee shall be provided with the details of each new, existing, or proposed related party transaction, including the terms of the transaction, any contractual restrictions that the company has already committed to, the business purpose of the transaction, and the benefits of the transaction to the company and to the relevant related party. Any member of the committee who has an interest in the related party transaction under review by the committee shall abstain from voting on the approval of the related party transaction, but may, if so requested by the chairman of the committee, participate in some or all of the committee’s discussions of the related party transaction. Upon completion of its review of the related party transaction, the committee may determine to permit or to prohibit the related party transaction.
Director Independence
Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bess, Ms. Wright, Ms. Ceran, Mr. Sama and Mr. Turner are “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
 
Item 14.
Principal Accountant Fees and Services
Fees for professional services provided by our independent registered public accounting firm for the last fiscal year include:
 
    
for the Period from January 11,
2021 (inception) through
December 31, 2021
  
Audit Fees
(1)
    $ 92,096  
Audit-Related Fees
(2)
    $ —  
Tax Fees
(3)
    $ —  
All Other Fees
(4)
    $ —  
 
(1)
Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees for professional services rendered for the audit of our
period-end
financial statements, services provided in connection with our initial public offering, and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings.
(2)
Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our
year-end
financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards.
(3)
Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice.
(4)
All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services including permitted due diligence services related potential Business Combination.
Policy on Board
Pre-Approval
of Audit and Permissible
Non-Audit
Services of the Independent Auditors
The audit committee is responsible for appointing, setting compensation and overseeing the work of the independent auditors. In recognition of this responsibility, the audit committee shall review and, in its sole discretion,
pre-approve
all audit and permitted
non-audit
services to be provided by the independent auditors as provided under the audit committee charter.
 
81
PART IV
 
Item 15.
Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules
 
  (a)
The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report:
 
  (1)
Financial Statements
 
  (2)
Exhibits
We hereby file as part of this Annual Report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index.
 
Exhibit
No.
   
Description
3.1    Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association.(1)
4.1    Warrant Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Company.(1)
4.2    Description of Company’s Securities.*
10.1    Private Placement Warrants Purchase Agreement between the Company and the Sponsor.(1)
10.2    Investment Management Trust Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Company.(1)
10.3    Registration and Shareholder Rights Agreement among Company and the Sponsor.(1)
10.4    Letter Agreement between the Company, the Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors. (1)
10.5    Administrative Services Agreement between the Registrant and the Sponsor.(1)
31.1    Certification of the Chief Executive Officer required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).*
31.2    Certification of the Chief Financial Officer required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).*
32.1    Certification of the Chief Executive Officer required by Rule 13a-14(b) or Rule 15d-14(b) and 18 U.S.C. 1350**
32.2    Certification of the Chief Financial Officer required by Rule 13a-14(b) or Rule 15d-14(b) and 18 U.S.C. 1350**
101.INS    iXBRL Instance Document*
101.SCH    iXBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema*
101.CAL    iXBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase*
101.DEF    iXBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase*
101.LAB    iXBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase*
101.PRE    iXBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase*
104    Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the iXBRL document and contained in Exhibit 101*
 
*
Filed herewith
**
Furnished herewith
(1)
Incorporated by reference to the registrant’s Current Report on Form
8-K,
filed with the SEC on March 18, 2021.
 
Item 16.
Form
10-K
Summary
Not applicable.
 
82
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form
10-K
to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
 
April 21, 2022    
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
   
/s/ Michael Dinsdale
    Name: Michael Dinsdale
    Title:
Co-Chief
Executive Officer and Chief Financial
    Officer
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Annual Report on Form
10-K
has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
 
/s/ Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns
    Chairwoman    April 21, 2022
/s/ Mike Dinsdale
Mike Dinsdale
   
Co-Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Director		    April 21, 2022
/s/ Kanishka Roy
Kanishka Roy
    President,
Co-Chief
Executive Officer and Director		    April 21, 2022
/s/ Lane Bess
Lane Bess
    Director    April 21, 2022
/s/ Kelly Breslin Wright
Kelly Breslin Wright
    Director    April 21, 2022
/s/ Jennifer Ceran
Jennifer Ceran
    Director    April 21, 2022
/s/ Alok Sama
Alok Sama
    Director    April 21, 2022
/s/ Kevin Turner
Kevin Turner
    Director    April 21, 2022
 
83
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
  
 
F-2
 
Financial Statements:
  
  
 
F-3
 
  
 
F-4
 
  
 
F-5
 
  
 
F-6
 
  
 
F-7
 
 
F-1
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of
Plum Acquisition Corp. I
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Plum Acquisition Corp. I (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders’ deficit and cash flows for the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Explanatory Paragraph – Going Concern
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As more fully described in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company’s ability to execute its business plan is dependent upon the consummation of a business combination and it lacks the financial resources it needs to sustain operations for a reasonable period of time, which is considered to be one year from the issuance date of the financial statements. Further, if the Company does not complete a business combination by March 18, 2023 or obtain approval for an extension of this deadline, it will be required to cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans with regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audit, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ Marcum LLP
Marcum LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.
New York, NY

April 21, 2022
 
F-2
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
BALANCE SHEET
DECEMBER 31, 2021
 
Assets:
  
Cash
    $ 107,224  
Prepaid expenses
      343,630  
    
 
 
  
Total current assets
     
450,854
 
Prepaid expenses - non-current
  
 
48,795
 
Investments held in Trust Account
      319,232,602  
    
 
 
  
Total assets
   
$
 319,732,251
 
    
 
 
  
Liabilities, Redeemable Ordinary Shares and Shareholders’ Deficit
         
Accounts payable and accrued expenses
   
$
 1,055,936  
Due to related party
 

115,000
 
    
 
 
  
Total current liabilities
   
 
1,170,936
 
Warrant liabilit
ies
      9,352,739  
Deferred underwriting commissions liabilities

      11,172,572  
    
 
 
  
Total liabilities
     
21,696,247
 
    
 
 
  
Commitments and Contingencies (Note 8)

       
Class A Ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, 31,921,634 shares at $10.00 redemption value
      319,216,340  
    
 
 
  
Shareholders’ Deficit:

         
Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding
      —    
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 500,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued and outstanding (excluding 31,921,634 shares subject to possible redemption)
      —    
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 50,000,000 shares authorized; 7,980,409 shares issued and outstanding
      799  
Additional paid-in capital
      —    
Accumulated deficit
      (21,181,135 ) 
    
 
 
  
Total shareholders’ deficit
     
(21,180,336
 )
 
    
 
 
  
Total Liabilities, Redeemable Ordinary Shares and Shareholders’ Deficit
   
$
 319,732,251
 
    
 
 
  
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
 
F-
3
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM JANUARY 11, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
Formation and operating expenses
    $ 2,916,919  
    
 
 
  
Loss from operations
     
2,916,919
 
Other income:
         
Change in fair val
u
e of warrants
      9,177,618  
Transaction costs allocated to warrant liabilit
ies
      (564,701 ) 
Gain on expiration of over-allotment option
 
 
881,755
 
Interest income – operating account
      2  
Interest income – trust account
      16,262  
    
 
 
  
Total other income, net
   
 
9,510,936
 
    
 
 
  
Net Income
   
$
6,594,017
 
    
 
 
  
Weighted average shares outstanding, Class A ordinary shares subject to possible 
redemption
      25,840,755  
    
 
 
  
Basic and diluted net income per ordinary share, Class A ordinary shares
 subject to possible 
redemption
   
$
0.20
 
    
 
 
  
Weighted average shares outstanding, Class B ordinary shares
      7,830,197  
    
 
 
  
Basic and diluted net income per ordinary share, Class B ordinary shares
   
$
0.20
 
    
 
 
  
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
 
F-
4
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT
FOR THE PERIOD FROM JANUARY 11, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
 
 
  
Class A

ordinary shares
 
  
Class B

ordinary shares
 
 
Additional
Paid-in
 
 
Accumulated
 
 
Shareholders’
 
 
  
Shares
 
  
Amount
 
  
Shares
 
 
Amount
 
 
Capital
 
 
Deficit
 
 
Deficit
 
Balance as of January 11, 2021
      —       $ —         —       $ —       $ —       $ —       $ —    
Class B ordinary shares issued to Sponsor
                       8,625,000       863       24,137                25,000  
Forfeit of founder shares
                       (644,591 )      (64 )      64                —    
Initial classification of over-allotment liability
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 (1,170,000
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
(1,170,000
) 
Partial exercise of over-allotment options
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
288,245
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
288,245
 
Excess cash received over 
fair value
of private placement
warrants
                                       208,184                208,184  
Net Income
                                              6,594,017       6,594,017  
Remeasurement
adjustment
of carrying value to
redemption value
                                      
649,370
 
     (27,775,152 )     (27,125,782 )
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Balance as of December 31, 2021
      —       $ —      
 
7,980,409
 
  
$
 799
 
   $ —      
$
(21,181,135
) 
  
$
(21,180,336
) 
    
 
 
    
 
 
    
 
 
    
 
 
    
 
 
    
 
 
    
 
 
  
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
 
F-
5
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM JANUARY 11, 2021 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021
 
Cash Flows from Operating Activities:
  
      
Net Income
    $ 6,594,017  
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash used in operating activities:
         
Interest earned on 
investments
held in Trust Account
      (16,262 ) 
Change in fair value of warrants

      (9,177,618 ) 
Transaction costs
 allocated to warrant liabilities
      564,701  
Gain on expiration of over-allotment option
 
 
(881,755
) 
Changes in operating assets and liabilities
         
Prepaid expense
      (392,425 ) 
Due to related party
 
 
115,000
 
Accounts payable and accrued expenses
      1,055,936  
    
 
 
  
Net cash used in operating activities
   
 
(2,138,406
) 
    
 
 
  
Cash flows from investing activities:
         
Investments held in Trust
      (319,216,340 ) 
    
 
 
  
Net cash used in investing activities
   
 
(319,216,340
) 
    
 
 
  
Cash flows from financing activities:
         
Proceeds from sale of ordinary shares to 
Sponsor
      25,000  
Proceeds from sale of Units, net of offering costs
      312,832,013  
Proceeds from issuance of Private Placement Warrants
      9,384,327  
Payment of offering costs
      (779,370 ) 
    
 
 
  
Net cash provided by financing activities
   
 
321,461,970
 
    
 
 
  
Net Change in Cash
   
$
107,224
 
Cash, beginning of the period
      —    
    
 
 
  
Cash, end of period
   
$
107,224
 
    
 
 
  
Supplemental Disclosure of
 Non-cash
 Financing Activities
:
         
Remeasurement
adjustment
of
Class A ordinary shares
subject to possible redemption

    $ 27,125,782  
    
 
 
  
Forfeiture of founder shares
    $ 64  
    
 
 
  
Deferred underwriting commissions payable charged to additional paid in capital
    $ 11,172,572  
    
 
 
  
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
 
F-
6
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Note 1 — Organization and Business Operations
Plum Acquisition Corp. I (the “Company”) was incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on January 11, 2021. The Company was incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, recapitalization, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities (the “Business Combination”). The Company has not selected any Business Combination target. The Company will not be limited to a particular industry or geographic region in its identification and acquisition of a target company. The Company is an emerging growth company and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risks associated with emerging growth companies.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not commenced any operations. All activity for the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (“IPO”), which is described below, and subsequent to the Initial Public Offering, identifying a target company for a business combination. The Company believes it will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company
will generate non-operating income in
the form of interest income on investments in the Company’s Trust account and will recognize changes in the fair value of the warrant liabilities as other income (expense).
The Company’s Sponsor is Plum Partners, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement for the Company’s IPO was declared effective on March 15, 2021 (the “Effective Date”). On March 18, 2021, the Company consummated the initial public offering (the “Public Offering” or “IPO”) of 30,000,000 units (the “Units), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $300,000,000, which is discussed in Note 3.
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the Company consummated the sale of 6,000,000 warrants (the “Private Placement Warrants”), at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant, which is discussed in Note 4. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, generating gross proceeds of $9,000,000, which is described in Note 4.
The Company granted the underwriters
a 45-day option
from March 18, 2021 to purchase up to an additional 4,500,000 Units to cover over-allotments, if any, at the IPO price less the underwriting discounts and commissions.
The underwriters partially exercised the over-allotment option on April 14, 2021 and purchased 1,921,634 Units at $10.00 per Unit. Simultaneously with the issuance and sale of the Units on April 14, 2021, the Company consummated the private placement with the Sponsor for an aggregate of 256,218 warrants to purchase Class A Ordinary Shares for $1.50 per warrant generating total proceeds of $384,327. On April 14, 2021, $19,216,340, net of the underwriter discount, was deposited in the Company’s Trust account.
A total of $19,216,340 was placed in a U.S.-based trust account maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee.
Transaction costs of the IPO and the exercise of the over-allotment option amounted to $18,336,269 consisting of $6,384,327 of underwriting discount, $11,172,572 of deferred underwriting discount, and $779,370 of other offering costs. Of the transaction costs, $564,701 is included in transaction costs on the statement of operations and $17,771,568 is included in equity.
Following the closing of the Public Offering on March 18, 2021 and the partial exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, $319,216,340 (approximately $10.00 per Unit) from the net proceeds of the sale of the Units in the Public Offering, including the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, was deposited in a trust account (“Trust Account”) located in the United States at Goldman Sachs, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust
 
F-7
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Company
 acting as trustee, and was invested in money market funds meeting certain conditions
under Rule 2a-7 under
the Investment Company Act which invests only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account that may be released to the Company to pay its taxes, if any, the proceeds from the IPO and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will not be released from the Trust Account (1) to the Company, until the completion of our initial Business Combination, or (2) to the Public Shareholders, until the earliest of (i) the completion of the initial Business Combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholders properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend the Company’s amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to provide holders of its Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with the initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of
 the
public shares if the Company does not complete its initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the IPO (the “Combination Period”) or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of the Class A ordinary shares, and (iii) the redemption of the public shares if the Company has not consummated its Business Combination within the Combination Period, subject to applicable law. Public Shareholders who redeem their Class A ordinary shares in connection with a shareholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the Trust Account upon the subsequent completion of an initial Business Combination or liquidation if the Company has not consummated an initial Business Combination within the Combination Period, with respect to such Class A ordinary shares so redeemed. The proceeds deposited in the Trust Account could become subject to the claims of the Company’s creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of the Public Shareholders (as defined below).
The Company will provide shareholders (the “Public Shareholders”) of its Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001, sold in the IPO (the “Public Shares”), with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) without a shareholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek stockholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company, solely in its discretion. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of the initial Business
Combination at a per-share price, payable in
cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial Business Combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay the Company’s taxes, if any, divided by the number of then-outstanding Public Shares, subject to certain limitations. The amount in the Trust Account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per
Public Share. The per-share amount the Company
will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriters.
These Public Shares have been classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the IPO in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” In such case, the Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 and the approval of an ordinary resolution.
The Company will have only 24 months from March 18, 2021, the closing of the IPO, to complete an initial Business Combination. However, if the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Company will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares,
at a per-share price, payable in
cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay its taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the then-outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish Public Shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the Company’s remaining shareholders and its board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to the Company’s obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
 
F-
8
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
The Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares, (ii) waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and public shares in connection with a shareholder vote to approve an amendment to the Company’s amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) that would modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to provide holders of the Class A ordinary shares the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with the initial Business Combination or to redeem 
100
% of its public shares if the Company does not complete our initial Business Combination within the Combination Period or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to the rights of holders of the Class A ordinary shares, (iii) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any Founder Shares they hold if the Company fails to consummate an initial Business Combination within the Combination Period (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any public shares they hold if the Company fails to complete its initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame) and (iv) vote their Founder Shares and public shares in favor of our initial Business Combination.
Liquidity, Capital Resources and Going Concern
The Company’s liquidity needs up to March 18, 2021 had been satisfied through a capital contribution from the Sponsor of $25,000 (see Note 5) for the Founder Shares. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Company’s Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor or certain of the Company’s officers and directors have committed to provide the Company Working Capital Loans (see Note 5). To date, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loans.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had $107,224 in its operating bank account and
a
working capital
deficit
of $720,082.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB ASC 205-40, Presentation of Financial Statements—Going Concern”, management has determined that the Company has and will continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its acquisition plans which raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our initial Business Combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our Public Shares upon consummation of our initial Business Combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such Business Combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Accounts. In addition, following our initial Business Combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Further, management has determined that if the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination by March 18, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution as well as the Company’s working capital deficit raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after the Combination Period. The Company intends to complete a Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date.
Risks and Uncertainties
Management continues to evaluate the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic and
has concluded that while it is reasonably possible that the virus could have a negative effect on the Company’s financial position, results of its operations and search for a target company, the specific impact is not readily determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Note 2 — Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying financial statements are presented in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“US GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
 
F-
9
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Emerging Growth Company Status
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that
apply to non-emerging growth companies but
any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make the comparison of the Company’s financial statements with those of another public company that is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company that has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of the financial statements in conformity with US GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statement, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, actual results could differ from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company did not have any cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021.
Investments Held in Trust Account
At December 31, 2021, funds held in the Trust Account include $319,232,602 of investments held in a money market fund characterized as Level 1 investments within the fair value hierarchy under ASC 820 (as defined below).
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of cash accounts in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the federal depository insurance coverage of $250,000. The Company has not experienced losses on these accounts and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risks on such accounts.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in FASB ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as a liability instrument and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A ordinary shares that features redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. The Company’s Class A ordinary shares features certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ deficit section of the Company’s balance sheet.
As of December 31, 2021, the ordinary shares subject to possible redemption reflected on the balance sheet are reconciled in the following table:
 
Gross proceeds from IPO
  
$
319,216,340
 
Less:
  
      
Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants
  
 
(9,354,214
) 
Ordinary share issuance costs
  
 
(17,771,568
) 
Plus:
  
      
Remeasurement adjustment of carrying value to redemption value
  
 
27,125,782
 
 
  
 
 
 
Ordinary shares subject to possible redemption
  
$
319,216,340
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
F-
10
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Offering Costs
The Company complies with the requirements of
ASC 340-10-S99-1 and SEC
Staff Accounting Bulletin (“SAB”) Topic 5A— “Expenses of Offering”. Offering costs consist principally of professional and registration fees incurred through the balance sheet date that are related to the Public Offering. Offering costs are charged to shareholders’ equity or the statement of operations based on the relative value of the Warrants to the proceeds received from the Units sold upon the completion of the IPO.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities, (excluding the Warrants) which qualify as financial instruments under the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures,” approximates the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheet.
Warrant Liabilities
The Company accounts for the Warrants as either equity-classified or liability-classified instruments based on an assessment of the specific terms of the Warrants and applicable authoritative guidance in Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity (“ASC 480”) and ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”). The assessment considers whether the Warrants are freestanding financial instruments pursuant to ASC 480, meet the definition of a liability pursuant to ASC 480, and meet all of the requirements for equity classification under ASC 815, including whether the Warrants are indexed to the Company’s own ordinary shares and whether the holders of the Warrants could potentially require “net cash settlement” in a circumstance outside of the Company’s control, among other conditions for equity classification. This assessment, which requires the use of professional judgment, is conducted at the time of issuance of the Warrants and as of each subsequent quarterly period end date while the Warrants are outstanding. For issued or modified warrants that meet all of the criteria for equity classification, such warrants are required to be recorded as a component
of additional paid-in capital at
the time of issuance. For issued or modified warrants that do not meet all the criteria for equity classification, liability-classified warrants are required to be recorded at their initial fair value on the date of issuance, and each balance sheet date thereafter. Changes in the estimated fair value of such warrants are recognized
as a non-cash gain or
loss on the statement of operations.
The Company accounts for the Public and Private warrants in accordance with guidance contained in
ASC815-40.
Such guidance provides that because the warrants do not meet the criteria for equity treatment thereunder, each warrant must be recorded as a liability (See Note 6).
Fair Value Measurements
FASB ASC Topic 820 “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures” (“ASC 820”) defines fair value, the methods used to measure fair value and the expanded disclosures about fair value measurements. Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between the buyer and the seller at the measurement date. In determining fair value, the valuation techniques consistent with the market approach, income approach and cost approach shall be used to measure fair value. ASC 820 establishes a fair value hierarchy for inputs, which represent the assumptions used by the buyer and seller in pricing the asset or liability. These inputs are further defined as observable and unobservable inputs. Observable inputs are those that buyer and seller would use in pricing the asset or liability based on market data obtained from sources independent of the Company. Unobservable inputs reflect the Company’s assumptions about the inputs that the buyer and seller would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on the best information available in the circumstances.
 
F-
11
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
The fair value hierarchy is categorized into three levels based on the inputs as follows:
 
Level 1 —
  
Valuations based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access. Valuation adjustments and block discounts are not being applied. Since valuations are based on quoted prices that are readily and regularly available in an active market, valuation of these securities does not entail a significant degree of judgment.
   
Level 2 —
  
Valuations based on (i) quoted prices in active markets for similar assets and liabilities, (ii) quoted prices in markets that are not active for identical or similar assets, (iii) inputs other than quoted prices for the assets or liabilities, or (iv) inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by market through correlation or other means.
   
Level 3 —
  
Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement.
The fair value of the Company’s certain assets and liabilities, which qualify as financial instruments under ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures,” approximates the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheet. The fair values of cash, prepaid assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses, due to related parties are estimated to approximate the carrying values as December 31, 2021 due to the short term maturities of such instruments. See Note 7 for additional information on warrant liabilities measured at fair value.
Income Taxes
The Company follows the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes under FASB ASC 740, “Income Taxes.” ASC Topic 740 prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more likely than not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. The Company’s management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Company’s major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. As of December 31, 2021, there were no unrecognized tax benefits and no amounts accrued for interest and penalties. The Company is currently not aware of any issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviation from its position.
The Company is considered to be an exempted Cayman Islands company with no connection to any other taxable jurisdiction and is presently not subject to income taxes or income tax filing requirements in the Cayman Islands or the United States. As such, the Company’s tax provision was zero for the period presented. The Company’s management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Earnings and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. The potential 12,640,544 ordinary shares for outstanding warrants to purchase the Company’s shares were excluded from diluted earnings per share for the period from January 11, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 because the warrants are contingently exercisable, and the contingencies have not yet been met. As a result, diluted net income per ordinary share is the same as basic net income per ordinary share for the period. The table below presents a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator used to compute basic and diluted net income per share for each class of ordinary share:
 
 
  
For the Period from

January 11, 2021 (Inception)

through December 31, 2021
 
 
  
Class A
ordinary share subject
to possible redemption
 
  
Class B
ordinary shares
 
Numerator
  
      
  
      
Allocation of net income
    $ 5,060,575      $ 1,533,442  
Denominator
                  
Weighted average shares outstanding
      25,840,755        7,830,197  
Basic and diluted net income per share
    $ 0.20      $ 0.20  
 
F-
12
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”)
2020-06,
Debt — Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic
470-20)
and Derivatives and Hedging — Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic
815-40)(“ASU 2020-06”)to
simplify accounting for certain financial instruments. ASU
2020-06
eliminates the current models that require separation of beneficial conversion and cash conversion features from convertible instruments and simplifies the derivative scope exception guidance pertaining to equity classification of contracts in an entity’s own equity. The new standard also introduces additional disclosures for convertible debt and freestanding instruments that are indexed to and settled in an entity’s own equity. ASU
2020-06
amends the diluted earnings per share guidance, including the requirement to use the if converted method for all convertible instruments. ASU
2020-06
is effective January 1, 2022 and should be applied on a full or modified retrospective basis, with early adoption permitted beginning on January 1, 2021. The Company adopted ASU
2020-06
effective January 1, 2021. The adoption of ASU
2020-06
did not have an impact on the Company’s financial statements.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
Note 3 — Initial Public Offering
On March 18, 2021, the Company sold 30,000,000 Units, at a purchase price of $10.00 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary
share, and one-fifth of one
redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment (see Note 6).
On April 14, 2021, the Company sold an additional 1,921,634 Units at a purchase price of $10.00 per Unit, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share
and one-fifth of
one redeemable warrant.
All of the 31,921,634 Class A ordinary share sold as part of the Units in the IPO contain a redemption feature which allows for the redemption of such public shares in connection with the Company’s liquidation, if there is a shareholder vote or tender offer in connection with the Business Combination and in connection with certain amendments to the Company’s certificate of incorporation. In accordance with SEC and its staff’s guidance on redeemable equity instruments, which has been codified in
ASC480-10-S99,
redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require ordinary share subject to redemption to be classified outside of permanent equity.
The Class A ordinary share is subject to SEC and its staff’s guidance on redeemable equity instruments, which has been codified in
ASC480-10-S99.
If it is probable that the equity instrument will become redeemable, the Company has the option to either accrete changes in the redemption value over the period from the date of issuance (or from the date that it becomes probable that the instrument will become redeemable, if later) to the earliest redemption date of the instrument or to recognize changes in the redemption value immediately as they occur and adjust the carrying amount of the instrument to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur. Immediately upon the closing of the IPO, the Company recognized the remeasurement from initial book value to redemption amount value. The change in the carrying value of redeemable ordinary share resulted in charges against additional
paid-in
capital and accumulated deficit.
Note 4 — Private Placements
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 6,000,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant, for an aggregate purchase price of $9,000,000, in a private placement. Simultaneously with the issuance and sale of the Units on April 14, 2021, the Company consummated the private placement with the Sponsor for an aggregate of 256,218 warrants to purchase Class A Ordinary Shares for $1.50 per warrant generating total proceeds of $384,327. A portion of the proceeds from the private placements were added to the proceeds from the IPO held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be used to fund the redemption of the Public Shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law) and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless.  
 
F-
13
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
The Private Placement Warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants
sold
as part of the units in the IPO. The Private Placement Warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination (except pursuant to limited exceptions to the Company’s officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with the initial purchasers of the Private Placement Warrants) and they will not be redeemable by the Company so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees. The Sponsor, or its permitted transferees, has the option to exercise the Private Placement Warrants on a cashless basis.
If the Private Placement Warrants are held by holders other than the Sponsor or its permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by the Company in all redemption scenarios and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units sold in the IPO.
Note 5 — Related Party Transactions
Founder Shares
On January 13, 2021, the Sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain offering costs in consideration for 8,625,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Founder Shares”). Up to 1,125,000 Founder Shares were subject to forfeiture to the extent that the over-allotment option was not exercised in full by the underwriters. On April 14, 2021 the underwriters partially exercised their over-allotment option buying 1,921,634 Units thus reducing the total number of share subject to forfeiture to 644,591. On May 2, 2021 the underwriters’ over-allotment option expired and 644,591 Founder Shares were forfeited to the Company.
The Sponsor and the Company’s directors and executive officers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until earliest of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination and (B) subsequent to the initial Business Combination, (x) if the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading
days within any 30-trading day period commencing
at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, or (y) the date on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of the Public Shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or
other property (the “Lock-up”). Any permitted transferees
would be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of the Sponsor and the directors and executive officers with respect to any Founder Shares.
Promissory Note — Related Party
On January 13, 2021, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $300,000 to cover expenses related to the IPO pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”).
This loan is non-interest bearing and payable
on the earlier of November 30, 2021 or the completion of the IPO. As of December 31, 2021, the Company has no borrowings under the Note. Borrowings under this note are no longer available.
Working Capital Loans
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors, have committed to loan the Company funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company would repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to it. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Up to $1,500,000 of the Working Capital Loans may be convertible into Private Placement Warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of the initial Business Combination, the Company does not expect to seek loans from parties other than the Sponsor its affiliates or any members of the Company’s management team as the Company does not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to
funds in the Company’s Trust Account. As of December 31, 2021, there are no outstanding balance on the Working Capital Loans.
 
F-14
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Administrative Support Agreement
The Company will pay the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of the management team. Upon completion of the initial Business Combination or its liquidation, the Company will cease paying these monthly fees. In addition, the Company reimburses the Sponsor for the reasonable costs of salaries and other services provided to the Company by the employees, consultants and or members of the Sponsor or its affiliates. For the period from January 11, 2021 through December 31, 2021
,
the Company incurred $851,053 in fees for these services, of which
$736,053
was for reimbursement of costs of salaries and other services and
$115,000
was for office space, secretarial and administrative services.
Note 6 — Warrants
The Public Warrants will become exercisable at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at any time commencing 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination; provided that the Company has an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available (or the Company permits holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under the circumstances specified in the warrant agreement) and such shares are registered, qualified or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky, laws of the state of residence of the holder. The warrants will expire five years after the completion of a Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.
The Company has agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than twenty business days after the closing of the initial Business Combination, it will use commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants, and the Company will use its commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of the initial Business Combination, and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement, provided that if the Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, the Company may, at its option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event the Company so elects, it will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but the Company will use its commercially reasonably efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. If a registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th day after the closing of the initial Business Combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when the Company will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption, but the Company will use its commercially reasonably efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of Class A ordinary shares equal to the lesser of (A) the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of Class A ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” (as defined below) less the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value and (B) 0.361. The “fair market value” as used in this paragraph shall mean the volume weighted average price of the Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent.
In no event will the Company be required to net cash settle any warrant. In the event that a registration statement is not effective for the exercised warrants, the purchaser of a unit containing such warrant will have paid the full purchase price for the unit solely for the Class A ordinary share underlying such unit.
 
F-
15
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Ordinary Share Equals or Exceeds $18.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the outstanding warrants (except with respect to the Private Placement Warrants):
 
  •
in whole and not in part;
 
  •
at a price of $0.01 per warrant;
 
  •
upon not less than 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder; and
 
  •
if, and only if, the last reported sale price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within
a 30-trading
day period ending three trading days before the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.
Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Ordinary Share Equals or Exceeds $10.00
Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the outstanding warrants:
 
  •
in whole and not in part;
 
  •
at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares, based on the redemption date and the “fair market value” of our Class A ordinary shares (as defined above);
 
  •
if, and only if, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per public share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within
the 30-trading
day period ending three trading days before the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and
 
  •
if the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for any 20 trading days within
a 30-trading
day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant), the Private Placement Warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding public warrants, as described above.
In addition, if (x) the Company issues additional Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of the initial Business Combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by the Company’s board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to the Sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any Founder Shares held by the Sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance) (the “Newly Issued Price”), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of the initial Business Combination on the date of the consummation of the initial Business Combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume weighted average trading price of our Class A ordinary shares during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which the Company consummates its initial Business Combination (such price, the “Market Value”) is below $9.20 per share, the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price described above will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 per share redemption trigger price described above will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price.
Note 7 — Recurring Fair Value Measurements
Investments Held in Trust Account
As of
December 31, 2021, the
 investments in the Company’s Trust Account consisted of $319.2 million in U.S. Money Market funds. The Company considers all investments with original maturities of more than three months but less than one year to be short-term investments.
Fair values of the Company’s investments are classified as Level 1 utilizing quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets.
 
F-
16
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Recurring Fair Value Measurements
The Company’s permitted investments consist of U.S. Money Market funds. Fair values of these investments are determined by Level 1 inputs utilizing quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets. The Company’s initial value of the warrant liability was based on a valuation model utilizing management judgment and pricing inputs from observable and unobservable markets with less volume and transaction frequency than active markets and classified as level 3. The subsequent measurement of the Public Warrants is classified as Level 1 due to the use of an observable market price of these warrants. The subsequent measurement of the Private Warrants is classified as Level 2 because these warrants are economically equivalent to the Public warrants, based on the terms of the Private Warrant agreement, and as such their value is principally derived by the value of the Public Warrants. Significant deviations from these estimates and inputs could result in a material change in fair value. At June 30, 2021, the Company reclassified the Public Warrants and Private Warrants from Level 3 to Level 1 and Level 2, respectively.
The overallotment liability is measured at fair value using the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model with significant unobservable inputs. The fair value is based on the share price of the underlying shares and a number of assumptions, including expected volatility, expected life, risk-free interest rate and expected dividends. Therefore, the overallotment liability is considered to be a Level 3 financial instrument. There was no overallotment liability outstanding as of December 31, 2021.
The following table presents fair value information as of December 31, 2021, of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that were accounted for at fair value on a recurring basis and indicates the fair value hierarchy of the valuation techniques the Company utilized to determine such fair value.
 
 
  
Total
 
  
Level 1
 
  
Level 2
 
  
Level 3
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
Assets
  
      
  
      
  
      
  
      
Investments held in Trust Account—U.S. Money Market
    $ 319,232,602      $ 319,232,602      $ —        $ —    
Liabilities
                                    
Public warrant liability
      4,723,763        4,723,763        —          —    
Private warrant liability
      4,628,976        —          4,628,976        —    
Total
    $ 9,352,739      $ 4,723,763      $ 4,628,976      $ —    
Measurement
The following table provides a reconciliation of changes in the Level 3 fair value classification:
 
Fair value at January 11, 2021
    $ —    
Issuance due to IPO at March 18, 2021
      17,640,000  
Issuance of over-allotment option
 
 
1,170,000
 
Issuance of overallotment warrant placements (public and private)
      890,357  
Partial exercise of over-allotment option
 
 
(288,245
)
 
Reclassification of Private Warrants to Level 2 (1)
      (7,405,819 ) 
Reclassification of Public Warrants to Level 1 (1)
      (7,257,213 ) 
Expiration of over-allotment option
 
 
(567,241
)
Change in fair value
      (4,181,839 ) 
    
 
 
  
Fair Value at December 31, 2021
    $ —    
    
 
 
  
 
(1)
These warrants were reclassified on June 30, 2021
Note 8 — Commitments and Contingencies
Registration Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants and any warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of the IPO. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the Company’s completion of its initial Business Combination. However, the registration and shareholder rights agreement provide that the Company will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until termination of the applicable
Lock-up
period, which occurs
 
(i) in the case of the Founder Shares, as described in Note 5, and (ii) in the case of the Private Placement Warrants and the respective Class A ordinary shares underlying such warrants, 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
 
F-
1
7
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Underwriting Agreement
The Company granted
the underwriters a 45-day option from March 18,
 
2021
to purchase up to an additional 4,500,000 Units to cover over-allotments, if any, at the IPO price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters partially exercised the over-allotment option and, on April 14, 2021, the underwriters purchased 1,921,634 units.
On March 18, 2021, the Company paid the underwriters’ fee of $6,000,000 upon the closing of the IPO. Upon partial exercise of the over-allotment option, the Company paid $384,327 to the underwriters.
In addition, $11,172,572 will be payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Note 9 — Shareholders’ Deficit
Preference Shares
 — The Company is authorized to issue 1,000,000 preference shares at par value of $0.0001, with such designations, voting and other rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by the Company’s board of directors. At December 31, 2021, there were no preference shares issued or outstanding.
Class
 A Ordinary Shares
 — The Company is authorized to issue a total of 500,000,000 Class A Ordinary Shares at par value of $0.0001 per share. At December 31, 2021, there were no Class A Ordinary Shares outstanding, excluding 31,921,634 shares of Class A Ordinary Shares subject to possible redemption.
Class
 B Ordinary Shares
 — The Company is authorized to issue a total of 50,000,000 Class B Ordinary Shares at par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders are entitled to one vote for each Class B ordinary share. With the underwriters’ over-allotment option expiring in May 2021 partially unexercised, the initial shareholders forfeited 644,591 to the Company for no consideration so that the initial shareholders would collectively own 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares after the IPO. As of December 31, 2021, there were 7,980,409 shares of Class B Ordinary Shares issued and outstanding.
Holders of the Class A ordinary shares and holders of the Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of the Company’s shareholders, except as required by law. Unless specified in the Company’s amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, or as required by applicable provisions of the Companies Act or applicable stock exchange rules, the affirmative vote of a majority of the Company’s ordinary shares that are voted is required to approve any such matter voted on by its shareholders.
The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares (which such Class A ordinary shares delivered upon conversion will not have redemption rights or be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account if the Company does not consummate an initial Business Combination) at the time of the initial Business Combination or earlier at the option of the holders thereof at a ratio such that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Founder Shares will equal, in the
aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of
the sum of (i) the total number of ordinary shares issued and outstanding upon completion of the IPO, plus (ii) the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the Company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial Business Combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into Class A ordinary shares issued, deemed issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial Business Combination and any Private Placement Warrants issued to the Sponsor, its affiliates or any member of the Company’s management team upon conversion of Working Capital Loans. In no event will the Class B ordinary shares convert into Class A ordinary shares at a rate
of less than one-to-one.
 
F-
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8
PLUM ACQUISITION CORP. I
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
 
Note 10 — Subsequent Events
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Based upon this review, the Company did not identify any subsequent events other than noted below that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
On January 31, 2022, the Company issued an unsecured promissory note (the “Note”) in the principal amount of $500,000 to Mike Dinsdale (the “Payee”). The Note does not bear interest and is repayable in full upon consummation of the Company’s initial business combination (a “Business Combination”). The Company may draw on the Note from time to time until the earlier of March 18, 2023 or the date on which the Company consummates a Business Combination.
 
F-19
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