Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4)
Registration No. 333-221330
PROSPECTUS
LEISURE ACQUISITION CORP.
$200,000,000
20,000,000 Units
Leisure Acquisition Corp. is a newly organized blank check company 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, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not identified any business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target.
This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one share of our common stock and one-half of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus, and only whole warrants are exercisable. The warrants will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination and 12 months from the closing of this offering, and will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation, as described in this prospectus. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. We have also granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 units to cover over-allotments, if any.
We will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of our common stock 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 described below as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding shares of common stock that were sold as part of the units in this offering, which we refer to collectively as our public shares throughout this prospectus, subject to the limitations described herein. If we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, we will redeem 100% of 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to applicable law and as further described herein.
Throughout this prospectus, we refer to our sponsors individually as our Hydra sponsor and our Matthews Lane sponsor. In addition, we refer to HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd. as our strategic investor. Affiliates of our Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 warrants (or 7,425,000 warrants if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant (approximately $6,825,000 in the aggregate, or $7,425,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. We refer to these warrants as the private placement warrants throughout this prospectus. Each whole private placement warrant is exercisable to purchase one whole share of our common stock at $11.50 per share.
Our strategic investor has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract with us to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit. The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their public shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination. Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units under the contingent forward purchase contract is contingent upon, among other things, our strategic investor approving the business combination, which approval can be withheld for any reason.
Currently, there is no public market for our units, common stock or warrants. We have applied to list our units on the NASDAQ Capital Market, or NASDAQ, under the symbol LACQU on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on NASDAQ. The common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus unless Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our filing a Current Report on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, containing an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds of this offering and issuing a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, we expect that the common stock and warrants will be listed on NASDAQ under the symbols LACQ and LACQW, respectively.
We are an emerging growth company under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See the section of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors beginning on page 30 for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities. Investors will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings.
Neither the SEC nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
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Per Unit | Total | |||||||
Public offering price | $10.00 | $200,000,000 | ||||||
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1) | $0.55 | $11,000,000 | ||||||
Proceeds, before expenses, to Leisure Acquisition Corp. | $9.45 | $189,000,000 |
(1) | Includes $0.35 per unit, or $7,000,000 (or up to $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) in the aggregate payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions to be placed in a trust account located in the United States as described herein. The deferred commissions will be released to the underwriters only on completion of an initial business combination, as described in this prospectus. See also the section of this prospectus entitled Underwriting for a description of compensation payable to the underwriters. |
Of the proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $200,000,000 or $230,000,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.00 per unit) will be deposited into a U.S.-based trust account at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and $2,825,000 will be available to pay fees and expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following the closing of this offering. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will not be released from the trust account until the earliest to occur of (a) the completion of our initial business combination, (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (c) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public stockholders.
The underwriters are offering the units for sale on a firm commitment basis. The underwriters expect to deliver the units to the purchasers on or about December 5, 2017.
Book-Running Manager
MORGAN STANLEY
Lead Manager
EARLYBIRDCAPITAL, INC.
December 1, 2017
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus. We have not, and the underwriters have not, authorized anyone to provide you with different or additional information. If such information is provided to you, you should not rely on it. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus.
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This summary only highlights the more detailed information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. As this is a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making an investment decision. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the information under the section of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before investing.
| we, us, company or our company are to Leisure Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation; |
| public shares are to shares of our common stock sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market); |
| public stockholders are to the holders of our public shares, including our initial stockholders and members of our management team to the extent our initial stockholders and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that each initial stockholders and member of our management teams status as a public stockholder shall only exist with respect to such public shares; |
| management or our management team are to our officers and directors; |
| Hydra sponsor are to Hydra Management, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, an affiliate of A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman; |
| Matthews Lane sponsor are to Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, an affiliate of Daniel B. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer; |
| sponsors are to our Hydra sponsor and our Matthews Lane sponsor, collectively; |
| strategic investor is to HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd., a Cayman Islands exempted company; |
| initial stockholders are to holders of our founder shares prior to this offering; |
| founders shares are to shares of our common stock initially purchased by our initial stockholders in a private placement prior to this offering; |
| private placement warrants are to the warrants issued to certain of our initial stockholders in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of this offering; and |
| private placement units are to the 6,250,000 of our units our strategic investor has agreed to purchase on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit, to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination. |
Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-half of one warrant for each unit purchased. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus, and only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant.
Registered trademarks referred to in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Unless we tell you otherwise, the information in this prospectus assumes that the underwriters will not exercise their over-allotment option.
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We are a newly organized blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation on September 11, 2017 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, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not identified any potential business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any potential business combination target.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to focus on the location-based leisure sector and leisure-related businesses, which complements our management teams sector and operating expertise. The leisure sector and leisure-related businesses are primarily comprised of companies providing consumer discretionary goods and services. Target businesses that we are focused on in this sector include, but are not limited to, those in the gaming, travel and recreation subsectors. We believe that the experience and capabilities of our management team will make us an attractive partner to potential target businesses, enhance our ability to complete a successful business combination, and bring value to the business post-business combination. Not only does our management team bring a combination of operating, investing, financial and transactional experience, but also members of our management team have worked closely together in the past at multiple leisure-oriented companies, creating value for stockholders.
We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines.
| Businesses with Market and/or Cost Leadership Positions. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with market and/or cost leadership positions in their respective niches. We believe that businesses with differentiated market or cost-leadership strategies provide the greatest number of opportunities for generating consistent investment returns. Moreover, operating these types of businesses is the most consistent with our management teams previous investment and leadership history. |
| Businesses that Will Benefit from our Management Expertise. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with assets that are fundamentally sound yet are underperforming their potential. Specifically, we seek to acquire one or more businesses that are at an inflection point, such as those requiring additional management expertise, where we believe we can drive improved financial performance and where an acquisition may help facilitate growth. Given our management teams extensive networks and insights within the leisure sector as well as their general track record as corporate leaders, we seek to add value by improving the productivity of any underperforming assets and/or growing operations beyond existing capabilities. |
| Experienced Management Team. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with an experienced management team that provides a platform for us to further develop the management capabilities of the acquired business. We seek to partner with established management teams or business owners to achieve long-term strategic and operational excellence. Given our management teams professional experience and leisure sector expertise, we expect that the operating and financial abilities of our executive team and board will complement the capabilities of existing management teams. |
| Businesses with Untapped Potential. We seek to acquire one or more businesses that have significant embedded and/or underexploited expansion opportunities, have been underinvested in by current owners, and/or exhibited unrecognized value or other characteristics. Our management team has significant experience in identifying businesses with opportunities to accelerate organic growth and/or add on attractive acquisition targets. Examples include the acquisitions of WMS Industries, IGT Online Entertainment Systems and MDI Corp. by Scientific Games Corp., while Mr. Weil was serving as either Chief Executive Officer or Chairman, as well as the blank check business combinations of Inspired Gaming Group, for which Mr. Weil was a sponsor and also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp., Tecnoglass S.A., for which Mr. Weil was the Non-Executive Chairman of the board of the Andina Acquisition Corp., and Service1st Bank |
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of Nevada, for which Mr. Silvers served as the President of Global Consumer Acquisition Corp. Moreover, we believe our management teams depth and breadth of transaction experience affords them an advantage in identifying undervalued targets with liquidity limitations that would benefit from a capital infusion and renewed management focus. We believe our management teams assistance would create value for these types of targets by more effectively raising and allocating capital to achieve the companys growth strategy. Our operating expertise comes from our management teams professional leisure sector experience at Scientific Games, Inspired Entertainment and investment banking, management consulting and board service roles focused on the gaming sector. We believe that our management teams operating expertise is highly transferable. |
| Businesses that Will Benefit from Being a Public Company. We intend to acquire one or more businesses that will benefit from being publicly traded. Once becoming a publicly traded company, the acquired business(es) can effectively utilize the broader access to capital and the public profile that are associated with being a publicly traded company. |
We believe that potential target companies will find the opportunity to enter into a business combination with us attractive for the following reasons:
| Acquisition Experience. Our management team has extensive experience in identifying and executing acquisitions, particularly for blank check companies, including Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp. (acquired Inspired Gaming Group in 2016), Andina Acquisition Corp. (acquired Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows in 2013) and Global Consumer Acquisition Corp. (acquired Service1st Bank of Nevada in 2010). Moreover, Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have led and overseen numerous successful transactions in their various professional capacities. |
| Deep Relationships. Owing to their professional experience as corporate executives, investment bankers, management consultants and corporate development leaders, each of our management team and board of directors possesses a vast quantity of distinguished relationships across the public capital markets and the leisure-related business sector. Potential merger candidates will likely view such experience as a positive factor in deciding whether to enter into a business combination with us. |
| Management Expertise. Our management team has unique expertise as investors in and operators of companies in the leisure-based sector. Our operating expertise comes from our management teams professional leisure sector experience at Scientific Games, Inspired Entertainment and investment banking, management consulting and board service roles focused on the gaming sector. |
Our management team is led by A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman, and Daniel B. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Weils and Mr. Silvers careers have centered on identifying and implementing value creation initiatives, often through acquisition (or other transaction means) within the leisure-centric industries. Strategies that they have collectively pursued in the course of these initiatives have included: (i) cost management and productivity enhancement, and reinvesting the savings behind product innovation, marketing, and brand building; (ii) the integration of available technology, and the development of new technology, to deliver improved product offerings and (iii) assessment of existing business lines to identify opportunities to acquire complimentary businesses which they believe are capable of leading to substantial revenue synergies. Each of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers and George Peng, our Chief Financial Officer, has extensive experience with blank check companies.
We believe that our management teams extensive relationships with leading leisure sector figures, including executives of private and public companies and important stockholders of such companies, will give us a competitive advantage in pursuing a broad range of opportunities. Our management team believes that its ability to identify and implement operational value creation initiatives will remain central to its differentiated acquisition strategy.
Mr. Weil is a renowned leader in the leisure sector, with over 40 years of corporate leadership experience, which makes him uniquely suited to serve as Executive Chairman. Mr. Weil has enjoyed an extensive professional career over which he has transitioned from a senior management consultant into a
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successful corporate leader. In his capacity as a management consultant, corporate development officer and senior executive, Mr. Weil has advised on, initiated and overseen numerous transformative acquisitions, divestitures, IPOs, joint ventures and debt capital markets issuances. Owing to his considerable transaction experience focused on the technology and gaming industries, Mr. Weil is well-known by the investment banks and debt financing sources that we expect to call upon to assist us in executing on our strategy.
His professional experience includes:
| Serving as a manager for the Boston Consulting Group, a renowned global management consulting firm, from 1970 to 1974. |
| Serving as Vice President of Corporate Development at General Instrument Corporation, an electronics manufacturer specializing in semiconductors, cable television equipment and wagering and cable systems, from 1974 to 1979. |
| Founding and leading Lorne Weil Inc., a firm that provided strategic planning and corporate development services to technology-based industries, from 1979 to 1992. |
| Building Scientific Games Corporation, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: SGMS), from approximately $48 million in revenue in 1992 to approximately $1.7 billion, on a pro forma basis, in 2013. Mr. Weil brought his technology expertise to the gaming industry to successfully transform Scientific Games into a leading developer of technology-based products, services and associated content for the worldwide gaming and lottery markets. In particular, during Mr. Weils time at Scientific Games, the company made a number of significant acquisitions and joint ventures, including the privatization of the off-track betting operations of the State of Connecticut, the acquisitions of Scientific Games Holdings Corp., IGT Online Entertainment Systems, Global Draw and WMS Industries and the privatization of the Illinois, New Jersey and Italian lotteries. |
| Leading successful acquisitions for multiple blank check companies with a focus on the gaming industry, as detailed below, from 2012 to present. Mr. Weil currently serves as the Executive Chairman of a successor entity of a blank check company and as the Non-Executive Chairman of a successor entity of another blank check company following successfully completed initial business combinations. |
As noted above, Mr. Weil has considerable experience serving as a sponsor of successful blank check companies. He served as a board member and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Andina Acquisition Corp. (AAC), a blank check company that raised $42 million of gross proceeds in its March 2012 initial public offering with the intention of making an investment in a high potential company in the Andean region of South America. In December 2013, AAC merged with Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows, a Colombia-based exporter of high technology architectural glass for the residential and commercial construction industry. Mr. Weil is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the successor entity, Tecnoglass Inc. Tecnoglass ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol TGLS. Additionally, Mr. Weil served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp. (HIAC), a blank check company that raised $80 million of gross proceeds in its October 2014 initial public offering with the intention of acquiring a high-potential investment target. In December 2016, HIAC merged with Inspired Gaming Group, a global games technology company supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server-based gaming systems featuring associated terminals and digital content to betting, gaming, and lottery operators worldwide. Mr. Weil is currently the Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. Inspireds ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol INSE, and its warrants are traded on the OTC Market under the symbol INSEW.
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Mr. Weil will collaborate with Mr. Silvers, whose background we believe complements and supplements Mr. Weils. Mr. Silvers is an established leader in the leisure sector, with nearly 20 years of experience as an operator, investor, board member and advisor. In addition to founding and serving as the Managing Member of Matthews Lane Capital Partners, his professional experience includes:
| Serving as a Vice President at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., garnering significant industry expertise as a senior member of the real estate, gaming and lodging investment banking group, from 1999 to 2005. Mr. Silvers was integrally involved in all aspects of Bear Stearns gaming and hospitality industry investment banking practice, including origination, analysis and transaction execution. |
| Serving as a Vice President with Fortress Investment Group, a leading global alternative asset manager, from 2005 to 2009. Mr. Silvers originated, oversaw due diligence on and managed assets for the firms gaming and real estate investments. |
| Serving as Chief Strategy Officer of Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSE) following its December 2016 merger with HIAC. Mr. Silvers is currently overseeing a period of continued growth and success for the company, which includes acceptance of a second consecutive award for eGaming Reviews Virtual Sports Supplier of the Year. |
| Acting as the Lead Independent Director of PICO Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PICO), a holding company engaged in water resource/water storage operations. |
| Mr. Silvers has previously served on the boards of directors of multiple gaming technology, entertainment, healthcare and real estate development companies. This extensive directorship experience earned Mr. Silvers recognition from the National Association of Corporate Directors, which named him to its 2015 A New Generation of Board Leadership: Directors Under Age 40 list of emerging corporate directors. |
In addition to his operating company executive experience, Mr. Silvers served as President of Global Consumer Acquisition Corporation (GCAC), a blank check company that raised $300 million of gross proceeds in its November 2007 initial public offering with the intention of acquiring an investment target operating in the global consumer products and services industries. In October 2010, GCAC completed its acquisition of Service1st Bank of Nevada, a community bank in Las Vegas, Nevada, which operated as Western Liberty Bancorp until its sale to Western Alliance Bancorporation in 2012.
Our management teams past performance, including with respect to Mr. Weils involvement with successor entities of blank check companies, is not a guarantee that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or that any business combination we may consummate will be successful.
Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers are currently restricted by non-compete provisions contained in their respective employment agreements with Inspired, which provisions prohibit Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers from managing certain businesses that directly compete with the business activities of Inspired and its associated companies that it controls (collectively, the Inspired Group). Mr. Weil is also restricted by a non-solicit provision, which prohibits Mr. Weil from soliciting certain employees. See Risk Factors Our Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer are parties to certain agreements that will limit the types of companies that we can target for an initial business combination, among other restrictions, which could limit our prospects for an initial business combination and make us a less attractive buyer to certain target companies and Risk Factors Our Executive Chairman is party to a certain agreement that will limit his ability to solicit or hire employees of Inspired, which could make us a less attractive buyer to certain target companies. Our management team does not currently expect to continue in a management role with us following the comsummation of our initial business combination.
Leisure Acquisition Corp. is sponsored by a partnership between Hydra Management and Matthews Lane Capital Partners, the respective firms of Messrs. Weil and Silvers. Messrs. Weil and Silvers have worked closely together at various times over the course of a period spanning more than 15 years, beginning when Mr. Weil was a client of Mr. Silvers at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., and their firms have worked closely together
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for more than two years, partnering on numerous efforts. Additionally, (i) Mr. Silvers served as an external consultant to HIAC, assisting it in consummating the business combination with Inspired Gaming, (ii) Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have explored the private acquisitions of a number of businesses together and (iii) Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have worked together on private, early-stage venture capital opportunities.
Hydra Management, LLC is an investment management firm founded in 2013 by Mr. Weil. Hydra Management, LLC and its affiliates invest in middle market companies through private equity capital. HIAC, a special purpose acquisition company and an affiliate of Hydra Management, LLC, was incorporated in 2014 with the stated intention of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, recapitalization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses. HIAC sought to acquire or merge with a company that would benefit from the experience and capabilities of Hydras management team, including Mr. Weil. Through detailed diligence and target outreach, HIAC ultimately identified and executed a merger with Inspired Gaming Group, a global games technology company supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server-based gaming systems featuring associated terminals and digital content to betting, gaming, and lottery operators worldwide. Mr. Weil is currently the Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: INSE).
Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC is an investment firm founded in 2015 by Mr. Silvers. Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC seeks to make public and private investments at all layers of the capital structure including secured debt, mezzanine debt, preferred equity, common equity, and warrants. The firm focuses on complex, off-market situations in which it has substantial operating expertise and an ability to create value. Accordingly, Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC focuses on evaluating investment alternatives across the following sectors in which it has significant operating and board-level experience: real estate, gaming, lodging, leisure, consumer-oriented technology, financial services/financial institutions, healthcare, food service and education.
We believe that companies operating in the leisure sector have characteristics that make them attractive investments. Many companies in leisure-oriented industries generate high margins and strong free cash flow, maintain operational stability throughout economic cycles and serve as good platforms for future acquisitions. Furthermore, these companies are often able to realize substantial cost synergies through the addition of additional assets that are able to benefit from shared overhead and corporate infrastructure as well as purchasing power benefits. Our management team has executed on these growth strategies throughout their respective careers.
Frequently, many large leisure companies pursue plans to rationalize operations and/or to divest non-core assets. At times, such efforts to divest assets may be driven by regulatory concerns, including antitrust consideration. All members of our management team have had extensive experience undertaking mergers and acquisitions and overseeing business integration and synergy realization. We believe that our management team of leisure sector veterans is uniquely capable of identifying attractive businesses, executing acquisitions and adding value post deal completion.
Our management teams and sponsors deal sourcing network, ranging from industry executives, private owners, private equity funds, public stockholders, investment bankers, consultants and others, is expected to enable us to pursue a broad range of opportunities across the entire leisure sector. Our management believes that its ability to identify and implement operational value creation initiatives will remain central to its differentiated acquisition strategy. Additionally, the network of our sponsors is expected to allow us to lean heavily on an existing infrastructure of resources that will assist in due diligence and ultimately structuring an acquisition.
Mr. Weils prior blank check company experience includes sponsoring HIAC, which acquired Inspired Gaming Group in 2016. In connection with this business combination, Mr. Weil became Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. Inspireds ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol INSE, and its warrants are traded on the OTC Market under the symbol INSEW. In addition, Mr. Weil served as a board member and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of
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AAC, a blank check company that, in December 2013, merged with Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows, a Colombia-based exporter of high technology architectural glass for the residential and commercial construction industry. Mr. Weil is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the successor entity, Tecnoglass S.A. Tecnoglass ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol TGLS. Mr. Silvers prior blank check company experiences includes having served as President of GCAC, a blank check company that acquired Service1st Bank of Nevada, which operated as Western Liberty Bancorp until its sale to Western Alliance Bancorporation in 2012. Western Liberty Bancorps shares traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol WLBC. Mr. Pengs blank check company experience includes having served as Chief Financial Officer for HIAC. Subsequent to the business combination with Inspired Gaming in 2016, Mr. Peng became Vice President Finance at Inspired Entertainment Inc. In addition, Mr. Weil was an initial stockholder in Andina Acquisition Corp. II (Andina II), a blank check company that has recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lazydays R.V. Center, Inc. and its affiliates. Upon consummation of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, subject to approval by Andina IIs shareholders and other customary closing conditions, Mr. Weil will become Vice Chairman and join the board of directors of the combined company. Affiliates of each of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers and Mr. Peng have provided consulting services to Andina II in connection with its contemplated business combination.
Our acquisition and value creation strategy will be to identify, acquire and build a company in the leisure sector that complements the experience of our management team and can benefit from its operational expertise. After our initial business combination, we envision our strategy may include additional mergers and acquisitions with a focus on generating attractive risk adjusted returns for our stockholders. We will leverage our management teams network of potential proprietary and public transaction sources where we believe a combination of our relationships, knowledge and experience in the leisure sector could effect a positive transformation or augmentation of existing businesses to improve their overall value.
We plan to utilize the network and industry experience of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers, our sponsors and their respective affiliates and our board of directors in seeking an initial business combination and employing our acquisition strategy. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team and their affiliates have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships that we believe will serve as a useful source of acquisition opportunities. This network has been developed through our management teams extensive experience in:
| both investing in and operating across the leisure sector; |
| setting and adjusting strategies for businesses; |
| identifying, mentoring and recruiting world-class talent; |
| sourcing, structuring, acquiring, operating, developing, growing, financing and selling businesses; |
| accessing the public capital markets; |
| executing transactions in multiple geographies; |
| relationships with sellers, financing providers and target management teams; and |
| executing transactions in the leisure sector under varying economic and financial market conditions. |
We expect these networks will provide our management team with a robust flow of acquisition opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, which may include investment market participants, certain of our stockholders, private equity groups, investment banking firms, consultants, accounting firms and large business enterprises. Upon completion of this offering, members of our management team will communicate with their networks of relationships to articulate the parameters for our search for a target company and a potential business combination and begin the process of pursuing and reviewing potentially interesting leads.
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In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review that will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information that will be made available to us. We will also utilize our operational and capital planning experience.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our management team and our independent directors will directly or indirectly own founder shares and/or private placement warrants following this 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 was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
We currently do not have any specific transaction under consideration with a target business with which to consummate our initial business combination. All of the members of our management team pursue outside business interests, including through either Hydra or Matthews Lane Capital Partners, and are continuously made aware of potential business opportunities, one or more of which we may desire to pursue for a business combination, but we have not (nor has anyone on our behalf) contacted any prospective target business with respect to a business combination transaction with us.
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 pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. 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 opportunity to such entity and not to us. For more information on the entities to which our officers, directors and director nominees currently have fiduciary or contractual obligations, please refer to Management Conflict of Interest. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
In addition to the above, all of our executive officers have certain duties to Inspired, including but not limited to fiduciary and/or contractual duties. As a result, our officers will have certain duties to offer acquisition opportunities to Inspired before we can pursue such opportunities. However, we do not expect these duties to present a significant conflict of interest with our search for an initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. Moreover, our executive officers have time and attention requirements with respect to their duties to Inspired.
Our officers and directors have agreed not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial business combination or we have failed to complete our initial business combination within the required timeframe.
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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 assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. If our board 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 that is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, or an independent accounting firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders 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-transaction 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 stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction 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 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-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. 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 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 stockholders 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-transaction 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 and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
Prior to the date of this prospectus, we will file a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our business combination.
Our executive offices are located at 250 West 57th Street, Suite 2223, New York, New York 10107, and our telephone number is (646) 565-6940.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to 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 of 2002, or 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 non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
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In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to emerging growth company shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
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In making your decision on whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the backgrounds of the members of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company and the fact that this offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. You should carefully consider these and the other risks set forth in the section of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors.
Securities offered |
20,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit, each unit consisting of: |
one share of common stock; and |
one-half of one warrant. |
NASDAQ symbols |
Units: LACQU |
Common Stock: LACQ |
Warrants: LACQW |
Trading commencement and separation of common stock and warrants |
The units will begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus unless Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the shares of common stock and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into shares of common stock and warrants. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant. |
Separate trading of the common stock and warrants is prohibited until we have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K |
In no event will the common stock and warrants be traded separately until we have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K with the SEC containing an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds at the closing of this offering. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering, which is anticipated to take place three business days from the date of this prospectus. If the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option. |
Units: |
Number outstanding before this offering |
0 |
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Number outstanding after this offering |
20,000,000(1) |
Common stock: |
Number outstanding before this offering |
7,187,500 shares of common stock(2) |
Number outstanding after this offering |
25,000,000 shares of common stock(1) |
Warrants: |
Number of private placement warrants to be sold in a private placement simultaneously with this offering |
6,825,000(1) |
Number of warrants to be outstanding after this offering and the private placement |
16,825,000(1) |
Exercisability |
Each whole warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of our common stock and only whole warrants are exercisable. |
Exercise price |
$11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described herein. |
Exercise period |
The warrants will become exercisable on the later of: |
30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; and |
12 months from the closing of this offering; |
provided in each case that we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available (or we permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under the circumstances specified in the warrant agreement). |
We are not registering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants at this time. However, we have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our best efforts to file and have an effective registration statement covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants, to maintain a current prospectus relating to those shares of common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed; provided, that if our common stock is at the time of |
(1) | Assumes no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option and the forfeiture by our initial stockholders of 750,000 founder shares. Also assumes the forfeiture of 1,437,500 shares by certain of our initial stockholders so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
(2) | Includes up to 750,000 shares that are subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised. Includes 1,437,500 shares that are subject to forfeiture by certain of our initial stockholders so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. After giving effect to this forfeiture of 1,437,500 shares, 5,750,000 shares of common stock would be outstanding. |
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any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies 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. |
The warrants will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. On the exercise of any warrant, the warrant exercise price will be paid directly to us and not placed in the trust account. |
Redemption of warrants |
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the private placement warrants): |
in whole and not in part; |
at a price of $0.01 per warrant; |
upon a minimum of 30 days prior written notice of redemption, which we refer to as the 30-day redemption period; and |
if, and only if, the last sale price of our common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
We will not redeem the warrants unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those shares of common stock is available throughout the 30-day redemption period, except if the warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. 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. |
We have established the redemption criterion relating to the $18.00 redemption trigger price discussed above to prevent a redemption call unless there is at the time of the call a significant premium to the warrant exercise price. If the foregoing conditions are satisfied and we issue a notice of redemption of the warrants, each warrant holder will be entitled to exercise its warrant prior to the scheduled redemption date. However, the price of the common stock may fall below the $18.00 redemption trigger price as well as the $11.50 warrant exercise price after the redemption notice is issued. |
If we call the warrants for redemption as described above, our management will have the option to require all holders that wish |
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to exercise warrants to do so on a cashless basis. This redemption feature may differ from the warrant redemption features used by other blank check companies that do not provide for an exercise of warrants on a cashless basis. In determining whether to require all holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, our management will consider, among other factors, our cash position, the number of warrants that are outstanding and the dilutive effect on our stockholders of issuing the maximum number of shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of our warrants. In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the fair market value (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The fair market value shall mean the average reported last sale price of the common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. If our management takes advantage of this option, the notice of redemption will contain the information necessary to calculate the number of shares of common stock to be received upon exercise of the warrants, including the fair market value in such case. Requiring a cashless exercise in this manner will reduce the number of shares to be issued and thereby lessen the dilutive effect of a warrant redemption. We believe this feature is an attractive option to us if we do not need the cash from the exercise of the warrants after our initial business combination. Please see the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Warrants Public Stockholders Warrants for additional information. |
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or such purchasers permitted transferees. |
Private Placement at Initial Business Combination |
Our strategic investor has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit (which we call our private placement units). The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination. Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units under the contingent forward purchase contract is contingent upon, among other things, our strategic investor approving the business combination, which approval can be withheld for any reason. |
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Founder shares |
In September 2017, our initial stockholders purchased 7,187,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by our initial stockholders, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the aggregate number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that the founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering. As such, our initial stockholders will collectively own 20% of our issued and outstanding shares after this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Prior to the date of this prospectus, our Hydra sponsor intends to transfer 25,000 founder shares to each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo, and Weinstein, our independent director nominees (for a total of 75,000 founder shares, none of which are subject to forfeiture). In October 2017, our Hydra sponsor transferred 203,957 shares to certain of our officers and professionals. In October 2017, certain of our initial stockholders transferred 711,250 shares to our strategic investor, with 355,625 shares subject to return to such stockholders if, after the closing date of the initial business combination, the last reported sales price of our common stock equals or exceeds $15.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period commencing at least 150 days after the closing date of the initial business combination through and including the second anniversary of the initial business combination (the Share Return Condition). Up to 750,000 founder shares will be subject to forfeiture by our sponsors depending on the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised so that our initial stockholders will maintain ownership of 20% of our common stock after this offering. |
Pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such initial stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
The founder shares are identical to the shares of common stock included in the units being sold in this offering, except that: |
the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below; |
our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (i) to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 business combination within the prescribed time |
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frame. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. Our initial stockholders have agreed to vote any founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders founder shares, we would need 7,500,001 or approximately 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised); and |
the founder shares are subject to registration rights. |
Transfer restrictions on founder shares |
Our initial stockholders, officers and directors have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any founder shares held by them until the earlier to occur of: (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) if the last sale price of our common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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, stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property (except as described herein under Principal Stockholders Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants Held by our Initial Stockholders). We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this prospectus as the lock-up. |
Private placement warrants |
Affiliates of our Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 private placement warrants (or 7,425,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of our common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant ($6,825,000 in the aggregate or $7,425,000 in the aggregate if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the closing of this offering. Each whole private placement warrant is exercisable for one whole share of our common stock at $11.50 per share. |
A portion of the purchase price of the private placement warrants will be added to the proceeds from this offering to be held in the trust account such that at the time of closing $200.0 million (or $230.0 million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full) will be held in the trust account. If we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from |
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the closing of this offering, the proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law) and the private placement warrants will expire worthless. |
The private placement warrants will be non-redeemable and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or such purchasers permitted transferees. If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than their initial purchasers or such purchasers permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this offering. |
Transfer restrictions on private placement warrants |
The private placement warrants (including the common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination (except as described under the section of this prospectus entitled Principal Stockholders Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants). |
Cashless exercise of private placement warrants |
If holders of private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering their warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the fair market value (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The fair market value shall mean the average reported last sale price of the common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent. The reason that we have agreed that these warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees is because it is not known at this time whether they will be affiliated with us following a business combination. If they remain affiliated with us, their ability to sell our securities in the open market will be significantly limited. We expect to have policies in place that prohibit insiders from selling our securities except during specific periods of time. Even during such periods of time when insiders will be permitted to sell our securities, an insider cannot trade in our securities if he or she is in possession of material non-public information. Accordingly, unlike public stockholders who could sell the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants freely in the open market, the insiders could be significantly restricted from doing so. As a result, we believe that allowing the holders to exercise such warrants on a cashless basis is appropriate. |
Proceeds to be held in trust account |
The rules of NASDAQ provide that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement |
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warrants be deposited in a trust account. Of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, $200,000,000, or $10.00 per unit ($230,000,000, or $10.00 per unit, if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be placed into a U.S.-based trust account at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. These proceeds include $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) in deferred underwriting commissions. |
Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will not be released from the trust account until the earliest of (a) the completion of our initial business combination, (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (c) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public stockholders. |
Anticipated expenses and funding sources |
Except as described above with respect to the payment of taxes, unless and until we complete our initial business combination, no proceeds held in the trust account will be available for our use. Based upon assumed interest rates, we expect the trust account to generate approximately $2,000,000 of interest annually. Unless and until we complete our initial business combination, we may pay our expenses only from: |
the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not held in the trust account, which will be approximately $2,000,000 in working capital after the payment of approximately $825,000 in expenses relating to this offering; and |
working capital loans from our sponsors and strategic investor, who have committed up to an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time in the event funds held outside of the trust are insufficient to fund our expenses after this offering and prior to our initial business combination (including investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements) and our sponsors and strategic investor may, but are not obligated to, loan us additional funds to fund our expenses relating to |
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investigating and completing our initial business combination. If we complete our initial business combination, we expect to repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the trust account. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used to repay such loaned amounts. Up to $1,000,000 of all loans made to us may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender at the time of the business combination. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants issued to the initial stockholders. |
Conditions to completing our initial business combination |
There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our initial business combination. 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 our assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. |
If our board is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses or we are considering an initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm. We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders 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 transaction 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 stockholders or for other reasons. However, we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction 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 not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders 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 transaction. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction 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, provided that in the event that the business combination involves more than one |
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target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable. |
Our initial business combination must be approved by our strategic investor as a closing condition to the contingent forward purchase contract. |
Permitted purchases of public shares by our affiliates |
If we seek stockholder 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 initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. 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 shares in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Subsequent to the consummation of this offering, we will adopt an insider trading policy that will require insiders to: refrain from purchasing shares during certain blackout periods and when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information and to clear all trades with our legal counsel prior to execution. We cannot currently determine whether our insiders will make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan, as such purchases will be dependent upon several factors, including but not limited to, the timing and size of such purchases. Depending on such circumstances, our insiders may either make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan or determine that such a plan is not necessary. |
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 comply with such rules. Our initial stockholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates will not make any purchases if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. |
Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business combination |
We will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public 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 |
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as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount initially held in the trust account will be $10.00 per public share. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by them and any public shares they may acquire during or after this offering in connection with the completion of our business combination or otherwise. |
Manner of conducting redemptions |
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder 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 stockholder approval under the law or stock exchange listing requirements. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. We intend to conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC unless stockholder approval is required by law or stock exchange listing requirements or we choose to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons. |
If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation: |
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. |
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Upon the public announcement of our business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsors will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase shares of our common stock 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 stockholders not tendering more than a specified number of public shares, which number will be based on the requirement that we may not redeem public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination. |
If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will: |
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. |
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders will count towards this quorum and have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders founder shares, we would need 7,500,001 or approximately 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised). We intend to give not less than 10 days nor more than 60 days prior written notice of any |
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such meeting, if required, at which a vote shall be taken to approve our initial business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our initial stockholders, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. |
We may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. We believe that this will allow our transfer agent to efficiently process any redemptions without the need for further communication or action from the redeeming public stockholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed business combination is not approved and we continue to search for a target company, we will promptly return any certificates delivered, or shares tendered electronically, by public stockholders who elected to redeem their shares. |
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will 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 are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, 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 shares of common stock 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, and all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof. |
Limitation on redemption rights of stockholders holding 20% or more of the shares sold in this offering if we hold stockholder vote |
Notwithstanding the foregoing redemption rights, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any |
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other person with whom such stockholder 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 20% of the shares sold in this offering. We believe the restriction described above will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to redeem their shares 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 stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 20% of the shares sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights against a business combination if such holders shares are not purchased by us or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders ability to redeem to no more than 20% of the shares sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our 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 stockholders ability to vote all of their shares (including all shares held by those stockholders that hold more than 20% of the shares sold in this offering) for or against our business combination. |
Redemption rights in connection with proposed amendments to our certificate of incorporation |
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain charter provisions. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of this 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 stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written |
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agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of common stock 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable) divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. For example, our board of directors may propose such an amendment if it determines that additional time beyond the 24-month period is necessary to complete our initial business combination. Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, such an amendment to extend the date by which we must consummate our intial business combination would need to be approved by holders of 65% or our common stock entitled to vote thereon. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter 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 the completion of our initial business combination. |
Release of funds in trust account on closing of our initial business combination |
On the completion of our initial business combination, all amounts held in the trust account will be released to us. We will use these funds to pay amounts due to any public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights as described above under Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business combination, to pay the underwriters their deferred underwriting commissions, to pay all or a portion of the consideration payable to the target or owners of the target of our initial business combination and to pay other expenses associated with our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, 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, 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 post-transaction businesses, 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. |
Redemption of public shares and distribution and liquidation if no initial business combination |
Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed that we will have only 24 months from the closing of this offering to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within such 24-month period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly |
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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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware 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 complete our business combination within the 24-month time period. |
Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. However, if our initial stockholders acquire public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the allotted 24-month time period. |
The underwriters have agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission held in the trust account in the event we do not complete our initial business combination and subsequently liquidate and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the trust account that will be available to fund the redemption of our public shares. |
Payments to insiders |
There will be no restrictions on payments made to insiders. We expect that some or all of the following payments will be made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination: |
Repayment of up to an aggregate of $400,000 in loans ($375,000 of which are outstanding as of the date of this prospectus) pursuant to the terms of unsecured promissory notes issued to our sponsors and strategic investor to cover offering-related and organizational expenses; |
Repayment of up to an aggregate of $1,000,000 in loans, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and from which we may draw down from time to time, to cover working capital costs and to finance transaction costs in |
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connection with an intended initial business combination following this offering. Up to $1,000,000 of all loans made to us may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender at the time of the business combination. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants issued to the initial stockholders; |
Payment to our Hydra sponsor, its affiliates or assignees, of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support; and |
Payment of fees and reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination. |
However, no such payments will be made from the proceeds of this offering held in the trust account prior to the completion of our initial business combination. |
Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. |
Audit Committee |
We will establish and maintain an audit committee, which will be composed entirely of independent directors to, among other things, monitor compliance with the terms described above and the other terms relating to this offering. If any noncompliance is identified, then the audit committee will be charged with the responsibility to immediately take all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise to cause compliance with the terms of this offering. For more information, see the section of this prospectus entitled Management Committees of the Board of Directors Audit Committee. |
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We are a newly formed company that has conducted no operations and has generated no revenues. Until we complete our initial business combination, we will have no operations and will generate no operating revenues. In making your decision whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the background of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company. This offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. For additional information concerning how Rule 419 blank check offerings differ from this offering, please see the section of this prospectus entitled Proposed Business Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419. You should carefully consider these and the other risks set forth in the section of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors.
The following table summarizes the relevant financial data for our business and should be read with our financial statements, which are included in this prospectus. We have not had any significant operations to date, so only balance sheet data is presented.
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September 25, 2017 | ||||||||
Actual | As Adjusted | |||||||
Balance Sheet Data: |
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Working capital (deficiency)(1) | $ | (40,000 | ) | $ | 195,020,000 | |||
Total assets(2) | $ | 161,582 | $ | 202,020,000 | ||||
Total liabilities(3) | $ | 141,582 | $ | 7,000,000 | ||||
Value of common stock that may be redeemed in connection with our initial business combination ($10.00 per share)(4) | $ | | $ | 190,019,990 | ||||
Stockholders equity(5) | $ | 20,000 | $ | 5,000,010 |
(1) | The as adjusted calculation includes $200,000,000 cash held in trust from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants (less offering expenses and underwriting commissions) plus $2,000,000 in cash held outside the trust account, plus $20,000 of actual stockholders equity as of September 25, 2017, minus the full amount of the $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions. The as adjusted calculation excludes gross proceeds of up to $30,000,000 from the exercise of a 45-day option granted to the underwriters to cover over-allotments, if any, and approximately $62,500,000 from the contingent forward purchase contract we have entered into with our strategic investor to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination. |
(2) | The as adjusted calculation equals $200,000,000 cash held in trust from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants (less offering expenses and underwriting commissions), plus $2,000,000 in cash held outside the trust account, plus $20,000 of actual stockholders equity as of September 25, 2017. |
(3) | The as adjusted calculation includes the full amount of the $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions. |
(4) | The as adjusted calculation equals the as adjusted total assets, less the as adjusted total liabilities, less the as adjusted stockholders equity, which is set to approximate the minimum net tangible assets threshold of at least $5,000,001. |
(5) | Excludes 19,001,999 shares of common stock purchased in the public market which are subject to redemption in connection with our initial business combination. The as adjusted calculation equals the as adjusted total assets, less the as adjusted total liabilities, less the value of common shares that may be redeemed in connection with our initial business combination (approximately $10.00 per share). |
The as adjusted information gives effect to the sale of the units in this offering, the sale of the private placement warrants, repayment of up to an aggregate of $400,000 in loans ($375,000 of which are outstanding as of the date of this prospectus) pursuant to the terms of unsecured promissory notes issued to our sponsors and our strategic investor and the payment of the estimated expenses of this offering. The as adjusted total assets amount includes the $200,000,000 million held in the trust account ($230,000,000 million if the
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underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) for the benefit of our public stockholders, which amount, less deferred underwriting commissions, will be available to us only upon the completion of our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. The as adjusted working capital and as adjusted total assets include the full amount of the $200,000,000 being held in the trust account (or up to $230,000,000, depending upon the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised) representing deferred underwriting commissions. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions.
If no business combination is completed within 24 months from the closing of this 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter 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 held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within such 24-month time period.
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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 prospectus, 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.
We are a newly formed company with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through this offering. 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 business combination. If we fail to complete our business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
As of September 25, 2017, we had $101,582 in cash and a working capital deficit of $40,000. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Managements plans to address this need for capital through this offering are discussed in the section of this prospectus titled Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. Our plans to raise capital and to consummate our initial business combination may not be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this prospectus do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate this offering or our inability to continue as a going concern.
We may not hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements or if we decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons. Except as required by law, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow stockholders 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 stockholder approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our public shares do not approve of the business combination we complete. Please see the section of this prospectus entitled Proposed Business Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination for additional information.
Unlike many other blank check companies in which the initial stockholders agree to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by the public stockholders in connection with an initial business combination, after approval of our board, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares, as well as any public shares purchased during or after this offering, in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders founder shares, we would need 7,500,001 or approximately 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised). Our initial stockholders will own shares representing 20% of our outstanding shares of common stock immediately following the completion of this
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offering. Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, it is more likely that the necessary stockholder approval will be received than would be the case if our initial stockholders agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public stockholders.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of one or more target businesses. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such stockholder vote. Accordingly, if we do not seek stockholder approval, 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 stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
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 stockholders 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 are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. 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.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many stockholders 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 our 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, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares are submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for 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 a business combination. The per-share amount we will distribute to stockholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the per-share value of shares held by non-redeeming stockholders will reflect our obligation to pay the deferred underwriting commissions.
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If our 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 trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your stock in the open market; however, at such time our stock 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 stock in the open market.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 timeframe 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 sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed that we must complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within such time period. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public stockholders may only receive $10.00 per share, and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the redemption of their shares. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share and other risk factors below.
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If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsors, strategic investor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares 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. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that our sponsors, strategic investor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the business combination, or to 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 business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. This may result in the completion of our business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public float of our common stock and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy 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 tender or redeem public shares. For example, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. See the section of this prospectus entitled Proposed Business Business Strategy Tendering Stock Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights.
Our public stockholders 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, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering for any reason, compliance with Delaware law may require that we submit a plan of dissolution
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to our then-existing stockholders for approval prior to the distribution of the proceeds held in our trust account. In that case, public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond 24 months from the closing of this offering before they receive funds from our trust account. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
We will apply to have our units listed on NASDAQ on or promptly after the date of this prospectus and our common stock and warrants listed on or promptly after their date of separation. Although after giving effect to this offering we expect to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the NASDAQ listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on NASDAQ in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on NASDAQ prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum amount in stockholders equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 round-lot holders). Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with NASDAQs initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than NASDAQs continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on NASDAQ. For instance, our stock price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our stockholders equity would generally be required to be at least $5.0 million. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If NASDAQ delists 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 common stock is a penny stock which will require brokers trading in our common stock 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. Because we expect that our units and eventually our common stock and warrants will be listed on NASDAQ, our units, common stock and warrants will be covered securities. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our 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 be covered securities and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
Since the net proceeds of this 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 identified, we may be deemed to be a blank check company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will
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have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the successful completion of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and will file 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 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 business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if this 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. For a more detailed comparison of our offering to offerings that comply with Rule 419, please see the section of this prospectus entitled Proposed Business Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419.
If we seek stockholder 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 certificate of incorporation will provide that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a group (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 20% of the shares sold in this offering, which we refer to as the Excess Shares. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our 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 business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 20% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your stock in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
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 this 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, because we are obligated to pay cash for the shares of common stock which our public stockholders redeem in connection with our initial business combination, target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. This may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share upon our liquidation. See If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account
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could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share and other risk factors below.
The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We believe that, upon the closing of this offering, the funds available to us outside of the trust account will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could 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 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. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share upon our liquidation. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share and other risk factors below.
Of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, only approximately $2,000,000 will be available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $825,000, we may fund such excess with 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 $825,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsors, management team, strategic investor or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Other than working capital loans of up to $1,000,000, none of our sponsors or strategic investor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such loans and advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsors or strategic investor or an affiliate of our sponsors or strategic investor 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 are unable to obtain these loans, we may be unable to complete 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 account. Consequently, our public stockholders may only receive approximately $10.00 per share on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the
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redemption of their shares. 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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share and other risk factors below.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will surface all material issues that may be present inside 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 would 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 stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
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 (other than our independent auditors), 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 any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, 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 partys 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 are unable to complete our business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our 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 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the $10.00 per share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Each sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us, jointly and severally, if and to the extent any claims by a vendor (other than our independent public accountants) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed
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entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net, of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our franchise and income tax obligations. This liability will not apply with respect to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this 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, then our sponsors will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. We have not independently verified whether each sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsors only substantive assets are securities of our company. We have not asked our sponsors to reserve for such indemnification obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsors 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.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, and each 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 sponsors to enforce their indemnification obligations.
While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsors to enforce their indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. 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 stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a preferential transfer or a fraudulent conveyance. As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover all amounts received by our stockholders. 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 stockholders 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 stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
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 business combination. |
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
| registration as an investment company; |
| adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and |
| reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations. |
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 in securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading investment securities constituting more than 40% of our total 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 180 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. This offering is not 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: (i) the completion of our primary business objective, which is a business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering; or (iii) absent a business combination, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public stockholders 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.
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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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be 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 and results of operations.
Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholders pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the 24th month from the closing of this offering in the event we do not complete our business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.
Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholders pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. Further, stockholders will not know at the time of dissolution the scope of potential claims against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.
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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. Under Section 211(b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.
We are not registering the shares of common stock 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 to use our best efforts to file a registration statement under the Securities Act covering such shares and maintain a current prospectus relating to the common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants, until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. 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 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, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. 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 common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies 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 be required to use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. 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 there is no exemption 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 shares of common stock included in the units. 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 shares of common stock for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
Pursuant to an agreement to be entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in this offering, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants and the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the founder shares and the
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private placement warrants held by them and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such warrants or the common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants. In addition, given that the lock-up period on the founder shares is potentially shorter than most other blank check companies, these shares may become registered and available for sale sooner than founder shares in such other companies. 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 common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the stockholders 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 common stock that is expected when the securities owned by our initial stockholders or holders of working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
While we are considering a business combination with an operating company in the leisure sector or a leisure-related business, we may seek to complete a business combination with an operating company in any industry or sector. However, we will not, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, be permitted to effectuate our business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations, and we will not seek a company in any business which is directly competitive with any business conducted by Inspired because of the non-competition agreements entered into by Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers. Because we have not yet identified 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 businesss operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our 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 revenues 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 stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Businesses in the leisure sector or leisure-related businesses are generally subject to greater governmental regulation than most other industries at the U.S. state and federal levels, and internationally. In particular, we would be subject to extensive regulations if we seek a business combination with a gaming-related company.
In certain jurisdictions, forms of wagering, betting and lottery may be expressly authorized and governed by law and in other jurisdictions forms of wagering, betting and lottery may be expressly prohibited by law. If expressly authorized, such activities are typically subject to extensive and evolving governmental regulation. Gaming regulatory requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Therefore, we would be subject to a wide range of complex gaming laws, rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we would be licensed or may seek to be licensed. Most jurisdictions require that gaming companies be licensed and/or authorized, or that key personnel and certain of our security holders are found to be suitable or are licensed, and that products are reviewed, tested and certified or approved before placement. If a license, approval, certification or
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finding of suitability is required by a regulatory or national authority and we fail to seek or do not receive the necessary approval, license, certification or finding of suitability, then we may be prohibited from distributing our products for use in the respective jurisdiction. Additionally, such prohibition could trigger reviews by regulatory bodies in other jurisdictions.
If we seek to acquire a gaming company, we or our acquired business may be required to obtain and maintain licenses from various state and local jurisdictions in order to operate certain aspects of the business and may be subject to extensive background investigations and suitability standards. We may also become subject to regulation in any other jurisdiction where our customers are permitted to operate in the future. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain new licenses or renew any of our existing licenses, and the loss, denial or non-renewal of any of our licenses could have a material adverse effect on our business. Generally, regulatory authorities have broad discretion when granting, renewing or revoking approvals and licenses. Our failure, or the failure of any of our key personnel, systems or machines, in obtaining or retaining a required license or approval in one jurisdiction could negatively impact our ability (or the ability of any of our key personnel, systems or gaming machines) to obtain or retain required licenses and approvals in other jurisdictions. The failure to obtain or retain a required license or approval in any jurisdiction would decrease the geographic area where we may operate and generate revenues, decrease our share in the gaming marketplace and put us at a disadvantage compared with our competitors.
In addition, given the extensive regulations concerning the gaming industry, an initial business combination in this industry may require significant governmental or regulatory approvals that could delay the consummation of our initial business combination. In such case, we may be unable to complete an initial business combination in the expected timeframe and may require one or more extensions to complete such business combination.
We will consider a business combination outside of our managements areas of expertise if a business combination candidate 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 candidate, 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 this offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our managements expertise, our managements expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this prospectus regarding the areas of our managements 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 stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following our business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
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 stockholders 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
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addition, if stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenues or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include volatile revenues or earnings and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not 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.
Unless we complete our business combination with an affiliated entity or our board cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that the price we are paying is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders 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 tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. Immediately after this offering, there will be 48,800,000 authorized but unissued shares of common stock available for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants. Immediately after this offering, there will be no shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding. These amounts assume that the underwriters have not exercised their over-allotment option, and assumes the issuance of 6,250,000 units issuable pursuant to our strategic investors contingent forward purchase contract.
We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of common or preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to receive funds from the trust account or vote on any initial business combination. The issuance of additional shares of common or preferred stock:
| may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering; |
| may subordinate the rights of holders of common stock if preferred stock is issued with rights senior to those afforded our common stock; |
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| could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of common stock is 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; and |
| may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, common stock and/or warrants. |
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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
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 executive officers and directors, at least until we have completed our 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 management 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 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 or advisory positions following our 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.
In addition, the officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination targets key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an acquisition candidates 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 candidates management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that
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members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, our management team, including Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team, including with respect to Mr. Weils involvement with two successor entities of blank check companies, is not a guarantee either (i) that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management teams performance as indicative of future performance.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with the company after the completion of our 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. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our business combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. Our management team does not currently expect to continue in a management role with us following the consummation of our intial business combination. Should one or more members of the management team seek to enter into an employment contract with a target, we would refer such matter of employment to a committee of disinterested directors of our board of directors for consideration. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target businesss management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the targets management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the targets 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 stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
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. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to
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the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors may also serve as officers or board members for other entities. If our officers 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 officers and directors other business affairs, please see the section of this prospectus entitled Management Directors and Officers.
Although we expect to benefit from our sponsors and our strategic investors network of relationships and processes for sourcing, evaluating and allocating investment opportunities among itself, us, and other parties, our sponsors and strategic investor have no legal or contractual obligation to seek on our behalf or to present to us investment opportunities that might be suitable for our business. Our sponsors and our strategic investor may allocate potential investments at their discretion to any of our sponsors, the strategic investor, us, or other parties. We have no investment management, advisory, consulting or other agreement in place with our sponsors or strategic investor that obligate any of them to undertake efforts on our behalf or that govern the manner in which they will allocate investment opportunities. Even if our sponsors and our strategic investor refer an opportunity to us, no assurance can be given that such opportunity will result in an acquisition agreement or an initial business combination.
Following the completion of this offering and until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our sponsors, strategic investor and officers and directors are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. In addition, our sponsors, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written letter agreement, not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial business combination or we have failed to complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of this offering.
Our officers 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. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide for the waiver of any requirement to present corporate opportunities to us to the extent it would conflict with competing duties owed to other entities. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
For a complete discussion of our officers and directors business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see the sections of this prospectus entitled Management Directors and Officers, Management Conflicts of Interest and Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.
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We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, 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 sponsors, our directors or officers, although we do not intend to do so. We do not 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.
Each of A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman, and Daniel B. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer, is party to an employment agreement with Inspired. These employment agreements contain non-competition provisions that provide that neither Mr. Weil nor Mr. Silvers shall directly or indirectly engage in any business which is directly competitive with any business conducted by the Inspired Group during his employment, in any geographic area in which such business was so conducted by the Inspired Group. These agreements are collectively referred to as the non-competition agreements. In light of the non-competition agreements, we will not seek an initial business combination with any company with operations in the businesses described above. In addition, if our initial business combination does not cause Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers to violate the non-competition agreements, no assurance can be given that the combined company would not in the future engage in competitive activities which would cause Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers to be in breach of the non-competition agreements. If a court were to conclude that a violation of either or both of the non-competition agreements had occurred, it could extend the term of Mr. Weils or Mr. Silvers non-competition restrictions and/or enjoin Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers from participating in our company, or enjoin us from engaging in aspects of the business which compete with Inspired Group, as applicable. The court could also impose monetary damages against Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers or us. This could materially harm our business and the trading prices of our securities. Even if ultimately resolved in our favor, any litigation associated with the non-competition could be time consuming, costly and distract managements focus from locating suitable acquisition candidates and operating our business.
In the employment agreement entered into by A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman, with Inspired, there are also provisions preventing him from being able to directly or indirectly solicit or entice away or endeavor to solicit or entice away from the Inspired Group for the purposes of employment or engagement of any person who on the date of the termination of Mr. Weils employment is employed or engaged by the Inspired Group in a senior management capacity and with whom Mr. Weil worked closely during the period of 12 months prior to the date of termination of Mr. Weils employment (whether or not such person would commit a breach of his contract of employment by doing so). To the extent a target company may be interested in hiring personnel from the Inspired Group, we might be a less attractive buyer as a result of the non-competition agreements.
In light of the involvement of our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under the section of this prospectus entitled Management Conflicts of Interest. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our business
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combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no preliminary discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. 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 for a business combination as set forth in the section of this prospectus entitled Proposed Business Selection of a Target Business and Structuring of our Initial Business Combination and such transaction was approved by a majority of our disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, 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 officers, directors or existing holders, 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 stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
On September 11, 2017, our sponsors, strategic investor and certain other of our initial stockholders purchased an aggregate of 7,187,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering. Pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. Prior to the date of this prospectus, our Hydra sponsor intends to transfer 25,000 founder shares to each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo, and Weinstein, our independent director nominees (for a total of 75,000 founder shares, none of which are subject to forfeiture). In October 2017, our Hydra sponsor transferred 203,957 shares to certain of our officers and professionals. In October 2017, certain of our initial stockholders transferred 711,250 shares to our strategic investor, with 355,625 shares subject to return to such stockholders if the Share Return Condition is triggered. In addition, affiliates of our Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 (or 7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) private placement warrants, each exercisable for one share of our common stock at $11.50 per share, for a purchase price of approximately $6,825,000 (or $7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full), or $1.00 per whole warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a business combination. Holders of founder shares have agreed (A) to vote any shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (B) not to redeem any founder shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination. In addition, we may obtain loans from our sponsors, strategic investor, affiliates of our sponsors or strategic investor or an officer or director, and we may pay our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates fees and expenses in connection with identifying, investigating and consummating an initial business combination.
The personal and financial interests of our sponsors, strategic investor, their affiliates or our 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 this offering nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
At the closing of our initial business combination, our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, may 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
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suitable business combinations from the proceeds of this offering held in the trust account. In the event our business combination is completed, there is no cap or ceiling on any such reimbursement from the proceeds of this offering held in the trust account of out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf. However, our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will not be eligible for any such reimbursement from the proceeds of this offering held in the trust account if our business combination is not completed. These financial interests of our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination and completing an initial business combination.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this prospectus to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following this offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our business combination. We 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:
| 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 security is payable on demand; |
| our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| our inability to pay dividends on our common stock; |
| 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 common stock if declared, our ability to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions, and fund 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; |
| limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, and execution of our strategy; and |
| other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
Of the net proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, $193,000,000 (or $221,950,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be available to complete our business combination and pay related fees and expenses (which excludes up to approximately $7,000,000, or up to approximately $8,050,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full, for the payment of deferred underwriting commissions).
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We may effectuate our 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 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. |
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our business combination.
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 investigations (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.
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.
We may structure a business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders 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-transaction 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 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-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders 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 transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares of common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as
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a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares of common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares of common stock subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority stockholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the companys stock than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain our control of the target business. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will 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 (such that we are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. As a result, we may be able to complete our business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of common stock 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 shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
The exercise price of the public warrants is higher than is typical in many similar blank check companies in the past. Historically, the exercise price of a warrant was generally a fraction of the purchase price of the units in the initial public offering. The exercise price for our public warrants is $11.50 per share. As a result, the warrants are less likely to ever be in the money and more likely to expire worthless.
In order to effectuate a business combination, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and changed industry focus. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter that prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to a companys pre-business combination activity, without approval by a certain percentage of the companys stockholders. In those companies, amendment of
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these provisions requires approval by between 90% and 100% of the companys public stockholders. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of this 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 stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own up to 20% of our common stock upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation 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 certificate of incorporation 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 stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of common stock 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, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. These agreements are contained in a letter agreement that we have entered into with initial stockholders. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors or director nominees for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, as well as the $62,500,000 private placement made by our strategic investor in the event that our strategic investor approves of our initial business combination, will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet identified any prospective target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of this 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 repurchase for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders 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. 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes 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 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.
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None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Upon the closing of this offering, our initial stockholders will own shares representing 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and approval of major corporate transactions. If our initial stockholders purchase any units in this offering or if our initial stockholders purchase any additional shares of common stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our common stock. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were elected by our initial stockholders, 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 stockholders to elect new directors prior to the completion of our 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 initial stockholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our business combination.
The difference between the public offering price per share (allocating all of the unit purchase price to the common stock and none to the warrant included in the unit) and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to you and the other investors in this offering. Our initial stockholders acquired the founder shares at a nominal price, significantly contributing to this dilution. Upon the closing of this offering, and assuming no value is ascribed to the warrants included in the units, you and the other public stockholders will incur an immediate and substantial dilution of approximately 91.7% (or $9.17 per share, assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option), the difference between the pro forma net tangible book value per share of $0.83 and the initial offering price of $10.00 per unit.
Our warrants will be 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 to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders. 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. 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, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
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We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of our common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we give proper notice of such redemption and provided 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. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you (i) to exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) to sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price of $0.01 per warrant which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.
We will be issuing warrants to purchase 10,000,000 shares of our common stock (or up to 11,500,000 shares of common stock if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) as part of the units offered by this prospectus and, simultaneously with the closing of this offering, we will be issuing in a private placement warrants to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 (or up to 7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) shares of common stock at $11.50 per share. Our initial stockholders currently own an aggregate of 7,187,500 founder shares. In addition, if our sponsors or strategic investor make any working capital loans, up to $1,000,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.
To the extent we issue shares of common stock to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of common stock upon exercise of these warrants and conversion rights could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of our common stock and reduce the value of the shares of common stock issued to complete the business combination. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in this offering except that, so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, (i) they will not be redeemable by us, (ii) they (including the common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by such purchasers until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) are subject to registration rights.
Each unit contains one-half of one warrant. Because, pursuant to the warrant agreement, the warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of shares, only a whole warrant may be exercised at any given time. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one share of common stock and one 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-half of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a 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 they included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
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Prior to this offering there has been no public market for any of our securities. The public offering price of the units and the terms of the warrants were negotiated between us and the underwriters. In determining the size of this offering, management held customary organizational meetings with representatives of the underwriters, both prior to our inception and thereafter, with respect to the state of capital markets, generally, and the amount the underwriters believed they reasonably could raise on our behalf. Factors considered in determining the size of this offering, prices and terms of the units, including the common stock and warrants underlying the units, include:
| the history and prospects of companies whose principal business is the acquisition of other companies; |
| prior offerings of those companies; |
| our prospects for acquiring an operating business; |
| a review of debt to equity ratios in leveraged transactions; |
| our capital structure; |
| an assessment of our management and their experience in identifying operating companies; |
| general conditions of the securities markets at the time of this offering; and |
| other factors as were deemed relevant. |
Although these factors were considered, the determination of our offering price is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities of an operating company in a particular industry since we have no historical operations or financial results.
There is currently no market for our securities. Stockholders therefore have no access to information about prior market history on which to base their investment decision. Following this offering, the price of our securities may vary significantly due to one or more potential business combinations and general market or economic conditions. Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established and sustained.
The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include target 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 financing reporting standards, 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 financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
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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 stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our stockholders 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 common stock 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.
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, 2018. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will 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 company with which we seek to complete our 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.
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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares, which may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
| higher costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations and complying with different commercial and legal requirements of overseas markets; |
| rules and regulations regarding currency redemption; |
| complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals; |
| laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected; |
| tariffs and trade barriers; |
| regulations related to customs and import/export matters; |
| longer payment cycles and challenges in collecting accounts receivable; |
| 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; |
| cultural and language differences; |
| employment regulations; |
| crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars; |
| deterioration of political relations with the United States; and |
| government appropriations of assets. |
We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, our operations might suffer, which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
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Certain statements in this prospectus may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management teams expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words anticipate, believe, continue, could, estimate, expect, intends, may, might, plan, possible, potential, predict, project, should, would and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus may include, for example, statements about:
| our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses; |
| our ability to complete our initial business combination; |
| our expectations around the performance of the 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 and the location-based leisure sector and leisure-related businesses; |
| the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of potential acquisition 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 this offering. |
The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance 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 section of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions 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.
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We are offering 20,000,000 units at an offering price of $10.00 per unit. We estimate that the net proceeds of this offering together with the funds we will receive from the sale of the private placement warrants will be used as set forth in the following table.
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Without Over-Allotment Option |
Over-Allotment Option Fully Exercised |
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Gross proceeds |
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Gross proceeds from units offered to public(1) | $ | 200,000,000 | $ | 230,000,000 | ||||
Gross proceeds from private placement warrants offered in the private placement | 6,825,000 | 7,425,000 | ||||||
Total gross proceeds | $ | 206,825,000 | $ | 237,425,000 | ||||
Offering expenses(2) |
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Underwriting commissions (2.0% of gross proceeds from units offered to public, excluding deferred portion)(3) | $ | 4,000,000 | $ | 4,600,000 | ||||
Legal fees and expenses | 300,000 | 300,000 | ||||||
Accounting fees and expenses | 52,500 | 52,500 | ||||||
SEC/FINRA Expenses | 63,635 | 63,635 | ||||||
Travel and road show | 25,000 | 25,000 | ||||||
NASDAQ listing and filing fees | 75,000 | 75,000 | ||||||
Director and Officer liability insurance premiums | 175,000 | 175,000 | ||||||
Printing and engraving expenses | 30,000 | 30,000 | ||||||
Miscellaneous | 103,865 | 103,865 | ||||||
Total offering expenses (excluding underwriting commissions) | $ | 825,000 | $ | 825,000 | ||||
Proceeds after offering expenses | $ | 202,000,000 | $ | 232,000,000 | ||||
Held in trust account(3) | $ | 200,000,000 | $ | 230,000,000 | ||||
% of public offering size | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||||
Not held in trust account after offering expenses | $ | 2,000,000 | $ | 2,000,000 |
The following table shows the use of the approximately $2,000,000 of net proceeds not held in the trust account, but not including up to $1,000,000 in working capital loans committed by our sponsors and strategic investor in the aggregate or interest earned on funds held in trust account.(4) (5)
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Amount | % of Total |
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Legal, accounting, due diligence, travel, and other expenses in connection with any business combination(6) | $ | 500,000 | 25.0 | % | ||||
Legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting obligations | 160,000 | 8.0 | % | |||||
Payment for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support ($10,000 per month for up to 24 months) | 240,000 | 12.0 | % | |||||
Consulting, travel and miscellaneous expenses incurred during search for initial business combination target | 100,000 | 5.0 | % | |||||
Working capital to cover miscellaneous expenses | 1,000,000 | 50.0 | % | |||||
Total | $ | 2,000,000 | 100.0 | % |
(1) | Includes amounts payable to public stockholders who properly redeem their shares in connection with our successful completion of our initial business combination. |
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(2) | A portion of the offering expenses will be paid from the proceeds of loans from our sponsors and strategic investor of up to $400,000 as described in this prospectus. On September 28, 2017, we borrowed $375,000 under the promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. This amount will be repaid upon completion of this offering out of the $825,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated for the payment of offering expenses (other than underwriting commissions) and amounts not to be held in the trust account. In the event that offering expenses are less than set forth in this table, any such amounts will be used for post-closing working capital expenses. In the event that the offering expenses are more than as set forth in this table, we may fund such excess with funds not held in the trust account. |
(3) | The underwriters have agreed to defer underwriting commissions equal to 3.5% of the gross proceeds of this offering, which includes 0.5% of the gross proceeds of this offering that may be awarded to a broker-dealer at the sole discretion of the Company. Upon completion of our initial business combination, $7,000,000, which constitutes the underwriters deferred commissions (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be paid to the underwriters from the funds held in the trust account, and the remaining funds will be released to us and can be used to pay all or a portion of the purchase price of the business or businesses with which our initial business combination occurs or for general corporate purposes, including payment of principal or interest on indebtedness incurred in connection with our initial business combination, to fund the purchases of other companies or for working capital. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions. |
(4) | These expenses are estimates only. Our actual expenditures for some or all of these items may differ from the estimates set forth herein. For example, we may incur greater legal and accounting expenses than our current estimates in connection with negotiating and structuring our business combination based upon the level of complexity of such business combination. In the event we identify a business combination target in a specific industry subject to specific regulations, we may incur additional expenses associated with legal due diligence and the engagement of special legal counsel. In addition, our staffing needs may vary and as a result, we may engage a number of consultants to assist with legal and financial due diligence. We do not anticipate any change in our intended use of proceeds, other than fluctuations among the current categories of allocated expenses, which fluctuations, to the extent they exceed current estimates for any specific category of expenses, would not be available for our expenses. The amount in the table above does not include interest available to us from the trust account. Based on the current interest rate environment, we would expect approximately $4,000,000 of interest to be earned from the funds held in the trust account over 24 months following the closing of this offering; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. Interest earned on the funds held in the trust account may be released to us to pay our franchise and income tax obligations. This estimate assumes an interest rate of 1.0% per annum based upon current yields of securities in which the trust account may be invested. |
(5) | In order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsors and our strategic investor have committed an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and our strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time to fund our expenses relating to investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements after this offering and prior to our initial business combination. |
(6) | Includes estimated amounts that may also be used in connection with our business combination to fund a no shop provision and commitment fees for financing. |
The rules of NASDAQ provide that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account. Of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, $200,000,000 (or $230,000,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full), including $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) of deferred underwriting commissions, will be placed in a U.S.-based trust account at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, and will be invested only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 180 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. We estimate that the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $2,000,000 per year, assuming an interest rate of 1.0% per year. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our franchise and income tax
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obligations, the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will not be released from the trust account until the earliest to occur of: (a) the completion of our initial business combination, (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (c) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. Based on assumed interest rates, we expect that the interest earned on the trust account, net of income taxes, will be sufficient to pay Delaware franchise taxes.
The net proceeds held in the trust account may be used as consideration to pay the sellers of a target business with which we ultimately complete our business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our business combination, we may apply the balance of the cash released from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction 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 believe that amounts not held in trust will be sufficient to pay the costs and expenses to which such proceeds are allocated. This belief is based on the fact that while we may begin preliminary due diligence of a target business in connection with an indication of interest, we intend to undertake in-depth due diligence, depending on the circumstances of the relevant prospective acquisition, only after we have negotiated and signed a letter of intent or other preliminary agreement that addresses the terms of a business combination. However, if our estimate of the costs of undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating a business combination is less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may be required to raise additional capital, the amount, availability and cost of which is currently unascertainable. If we are required to seek additional capital, we could seek such additional capital through loans or additional investments from our sponsors, members of our management team or their affiliates, but such persons are not under any obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us.
Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, we have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.
We entered into promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor whereby they agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $400,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. As of September 28, 2017, we had borrowed $375,000 under the promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. The loans are non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of June 30, 2018 or the closing of this offering. The loans will be repaid upon the closing of this offering.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsors and our strategic investor have committed an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and our strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and our strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time in the event that funds held outside of the trust are insufficient to fund our expenses relating to investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements after this offering and prior to our initial business combination and may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the trust account. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used to repay such loaned amounts. Such loans may be convertible into warrants, at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the
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lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of such loans by our officers and directors, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsors or our strategic investor or an affiliate of our sponsors or our strategic investor 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.
Our strategic investor, HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd., has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract with us to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit. In the event the gross proceeds from this offering are less than $200,000,000, the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will be reduced proportionally. However, the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will not change in the event the gross proceeds from this offering are more than $200,000,000. The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement of units may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination. Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units under the contingent forward purchase contract is contingent upon, among other things, our strategic investor approving the business combination, which approval can be withheld for any reason.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsors, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. 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. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make 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. 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 comply with such rules.
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 are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) and the agreement for our business combination may require as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights so that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement or any net worth or cash requirements, we would not proceed with the redemption of our public shares or the business combination, and instead may search for an alternate business combination.
A public stockholder 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, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months following the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein and any limitations (including but not limited to cash requirements) created by the terms of the proposed business combination. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account.
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Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, our initial stockholders have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our business combination within the prescribed timeframe. However, if our sponsors or strategic investor or any of our officers, directors or affiliates acquires public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe.
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We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial 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 our initial business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial 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 stock dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
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The difference between the public offering price per share of common stock, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units we are offering pursuant to this prospectus or the private placement warrants, and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to investors in this offering. Such calculation does not reflect any dilution associated with the sale and exercise of warrants, including the private placement warrants, which would cause the actual dilution to the public stockholders to be higher, particularly where a cashless exercise is utilized. Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing our net tangible book value, which is our total tangible assets less total liabilities (including the value of common stock which may be redeemed for cash), by the number of outstanding shares of our common stock.
At September 25, 2017 our net tangible book value was $(40,000), or approximately $(0.01) per share of common stock. After giving effect to the sale of 20,000,000 shares of common stock included in the units we are offering by this prospectus, the sale of the private placement warrants and the deduction of underwriting commissions and estimated expenses of this offering, our pro forma net tangible book value at September 25, 2017 would have been $5,000,010, or approximately $0.83 per share, representing an immediate increase in net tangible book value (as decreased by the value of the approximately 19,001,999 shares of common stock that may be redeemed for cash and assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option) of $0.84 per share to our initial stockholders as of the date of this prospectus and an immediate dilution of $9.17 per share or 91.7% to our public stockholders not exercising their redemption rights. The dilution to new investors if the underwriters exercise the over-allotment option in full would be an immediate dilution of $9.27 per share or 92.7%.
The following table illustrates the dilution to the public stockholders on a per-share basis, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units or the private placement warrants:
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Public offering price | $ | 10.00 | ||||||
Net tangible book value before this offering | $ | (0.01 | ) | |||||
Increase attributable to public stockholders | 0.84 | |||||||
Pro forma net tangible book value after this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants | 0.83 | |||||||
Dilution to public stockholders | $ | 9.17 |
For purposes of presentation, we have reduced our pro forma net tangible book value after this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option) by $190,019,990 because holders of up to approximately 95.0% of our public shares may redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account at a per share redemption price equal to the amount in the trust account as set forth in our tender offer or proxy materials (initially anticipated to be the aggregate amount held in trust two days prior to the commencement of our tender offer or stockholders meeting, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes), divided by the number of shares of common stock sold in this offering.
The following table sets forth information with respect to our initial stockholders and the public stockholders:
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Shares Purchased | Total Consideration | Average Price Per Share | ||||||||||||||||||
Number | Percentage | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||||||||
Initial Stockholders(1) | 5,000,000 | 20.0 | % | $ | 25,000 | 0.01 | % | $ | .005 | |||||||||||
Public Stockholders | 20,000,000 | 80.0 | % | $ | 200,000,000 | 99.99 | % | $ | 10.00 | |||||||||||
25,000,000 | 100.0 | % | $ | 200,025,000 | 100.0 | % |
(1) | Assumes no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option and the corresponding forfeiture of an aggregate of 750,000 shares of common stock held by our initial stockholders. Also assumes the forfeiture of 1,437,500 shares by certain of our initial stockholders so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
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The pro forma net tangible book value per share after the offering is calculated as follows:
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Numerator: |
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Net tangible book value before this offering | $ | (40,000 | ) | |
Proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, net of expenses | 202,000,000 | |||
Offering costs excluded from net tangible book value before this offering | 60,000 | |||
Less: deferred underwriters commissions payable | (7,000,000 | ) | ||
Less: amount of common stock subject to redemption to maintain net tangible assets of $5,000,001 | (190,019,990 | ) | ||
$ | 5,000,010 | |||
Denominator: |
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Shares of common stock outstanding prior to this offering | 7,187,500 | |||
Shares of common stock to be forfeited by certain of our initial stockholders | (1,437,500 | ) | ||
Shares of common stock forfeited if over-allotment is not exercised | (750,000 | ) | ||
Shares of common stock included in the units offered | 20,000,000 | |||
Less: shares of common stock subject to redemption | (19,001,999 | ) | ||
5,998,001 |
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The following table sets forth our capitalization at September 25, 2017, and as adjusted to give effect to the sale of our units and the private placement warrants and the application of the estimated net proceeds derived from the sale of such securities:
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September 25, 2017 | ||||||||
Actual | As Adjusted(1) | |||||||
Deferred underwriting commissions | $ | | $ | 7,000,000 | ||||
Promissory notes to affiliates(2) | 136,582 | | ||||||
Common stock subject to redemption(3) | | 190,019,990 | ||||||
Stockholders equity: |
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Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value, 1,000,000 shares authorized (actual and as adjusted); none issued or outstanding (actual and as adjusted) | | | ||||||
Common stock, $0.0001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized; 7,187,500 shares issued and outstanding (actual); 5,998,001 shares issued and outstanding (excluding 19,001,999 shares subject to redemption) (as adjusted) | 719 | 600 | ||||||
Additional paid-in capital | 24,281 | 5,004,410 | ||||||
Accumulated deficit | (5,000 | ) | (5,000 | ) | ||||
Total stockholders equity | 20,000 | 5,000,010 | ||||||
Total capitalization | $ | 156,582 | $ | 202,020,000 |
(1) | Includes the $6,825,000 we will receive from the sale of the private placement warrants. Assumes the over-allotment option has not been exercised and the resulting forfeiture of 750,000 founder shares held by certain of our initial stockholders has occurred. Also assumes the forfeiture of 1,437,500 shares by certain of our initial stockholders so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
(2) | We entered into promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor whereby they agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $400,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. As of September 28, 2017, we borrowed $375,000 under the promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. |
(3) | Upon the completion of our initial business combination, we will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account 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 franchise and income taxes, subject to the limitations described herein whereby our net tangible assets will be maintained at a minimum of $5,000,001 and any limitations (including, but not limited to, cash requirements) created by the terms of the proposed business combination. For a detailed calculation of common stock subject to redemption, please see the section of this prospectus entitled Dilution. |
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We are a blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation 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 have not identified any business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions directly or indirectly, with respect to identifying any business combination target. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, our capital stock, debt or a combination of cash, stock and debt.
The issuance of additional shares of our stock in a business combination:
| may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering; |
| may subordinate the rights of holders of our common stock if preferred stock is issued with rights senior to those afforded our common stock; |
| could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our common stock is 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 stock ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and |
| may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock and/or warrants. |
Similarly, if we issue debt securities, it could result in:
| 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 security is payable on demand; |
| our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| our inability to pay dividends on our common stock; |
| 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 common stock if declared, our ability to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions, and fund 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; |
| limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, and execution of our strategy; and |
| other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
As indicated in the accompanying financial statements, at September 25, 2017, we had $101,582 in cash, a working capital deficit of $40,000 and deferred offering costs of $60,000. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our acquisition plans. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or
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to complete our initial business combination will be successful. These factors among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for this offering. Following this offering, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents after this offering. There has been no significant change in our financial or trading position and no material adverse change has occurred since the date of our audited financial statements. After this offering, we expect to incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses. We expect our expenses to increase substantially after the closing of this offering.
Our liquidity needs have been satisfied prior to the completion of this offering through receipt of $25,000 from the sale of the founder shares to our initial stockholders and loans to us of up to $400,000 by our sponsors and strategic investor under unsecured promissory notes. As of September 28, 2017, we borrowed $375,000 under the unsecured promissory notes to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. We estimate that the net proceeds from (i) the sale of the units in this offering, after deducting offering expenses of approximately $825,000, underwriting commissions of $11,000,000 ($12,650,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) (excluding deferred underwriting commissions of $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full)), and (ii) the sale of the private placement warrants for a purchase price of approximately $6,825,000 (or $7,425,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full), will be $202,000,000 (or $232,000,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full). Of this amount, $200,000,000 (or $230,000,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be held in the trust account, which includes $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) of deferred underwriting commissions. The remaining approximately $2,000,000 will not be held in the trust account. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $825,000, we may fund such excess with 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 $825,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (less deferred underwriting commissions) to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay franchise and income taxes. We estimate our annual franchise tax obligations, based on the number of shares of our common stock authorized and outstanding after the completion of this offering, to be $200,000, which is the maximum amount of annual franchise taxes payable by us as a Delaware corporation per annum. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. Based on assumed interest rates, we expect that the interest earned on the trust account, net of income taxes, will be sufficient to pay Delaware franchise taxes. To the extent that our capital stock 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.
Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we will have available to us the approximately $2,000,000 of proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held outside the trust account. We will use these funds to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
Our strategic investor has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the
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consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit (which we call our private placement units). The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination. Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units under the contingent forward purchase contract is contingent upon, among other things, our strategic investor approving the business combination, which approval can be withheld for any reason.
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsors and our strategic investor have committed an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and our strategic investor, pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and our strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time in the event that funds held outside of the trust are insufficient to fund our expenses after this offering and prior to our initial business combination (including investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements) and our sponsors and our strategic investor may, but are not obligated to, loan us additional funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants, at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of any such future loans by our officers and directors (other than the $1,000,000 in loans that our sponsors and strategic investor have committed to make in the aggregate) have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsors or strategic investor or an affiliate of either sponsor or strategic investor 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.
We expect our primary liquidity requirements during that period to include approximately $500,000 for legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses associated with structuring, negotiating and documenting successful business combinations; $160,000 for legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting requirements; $240,000 for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support; $100,000 for consulting, travel and miscellaneous expenses incurred during the search for a business combination target; and approximately $1,000,000 for working capital that will be used for miscellaneous expenses and reserves (including franchise taxes net of anticipated interest income).
These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a no-shop provision (a provision designed to keep target businesses from shopping around for transactions with other companies 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 an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a no-shop provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our business combination. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our business combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares
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upon completion of our 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 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 account. 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.
We are not currently required to maintain an effective system of internal controls as defined by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will be required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to 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 independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement.
Prior to the closing of this offering, we have not completed an assessment, nor have our auditors tested our systems, of internal controls. We expect to assess the internal controls of our target business or businesses prior to the completion of our initial business combination and, if necessary, to implement and test additional controls as we may determine are necessary in order to state that we maintain an effective system of internal controls. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the adequacy of internal controls. Many small and mid-sized target businesses we may consider for our business combination may have internal controls that need improvement in areas such as:
| staffing for financial, accounting and external reporting areas, including segregation of duties; |
| reconciliation of accounts; |
| proper recording of expenses and liabilities in the period to which they relate; |
| evidence of internal review and approval of accounting transactions; |
| documentation of processes, assumptions and conclusions underlying significant estimates; and |
| documentation of accounting policies and procedures. |
Because it will take time, management involvement and perhaps outside resources to determine what internal control improvements are necessary for us to meet regulatory requirements and market expectations for our operation of a target business, we may incur significant expense in meeting our public reporting responsibilities, particularly in the areas of designing, enhancing, or remediating internal and disclosure controls. Doing so effectively may also take longer than we expect, thus increasing our exposure to financial fraud or erroneous financing reporting.
Once our managements report on internal controls is complete, we will retain our independent auditors to audit and render an opinion on such report when required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The independent auditors may identify additional issues concerning a target businesss internal controls while performing their audit of internal control over financial reporting.
The net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be invested in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 180 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
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On September 11, 2017, our initial stockholders, including our sponsors and strategic investor, purchased 7,187,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares upon completion of this offering. The per share purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the aggregate number of founder shares issued. Prior to the date of this prospectus, our Hydra sponsor intends to transfer 25,000 founder shares to each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo, and Weinstein, our independent director nominees (for a total of 75,000 founder shares, none of which are subject to forfeiture). In October 2017, our Hydra sponsor transferred 203,957 shares to certain of our officers and professionals. In October 2017, certain of our initial stockholders transferred 711,250 shares to our strategic investor, with 355,625 shares subject to return to such stockholders if the Share Return Condition is triggered. Up to 750,000 shares will be subject to forfeiture by our initial stockholders (or their permitted transferees), depending on the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised. Pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering.
Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, we have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.
We may pay our sponsors or strategic investor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, a finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation in connection with identifying, investigating and completing our initial business combination. These individuals will also 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 on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, strategic investor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which fees and expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on payments that may be made to our sponsor, strategic investor, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates.
We entered into promissory notes with our sponsors and strategic investor whereby they agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $400,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. These loans are non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of June 30, 2018 or the closing of this offering. These loans will be repaid upon the closing of this offering.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsors and strategic investor have committed an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and our strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and our strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time in the event that funds held outside of the trust are insufficient to fund our expenses after this offering and prior to our initial business combination (including investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements) and our sponsors and our strategic investor may, but are not obligated to, loan us additional funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,000,000 such loans may be convertible into warrants, at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of any such future loans by our officers and directors (other than the $1,000,000 in loans that our sponsors and strategic investor have committed to make in the aggregate) have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. We do not expect to
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seek loans from parties other than our sponsors or an affiliate of our sponsors 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.
Our strategic investor, HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd., has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract with us to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit. In the event the gross proceeds from this offering are less than $200,000,000, the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will be reduced proportionally. However, the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will not change in the event the gross proceeds from this offering are more than $200,000,000. The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their public shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination. Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units under the contingent forward purchase contract is contingent upon, among other things, our strategic investor approving the business combination, which approval can be withheld for any reason.
Affiliates of our Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 private placement warrants (or 7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant (approximately $6,825,000 in the aggregate or $7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the closing of this offering. Each whole private placement warrant is exercisable for one whole share of our common stock at $11.50 per share. The initial purchasers of the private placement warrants will be permitted to transfer the private placement warrants held by it to certain permitted transferees, including our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with or related to it, but the transferees receiving such securities will be subject to the same agreements with respect to such securities as the initial purchasers of the private placement warrants. Otherwise, these warrants will not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our business combination. The private placement warrants will be non-redeemable so long as they are held by our sponsors or their permitted transferees. The private placement warrants may also be exercised by the sponsor and its permitted transferees for cash or on a cashless basis. Otherwise, the private placement warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants being sold as part of the units in this offering, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.
Pursuant to a registration rights agreement we will enter into with our initial stockholders and initial purchasers of the private placement warrants and private placement units on or prior to the closing of this offering, we may be required to register certain securities for sale under the Securities Act. Each of our sponsors (collectively with their respective affiliates) and strategic investor is entitled to make up to two demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, these holders have the right to include their securities in other registration statements filed by us. However, the registration rights agreement provides that we will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until the securities covered thereby are released from their lock-up restrictions, as described herein. We will bear the costs and expenses of filing any such registration statements. See the section of this prospectus entitled Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.
As of September 25, 2017, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations. No unaudited quarterly operating data is included in this prospectus, as we have conducted no operations to date.
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On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an emerging growth company and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an emerging growth company, we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditors attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditors report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis), and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the CEOs compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of this offering or until we are no longer an emerging growth company, whichever is earlier.
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We are a newly organized blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation on September 11, 2017 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, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not identified any potential business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any potential business combination target.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to focus on the location-based leisure sector and leisure-related businesses, which complements our management teams sector and operating expertise. The leisure and leisure-related businesses are primarily comprised of companies providing consumer discretionary goods and services. Target business that we are focused on in this sector include, but are not limited to, those in the gaming, travel and recreation subsectors. We believe that the experience and capabilities of our management team will make us an attractive partner to potential target businesses, enhance our ability to complete a successful business combination, and bring value to the business post-business combination. Not only does our management team bring a combination of operating, investing, financial and transactional experience, but also members of our management team have worked closely together in the past at multiple leisure-oriented companies, creating value for stockholders.
We have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines.
| Businesses with Market and/or Cost Leadership Positions. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with market and/or cost leadership positions in their respective niches. We believe that businesses with differentiated market or cost-leadership strategies provide the greatest number of opportunities for generating consistent investment returns. Moreover, operating these types of businesses is the most consistent with our management teams previous investment and leadership history. |
| Businesses that Will Benefit from our Management Expertise. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with assets that are fundamentally sound yet are underperforming their potential. Specifically, we seek to acquire one or more businesses that are at an inflection point, such as those requiring additional management expertise, where we believe we can drive improved financial performance and where an acquisition may help facilitate growth. Given our management teams extensive networks and insights within the leisure sector as well as their general track record as corporate leaders, we seek to add value by improving the productivity of any underperforming assets and/or growing operations beyond existing capabilities. |
| Experienced Management Team. We seek to acquire one or more businesses with an experienced management team that provides a platform for us to further develop the management capabilities of the acquired business. We seek to partner with established management teams or business owners to achieve long-term strategic and operational excellence. Given our management teams professional experience and leisure sector expertise, we expect that the operating and financial abilities of our executive team and board will complement the capabilities of existing management teams. |
| Businesses with Untapped Potential. We seek to acquire one or more businesses that have significant embedded and/or underexploited expansion opportunities, have been underinvested in by current owners, and/or exhibited unrecognized value or other characteristics. Our management team has significant experience in identifying businesses with opportunities to accelerate organic growth and/or add on attractive acquisition targets. Examples include the acquisitions of WMS Industries, IGT Online Entertainment Systems and MDI Corp. by Scientific Games Corp., while Mr. Weil was serving as either Chief Executive Officer or Chairman, as well as the blank check business combinations of Inspired Gaming Group, for which Mr. Weil was a sponsor and also Chairman and |
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Chief Executive Officer of the acquiror, Tecnoglass S.A., for which Mr. Weil was the Non-Executive Chairman of the board of the acquiror, and Service1st Bank of Nevada, for which Mr. Silvers served as the President of the acquiror. Moreover, we believe our management teams depth and breadth of transaction experience affords them an advantage in identifying undervalued targets with liquidity limitations that would benefit from a capital infusion and renewed management focus. We believe our management teams assistance would create value for these types of targets by more effectively raising and allocating capital to achieve the companys growth strategy. Our operating expertise comes from our management teams professional leisure sector experience at Scientific Games, Inspired Entertainment and investment banking, management consulting and board service roles focused on the gaming sector. We believe that our management teams operating expertise is highly transferable. |
| Businesses that Will Benefit from Being a Public Company. We intend to acquire one or more businesses that will benefit from being publicly traded. Once becoming a publicly traded company, the acquired business(es) can effectively utilize the broader access to capital and the public profile that are associated with being a publicly traded company. |
We believe that potential target companies will find the opportunity to enter into a business combination with us attractive for the following reasons:
| Acquisition Experience. Our management team has extensive experience in identifying and executing acquisitions, particularly for blank check companies, including HIAC (acquired Inspired Gaming Group in 2016), AAC (acquired Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows in 2013) and GCAC (acquired Service1st Bank of Nevada in 2010). Moreover, Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have led and overseen numerous successful transactions in their various professional capacities. |
| Deep Relationships. Owing to their professional experience as corporate executives, investment bankers, management consultants and corporate development leaders, each of our management team and board of directors possesses a vast quantity of distinguished relationships across the public capital markets and the leisure-related business sector. Potential merger candidates will likely view such experience as a positive factor in deciding whether to enter into a business combination with us. |
| Management Expertise. Our management team has unique expertise as investors in and operators of companies in the leisure-based sector. Our operating expertise comes from our management teams professional leisure sector experience at Scientific Games, Inspired Entertainment and investment banking, management consulting and board service roles focused on the gaming sector. |
Our management team is led by A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman, and Daniel B. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Weils and Mr. Silvers careers have centered on identifying and implementing value creation initiatives, often through acquisition (or other transaction means) within the leisure-centric industries. Strategies that they have collectively pursued in the course of these initiatives have included: (i) cost management and productivity enhancement, and reinvesting the savings behind product innovation, marketing, and brand building; (ii) the integration of available technology, and the development of new technology, to deliver improved product offerings and (iii) assessment of existing business lines to identify opportunities to acquire complimentary businesses which they believe are capable of leading to substantial revenue synergies. Each of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers and George Peng, our Chief Financial Officer, has extensive experience with blank check companies.
We believe that our management teams extensive relationships with leading leisure sector figures, including executives of private and public companies and important stockholders of such companies, will give us a competitive advantage in pursuing a broad range of opportunities. Our management team believes that its ability to identify and implement operational value creation initiatives will remain central to its differentiated acquisition strategy.
Mr. Weil is a renowned leader in the leisure sector, with over 40 years of corporate leadership experience, which makes him uniquely suited to serve as Executive Chairman. Mr. Weil has enjoyed an
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extensive professional career over which he has transitioned from a senior management consultant into a successful corporate leader. In his capacity as a management consultant, corporate development officer and senior executive, Mr. Weil has advised on, initiated and overseen numerous transformative acquisitions, divestitures, IPOs, joint ventures and debt capital markets issuances. Owing to his considerable transaction experience focused on the technology and gaming industries, Mr. Weil is well-known by the investment banks and debt financing sources that we expect to call upon to assist us in executing on our strategy.
His professional experience includes:
| Serving as a manager for the Boston Consulting Group, a renowned global management consulting firm, from 1970 to 1974. |
| Serving as Vice President of Corporate Development at General Instrument Corporation, an electronics manufacturer specializing in semiconductors, cable television equipment and wagering and cable systems, from 1974 to 1979. |
| Founding and leading Lorne Weil Inc., a firm that provided strategic planning and corporate development services to technology-based industries, from 1979 to 1992. |
| Building Scientific Games Corporation, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: SGMS), from approximately $48 million in revenue in 1992 to approximately $1.7 billion, on a pro forma basis, in 2013. Mr. Weil brought his technology expertise to the gaming industry to successfully transform Scientific Games into a leading developer of technology-based products, services and associated content for the worldwide gaming and lottery markets. In particular, during Mr. Weils time at Scientific Games, the company made a number of significant acquisitions and joint ventures, including the privatization of the off-track betting operations of the State of Connecticut, the acquisitions of Scientific Games Holdings Corp., IGT Online Entertainment Systems, Global Draw and WMS Industries and the privatization of the Illinois, New Jersey and Italian lotteries. |
| Leading successful acquisitions for multiple blank check companies with a focus on the gaming industry, as detailed below, from 2012 to present. Mr. Weil currently serves as the Executive Chairman of a successor entity of a blank check company and as the Non-Executive Chairman of a successor entity of another blank check company following successfully completed initial business combinations. |
As noted above, Mr. Weil has considerable experience serving as a sponsor of successful blank check companies. He served as a board member and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of AAC, a blank check company that raised $42 million of gross proceeds in its March 2012 initial public offering with the intention of making an investment in a high potential company in the Andean region of South America. In December 2013, AAC merged with Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows, a Colombia-based exporter of high technology architectural glass for the residential and commercial construction industry. Mr. Weil is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the successor entity, Tecnoglass Inc. Tecnoglass ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol TGLS. Additionally, Mr. Weil served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HIAC, a blank check company that raised $80 million of gross proceeds in its October 2014 initial public offering with the intention of acquiring a high-potential investment target. In December 2016, HIAC merged with Inspired Gaming Group, a global games technology company supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server-based gaming systems featuring associated terminals and digital content to betting, gaming, and lottery operators worldwide. Mr. Weil is currently the Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. Inspireds ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol INSE, and its warrants are traded on the OTC Market under the symbol INSEW.
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Mr. Weil will collaborate with Mr. Silvers, whose background we believe complements and supplements Mr. Weils. Mr. Silvers is an established leader in the leisure sector, with nearly 20 years of experience as an operator, investor, board member and advisor. In addition to founding and serving as the Managing Member of Matthews Lane Capital Partners, his professional experience includes:
| Serving as a Vice President at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., garnering significant industry expertise as a senior member of the real estate, gaming and lodging investment banking group, from 1999 to 2005. Mr. Silvers was integrally involved in all aspects of Bear Stearns gaming and hospitality industry investment banking practice, including origination, analysis and transaction execution. |
| Serving as a Vice President with Fortress Investment Group, a leading global alternative asset manager, from 2005 to 2009. Mr. Silvers originated, oversaw due diligence on and managed assets for the firms gaming and real estate investments. |
| Serving as Chief Strategy Officer of Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSE) following its December 2016 merger with HIAC. Mr. Silvers is currently overseeing a period of continued growth and success for the company, which includes acceptance of a second consecutive award for eGaming Reviews Virtual Sports Supplier of the Year. |
| Acting as the Lead Independent Director of PICO Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PICO), a holding company engaged in water resource/water storage operations. |
| Mr. Silvers has previously served on the boards of directors of multiple gaming technology, entertainment, healthcare and real estate development companies. This extensive directorship experience earned Mr. Silvers recognition from the National Association of Corporate Directors, which named him to its 2015 A New Generation of Board Leadership: Directors Under Age 40 list of emerging corporate directors. |
In addition to his operating company executive experience, Mr. Silvers served as President of GCAC, a blank check company that raised $300 million of gross proceeds in its November 2007 initial public offering with the intention of acquiring an investment target operating in the global consumer products and services industries. In October 2010, GCAC completed its acquisition of Service1st Bank of Nevada, a community bank in Las Vegas, Nevada, which operated as Western Liberty Bancorp until its sale to Western Alliance Bancorporation in 2012.
Our management teams past performance, including with respect to Mr. Weils involvement with successor entities of blank check companies, is not a guarantee that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or that any business combination we may consummate will be successful.
Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers are currently restricted by non-compete provisions contained in their respective employment agreements with Inspired, which provisions prohibit Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers from managing certain businesses that directly compete with the business activities of Inspired and its associated companies that it controls (collectively, the Inspired Group). Mr. Weil is also restricted by a non-solicit provision, which prohibits Mr. Weil from soliciting certain employees. See Risk Factors Our Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer are parties to certain agreements that will limit the types of companies that we can target for an initial business combination, among other restrictions, which could limit our prospects for an initial business combination and make us a less attractive buyer to certain target companies and Risk Factors Our Executive Chairman is party to a certain agreement that will limit his ability to solicit or hire employees of Inspired, which could make us a less attractive buyer to certain target companies.
Leisure Acquisition Corp. is sponsored by a partnership between Hydra Management and Matthews Lane Capital Partners, the respective firms of Messrs. Weil and Silvers. Messrs. Weil and Silvers have worked closely together at various times over the course of a period spanning more than 15 years, beginning when Mr. Weil was a client of Mr. Silvers at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., and their firms have worked closely together for more than two years, partnering on numerous efforts. Additionally, (i) Mr. Silvers served as an external consultant to HIAC, assisting it in consummating the business combination with Inspired Gaming,
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(ii) Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have explored the private acquisitions of a number of businesses together and (iii) Mr. Weil and Mr. Silvers have worked together on private, early-stage venture capital opportunities.
Hydra Management, LLC is an investment management firm founded in 2013 by Mr. Weil. Hydra Management, LLC and its affiliates invest in middle market companies through private equity capital. HIAC, a special purpose acquisition company and an affiliate of Hydra Management, LLC, was incorporated in 2014 with the stated intention of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, recapitalization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses. HIAC sought to acquire or merge with a company that would benefit from the experience and capabilities of Hydras management team, including Mr. Weil. Through detailed diligence and target outreach, HIAC ultimately identified and executed a merger with Inspired Gaming Group, a global games technology company supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server-based gaming systems featuring associated terminals and digital content to betting, gaming, and lottery operators worldwide. Mr. Weil is currently the Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: INSE).
Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC is an investment firm founded in 2015 by Mr. Silvers. Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC seeks to make public and private investments at all layers of the capital structure including secured debt, mezzanine debt, preferred equity, common equity, and warrants. The firm focuses on complex, off-market situations in which it has substantial operating expertise and an ability to create value. Accordingly, Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC focuses on evaluating investment alternatives across the following sectors in which it has significant operating and board-level experience: real estate, gaming, lodging, leisure, consumer-oriented technology, financial services/financial institutions, healthcare, food service and education.
We believe that companies operating in the leisure sector have characteristics that make them attractive investments. Many companies in leisure-oriented industries generate high margins and strong free cash flow, maintain operational stability throughout economic cycles and serve as good platforms for future acquisitions. Furthermore, these companies are often able to realize substantial cost synergies through the addition of additional assets that are able to benefit from shared overhead and corporate infrastructure as well as purchasing power benefits. Our management team has executed on these growth strategies throughout their respective careers.
Frequently, many large leisure companies pursue plans to rationalize operations and/or to divest non-core assets. At times, such efforts to divest assets may be driven by regulatory concerns, including antitrust consideration. All members of our management team have had extensive experience undertaking mergers and acquisitions and overseeing business integration and synergy realization. We believe that our management team of leisure sector veterans is uniquely capable of identifying attractive businesses, executing acquisitions and adding value post deal completion.
Our management teams and sponsors deal sourcing network, ranging from industry executives, private owners, private equity funds, public stockholders, investment bankers, consultants and others, is expected to enable us to pursue a broad range of opportunities across the entire leisure sector. Our management believes that its ability to identify and implement operational value creation initiatives will remain central to its differentiated acquisition strategy. Additionally, the network of our sponsors is expected to allow us to lean heavily on an existing infrastructure of resources that will assist in due diligence and ultimately structuring an acquisition.
Mr. Weils prior blank check company experience includes sponsoring HIAC, which acquired Inspired Gaming Group in 2016. In connection with this business combination, Mr. Weil became Executive Chairman of the successor entity, Inspired Entertainment Inc. Inspireds ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol INSE, and its warrants are traded on the OTC Market under the symbol INSEW. In addition, Mr. Weil served as a board member and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of AAC, a blank check company that, in December 2013, merged with Tecnoglass S.A. and C.I. Energia Solar S.A. E.S. Windows, a Colombia-based exporter of high technology architectural glass for the residential and
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commercial construction industry. Mr. Weil is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the successor entity, Tecnoglass S.A. Tecnoglass ordinary shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol TGLS. Mr. Silvers prior blank check company experiences includes having served as President of GCAC, a blank check company that acquired Service1st Bank of Nevada, which operated as Western Liberty Bancorp until its sale to Western Alliance Bancorporation in 2012. Western Liberty Bancorps shares traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol WLBC. Mr. Pengs blank check company experience includes having served as Chief Financial Officer for HIAC. Subsequent to the business combination with Inspired Gaming in 2016, Mr. Peng became Vice President Finance at Inspired Entertainment Inc. In addition, Mr. Weil was an initial stockholder in Andina II, a blank check company that has recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lazydays R.V. Center, Inc. and its affiliates. Mr. Carrera has served as Senior Vice President of Andina II since November 2015. Upon consummation of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018 (subject to approval by Andina IIs shareholders and other customary closing conditions), Mr. Weil is expected to become Vice Chairman and join the board of directors of the combined company. Affiliates of each of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers and Mr. Peng have provided consulting services to Andina II in connection with its contemplated business combination.
Our acquisition and value creation strategy will be to identify, acquire and build a company in the leisure sector that complements the experience of our management team and can benefit from its operational expertise. After our initial business combination, we envision our strategy may include additional mergers and acquisitions with a focus on generating attractive risk adjusted returns for our stockholders. We will leverage our management teams network of potential proprietary and public transaction sources where we believe a combination of our relationships, knowledge and experience in the leisure sector could effect a positive transformation or augmentation of existing businesses to improve their overall value.
We plan to utilize the network and industry experience of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers, our sponsors and their respective affiliates and our board of directors in seeking an initial business combination and employing our acquisition strategy. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team and their affiliates have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships that we believe will serve as a useful source of acquisition opportunities. This network has been developed through our management teams extensive experience in:
| both investing in and operating across the leisure sector; |
| setting and adjusting strategies for businesses; |
| identifying, mentoring and recruiting world-class talent; |
| sourcing, structuring, acquiring, operating, developing, growing, financing and selling businesses; |
| accessing the public capital markets; |
| executing transactions in multiple geographies; |
| relationships with sellers, financing providers and target management teams; and |
| executing transactions in the leisure sector under varying economic and financial market conditions. |
We expect these networks will provide our management team with a robust flow of acquisition opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, which may include investment market participants, certain of our stockholders, private equity groups, investment banking firms, consultants, accounting firms and large business enterprises. Upon completion of this offering, members of our management team will communicate with their networks of relationships to articulate the parameters for our search for a target company and a potential business combination and begin the process of pursuing and reviewing potentially interesting leads.
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review that will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document
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reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information that will be made available to us. We will also utilize our operational and capital planning experience.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our management team and our independent directors will directly or indirectly own founder shares and/or private placement warrants following this 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 was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
We currently do not have any specific transaction under consideration with a target business with which to consummate our initial business combination. All of the members of our management team pursue outside business interests, including through either Hydra or Matthews Lane Capital Partners, and are continuously made aware of potential business opportunities, one or more of which we may desire to pursue for a business combination, but we have not (nor has anyone on our behalf) contacted any prospective target business with respect to a business combination transaction with us.
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 pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. 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 opportunity to such entity and not to us. For more information on the entities to which our officers, directors and director nominees currently have fiduciary or contractual obligations please refer to Management Conflict of Interest. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
In addition to the above, all of our executive officers have certain duties to Inspired, including but not limited to fiduciary and/or contractual duties. As a result, our officers will have certain duties to offer acquisition opportunities to Inspired before we can pursue such opportunities. However, we do not expect these duties to present a significant conflict of interest with our search for an initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. Moreover, our executive officers have time and attention requirements with respect to their duties to Inspired.
Our officers and directors have agreed not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial business combination or we have failed to complete our initial business combination within the required timeframe.
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 assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the
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agreement to enter into the initial business combination. If our board 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 that is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, or an independent accounting firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders 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-transaction 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 stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction 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 not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. 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 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 stockholders 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-transaction 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 and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
Prior to the date of this prospectus, we will file a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our business combination.
Members of our management team 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 that any member of our management team will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.
We believe our management teams operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, our management teams relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions. See the section of this prospectus entitled Management for a more complete description of our management teams experience.
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. In this situation, the owners of the target business would exchange their shares of stock in the target business for shares of our stock or for a combination of shares of our stock and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. Although there are various costs and obligations associated with being a public company, we believe target businesses will
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find this method a more certain and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. In a typical initial public offering, there are additional expenses incurred in marketing, road show and public reporting efforts that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a business combination with us.
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 could have negative valuation consequences. Once public, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital and an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with stockholders interests. It can offer further benefits by augmenting a companys profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to 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 non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
With funds available for a business combination initially in the amount of $193,000,000, after payment of $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting fees (or $221,950,000 after payment of up to $8,050,000 of deferred underwriting fees if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) and including the proceeds for the $62,500,000 contingent forward purchase contract to purchase 6,250,000 units by our strategic investor and proceeds from the private placement warrants, in each case before fees and expenses associated with our initial business combination, 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 or leverage ratio. Because we are able to complete our 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.
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following this offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering, from the private placement of the private placement warrants, and, in the event that our strategic investor votes in favor of our initial business combination, from the $62,500,000 contingent forward purchase contract to purchase 6,250,000 units by an affiliate of our strategic investor. We may also
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use our capital stock, debt or a combination of these as the consideration to be paid in our initial business combination. 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 securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our business combination or used for redemptions of purchases of our common stock, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account, as well as the $62,500,000 private placement described above, for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction 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.
Our officers and directors have neither individually identified nor considered a target business, nor have they had any discussions regarding possible target businesses among themselves or with our underwriters or other advisors. Our sponsors and strategic investor are continuously made aware of potential business opportunities, one or more of which we may desire to pursue for a business combination, but we have not (nor has anyone on our behalf) contacted any prospective target business or had any discussions, formal or otherwise, with respect to a business combination transaction. We have not (nor have any of our agents or affiliates) been approached by any candidates (or representative of any candidates) with respect to a possible acquisition transaction with us and we will not consider a business combination with any company that has already been identified to either of our sponsors or our strategic investor as an acquisition candidate for it. Additionally, we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, taken any measure, directly or indirectly, to identify or locate any suitable acquisition candidate for us, nor have we engaged or retained any agent or other representative to identify or locate any such acquisition candidate.
We may seek to raise additional funds through a private offering of debt or equity securities in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, and we may effectuate our initial business combination using the proceeds of such offering rather than using the amounts held in the trust account. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would expect to complete such financing only simultaneously with the completion of our business combination. In the case of an initial business combination funded with assets other than the trust account assets, our tender offer documents or proxy materials disclosing the business combination would disclose the terms of the financing and, only if required by law, we would seek stockholder approval of such financing. There are no prohibitions on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our initial business combination. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities or otherwise.
We anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various 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 many of these sources will have read this prospectus and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates, 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 finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arms 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
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finders 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. In addition, we may pay our sponsors or strategic investor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, a finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation in connection with identifying, investigating and completing our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). We have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support and to reimburse our sponsors for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination. Some of our officers and directors may enter into employment or consulting agreements with the post-transaction 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 business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors or making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such an 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.
As more fully discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled Management Conflicts of Interest, 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 pre-existing fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may be required to present such business combination opportunity to such entity prior to presenting such business combination opportunity to us. Our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us. If any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that is suitable for one of these entities to which he has a fiduciary or contractual obligation, he will honor such obligation to present such opportunity to such entity rather than to us. Our directors and officers will only have an obligation to present an opportunity to us if such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
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 our assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. The fair market value of the target or targets will be determined by our board of directors based upon one or more standards generally accepted by the financial community, such as discounted cash flow valuation or value of comparable businesses. If our board 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 that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. Subject to this requirement, our management will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting one or more prospective target businesses, although we will not be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.
In any case, we will only complete an initial business combination in which we own or acquire 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquire a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. If we own or acquire less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses, the portion of such business or businesses that are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. There is no basis for investors in this offering to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any target business with which we may ultimately complete our business combination.
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To the extent we effect our 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.
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 employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information that will be made available to us.
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 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.
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 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. |
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business 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. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our 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.
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.
We may conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC. However, we will seek stockholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons. Presented in the table below is a graphic explanation of the types of initial business combinations we may consider and whether stockholder approval is currently required under Delaware law for each such transaction.
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Type of Transaction | Whether Stockholder Approval is Required |
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Purchase of assets | No | |
Purchase of stock of target not involving a merger with the company | No | |
Merger of target into a subsidiary of the company | No | |
Merger of the company with a target | Yes |
Under NASDAQs listing rules, stockholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
| we issue shares of common stock that will be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of shares of our common stock then outstanding; |
| any of our directors, officers or substantial stockholders (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 common stock will result in our undergoing a change of control. |
The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination in those instances in which stockholder approval is not required by law will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on business and legal reasons, which include a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
| the timing of the transaction, including in the event we determine stockholder approval would require additional time and there is either not enough time to seek stockholder 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 stockholder vote; |
| the risk that the stockholders 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 stockholders. |
In the event we seek stockholder approval of our business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsors, strategic investor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. 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 shares in such transactions. They will not make 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. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. Subsequent to the consummation of this offering, we will adopt an insider trading policy which will require insiders to: refrain from purchasing shares during certain blackout periods and when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information and to clear all trades with our legal counsel prior to execution. We cannot currently determine whether our insiders will make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan, as it will be dependent upon several factors, including but not limited to, the timing and size of such purchases. Depending
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on such circumstances, our insiders may either make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan or determine that such a plan is not necessary.
In the event that our sponsors, strategic investor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. 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 comply with such rules.
The purpose of such purchases would be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the business combination or (ii) to 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 business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. This may result in the completion of our business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public float of our common stock 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 sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the stockholders with whom our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated purchases by either the stockholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by stockholders following our mailing of proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates enter into a private purchase, they would identify and contact only potential selling stockholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against the business combination. Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates will only purchase shares if such purchases comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws.
Any purchases by our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates who are affiliated purchasers under Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act will only be made to the extent such purchases are able to be made in compliance with Rule 10b-18, which is a safe harbor from liability for manipulation under Section 9(a)(2) and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. Rule 10b-18 has certain technical requirements that must be complied with in order for the safe harbor to be available to the purchaser. Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will not make purchases of common stock if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act.
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock 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 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 franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount initially held in the trust account will be $10.00 per public share. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our business combination.
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a
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stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder 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 stockholder approval under the law or stock exchange listing requirement. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. If we structure a business combination transaction with a target company in a manner that requires stockholder approval, we will not have discretion as to whether to seek a stockholder vote to approve the proposed business combination. We intend to conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC unless stockholder approval is required by law or stock exchange listing requirements or we choose to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons.
If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:
| 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 business combination, we or our sponsors will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase shares of our common stock in the open market if we elect to redeem our public shares through a tender offer, 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 stockholders not tendering more than a specified number of public shares which are not purchased by our sponsors or strategic investor, which number will be based on the requirement that we may not redeem public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination.
If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:
| 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. |
In the event that we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders will count toward this quorum and have
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agreed, after approval of our board, to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders founder shares, we would need 7,500,001 or approximately 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised). We intend to give not less than 10 days nor more than 60 days prior written notice of any such meeting, if required, at which a vote shall be taken to approve our initial business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our initial stockholders, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. In addition, our initial stockholders have entered into letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of a business combination.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will 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 are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, 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 shares of common stock 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, and all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a group (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 20% of the shares sold in this offering, which we refer to as the Excess Shares. We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders 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 stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 20% of the shares sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holders shares are not purchased by us or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders ability to redeem no more than 20% of the shares sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our 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 stockholders ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our business combination.
We may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in street name, to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we
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distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using Depository Trust Companys DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holders option. The tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two days prior to the vote on 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 exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders 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 $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 stockholders 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 stockholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the stockholder then had an option window after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the companys stock 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 stockholders were aware they needed to commit before the stockholder 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 holders election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.
Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the tender offer materials or the date of the stockholder meeting set forth in our proxy materials, as applicable. 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 business combination.
If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders 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 this offering.
Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors have agreed that we will have only 24 months from the closing of this offering to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our business combination within such 24-month 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public
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stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware 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 complete our business combination within the 24-month time period.
Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. However, if our initial stockholders acquire public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the allotted 24-month time period.
Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of common stock 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 franchise and income taxes divided by the number of 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 are not subject to the SECs penny stock rules). Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation such an amendment would need to be approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon.
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 approximately $2,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, the $1,000,000 in loans committed by our sponsors and strategic investor in the aggregate, or provided through additional loans from our sponsors and strategic investor, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay franchise and income taxes on interest income earned on the trust account balance, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $75,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of this 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 stockholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors that would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by stockholders will not be substantially less than $10.00. Under Section 281(b) of the DGCL, our plan of dissolution must provide for all claims against us to be paid in full or make provision for payments to be made in full, as applicable, if there are sufficient assets. These claims must be paid or provided for before we make any distribution of our remaining assets to our stockholders. 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 (other than our independent auditors), 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 any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, 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
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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 partys 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. Each sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us, jointly and severally, if and to the extent any claims by a vendor (other than our independent public accountants) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net, of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this 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, then our sponsors will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims We have not independently verified whether each sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsors only substantive assets are securities of our company. We have not asked our sponsors to reserve for such indemnification obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsors 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.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, and each sponsor asserts that it is unable to 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 sponsors to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsors 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 if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. We have not asked our sponsors to reserve for such indemnification obligations and we cannot assure you that our sponsors would be able to satisfy those obligations. 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 sponsors will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), 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 sponsors will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to approximately $2,000,000 from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants
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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 $75,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, stockholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $825,000, 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 $825,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If the corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholders pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution.
Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution. If we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Accordingly, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following our 24th month and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with those procedures. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend well beyond the third anniversary of such date.
Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the subsequent 10 years. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), 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 any monies held in the trust account. As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust
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account is remote. Further, our sponsors may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest withdrawn to pay our franchise and income tax obligations and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this 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 sponsors will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims.
If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a preferential transfer or a fraudulent conveyance. As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover all amounts received by our stockholders. Furthermore, our board 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 stockholders 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 stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek stockholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a stockholders voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a stockholders redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such stockholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above.
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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 are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering.
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Redemptions in Connection with our Initial Business Combination |
Other Permitted Purchases of Public Shares by us or our Affiliates |
Redemptions if we fail to Complete an Initial Business Combination |
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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 stockholder vote. The redemption price will be the same whether we conduct redemptions pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a stockholder vote. In either case, our public stockholders may redeem their public shares for cash equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination (which will initially 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 franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of 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 stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsors, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market prior to or following completion of our initial business combination. Such purchases will only be made to the extent such purchases are able to be made in compliance with Rule 10b-18, which is a safe harbor from liability for manipulation under Section 9(a)(2) and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares in such transactions. There is no limit to the prices that our sponsors, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may pay in these transactions. | If we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 will initially 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. | |||
Impact to remaining stockholders | The redemptions in connection with our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for our remaining stockholders, who will bear the burden of the deferred underwriting commissions and franchise and income taxes payable. | If the permitted purchases described above are made there would be no impact to our remaining stockholders because the purchase price would not be paid by us. | The redemption of our public shares if we fail to complete our business combination will reduce the book value per share for the shares held by our initial stockholders, who will be our only remaining stockholders after such redemptions. |
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The following table compares the terms of this offering to the terms of an offering by a blank check company subject to the provisions of Rule 419. This comparison assumes that the gross proceeds, underwriting commissions and underwriting expenses of our offering would be identical to those of an offering undertaken by a company subject to Rule 419, and that the underwriters will not exercise their over-allotment option. None of the provisions of Rule 419 apply to our offering.
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Terms of Our Offering | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |||
Escrow of offering proceeds | The rules of NASDAQ provide that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account. $200,000,000 of the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be deposited into a U.S.-based trust account at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. | Approximately $170,000,000 of the offering proceeds would be deposited into either an escrow account with an insured depositary institution or in a separate bank account established by a broker-dealer in which the broker-dealer acts as trustee for persons having the beneficial interests in the account. | ||
Investment of net proceeds | Approximately $200,000,000 of the net offering proceeds and the sale of the private placement warrants held in trust will be invested only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 180 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. |
Proceeds could be invested only in specified securities such as a money market fund meeting conditions of the Investment Company Act or in securities that are direct obligations of, or obligations guaranteed as to principal or interest by, the United States. | ||
Receipt of interest on escrowed funds | Interest on proceeds from the trust account to be paid to stockholders is reduced by (i) any income or franchise taxes paid or payable, and (ii) in the event of our liquidation for failure to complete our initial business combination within the allotted time, up to $75,000 of net interest that may be released to us should we have no or insufficient working capital to fund the costs and expenses of our dissolution and liquidation. | Interest on funds in escrow account would be held for the sole benefit of investors, unless and only after the funds held in escrow were released to us in connection with our completion of a business combination. | ||
Limitation on fair value or net assets of target business | 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 our assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. | The fair value or net assets of a target business must represent at least 80% of the maximum offering proceeds. | ||
Trading of securities issued | The units will begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus unless Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering, which is anticipated to take place three business days from the date of this prospectus. If the over-allotment option is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, an additional Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the over-allotment option. | No trading of the units or the underlying common stock and warrants would be permitted until the completion of a business combination. During this period, the securities would be held in the escrow or trust account. |
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Terms of Our Offering | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |||
Exercise of the warrants | The warrants cannot be exercised until the later of 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination and 12 months from the closing of this offering. | The warrants could be exercised prior to the completion of a business combination, but securities received and cash paid in connection with the exercise would be deposited in the escrow or trust account. | ||
Election to remain an investor | We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein. We may not be required by law to hold a stockholder vote. If we are not required by law and do not otherwise decide to hold a stockholder vote, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC and file tender offer documents with the SEC which will contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SECs proxy rules. If, however, we hold a stockholder vote, we will, like many blank check companies, offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. Additionally, each public stockholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. | A prospectus containing information pertaining to the business combination required by the SEC would be sent to each investor. Each investor would be given the opportunity to notify the company in writing, within a period of no less than 20 business days and no more than 45 business days from the effective date of a post-effective amendment to the companys registration statement, to decide if it elects to remain a stockholder of the company or require the return of its investment. If the company has not received the notification by the end of the 45th business day, funds and interest or dividends, if any, held in the trust or escrow account are automatically returned to the stockholder. Unless a sufficient number of investors elect to remain investors, all funds on deposit in the escrow account must be returned to all of the investors and none of the securities are issued. |
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Terms of Our Offering | Terms Under a Rule 419 Offering | |||
Business combination deadline | If we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 100% of 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. | If an acquisition has not been completed within 18 months after the effective date of the companys registration statement, funds held in the trust or escrow account are returned to investors. | ||
Release of funds | Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our franchise and income tax obligations, the proceeds from this offering held in the trust account will not be released from the trust account until the earliest to occur of: (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and (iii) the redemption of 100% of our public shares if we are unable to complete a business combination within the required time frame (subject to the requirements of applicable law). Based upon current interest rates, we expect the trust account to generate approximately $4,000,000 of interest income during the next 24 months, which could be released to pay taxes. | The proceeds held in the escrow account are not released until the earlier of the completion of a business combination or the failure to effect a business combination within the allotted time. |
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our 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, and 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 we do. 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 stockholders 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.
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Our executive offices are located at 250 West 57th Street, Suite 2223, New York, New York 10107, and our telephone number is (646) 565-6940. Our executive offices are provided to us by an affiliate of our Hydra sponsor. Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, we have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
We currently have four officers. Members of our management team 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 that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.
We will register our units, common stock and warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We will provide stockholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials sent to stockholders to assist them in assessing the target business. In all likelihood, these financial statements will need to be prepared in accordance with GAAP. We cannot assure you that any particular target business identified by us as a potential acquisition candidate will have financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP or that the potential target business will be able to prepare its financial statements in accordance with GAAP. To the extent that this requirement cannot be met, we may not be able to acquire the proposed target business. While this may limit the pool of potential acquisition candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A target company may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such, and we and the members of our management team have not been subject to any such proceeding in the 12 months preceding the date of this prospectus.
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Our officers, directors and director nominees are as follows:
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Name | Age | Position | ||
A. Lorne Weil | 71 | Executive Chairman | ||
Daniel B. Silvers | 41 | Chief Executive Officer and Director | ||
George Peng | 47 | Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary | ||
Eric Carrera | 28 | Senior Vice President Finance and Business Development | ||
Marc J. Falcone | 44 | Director nominee | ||
Steven M. Rittvo | 68 | Director nominee | ||
David L. Weinstein | 51 | Director nominee |
A. Lorne Weil has served as our Executive Chairman since our formation in September 2017 and has been a principal of Hydra Management, an investment vehicle formed by Mr. Weil, since September 2014. Mr. Weil serves as Executive Chairman of Inspired Entertainment, Inc., a position he has held since December 2016. Previously, Mr. Weil served as Chairman and CEO of Inspireds predecessor, Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp., since October 2014. Mr. Weil previously served as Chairman of the Board of Scientific Games Corporation (and its predecessor Autotote Corporation) from October 1991 to November 2013. Mr. Weil also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Scientific Games Corporation (and its predecessor Autotote Corporation) from 1992 to 2008 and from November 2010 to November 2013 (Mr. Weil had retired in 2008) and as the President from August 1997 to June 2005. Under Mr. Weils stewardship, the company made a number of significant acquisitions and joint ventures, including the privatization of the off-track betting operations of the State of Connecticut, and the acquisitions of Scientific Games Holdings Corp., IGT Online Entertainment Systems, Global Draw and WMS Industries, and the privatization of the Illinois, New Jersey and Italian lotteries. Prior to joining Scientific Games, Mr. Weil was President of Lorne Weil, Inc., a firm he founded which provided strategic planning and corporate development services to technology-based industries, a role he maintained from 1979 to November 1992. From 1974 to 1979, Mr. Weil was Vice President Corporate Development at General Instrument Corporation. From 1970 to 1974, Mr. Weil was a manager with the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Weil received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, an M.S. degree from the London School of Economics and an M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he served for more than 10 years on the Board of Overseers. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Weil was a director of Avantair Inc. In 2012, Mr. Weil was the sponsor and Chairman of the Board of Andina Acquisition Corp., a NASDAQ-listed blank check company. Mr. Weil is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the successor entity, Tecnoglass Inc.
We believe Mr. Weil is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his extensive business experience in strategic planning and corporate development, his experience successfully overseeing the IPO of Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp. and its subsequent merger with Inspired Gaming Group, the IPO of Andina and its subsequent merger with Tecnoglass, the contacts he has fostered over the course of his extensive career, as well as his vast operational experience.
Daniel B. Silvers has served as Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company since our formation in September 2017. Additionally, he has served as Managing Member of Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC, an investment firm, since June 2015 and also has served as Chief Strategy Officer of Inspired Entertainment, Inc., a company involved in the gaming equipment supplier industry, since December 2016. He is the former President of SpringOwl Asset Management LLC, an investment management firm, a position he held from March 2009 to June 2015 (including predecessor entities). From April 2009 to October 2010, Mr. Silvers also served as President of Western Liberty Bancorp, an acquisition oriented holding company that acquired and recapitalized a community bank in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Silvers joined a predecessor of SpringOwl from Fortress Investment Group, a leading global alternative asset manager, where he worked from 2005 to 2009. At Fortress, Mr. Silvers primary focus was to originate and oversee due diligence on and asset management for real estate and gaming investments in Fortress Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund. Prior to joining Fortress, Mr. Silvers was a senior member of the real estate, gaming and lodging investment banking group at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Mr. Silvers serves as lead independent director of PICO Holdings,
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Inc., a holding company with water resource operations. Mr. Silvers previously served on the board of directors of Forestar Group, Inc., International Game Technology, bwin.party digital entertainment plc, Universal Health Services, Inc., Ashford Hospitality Prime, Inc. and India Hospitality Corp. Mr. Silvers holds a B.S. in Economics, as well as an M.B.A with a concentration in Finance, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
We believe Mr. Silvers is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his extensive experience in corporate finance, capital allocation, capital markets and public company governance.
George Peng has served as our Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary since our formation in September 2017. Additionally, Mr. Peng has been a Principal of Hydra Management, LLC, an investment vehicle of Mr. Weils since July 2014 and as Vice President of Finance at Inspired Entertainment, Inc., since January 2017. Previously, he was Chief Financial Officer of Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition corporation that acquired Inspired Entertainment, Inc., from August 2015 until January 2017. Before that, Mr. Peng was a consultant to Scientific Games Corporation from May 2013 to April 2014, where he assisted in its integration of the acquisition of WMS Industries. Mr. Peng was focused on the financial and operational impacts of integrating the accounting and finance functions of both companies, including human resource allocation, budgeting, and cost reductions. Prior to consulting to Scientific Games, Mr. Peng was a consultant primarily focused on financial planning and analysis for various industries, including retail and financial services. Previously, he was an Associate in the Investment Banking division of Credit Suisse, focusing on private equity, high yield, and leveraged lending products. Mr. Peng holds an A.B. in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as well as an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the Anderson School at UCLA. Mr. Peng is a CFA Charterholder, which he was awarded in 2006.
Eric Carrera has served as our Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Development since September 2017. Additionally, Mr. Carrera has served as the Senior Associate of Hydra Management, LLC, an investment vehicle of Mr. Weil, since June 2015 and as Manager of Finance/M&A of Inspired Entertainment, Inc. since January 2017. Mr. Carrera has also served as Senior Vice President at Andina Acquisition Corp. II, a special-purpose acquisition corporation, since November 2015. From June 2011 to February 2015, Mr. Carrera was an international business development associate with Scientific Games Corporation, a supplier of technology-based products, systems and services to gaming markets worldwide. From September 2011 to December 2013, Mr. Carrera acted as an advisor to Andina Acquisition Corp. and was a member of the team that successfully completed a business transaction with Tecnoglass S.A., a Colombian manufacturer of glass and windows. Mr. Carrera received a B.S. from Boston University School of Management and is also a CFA Charterholder.
Marc J. Falcone will serve as a member of our board of directors upon completion of this offering. Mr. Falcone served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Red Rock Resorts, Inc. from October 2015 until May 2017 and as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Station Casinos LLC from June 2011 until May 2017. Mr. Falcone served as Treasurer of Station Casinos LLC since January 2013 until May 2017. Mr. Falcone also served as Chief Financial Officer of Fertitta Entertainment LLC from October 2010 through May 2016. From June 2008 to October 2010, Mr. Falcone worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he focused on restructuring transactions in the hospitality and gaming sectors under that firms Whitehall division. From May 2006 to June 2008, Mr. Falcone was a senior analyst at Magnetar Capital, LLC (an alternative asset management firm), covering the gaming, lodging, leisure, REIT and airline industries. From May 2002 to June 2006, Mr. Falcone was a Managing Director for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. covering gaming, lodging and leisure companies and was recognized as one of the industrys top analysts. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Mr. Falcone worked for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., covering the gaming, lodging and leisure industries. Mr. Falcone holds a bachelors degree in Real Estate Finance and Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
We believe Mr. Falcone is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his significant experience as an executive officer at a public company in the leisure sector and investment experience with the leisure sector and leisure-related businesses.
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Steven M. Rittvo will serve as a member of our board of directors upon completion of this offering. Since February 2017, Mr. Rittvo serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innovation Project Development, a multi-disciplinary development management services company focused on leisure- and residential-related developments. Mr. Rittvo has been with Innovation Project Development since November 2005. In May 1993, Mr. Rittvo co-founded The Innovation Group, Inc., a gaming, hospitality and leisure sector consulting firm headquartered in Denver with offices in New Orleans, Atlantic City, Aspen, Minneapolis and Orlando. Mr. Rittvo served as President of Innovation Group until February 2017. In Mr. Rittvos various roles with The Innovation Group, he advised and participated in gaming studies for clients ranging from Caesars Entertainment, MGM Mirage, Pinnacle Entertainment, Mandalay Resort Group, Isle of Capri, Harrahs Entertainment, Trump Hotels and Casinos, as well as numerous Native American tribes and government agencies throughout the United States and the World. Mr. Rittvo holds a bachelors degree in Systems Engineering and a masters degree in Transportation Engineering and Planning from the Polytechnic Institute of New York.
We believe Mr. Rittvo is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his significant experience managing leisure-related developments and advising owners, operators and other stakeholders in the leisure sector and leisure-related businesses.
David L. Weinstein will serve as a member of our board of directors upon completion of this offering. Mr. Weinstein is a partner at Belvedere Capital, a real estate investment firm based in New York, and is primarily focused on Belvedere' s investment in Industry City, a six million square foot redevelopment project in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Mr. Weinstein was previously a partner at Belvedere Capital from September 2008 until October 2013. From February 2015 until August 2016, Mr. Weinstein was a member of the board of directors of Forestar Group, Inc. Mr. Weinstein previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of MPG Office Trust, Inc., a publicly traded office REIT, from November 2010 until the sale of the Company in October 2013. He was a member of the board of directors of MPG Office Trust, Inc. from August 2008 until October 2013. From April 2007 until August 2008, Mr. Weinstein was a Managing Director of Westbridge Investment Group/Westmont Hospitality Group, a real estate investment fund focused on hospitality. From 1996 until January 2007, Mr. Weinstein worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, first as a Vice President in the real estate investment banking group (focusing on mergers, asset sales and corporate finance) and then, from 2004, as a Vice President in the Special Situations Group (focused on real estate debt investments). Mr. Weinstein holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, magna cum laude, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association.
We believe Mr. Weinstein is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his real estate banking, investment and management experience, including as a chief executive officer of a publicly traded real estate company, as well as his corporate governance experience through service as a board member of a public company will be valuable to the Companys board of directors.
We intend to have 5 directors upon completion of this offering. Our board of directors will be 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 stockholders) serving a three-year term. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Mr. Falcone, will expire at our first annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Mr. Rittvo and Mr. Weinstein, will expire at the second annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of A. Lorne Weil and Daniel B. Silvers, will expire at the third annual meeting of stockholders. We do not currently intend to hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination.
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 bylaws as it deems appropriate. Our bylaws provide that our officers may consist of a 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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NASDAQ listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. An independent director is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the companys board of directors, would interfere with the directors exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We expect that our board of directors will make a determination that Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein are independent directors as defined in the NASDAQ listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
None of our officers, directors or director nominees has received any cash (or non-cash) compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, we have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees. In addition, we may pay our sponsors or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, a finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation in connection with identifying, investigating and completing our initial business combination. These individuals will also 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 on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which fees and expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed.
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 stockholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials furnished to our stockholders 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 officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our 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.
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 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 managements 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 officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
Our board of directors will have two standing committees: an audit 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, and the rules of NASDAQ require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors.
Prior to the consummation of this offering, we will establish an audit committee of the board of directors. Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein will serve as members of our audit committee. Mr. Falcone is expected
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to serve as chairman of the audit committee. Under the NASDAQ listing standards and applicable SEC rules, we are required to have at least three members of the audit committee, all of whom must be independent. We expect that our board of directors will make a determination that each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein are independent.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and we expect that our board of directors will make a determination that Mr. Falcone qualifies as an audit committee financial expert as defined in applicable SEC rules.
We will adopt an audit committee charter, which will detail the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent auditors and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us; |
| pre-approving all audit and permitted non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures; |
| reviewing and discussing with the independent auditors all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence; |
| setting clear hiring policies for employees or former employees of the independent auditors; |
| setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; |
| obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent auditors describing (i) the independent auditors internal quality-control procedures and (ii) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues; |
| reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and |
| reviewing with management, the independent auditors, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. |
Prior to the consummation of this offering, we will establish a compensation committee of the board of directors. Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein will serve as members of our compensation committee Mr. Weinstein is expected to serve as chairman of the compensation committee. Under the NASDAQ listing standards and applicable SEC rules, we are required to have at least two members of the compensation committee, all of whom must be independent. We expect that our board of directors will make a determination that each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein are independent.
We will adopt a compensation committee charter, which will detail the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
| reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officers compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officers performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation; |
| reviewing and approving on an annual basis the compensation of all of our other officers; |
| reviewing on an annual basis our executive compensation policies and plans; |
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| implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees; |
| if required, 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. |
It is likely that prior to the consummation of an initial business combination, the compensation committee will only be responsible for the review and recommendation of any compensation arrangements to be entered into in connection with such initial business combination.
The charter will also provide 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.
We do not have a standing nominating committee. In accordance with Rule 5605(e)(2) of the NASDAQ Rules, a majority of the independent directors may recommend a director nominee for selection by the board of directors. The board of directors believes that the independent directors can satisfactorily carry out the responsibility of properly selecting or approving director nominees without the formation of a standing nominating committee. As there is no standing nominating committee, we do not have a nominating committee charter in place.
The board of directors will also consider director candidates recommended for nomination by our stockholders during such times as they are seeking proposed nominees to stand for election at the next annual meeting of stockholders (or, if applicable, a special meeting of stockholders). Our stockholders that wish to nominate a director for election to the Board should follow the procedures set forth in our bylaws.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, the board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our stockholders.
None of our officers currently serves, or in the past year has served, as a member of the board of directors or compensation committee of any entity that has one or more officers serving on our board of directors, except that Mr. Weil, our Executive Chairman, is Executive Chairman of Inspired Entertainment, Inc. and Mr. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors, is an executive officer of Inspired Entertainment, Inc.
Prior to the consummation of this offering, we will have adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. We will file a copy of our Code of Ethics and our audit committee charter as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. You will be able to review these documents by accessing our public filings at the SECs web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, 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. See the section of this prospectus entitled Where You Can Find Additional Information.
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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 pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that 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 opportunity to such entity and not to us. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our business combination. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide for the waiver of any requirement to present corporate opportunities to us to the extent it would conflict with competing duties owed to other entities. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
In addition, our sponsors, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written letter agreement, not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial business combination or we have failed to complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of this offering. Our management team is not currently involved in any other blank check offering, except for the involvement of certain members with Andina II, a blank check company that has recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lazydays R.V. Center, Inc. and its affiliates. Mr. Weil was an initial stockholder in Andina II and Mr. Carrera has served as Senior Vice President at Andina II since November 2015. Upon consummation of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018 (subject to approval by Andina IIs shareholders and other customary closing conditions), Mr. Weil is expected to become Vice Chairman and join the board of directors of the combined company. Affiliates of each of Mr. Weil, Mr. Silvers and Mr. Peng have provided consulting services to Andina II in connection with its contemplated business combination.
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
| None of our officers or directors is required to commit his or her full time to our affairs and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating his or her time among various business activities. |
| In the course of their other business activities, our officers and directors may become aware of investment and business opportunities that may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as the other entities with which they are affiliated. Our management may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. |
| Our initial stockholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination. Additionally, our initial stockholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of this offering. If we do not complete our initial business combination within such applicable time period, the proceeds of the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, and the private placement warrants will expire worthless. With certain limited exceptions, the founder shares will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our initial stockholders until 180 days after the completion of our initial business combination. With certain limited exceptions, the private placement warrants and the common stock underlying such warrants, will not be transferable, assignable or salable by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. Since our sponsors, strategic investor and officers |
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and directors may directly or indirectly own common stock and warrants following this offering, our officers and directors 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 was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination. Our management team does not currently expect to continue in a management role with us following the consummation of our initial business combination. Should one or more member of the management team seek to enter into an employment contract with a target, we would refer such matter of employment to a committee of disinterested directors of our board of directors for consideration. |
| Each of A. Lorne Weil, our Executive Chairman, and Daniel B. Silvers, our Chief Executive Officer, is party to an employment agreement with Inspired. These agreements contain non-competition provisions that provide that neither Mr. Weil nor Mr. Silvers shall directly or indirectly engage in any business that is directly competitive with any business conducted by the Inspired Group during his employment, in any geographic area in which such business was so conducted by the Inspired Group. In Mr. Weils employment agreement with Inspired there are also non-solicitation provisions. In light of the non-competition agreements, we will not seek an initial business combination with any company with operations in the businesses described above. In addition, if our initial business combination does not cause Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers to violate the non-competition agreements, no assurance can be given that the combined company would not in the future engage in competitive activities that would cause Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers to be in breach of the non-competition agreements. If a court were to conclude that a violation of either or both of the non-competition agreements had occurred, it could extend the term of Mr. Weils or Mr. Silvers non-competition restrictions and/or enjoin Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers from participating in our company, or enjoin us from engaging in aspects of the business which compete with Inspired Group, as applicable. The court could also impose monetary damages against Mr. Weil or Mr. Silvers or us. This could materially harm our business and the trading prices of our securities. Even if ultimately resolved in our favor, any litigation associated with the non-competition agreements could be time consuming, costly and distract managements focus from locating suitable acquisition candidates and operating our business. |
| Our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a business combination and financing arrangements as we may obtain loans from our sponsors or strategic investor or an affiliate of our sponsors or strategic investor or any of our officers or directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination. Up to $1,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender and would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. |
The conflicts described above may not be resolved in our favor.
In general, officers and directors of a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware are required to present business opportunities to a corporation if:
| the corporation could financially undertake the opportunity; |
| the opportunity is within the corporations line of business; and |
| it would not be fair to our company and its stockholders for the opportunity not to be brought to the attention of the corporation. |
Accordingly, as a result of multiple business affiliations, our officers and directors may have similar legal obligations relating to presenting business opportunities meeting the above-listed criteria to multiple entities. Furthermore, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the doctrine of corporate opportunity will not apply with respect to any of our officers or directors in circumstances where the application of the doctrine would conflict with any fiduciary duties or contractual obligations they may have.
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Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers, directors and director nominees currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations.
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Individual | Entity | Entitys Business | Affiliation | |||
A. Lorne Weil | Hydra Management | Investment Vehicle | Principal | |||
Inspired Entertainment | Gaming Technology | Executive Chairman | ||||
Tecnoglass | Manufacturer of glass products for use in high end commercial real estate construction | Non-Executive Chairman | ||||
Daniel B. Silvers | Matthews Lane Capital Partners | Investment Vehicle | Principal | |||
Inspired Entertainment | Gaming Technology | Chief Strategy Officer | ||||
PICO Holdings, Inc. | Water Resource and Storage Operations | Lead Independent Director | ||||
George Peng | Hydra Management | Investment Vehicle | Principal | |||
Inspired Entertainment | Gaming Technology | Vice President Finance | ||||
Eric Carrera | Hydra Management | Investment Vehicle | Senior Associate | |||
Inspired Entertainment | Gaming Technology | Manager, Finance & M&A | ||||
Andina Acquisition Corp. II | Blank check company | Senior Vice President | ||||
Marc J. Falcone | Red Rock Resorts, Inc. | Gaming, Development and Management | Consultant | |||
Steven M. Rittvo | Innovation Project Development | Development Management Services | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | |||
David L. Weinstein | Belvedere Capital | Real estate investment firm | Partner |
Accordingly, a scenario could arise whereby business opportunities may be provided to one of the above-listed entities by our officers or directors instead of us. For example, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that 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 opportunity to such entity and not to us. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our business combination. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide for the waiver of any requirement to present corporate opportunities to us to the extent it would conflict with competing duties owed to other entities. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business
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combination with such a company, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote any founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination and our officers and directors have also agreed to vote any public shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that our officers and directors will be indemnified by us to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law, as it now exists or may in the future be amended. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that our directors will not be personally liable for monetary damages to us or our stockholders for breaches of their fiduciary duty as directors, unless they violated their duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders, acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized unlawful payments of dividends, unlawful stock purchases or unlawful redemptions, or derived an improper personal benefit from their actions as directors.
We will enter into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Our bylaws also permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director or employee for any liability arising out of his or her actions, regardless of whether Delaware law would permit such indemnification. We will 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.
These provisions may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholders investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the directors and officers liability insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
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The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of the date of this prospectus, and as adjusted to reflect the sale of our common stock included in the units offered by this prospectus, and assuming no purchase of units in this offering, by:
| each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our outstanding shares of common stock; |
| each of our executive officers, directors and director nominees that beneficially owns shares of our common stock; and |
| all our executive officers, directors and director nominees as a group. |
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the private placement warrants as these warrants are not exercisable within 60 days of the date of this prospectus.
On September 11, 2017, our initial stockholders purchased 7,187,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. The following table presents the number of shares and percentage of our common stock owned by our principal stockholders before and after this offering. The post-offering percentages presented assume that the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option, that our initial stockholders forfeit 750,000 founder shares, that certain of our initial stockholders forfeit 1,437,500 shares upon consummation of this offering and that there are 25,000,000 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding after this offering.
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Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned |
Approximate Percentage of Issued and Outstanding Common Stock |
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Before Offering | After Offering | |||||||||||
HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd.(2) | 3,556,250 | 49.5 | % | 9.9 | % | |||||||
A. Lorne Weil and affiliated entities(3) | 1,664,228 | 23.2 | % | 4.5 | % | |||||||
Daniel B. Silvers and affiliated entities(4) | 1,660,071 | 23.1 | % | 4.5 | % | |||||||
George Peng(5) | 100,998 | 1.4 | % | * | ||||||||
Eric Carrera(6) | 64,496 | * | * | |||||||||
Marc J. Falcone | 25,000 | * | * | |||||||||
Steven M. Rittvo | 25,000 | * | * | |||||||||
David L. Weinstein | 25,000 | * | * | |||||||||
All executive officers, directors and director nominees as a group (seven individuals) | 3,564,793 | 49.6 | % | 9.9 | % |
* | Less than one percent. |
(1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following entities or individuals is c/o Leisure Acquisition Corp., 250 West 57th Street, Suite 2223, New York, New York 10107. |
(2) | The business address for HG Vora Capital Management, LLC, the investment manager for HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd., is 330 Madison Avenue, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Upon consummation of this offering, 718,750 shares will be forfeited by HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd. pursuant to the terms of its securities subscription agreement with us so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
(3) | Represents 494,711 shares held of record by Mr. Weil. Represents 1,169,517 shares held of record by Hydra LAC, LLC. Mr Weil is the managing member of Hydra LAC, LLC. Mr. Weil expressly disclaims beneficial ownership of such shares as to which he does not have a pecuniary interest. Upon consummation of this offering, 356,682 shares will be forfeited by Mr. Weil and Hydra LAC, LLC pursuant to the terms of their securities subscription agreements with us so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
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(4) | Represents 1,283,263 shares held of record by MLCP GLL Funding, LLC, of which Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC is the manager. Represents 376,808 shares held of record by Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC. Mr. Silvers is the managing member of Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC. Upon consummation of this offering, 359,869 shares will be forfeited by MLCP GLL Funding LLC and Matthews Lane Capital Partners LLC pursuant to the terms of their securities subscription agreements with us so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
(5) | Upon consummation of this offering, 733 shares will be forfeited by Mr. Peng pursuant to the terms of his securities subscription agreements with us so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
(6) | Upon consummation of this offering, 1,465 shares will be forfeited by Mr. Carrera pursuant to the terms of his securities subscription agreements with us so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. |
Immediately after this offering, our initial stockholders will beneficially own 20% of the then-issued and outstanding shares of our common stock (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Because of this ownership block, our initial stockholders may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors, amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and approval of significant corporate transactions, including approval of our initial business combination.
The holders of the founder shares have agreed (A) to vote any shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (B) not to redeem any shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination.
Our sponsors, strategic investor and our executive officers and directors are deemed to be our promoters as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
The founder shares, private placement warrants and any shares of common stock issued upon exercise thereof are subject to transfer restrictions pursuant to lock-up provisions in a letter agreement with us to be entered into by our initial stockholders. Those lock-up provisions provide that such securities are not transferable, assignable or salable (i) in the case of the founder shares, until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our business combination, the last sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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 (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property, and (ii) in the case of the private placement warrants and the common stock underlying such warrants, until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, except in each case (a) to our officers or directors, any affiliates or family members of any of our officers or directors, any members of the sponsors or the strategic investor or any affiliates of the sponsors or the strategic investor; (b) in the case of an individual or an entity controlled by an officer or director, by a gift to a member of the individuals, officers or directors immediate family or to a trust, the beneficiary of which is a member of one of the individuals, officers or directors immediate family, an affiliate of such person or to a charitable organization; (c) in the case of an individual, by virtue of laws of descent and distribution upon death of the individual; (d) in the case of an individual, pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order; (e) by private sales or transfers made in connection with the consummation of a business combination at prices no greater than the price at which the shares were originally purchased; (f) in the event of our liquidation prior to the completion of a business combination; (g) by virtue of the laws of Delaware or any of the sponsors or sponsor affiliates limited liability company operating agreements upon dissolution of such person; (h) by virtue of the laws of the Cayman Islands or the strategic investors memorandum and articles of association upon dissolution of the strategic investor; or (i) in the event of completion of a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction which results in all of
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our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property subsequent to the completion of a business combination; provided, however, that in the case of clauses (a) through (e) and (g) and (h), these permitted transferees must enter into a written agreement agreeing to be bound by these transfer restrictions.
The holders of the founder shares, the private placement warrants (and any shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of the private placement warrants) and private placement units (and any shares of common stock underlying the private placement units) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of this offering. Each of our sponsors (collectively with their respective affiliates) and our strategic investor is entitled to make up to two demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain piggy-back registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination and rights to require us to register for resale such securities pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act. However, the registration rights agreement provides that we will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until termination of the applicable lock-up period, which occurs in the case of the founder shares, on the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our business combination, the last sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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 (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property, and in the case of the private placement warrants and the respective common stock underlying such warrants, 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. In the case of the private placement units and their constituent securities, we may file a registration statement immediately following the business combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
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On September 11, 2017, we issued an aggregate of 7,187,500 founder shares to our initial stockholders for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000 in cash, or approximately $0.003 per share. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares upon completion of this offering. Prior to the date of this prospectus, our Hydra sponsor intends to transfer 25,000 founder shares to each of Messrs. Falcone, Rittvo and Weinstein, our independent director nominees (for a total of 75,000 founder shares, none of which are subject to forfeiture). In October 2017, our Hydra sponsor transferred 203,957 shares to certain of our officers and professionals. In October 2017, certain of our initial stockholders transferred 711,250 shares to our strategic investor, with 355,625 shares subject to return to such stockholders if the Share Return Condition is triggered. Up to 750,000 founder shares are subject to forfeiture by our sponsors depending on the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such initial stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon the consummation of this offering. The founder shares (including the common stock issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder.
Affiliates of our Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 (or 7,425,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) private placement warrants for a purchase price of $1.00 per whole warrant in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the closing of this offering. As such, these related parties aggregate interest in this transaction is valued at between approximately $6,825,000 and $7,425,000, depending on the number of private placement warrants purchased. Each private placement warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of our common stock at $11.50 per share. The private placement warrants (including the common stock issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder.
Our strategic investor has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract with us to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit. In the event the gross proceeds from this offering are less than $200,000,000 the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will be reduced proportionally. However, the total number of private placement units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will not change in the event the gross proceeds from this offering are more than $200,000,000. The funds from the sale of the private placement units may be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination; any excess funds from this private placement may be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their shares and provides us with an increased minimum funding level for the initial business combination.
Our strategic investors obligation to purchase our units and shares of common stock under the contingent forward purchase contract is subject to the following closing conditions:
| the representations and warranties made by us in the contingent forward purchase contract shall be true and correct in all material respects; |
| all covenants, agreements and conditions contained in the contingent forward purchase contract shall have been performed by us; |
| we have obtained all blue sky law permits and qualifications required by any state for the offer and sale of the private placement securities; and |
| our strategic investor has provided its consent to the business combination, which it may withhold for any reason. |
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In addition under the contingent forward purchase contract, we and the strategic investor have agreed to indemnify each other against certain liabilities and we have additionally agreed to indemnify the strategic investor and certain of its affiliates against certain liabilities arising out of or relating to this offering or our subsequent operations.
As more fully discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled Management Conflicts of Interest, 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.
Commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, we have agreed to pay our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a total of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees. In addition, we may pay our sponsors or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, a finders fee, consulting fee or other compensation in connection with identifying, investigating and completing our initial business combination. These individuals will also 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 on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which fees and expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on payments that may be made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates.
We entered into promissory notes with our sponsors whereby they agreed to loan us up to an aggregate of $400,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. These loans are non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of June 30, 2018 or the closing of this offering. These loans will be repaid upon the closing of this offering.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsors and strategic investor have committed an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and strategic investor, to be provided to us and from which we may draw down from time to time in the event that funds held outside of the trust are insufficient to fund our expenses after this offering and prior to our initial business combination (including investigating and selecting a target business and other working capital requirements) and our sponsors may, but are not obligated to, loan us additional funds as may be required. If we complete an initial business combination, we expect to repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the trust account. In the event that the initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,000,000 of all loans made to us may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants.
After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to our stockholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, furnished to our stockholders. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of distribution of such tender offer materials or at the time of a stockholder meeting held to consider our initial business combination, as applicable, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation.
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We will enter into a registration rights agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, the warrants issuable upon conversion of working capital loans (if any) and the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the foregoing, which is described under the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Registration Rights.
We have not yet adopted a formal policy for the review, approval or ratification of related party transactions. Accordingly, the transactions discussed above were not reviewed, approved or ratified in accordance with any such policy.
Prior to the consummation of this offering, we will adopt a code of ethics requiring us to avoid, wherever possible, all conflicts of interests, except under guidelines or resolutions approved by our board of directors (or the appropriate committee of our board) or as disclosed in our public filings with the SEC. Under our code of ethics, conflict of interest situations will include any financial transaction, arrangement or relationship (including any indebtedness or guarantee of indebtedness) involving the company. A form of the code of ethics that we plan to adopt prior to the consummation of this offering is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
In addition, our audit committee, pursuant to a written charter that we will adopt prior to the consummation of this offering, will be responsible for reviewing and approving related party transactions to the extent that we enter into such transactions. An affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the audit committee present at a meeting at which a quorum is present will be required in order to approve a related party transaction. A majority of the members of the entire audit committee will constitute a quorum. Without a meeting, the unanimous written consent of all of the members of the audit committee will be required to approve a related party transaction. A form of the audit committee charter that we plan to adopt prior to the consummation of this offering is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. We also require each of our directors and executive officers to complete a directors and officers questionnaire that elicits information about related party transactions.
These procedures are intended to determine whether any such related party transaction impairs the independence of a director or presents a conflict of interest on the part of a director, employee or officer.
To further minimize conflicts of interest, we have agreed not to consummate an initial business combination with an entity that is affiliated with any of our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors unless we, or a committee of independent directors, have obtained an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. There will be no restrictions on payments made to insiders. We expect that some or all of the following payments will be made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination:
| Repayment of up to an aggregate of $400,000 in loans ($375,000 of which are outstanding as of the date of this prospectus) pursuant to the terms of unsecured promissory notes issued to our sponsors and strategic investor to cover offering-related and organizational expenses; |
| Repayment of up to an aggregate of $1,000,000 in loans, in accordance with the unsecured promissory notes we will issue to our sponsors and strategic investor pursuant to the expense advance agreement between us and our sponsors and from which we may draw down from time to time, to cover working capital costs and to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination following this offering; up to $1,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants, at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period; |
| Payment to our Hydra sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, of $10,000 per month, for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support; and |
| Payment of fees and reimbursement of out of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination. |
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However, no such payments will be made from the proceeds of this offering held in the trust account prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsors, strategic investor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates.
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Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our authorized capital stock consists of 100,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.0001 par value and 1,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, $0.0001 par value. The following description summarizes the material terms of our capital stock. Because it is only a summary, it may not contain all the information that is important to you.
Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one whole share of common stock and one-half of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, a warrantholder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of shares of common stock. This means that only a whole warrant may be exercised at any given time by a warrantholder. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant.
The common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the closing of this offering unless Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the shares of common stock and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into shares of common stock and warrants.
In no event will the common stock and warrants be traded separately until we have filed with the SEC a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds at the closing of this offering. We will file a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes this audited balance sheet upon the completion of this offering, which is anticipated to take place three business days after the date of this prospectus. If the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option.
Prior to the date of this prospectus, there were 7,187,500 shares of our common stock outstanding. Our initial stockholders will own 20% of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock after this offering (assuming our initial stockholders do not purchase any units in this offering). Pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such initial stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering. Upon the closing of this offering, 25,000,000 shares of our common stock will be outstanding (assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option and the corresponding forfeiture of 750,000 founder shares by our sponsors).
Our strategic investor has agreed to enter into a contingent forward purchase contract with us to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination, 6,250,000 of our units on substantially the same terms as the sale of units in this offering at $10.00 per unit.
Common stockholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by stockholders. Unless specified in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or as required by applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules, the affirmative vote of a majority of our shares of common stock that are voted is required to approve any such matter voted on by our stockholders. Our board of directors 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. There is no cumulative voting with respect to the election of directors, with the result that the holders of more than 50% of the shares voted for the election of directors can elect all of the directors. Our stockholders are entitled to receive ratable dividends when, as and if declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor.
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Because our certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of common stock, if we were to enter into a business combination, we may (depending on the terms of such a business combination) be required to increase the number of shares of common stock which we are authorized to issue at the same time as our stockholders vote on the business combination to the extent we seek stockholder approval in connection with our business combination.
In accordance with NASDAQ corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on NASDAQ. Under Section 211(b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws, unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.
We will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public 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 as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount initially held in the trust account will be $10.00 per public share. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our business combination. Unlike many blank check companies that hold stockholder votes and conduct proxy solicitations in conjunction with their initial business combinations and provide for related redemptions of public shares for cash upon completion of such initial business combinations even when a vote is not required by law, if a stockholder vote is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require these tender offer documents to contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SECs proxy rules. If, however, a stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will, like many blank check companies, offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. However, the participation of our sponsors, strategic investor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates in privately-negotiated transactions (as described in this prospectus), if any, could result in the approval of our business combination even if a majority of our public stockholders vote, or indicate their intention to vote, against such business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our business combination once a quorum is obtained. We intend to give not less than 10 days nor more than 60 days prior written notice of any such meeting, if required, at which a vote shall be taken to approve our business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our initial stockholders, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination.
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If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder 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 20% of the shares of common stock sold in this offering, which we refer to as the Excess Shares. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our business combination. Our stockholders inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce their influence over our ability to complete our business combination, and such stockholders could suffer a material loss in their investment if they sell such Excess Shares on the open market. Additionally, such stockholders will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete the business combination. And, as a result, such stockholders will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 20% and, in order to dispose such shares would be required to sell their stock in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
If we seek stockholder approval in connection with our business combination, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders founder shares, we would need 7,500,001 or approximately 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all outstanding shares are voted) in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised). Additionally, each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction (subject to the limitation described in the preceding paragraph).
Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, if we are unable to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten business days thereafter subject to lawfully available funds therefor, 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Our initial stockholders have entered into a letter 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 held by them if we fail to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. However, if our initial stockholders acquire public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our business combination within the prescribed time period.
In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the company after a business combination, our stockholders are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining available for distribution to them after payment of liabilities and after provision is made for each class of stock, if any, having preference over the common stock. Our stockholders have no preemptive or other subscription rights. There are no sinking fund provisions applicable to the common stock, except that we will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein.
The founder shares are identical to the shares of common stock included in the units being sold in this offering, and holders of founder shares have the same stockholder rights as public stockholders, except that the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below, and our initial
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stockholders have entered into letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (A) to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our business combination and (B) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 business combination within such time period. If we submit our business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination.
With certain limited exceptions, the founder shares and the shares of our common stock included in the rights underlying the private placement units are not transferable, assignable or salable (except to our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with our sponsors, each of whom will be subject to the same transfer restrictions) until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our business combination, the last sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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 (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property. Up to 750,000 founder shares will be subject to forfeiture by our initial stockholders (or their permitted transferees), other than our independent director nominees, on a pro rata basis depending on the extent of the exercise of the over-allotment option. Pursuant to the terms of the securities subscription agreements of certain of our initial stockholders, such initial stockholders will forfeit 1,437,500 shares so as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of this offering.
The founder shares are identical to the shares of common stock included in the units being sold in this offering. However, the holders have agreed (A) to vote any shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (B) not to redeem any shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that shares of preferred stock may be issued from time to time in one or more series. Our board of directors will be authorized to fix the voting rights, if any, designations, powers, preferences, the relative, participating, optional or other special rights and any qualifications, limitations and restrictions thereof, applicable to the shares of each series. Our board of directors will be able to, without stockholder approval, issue preferred stock with voting and other rights that could adversely affect the voting power and other rights of the holders of the common stock and could have anti-takeover effects. The ability of our board of directors to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change of control of us or the removal of existing management. We have no preferred stock outstanding at the date hereof. Although we do not currently intend to issue any shares of preferred stock, we cannot assure you that we will not do so in the future. No shares of preferred stock are being issued or registered in this offering.
Each whole warrant entitles the registered holder to purchase one whole share of our common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as discussed below, at any time commencing on the later of 12 months from the closing of this offering and 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, a warrantholder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of shares of common stock. This means that only a whole warrant may be exercised at any given time by a warrantholder. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or
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trade a whole warrant. The warrants will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination, at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.
We will not be obligated to deliver any shares of common stock pursuant to the exercise of a warrant and will have no obligation to settle such warrant exercise unless a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to the shares of common stock underlying the warrants is then effective and a prospectus relating thereto is current, subject to our satisfying our obligations described below with respect to registration. No warrant will be exercisable and we will not be obligated to issue shares of common stock upon exercise of a warrant unless common stock issuable upon such warrant exercise has been registered, qualified or deemed to be exempt under the securities laws of the state of residence of the registered holder of the warrants. In the event that the conditions in the two immediately preceding sentences are not satisfied with respect to a warrant, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. 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 share of common stock underlying such unit.
We have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days, after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants. We will use our best efforts to cause the same to become effective and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement, and a current prospectus relating thereto, until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. Notwithstanding the above, if our common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies 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 be required to use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may call the warrants for redemption:
| 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 (the 30-day redemption period) to each warrant holder; and |
| if, and only if, the reported last sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending three business days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
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.
We have established the last of the redemption criterion discussed above to prevent a redemption call unless there is at the time of the call a significant premium to the warrant exercise price. If the foregoing conditions are satisfied and we issue a notice of redemption of the warrants, each warrant holder will be entitled to exercise its warrant prior to the scheduled redemption date. However, the price of the common stock may fall below the $18.00 redemption trigger price as well as the $11.50 (for whole shares) warrant exercise price after the redemption notice is issued.
If we call the warrants for redemption as described above, our management will have the option to require any holder that wishes to exercise its warrant to do so on a cashless basis. This redemption feature may differ from the warrant redemption features used by other blank check companies. In determining whether to require all holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, our management will consider, among other factors, our cash position, the number of warrants that are outstanding and the dilutive effect on our stockholders of issuing the maximum number of shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of our warrants. If our management takes advantage of this option, all holders of warrants would pay the
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exercise price by surrendering their warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the fair market value (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The fair market value shall mean the average reported last sale price of the common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. As an example, if we elect to call the warrants for redemption on a cashless basis in accordance with the redemption criteria described above and the fair market value is determined to be $18.00 per share, then a holder of warrants for the purchase of 100 shares of our common stock would receive 36 shares of our common stock upon such exercise. The fair market value for these purposes may be higher or lower than the $18.00 redemption trigger price and will only be determinable when we elect to send a notice of redemption to holders of the warrants. If a holder does not exercise his or her warrants within the redemption period, then he or she will be forced to accept the nominal redemption price of $0.01 per warrant which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of such warrants. If we call our warrants for redemption and our management does not take advantage of this option, the initial purchasers of the private placement warrants and their permitted transferees would still be entitled to exercise their private placement warrants for cash or on a cashless basis using the same formula described above that other warrant holders would have been required to use had all warrant holders been required to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, as described in more detail below.
A holder of a warrant may notify us in writing in the event it elects to be subject to a requirement that such holder will not have the right to exercise such warrant, to the extent that after giving effect to such exercise, such person (together with such persons affiliates), to the warrant agents actual knowledge, would beneficially own in excess of 9.8% (or such other amount as a holder may specify) of the shares of common stock outstanding immediately after giving effect to such exercise.
If the number of outstanding shares of common stock is increased by a stock dividend payable in shares of common stock, or by a split-up of shares of common stock or other similar event, then, on the effective date of such stock dividend, split-up or similar event, the number of shares of common stock issuable on exercise of each warrant will be increased in proportion to such increase in the outstanding shares of common stock. A rights offering to holders of common stock entitling holders to purchase shares of common stock at a price less than the fair market value will be deemed a stock dividend of a number of shares of common stock equal to the product of (i) the number of shares of common stock actually sold in such rights offering (or issuable under any other equity securities sold in such rights offering that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock) multiplied by (ii) one (1) minus the quotient of (x) the price per share of common stock paid in such rights offering divided by (y) the fair market value. For these purposes (i) if the rights offering is for securities convertible into or exercisable for common stock, in determining the price payable for common stock, there will be taken into account any consideration received for such rights, as well as any additional amount payable upon exercise or conversion and (ii) fair market value means the volume weighted average price of common stock as reported during the ten (10) trading day period ending on the trading day prior to the first date on which the shares of common stock trade on the applicable exchange or in the applicable market, regular way, without the right to receive such rights.
In addition, if we, at any time while the warrants are outstanding and unexpired, pay a dividend or make a distribution in cash, securities or other assets to the holders of common stock on account of such shares of common stock (or other shares of our capital stock into which the warrants are convertible), other than (a) as described above, (b) certain ordinary cash dividends, (c) to satisfy the redemption rights of the holders of common stock in connection with a proposed initial business combination, (d) to satisfy the redemption rights of the holders of common stock in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our common stock if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, or (e) in connection with the redemption of our public shares upon our failure to complete our initial business combination, then the warrant exercise price will be decreased, effective immediately after the effective date of such event, by the amount of cash and/or the fair market value of any securities or other assets paid on each share of common stock in respect of such event.
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If the number of outstanding shares of our common stock is decreased by a consolidation, combination, reverse stock split or reclassification of shares of common stock or other similar event, then, on the effective date of such consolidation, combination, reverse stock split, reclassification or similar event, the number of shares of common stock issuable on exercise of each warrant will be decreased in proportion to such decrease in outstanding shares of common stock.
Whenever the number of shares of common stock purchasable upon the exercise of the warrants is adjusted, as described above, the warrant exercise price will be adjusted by multiplying the warrant exercise price immediately prior to such adjustment by a fraction (x) the numerator of which will be the number of shares of common stock purchasable upon the exercise of the warrants immediately prior to such adjustment, and (y) the denominator of which will be the number of shares of common stock so purchasable immediately thereafter.
In case of any reclassification or reorganization of the outstanding shares of common stock (other than those described above or that solely affects the par value of such shares of common stock), or in the case of any merger or consolidation of us with or into another corporation (other than a consolidation or merger in which we are the continuing corporation and that does not result in any reclassification or reorganization of our outstanding shares of common stock), or in the case of any sale or conveyance to another corporation or entity of the assets or other property of us as an entirety or substantially as an entirety in connection with which we are dissolved, the holders of the warrants will thereafter have the right to purchase and receive, upon the basis and upon the terms and conditions specified in the warrants and in lieu of the shares of our common stock immediately theretofore purchasable and receivable upon the exercise of the rights represented thereby, the kind and amount of shares of stock or other securities or property (including cash) receivable upon such reclassification, reorganization, merger or consolidation, or upon a dissolution following any such sale or transfer, that the holder of the warrants would have received if such holder had exercised their warrants immediately prior to such event. If less than 70% of the consideration receivable by the holders of common stock in such a transaction is payable in the form of common stock in the successor entity that is listed for trading on a national securities exchange or is quoted in an established over-the-counter market, or is to be so listed for trading or quoted immediately following such event, and if the registered holder of the warrant properly exercises the warrant within thirty days following public disclosure of such transaction, the warrant exercise price will be reduced as specified in the warrant agreement based on the Black-Scholes value (as defined in the warrant agreement) of the warrant.
The warrants will be issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. You should review a copy of the warrant agreement, which will be filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, for a complete description of the terms and conditions applicable to the warrants. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants.
The warrants may be exercised upon surrender of the warrant certificate on or prior to the expiration date at the offices of the warrant agent, with the exercise form on the reverse side of the warrant certificate completed and executed as indicated, accompanied by full payment of the exercise price (or on a cashless basis, if applicable), by certified or official bank check payable to us, for the number of warrants being exercised. The warrant holders do not have the rights or privileges of holders of common stock and any voting rights until they exercise their warrants and receive shares of common stock. After the issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of the warrants, each holder will be entitled to one vote for each share held of record on all matters to be voted on by stockholders.
No fractional shares will be issued upon exercise of the warrants. 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 of shares of common stock to be issued to the warrant holder.
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The private placement warrants (including the common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination (except, among other limited exceptions as described under the section of this prospectus entitled Principal Stockholders Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants, to our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with our sponsors) and they will not be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our sponsors or their permitted transferees. Otherwise, the private placement warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants being sold as part of the units in this offering, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than the sponsors or their permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this offering.
If holders of the private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering their warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the fair market value (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The fair market value shall mean the average reported last sale price of the common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent. The reason that we have agreed that these warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the initial purchasers of the private placement warrants or their permitted transferees is because it is not known at this time whether they will be affiliated with us following a business combination. If they remain affiliated with us, their ability to sell our securities in the open market will be significantly limited. We expect to have policies in place that prohibit insiders from selling our securities except during specific periods of time. Even during such periods of time when insiders will be permitted to sell our securities, an insider cannot trade in our securities if he or she is in possession of material non-public information. Accordingly, unlike public stockholders who could sell the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants freely in the open market, the insiders could be significantly restricted from doing so. As a result, we believe that allowing the holders to exercise such warrants on a cashless basis is appropriate.
We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock 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 conditions 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. Our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any stock 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.
The transfer agent for our common stock and warrant agent for our warrants is Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company. We have agreed to indemnify Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company in its roles as transfer agent and warrant agent, its agents and each of its stockholders, directors, officers and employees against all claims and losses that may arise out of acts performed or omitted for its activities in that capacity, except for any liability due to any gross negligence, willful misconduct or bad faith of the indemnified person or entity.
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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will contain certain requirements and restrictions relating to this offering that will apply to us until the completion of our initial business combination. These provisions cannot be amended without the approval of the holders of 65% of our common stock. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that:
| If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem 100% of 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 franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law; |
| Prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination; |
| Although we do not intend to enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsors, our strategic investor, our directors or our officers, we are not prohibited from doing so. In the event we enter into such a transaction, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or an independent accounting firm that such a business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view; |
| If a stockholder vote on our initial business combination is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will offer to redeem our public shares pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act; |
| 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 our assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions, taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account; |
| If our stockholders approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock upon such approval 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 franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares; and |
| We will not effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations. |
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In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001.
We will be subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL regulating corporate takeovers upon completion of this offering. This statute prevents certain Delaware corporations, under certain circumstances, from engaging in a business combination with:
| a stockholder who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock (otherwise known as an interested stockholder); |
| an affiliate of an interested stockholder; or |
| an associate of an interested stockholder, for three years following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder. |
A business combination includes a merger or sale of more than 10% of our assets. However, the above provisions of Section 203 do not apply if:
| our board of directors approves the transaction that made the stockholder an interested stockholder, prior to the date of the transaction; |
| after the completion of the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, that stockholder owned at least 85% of our voting stock outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, other than statutorily excluded shares of common stock; or |
| on or subsequent to the date of the transaction, the business combination is approved by our board of directors and authorized at a meeting of our stockholders, and not by written consent, by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting stock not owned by the interested stockholder. |
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors. As a result, in most circumstances, a person can gain control of our board only by successfully engaging in a proxy contest at two or more annual meetings.
Our authorized but unissued common stock and preferred stock are available for future issuances without stockholder approval and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved common stock and preferred stock could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.
Our bylaws provide that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority vote of our board of directors, by our Chief Executive Officer or by our Chairman.
Our bylaws provide that stockholders seeking to bring business before our annual meeting of stockholders, or to nominate candidates for election as directors at our annual meeting of stockholders, must provide timely notice of their intent in writing. To be timely, a stockholders notice will need to be received by the company secretary at our principal executive offices not later than the close of business on the 90th day nor earlier than the close of business on the 120th day prior to the anniversary date of the immediately preceding annual meeting of stockholders. Pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the Exchange Act, proposals seeking inclusion in our annual proxy statement must comply with the notice periods contained therein. Our bylaws also specify certain requirements as to the form and content of a stockholders meeting. These provisions may preclude our stockholders from bringing matters before our annual meeting of stockholders or from making nominations for directors at our annual meeting of stockholders.
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Immediately after the consummation of this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option) we will have 25,000,000 (or 28,750,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) shares of common stock outstanding. The 20,000,000 shares (or 23,000,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, except for any shares purchased by one of our affiliates within the meaning of Rule 144 under the Securities Act. All of the 5,000,000 (or 5,750,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) shares and all 6,825,000 (or 7,425,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) private placement warrants are restricted securities under Rule 144, in that they were issued in private transactions not involving a public offering, and private placement warrants are subject to transfer restrictions as set forth elsewhere in this prospectus. These restricted securities will be subject to registration rights as more fully described below under Registration Rights.
Pursuant to Rule 144, a person who has beneficially owned restricted shares of our common stock or warrants for at least six months would be entitled to sell their securities provided that (i) such person is not deemed to have been one of our affiliates at the time of, or at any time during the three months preceding, a sale and (ii) we are subject to the Exchange Act periodic reporting requirements for at least three months before the sale and have filed all required reports under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the 12 months (or such shorter period as we were required to file reports) preceding the sale.
Persons who have beneficially owned restricted shares of our common stock or warrants for at least six months but who are our affiliates at the time of, or at any time during the three months preceding, a sale, would be subject to additional restrictions, by which such person would be entitled to sell within any three-month period only a number of securities that does not exceed the greater of:
| 1% of the total number of shares of common stock then outstanding, which will equal 250,000 shares immediately after this offering (or 287,500 if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full); or |
| the average weekly reported trading volume of the common stock during the four calendar weeks preceding the filing of a notice on Form 144 with respect to the sale. |
Sales by our affiliates under Rule 144 are also limited by manner of sale provisions and notice requirements and to the availability of current public information about us.
Rule 144 is not available for the resale of securities initially issued by shell companies (other than business combination related shell companies) or issuers that have been at any time previously a shell company. However, Rule 144 also includes an important exception to this prohibition if the following conditions are met:
| the issuer of the securities that was formerly a shell company has ceased to be a shell company; |
| the issuer of the securities is subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act; |
| the issuer of the securities has filed all Exchange Act reports and materials required to be filed, as applicable, during the preceding 12 months (or such shorter period that the issuer was required to file such reports and materials), other than Current Reports on Form 8-K; and |
| at least one year has elapsed from the time that the issuer filed current Form 10 type information with the SEC reflecting its status as an entity that is not a shell company. |
As a result, our initial stockholders will be able to sell their founder shares and private placement warrants, as applicable, pursuant to Rule 144 without registration one year after we have completed our initial business combination.
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The holders of the founder shares, private placement warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans (and any shares of common stock 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 rights agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of this offering, requiring us to register such securities for resale (in the case of the founder shares, only after conversion to our common stock). Each of our sponsors (collectively with their respective affiliates) and strategic investor is entitled to make up to two demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain piggy-back registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of our initial business combination and rights to require us to register for resale such securities pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act. However, the registration rights agreement provides that we 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, on the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our business combination, the last sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, 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 (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property, and (ii) in the case of the private placement warrants and the respective common stock underlying such warrants, 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
We have applied to list our units, common stock and warrants on NASDAQ under the symbols LACQU, LACQ and LACQW, respectively. We expect that our units will be listed on NASDAQ on or promptly after the effective date of the registration statement. Following the date the shares of our common stock and warrants are eligible to trade separately, we anticipate that the shares of our common stock and warrants will be listed separately and as a unit on NASDAQ. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on NASDAQ.
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The following discussion is a summary of the U.S. federal income tax considerations generally applicable to the acquisition, ownership and disposition of our units, our common stock and our warrants, which we refer to collectively as our securities. Because the components of a unit (consisting of one share of our common stock and one-half of one warrant) are separable at the option of the holder, the holder of a unit generally should be treated, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as the owner of the underlying common stock and one-half of one warrant components of the unit, as the case may be. As a result, the discussion below with respect to actual holders of common stock and warrants should also apply to holders of units (as the deemed owners of the underlying common stock and warrants that comprise the units). This discussion applies only to securities that are held as a capital asset for U.S. federal income tax purposes and is applicable only to holders who purchased units in this offering.
This discussion does not describe all of the tax consequences that may be relevant to you in light of your particular circumstances, including the alternative minimum tax, the Medicare tax on certain investment income and the different consequences that may apply if you are subject to special rules that apply to certain types of investors, such as:
| financial institutions; |
| insurance companies; |
| dealers or traders subject to a mark-to-market method of tax accounting with respect to the securities; |
| persons holding the securities as part of a straddle, hedge, integrated transaction or similar transaction; |
| U.S. holders (as defined below) whose functional currency is not the U.S. dollar; |
| partnerships or other pass-through entities for U.S. federal income tax purposes and their partners or owners; |
| regulated investment companies or real estate investment trusts; and |
| tax-exempt entities. |
If you are a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the U.S. federal income tax treatment of your partners will generally depend on the status of the partners and your activities. Partnerships (and other entities or arrangements treated as partnerships for U.S. federal income tax purposes) holding our securities are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the tax consequences of the acquisition, ownership and disposition of our securities.
This discussion is based on the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), and administrative pronouncements, judicial decisions and final, temporary and proposed Treasury regulations as of the date hereof, changes to any of which subsequent to the date of this prospectus may affect the tax consequences described herein. This discussion does not address any aspect of state, local or non-U.S. taxation, or any U.S. federal taxes other than income taxes (such as gift and estate taxes). No ruling from the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) has been or will be sought regarding any matter discussed herein. No assurance can be given that the IRS would not assert, or that a court would not sustain a position contrary to any of the tax aspects set forth below.
You are urged to consult your own tax advisors with respect to the application of U.S. federal income tax laws to your particular situation, as well as any tax consequences arising under any U.S. federal non-income taxes and the laws of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction.
We would be subject to a second level of U.S. federal income tax on a portion of our income if we are determined to be a personal holding company, or PHC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. A U.S. corporation generally will be classified as a PHC for U.S. federal income tax purposes in a given taxable year if (i) at any time during the last half of such taxable year, five or fewer individuals (without regard to
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their citizenship or residency and including as individuals for this purpose certain entities such as certain tax-exempt organizations, pension funds and charitable trusts) own or are deemed to own (pursuant to certain constructive ownership rules) more than 50% of the stock of the corporation by value and (ii) at least 60% of the corporations adjusted ordinary gross income, as determined for U.S. federal income tax purposes, for such taxable year consists of PHC income (which includes, among other things, dividends, interest, certain royalties, annuities and, under certain circumstances, rents).
Depending on the date and size of our initial business combination, it is possible that at least 60% of our adjusted ordinary gross income may consist of PHC income as discussed above. In addition, depending on the concentration of our stock in the hands of individuals, including the members of our sponsors and certain tax-exempt organizations, pension funds and charitable trusts, it is possible and, with respect to our taxable year ending December 31, 2017, we believe it is possible that more than 50% of our stock may be owned or deemed owned (pursuant to the constructive ownership rules) by such persons during the last half of a taxable year. Thus, no assurance can be given that we will not become a PHC following this offering or in the future. If we are or were to become a PHC in a given taxable year, we would be subject to an additional PHC tax, currently 20%, on our undistributed PHC income, which generally includes our taxable income, subject to certain adjustments.
No statutory, administrative or judicial authority directly addresses the treatment of a unit or instruments similar to a unit for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, therefore, such treatment is not entirely clear. The acquisition of a unit should be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes as the acquisition of one share of our common stock and one-half of one warrant to acquire one share of our common stock. We intend to treat the acquisition of a unit in this manner and, by purchasing a unit, you will agree to adopt such treatment for tax purposes. For U.S. federal income tax purposes, each holder of a unit must allocate the purchase price paid by such holder for such unit between the one share of common stock and the one-half of one warrant based on the respective relative fair market value of each at the time of issuance. The price allocated to each share of common stock and the one-half of one warrant should be the stockholders tax basis in such share or one-half of one warrant, as the case may be. Any disposition of a unit should be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes as a disposition of the share of common stock and the one-half of one warrant constituting the unit, and the amount realized on the disposition should be allocated between the common stock and the one-half of one warrant based on their respective relative fair market values at the time of disposition. The separation of shares of common stock and warrants constituting units should not be a taxable event for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
The foregoing treatment of the units, shares of common stock and warrants and a holders purchase price allocation are not binding on the IRS or the courts. Because there are no authorities that directly address instruments that are similar to the units, no assurance can be given that the IRS or the courts will agree with the characterization described above or the discussion below. Accordingly, each prospective investor is urged to consult its own tax advisors regarding the tax consequences of an investment in a unit (including alternative characterizations of a unit). The balance of this discussion assumes that the characterization of the units described above is respected for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
This section applies to you if you are a U.S. holder. A U.S. holder is a beneficial owner of our units, shares of common stock or warrants who or that is, for U.S. federal income tax purposes:
| an individual who is a citizen or resident of the United States; |
| a corporation (or other entity taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes) organized in or under the laws of the United States, any state thereof or the District of Columbia; |
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| an estate the income of which is includible in gross income for U.S. federal income tax purposes regardless of its source; |
| a trust (A) the administration of which is subject to the primary supervision of a United States court and which has one or more United States persons (within the meaning of the Code) who have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (B) that has in effect a valid election under applicable Treasury regulations to be treated as a United States person. |
If we pay distributions of cash or other property to U.S. holders of shares of our common stock, such distributions generally will constitute dividends for U.S. federal income tax purposes to the extent paid from our current or accumulated earnings and profits, as determined under U.S. federal income tax principles. Distributions in excess of current and accumulated earnings and profits will constitute a return of capital that will be applied against and reduce (but not below zero) the U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in our common stock. Any remaining excess will be treated as gain realized on the sale or other disposition of the common stock and will be treated as described under U.S. Holders Gain or Loss on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants below.
Dividends we pay to a U.S. holder that is a taxable corporation generally will qualify for the dividends received deduction if the requisite holding period is satisfied. With certain exceptions (including dividends treated as investment income for purposes of investment interest deduction limitations), and provided certain holding period requirements are met, dividends we pay to a non-corporate U.S. holder generally will constitute qualified dividends that will be taxed at the applicable rate for long-term capital gains. It is unclear whether the redemption rights with respect to the common stock described in this prospectus may prevent a U.S. holder from satisfying the applicable holding period requirements with respect to the dividends received deduction or the preferential tax rate on qualified dividend income, as the case may be.
A U.S. holder generally will recognize gain or loss on the sale, taxable exchange or other taxable disposition of our common stock or warrants which, in general would include a redemption of common stock or warrants as described below (including on our dissolution and liquidation if we do not complete an initial business combination within the required time period). Any such gain or loss generally will be capital gain or loss and generally will be long-term capital gain or loss if the U.S. holders holding period for such common stock and warrants exceeds one year. It is unclear, however, whether the redemption rights with respect to the common stock described in this prospectus may suspend the running of the applicable holding period for this purpose. Long-term capital gains recognized by non-corporate U.S. holders may be taxed at reduced rates. The deductibility of capital losses is subject to limitations.
Generally, the amount of gain or loss recognized by a U.S. holder is an amount equal to the difference between (i) the sum of the amount of cash and the fair market value of any property received in such disposition (or, if the common stock or warrants are held as part of units at the time of the disposition, the portion of the amount realized on such disposition that is allocated to the common stock or the warrants based upon the then fair market values of the common stock and the warrants constituting the units) and (ii) the U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in its common stock or warrants so disposed of. A U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in its common stock or warrants generally will equal the U.S. holders acquisition cost (that is, as discussed above, the portion of the purchase price of a unit allocated to a share of common stock or one-half of one warrant or, as discussed below, the U.S. holders initial basis for common stock received upon exercise of warrants) less, in the case of a share of common stock, any prior distributions treated as a return of capital.
In the event that a U.S. holders common stock is redeemed pursuant to the redemption provisions described in this prospectus under the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Common Stock or if we purchase a U.S. holders common stock in an open market transaction, the treatment of the transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes will depend on whether the redemption or purchase by us qualifies as sale of the common stock under Section 302 of the Code. If the redemption or purchase by us qualifies as a sale of common stock, the U.S. holder will be treated as described under
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U.S. Holders Gain or Loss on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants above. If the redemption or purchase by us does not qualify as a sale of common stock, the U.S. holder will be treated as receiving a corporate distribution with the tax consequences described above under U.S. Holders Taxation of Distributions. Whether a redemption or purchase by us qualifies for sale treatment will depend largely on the total number of shares of our stock treated as held by the U.S. holder (including any stock constructively owned by the U.S. holder as a result of owning warrants) relative to all of our shares outstanding both before and after the redemption. A redemption or purchase by us of common stock generally will be treated as a sale of the common stock (rather than as a distribution) if the redemption or purchase by us (i) is substantially disproportionate with respect to the U.S. holder, (ii) results in a complete termination of the U.S. holders interest in us or (iii) is not essentially equivalent to a dividend with respect to the U.S. holder. These tests are explained more fully below.
In determining whether any of the foregoing tests are satisfied, a U.S. holder takes into account not only stock actually owned by the U.S. holder, but also shares of our stock that are constructively owned by it. A U.S. holder may constructively own, in addition to stock owned directly, stock owned by certain related individuals and entities in which the U.S. holder has an interest or that have an interest in such U.S. holder, as well as any stock the U.S. holder has a right to acquire by exercise of an option, which would generally include common stock which could be acquired pursuant to the exercise of the warrants. In order to meet the substantially disproportionate test the percentage of our outstanding voting stock actually and constructively owned by the U.S. holder immediately following such redemption or purchase must, among other requirements, be less than 80% of the percentage of our outstanding voting stock actually and constructively owned by the U.S. holder immediately before such redemption or purchase. There will be a complete termination of a U.S. holders interest if either (i) all of the shares of our stock actually and constructively owned by the U.S. holder are redeemed or (ii) all of the shares of our stock actually owned by the U.S. holder are redeemed and the U.S. holder is eligible to waive, and effectively waives in accordance with specific rules, the attribution of stock owned by certain family members and the U.S. holder does not constructively own any other stock. The redemption or purchase by us of the common stock will not be essentially equivalent to a dividend if the redemption results in a meaningful reduction of the U.S. holders proportionate interest in us. Whether the redemption or purchase by us will result in a meaningful reduction in a U.S. holders proportionate interest in us will depend on the particular facts and circumstances. However, the IRS has indicated in a published ruling that even a small reduction in the proportionate interest of a small minority stockholder in a publicly held corporation who exercises no control over corporate affairs may constitute such a meaningful reduction. A U.S. holder should consult with its own tax advisors as to the tax consequences of a redemption purchase by us.
If none of the foregoing tests is satisfied, the redemption or purchase by us will be treated as a distribution taxed as described above under U.S. Holders Taxation of Distributions. After the application of those rules, any remaining tax basis of the U.S. holder in the redeemed or purchased common stock will be added to the U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in its remaining stock, or, if it has none, to the U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in its warrants or possibly in other stock constructively owned by it.
Except as described below with respect to the cashless exercise of a warrant, a U.S. holder generally will not recognize gain or loss on the acquisition of common stock upon exercise of a warrant for cash. The U.S. holders tax basis in the share of our common stock received upon exercise of the warrant generally will equal the sum of the U.S. holders initial investment in the warrant (i.e., the portion of the U.S. holders purchase price for units that is allocated to the warrant, as described above under Allocation of Purchase Price and Characterization of a Unit) and the exercise price of such warrant. It is unclear whether a U.S. holders holding period for the common stock received upon exercise of the warrant will begin on the date of exercise of the warrant or the day following the date of exercise of the warrant; however, in either case, the holding period will not include the period during which the U.S. holder held the warrant. If a warrant is allowed to lapse unexercised, a U.S. holder generally will recognize a capital loss equal to such holders tax basis in the warrant.
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The tax consequences of a cashless exercise of a warrant are not clear under current tax law. A cashless exercise may be tax-free, either because the exercise is not a realization event or because the exercise is treated as a recapitalization for U.S. federal income tax purposes. In either tax-free situation, a U.S. holders basis in the common stock received would generally equal the holders basis in the warrant. If the cashless exercise were treated as not being a realization event, a U.S. holders holding period in the common stock would be treated as commencing on the date following the date of exercise (or possibly the date of exercise) of the warrant. If, however, the cashless exercise were treated as a recapitalization, the holding period of the common stock would include the holding period of the warrant.
It is also possible that a cashless exercise could be treated as a taxable exchange in which gain or loss would be recognized because a U.S. holder may be deemed to have surrendered a portion of its warrants in a taxable transaction to pay the exercise price for the balance of warrants deemed exercised. In such event, a U.S. holder would recognize capital gain or loss in an amount equal to the difference between the fair market value of the warrants deemed surrendered and the U.S. holders tax basis in such warrants. In this case, a U.S. holders tax basis in the common stock received would equal the sum of the U.S. Holders initial investment in the warrants deemed exercised (i.e., the portion of the U.S. Holders purchase price for a unit that is allocated to the warrant, as described above under Allocation of Purchase Price and Characterization of a Unit) and the exercise price of such warrants. It is unclear whether a U.S. holders holding period for the common stock would commence on the date of exercise of the warrant or the day following the date of exercise of the warrant.
Due to the absence of authority on the U.S. federal income tax treatment of a cashless exercise, including when a U.S. holders holding period would commence with respect to the common stock received, there can be no assurance which, if any, of the alternative tax consequences and holding periods described above would be adopted by the IRS or a court of law. Accordingly, U.S. holders should consult their own tax advisors regarding the tax consequences of a cashless exercise.
The terms of each warrant provide for an adjustment to the number of shares of common stock for which the warrant may be exercised or to the exercise price of the warrant in certain events, as discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Warrants Public Stockholders Warrants. An adjustment which has the effect of preventing dilution generally is not taxable. The U.S. holders of the warrants would, however, be treated as receiving a constructive distribution from us if, for example, the adjustment increases such U.S. holders proportionate interest in our assets or earnings and profits (e.g., through an increase in the number of shares of common stock that would be obtained upon exercise) as a result of a distribution of cash to the holders of shares of our common stock. Such constructive distribution to a U.S. holder of warrants would be treated as if such U.S. holders had received a cash distribution from us generally equal to the fair market value of such increased interest (taxed as described above under U.S. Holders Taxation of Distributions). For certain informational reporting purposes, we are required to determine the date and amount of any such constructive distributions. Recently proposed Treasury regulations, which we may rely on prior to the issuance of final regulations, specify how the date and amount of constructive distributions are determined.
In general, information reporting requirements may apply to dividends paid to a U.S. holder and to the proceeds of the sale or other disposition of our units, shares of common stock and warrants, unless the U.S. holder is an exempt recipient. Backup withholding may apply to such payments if the U.S. holder fails to provide a taxpayer identification number, a certification of exempt status or has been notified by the IRS that it is subject to backup withholding (and such notification has not been withdrawn).
Any amounts withheld under the backup withholding rules will be allowed as a refund or a credit against a U.S. holders U.S. federal income tax liability provided the required information is timely furnished to the IRS.
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This section applies to you if you are a Non-U.S. holder. A Non-U.S. holder is a beneficial owner of our units, shares of common stock and warrants who or that is, for U.S. federal income tax purposes:
| a non-resident alien individual, other than certain former citizens and residents of the United States subject to U.S. tax as expatriates; |
| a foreign corporation; or |
| a foreign estate or trust; |
but does not include an individual who is present in the United States for 183 days or more in the taxable year of disposition. If you are such an individual, you should consult your own tax advisors regarding the U.S. federal income tax consequences of the acquisition, ownership and disposition of our securities.
In general, any distributions (including constructive distributions) we make to a Non-U.S. holder of shares of our common stock, to the extent paid out of our current or accumulated earnings and profits (as determined under U.S. federal income tax principles), will constitute dividends for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, provided such dividends are not effectively connected with the Non-U.S. holders conduct of a trade or business within the United States, we will be required to withhold tax from the gross amount of the dividend at a rate of 30%, unless such Non-U.S. holder is eligible for a reduced rate of withholding tax under an applicable income tax treaty and provides proper certification of its eligibility for such reduced rate (usually on an IRS Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, as applicable). In the case of any constructive dividend, it is possible that this tax would be withheld from any amount owed to a Non-U.S. holder by the applicable withholding agent, including cash distributions on other property or sale proceeds from warrants or other property subsequently paid or credited to such holder. Any distribution not constituting a dividend will be treated first as reducing (but not below zero) the Non-U.S. holders adjusted tax basis in its shares of our common stock and, to the extent such distribution exceeds the Non-U.S. holders adjusted tax basis, as gain realized from the sale or other disposition of the common stock, which will be treated as described under Non-U.S. Holders Gain on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants below. In addition, if we determine that we are classified as a U.S. real property holding corporation (see Non-U.S. Holders Gain on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants below), we may withhold 15% of any distribution that exceeds our current and accumulated earnings and profits.
Dividends that we pay to a Non-U.S. holder that are effectively connected with such Non-U.S. holders conduct of a trade or business within the United States (or if a tax treaty applies, are attributable to a U.S. permanent establishment or fixed base maintained by the Non-U.S. holder) generally will not be subject to U.S. withholding tax, provided such Non-U.S. holder complies with certain certification and disclosure requirements (usually by providing an IRS Form W-8ECI). Instead, such effectively connected income will generally be subject to regular U.S. federal income tax as if the Non-U.S. holder were a U.S. resident, unless an applicable income tax treaty provides otherwise. A Non-U.S. corporation receiving effectively connected income may also be subject to an additional branch profits tax imposed at a rate of 30% (or a lower treaty rate).
The U.S. federal income tax treatment of a Non-U.S. holders exercise of a warrant, or the lapse of a warrant held by a Non-U.S. holder, generally will correspond to the U.S. federal income tax treatment of the exercise or lapse of a warrant by a U.S. holder, as described under U.S. Holders Exercise or Lapse of a Warrant above, although to the extent a cashless exercise results in a taxable exchange, the consequences would be similar to those described below in Non-U.S. Holders Gain on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants.
A Non-U.S. holder generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income or withholding tax in respect of gain recognized on a sale, taxable exchange or other taxable disposition of our common stock (including a
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dissolution and liquidation in the event we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering) or warrants (including an expiration or redemption of our warrants), in each case without regard to whether such securities were held as part of a unit, unless:
| the gain is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business by the Non-U.S. holder within the United States (and, under certain income tax treaties, is attributable to a United States permanent establishment or fixed base maintained by the Non-U.S. holder); or |
| we are or have been a United States real property holding corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes at any time during the shorter of the five-year period ending on the date of disposition or the period that the Non-U.S. holder held our common stock, and, in the case where shares of our common stock are regularly traded on an established securities market, the Non-U.S. holder has owned, directly or constructively, more than 5% of our common stock at any time within the shorter of the five-year period preceding the disposition or such Non-U.S. holders holding period for the shares of our common stock. There can be no assurance that our common stock will be treated as regularly traded on an established securities market for this purpose. These rules may be modified for Non-U.S. holders of warrants. If we are or have been a United States real property holding corporation and you own warrants, you are urged to consult your own tax advisors regarding the application of these rules. |
Unless an applicable treaty provides otherwise, gain described in the first bullet point above will be subject to tax at generally applicable U.S. federal income tax rates as if the Non-U.S. holder were a U.S. resident. Any gains described in the first bullet point above of a Non-U.S. holder that is a foreign corporation may also be subject to an additional branch profits tax at a 30% rate (or lower treaty rate).
If the second bullet point above applies to a Non-U.S. holder, gain recognized by such holder on the sale, exchange or other disposition of our common stock or warrants will be subject to tax at generally applicable U.S. federal income tax rates. In addition, a buyer of our common stock or warrants from such holder may be required to withhold U.S. federal income tax at a rate of 15% of the amount realized upon such disposition. We cannot determine whether we will be a United States real property holding corporation in the future until we complete an initial business combination. We will be classified as a United States real property holding corporation if the fair market value of our United States real property interests equals or exceeds 50 percent of the sum of the fair market value of our worldwide real property interests plus our other assets used or held for use in a trade or business, as determined for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
The characterization for U.S. federal income tax purposes of the redemption of a Non-U.S. holders common stock pursuant to the redemption provisions described in the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Common Stock generally will correspond to the U.S. federal income tax characterization of such a redemption of a U.S. holders common stock, as described under U.S. Holders Redemption of Common Stock above, and the consequences of the redemption to the Non-U.S. holder will be as described above under Non-U.S. Holders Taxation of Distributions and Non-U.S. Holders Gain on Sale, Taxable Exchange or Other Taxable Disposition of Common Stock and Warrants, as applicable.
The terms of each warrant provide for an adjustment to the number of shares of common stock for which the warrant may be exercised or to the exercise price of the warrant in certain events, as discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled Description of Securities Warrants Public Stockholders Warrants. An adjustment which has the effect of preventing dilution generally is not taxable. The Non-U.S. holders of the warrants would, however, be treated as receiving a constructive distribution from us if, for example, the adjustment increases such Non-U.S. holders proportionate interest in our assets or earnings and profits (e.g., through an increase in the number of shares of common stock that would be obtained upon exercise) as a result of a distribution of cash to the holders of shares of our common stock. Such constructive distribution to a Non-U.S. holder of warrants would be treated as if such Non-U.S. holders had received a cash distribution from us generally equal to the fair market value of such increased interest (taxed as described above under Non-U.S. Holders Taxation of Distributions).
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Information returns will be filed with the IRS in connection with payments of dividends and the proceeds from a sale or other disposition of our units, shares of common stock and warrants. A Non-U.S. holder may have to comply with certification procedures to establish that it is not a United States person in order to avoid information reporting and backup withholding requirements. The certification procedures required to claim a reduced rate of withholding under a treaty will generally satisfy the certification requirements necessary to avoid the backup withholding as well. The amount of any backup withholding from a payment to a Non-U.S. holder will be allowed as a credit against such holders U.S. federal income tax liability and may entitle such holder to a refund, provided that the required information is timely furnished to the IRS.
Sections 1471 through 1474 of the Code and the Treasury Regulations and administrative guidance promulgated thereunder (commonly referred as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA) generally impose withholding at a rate of 30% in certain circumstances on dividends in respect of, and, beginning on January 1, 2019, gross proceeds from the sale or other disposition of, our securities which are held by or through certain foreign financial institutions (including investment funds), unless any such institution (i) enters into, and complies with, an agreement with the IRS to report, on an annual basis, information with respect to interests in, and accounts maintained by, the institution that are owned by certain U.S. persons and by certain non-U.S. entities that are wholly or partially owned by U.S. persons and to withhold on certain payments, or (ii) if required under an intergovernmental agreement between the United States and an applicable foreign country, reports such information to its local tax authority, which will exchange such information with the U.S. authorities. An intergovernmental agreement between the United States and an applicable foreign country may modify these requirements. Accordingly, the entity through which our securities are held will affect the determination of whether such withholding is required. Similarly, dividends in respect of, and, beginning on January 1, 2019, gross proceeds from the sale or other disposition of, our securities held by an investor that is a non-financial non-U.S. entity that does not qualify under certain exceptions will generally be subject to withholding at a rate of 30%, unless such entity either (i) certifies to us or the applicable withholding agent that such entity does not have any substantial United States owners or (ii) provides certain information regarding the entitys substantial United States owners, which will in turn be provided to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Prospective investors should consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible implications of FATCA on their investment in our securities.
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Under the terms and subject to the conditions in an underwriting agreement dated the date of this prospectus, the underwriters named below, for whom Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is acting as representative, have severally agreed to purchase, and we have agreed to sell to them the number of units indicated below:
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Name | Number of Units | |||
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC | 14,000,000 | |||
EarlyBirdCapital, Inc. | 6,000,000 | |||
Total | 20,000,000 |
The underwriters and the representative are collectively referred to as the underwriters and the representative, respectively. The underwriters are offering the units subject to their acceptance of the units from us and subject to prior sale. The underwriting agreement provides that the obligations of the several underwriters to pay for and accept delivery of the units offered by this prospectus are subject to the approval of certain legal matters by their counsel and to certain other conditions. The underwriters are obligated to take and pay for all of the units offered by this prospectus if any such units are taken. However, the underwriters are not required to take or pay for the units covered by the underwriters over-allotment option described below.
The underwriters initially propose to offer the units directly to the public at the offering price listed on the cover page of this prospectus and to selling group members at that price less a selling concession of $0.12 per unit. After the initial offering of the units, the offering price and other selling terms may from time to time be varied by the representative.
We have granted to the underwriters an option, exercisable for 45 days from the date of this prospectus, to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional units at the public offering price listed on the cover page of this prospectus, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters may exercise this option solely for the purpose of covering over-allotments, if any, made in connection with the offering of the units offered by this prospectus. To the extent the option is exercised, each underwriter will become obligated, subject to certain conditions, to purchase about the same percentage of the additional units as the number listed next to the underwriters name in the preceding table bears to the total number of units listed next to the names of all underwriters in the preceding table.
The following table shows underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us.
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Per Unit(1) | Total(1) | |||||||||||||||
Without Over-allotment |
With Over-allotment |
Without Over-allotment |
With Over-allotment |
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Underwriting Discounts and Commissions payable by us | $ | 0.55 | $ | 0.55 | $ | 11,000,000 | $ | 12,650,000 |
(1) | $0.20 per unit, or $4,000,000 in the aggregate (or $4,600,000 in the aggregate if the over-allotment option is exercised in full), is payable upon the closing of this offering. $0.35 per unit, or $7,000,000 in the aggregate (or $8,050,000 in the aggregate if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions will be placed in a trust account located in the United States as described herein. The deferred commissions will be released to the underwriters only on and concurrently with completion of an initial business combination. Up to $0.05 per unit (or up to $1,000,000) of the deferred underwriting commissions (or up to $1,150,000, depending upon the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised) may be paid to third parties (who are members of FINRA) that assist us in consummating our initial business combination. The election to make such payments to third parties will be solely at the discretion of our management team, and such third parties will be selected by our management team in their sole and absolute discretion. |
The estimated offering expenses payable by us, exclusive of the underwriting discounts and commissions, are approximately $825,000. We have agreed to reimburse the underwriters for expenses relating to clearance of this offering with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. up to $25,000.
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If we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, the underwriters have agreed that (i) they will forfeit any rights or claims to their deferred underwriting discounts and commissions, including any accrued interest thereon, then in the trust account and (ii) that the deferred underwriters discounts and commissions will be distributed on a pro rata basis, together with any accrued interest thereon (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest will be net of taxes payable).
The underwriters have informed us that they do not intend sales to discretionary accounts to exceed 5% of the total number of units offered by them.
We have applied to have our units listed on NASDAQ under the trading symbol LACQU. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on NASDAQ. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, we expect that the common shares and warrants will be listed on NASDAQ under the symbols LACQ and LACQW, respectively.
We, our sponsors, strategic investor and our officers, directors and director nominees have agreed that, without the prior written consent of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC on behalf of the underwriters, we and they will not, during the period ending 180 days after the date of this prospectus (the restricted period), offer, pledge, sell, contract to sell, sell any option or contract to purchase, purchase any option or contract to sell, grant any option, right or warrant to purchase, lend or otherwise transfer or dispose of, directly or indirectly, any units, warrants, common shares or any securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable for common shares; provided, however, that we may (1) issue and sell the private placement warrants, (2) issue and sell the additional units to cover our underwriters over-allotment option (if any) and (3) issue securities in connection with an initial business combination.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, in its sole discretion, may release the securities subject to the lock-up agreements described above in whole or in part at any time.
Our initial stockholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of (a) one year after the completion of our initial business combination and (b) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction after our initial business combination that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their common shares for cash, securities or other property. Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our sponsor with respect to any founder shares. We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this prospectus as the lock-up. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of our common 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, the founder shares will be released from the lock-up. The private placement warrants (including the common shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination (except with respect to permitted transferees as described herein under (Principal Stockholders Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants Held by our Initial Stockholders)). Notwithstanding the provisions set forth in this paragraph, transfers of the founder shares, private placement warrants and any shares of common stock issued upon the exercise thereof are permitted (a) to our officers or directors, any affiliates or family members of any of our officers or directors, any members of the sponsors or the strategic investor or any affiliates of the sponsors or the strategic investor; (b) in the case of an individual or an entity controlled by an officer or director, by a gift to a member of the individuals, officers or directors immediate family or to a trust, the beneficiary of which is a member of one of the individuals, officers or directors immediate family, an affiliate of such person or to a charitable organization; (c) in the case of an individual, by virtue of laws of descent and distribution upon death of the individual; (d) in the case of an individual, pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order; (e) by private sales or transfers made in connection with the consummation of a business combination at prices no greater than the price at which the shares were originally purchased; (f) in the event of our liquidation prior to the completion of a business combination; (g) by virtue of the laws of Delaware or any of the sponsors or sponsor affiliates limited liability company operating agreements upon dissolution of such person; (h) by virtue of the laws of the Cayman Islands or the strategic investors memorandum and articles of association
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upon dissolution of the strategic investor; or (i) in the event of completion of a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction which results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property subsequent to the completion of a business combination; provided, however, that in the case of clauses (a) through (e) and (g) and (h), these permitted transferees must enter into a written agreement agreeing to be bound by these transfer restrictions.
In order to facilitate the offering of the units, the underwriters may engage in transactions that stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the price of the units. Specifically, the underwriters may sell more units than they are obligated to purchase under the underwriting agreement, creating a short position. A short sale is covered if the short position is no greater than the number of units available for purchase by the underwriters under the over-allotment option. The underwriters can close out a covered short sale by exercising the over-allotment option or purchasing units in the open market. In determining the source of units to close out a covered short sale, the underwriters will consider, among other things, the open market price of units compared to the price available under the over-allotment option. The underwriters may also sell units in excess of the over-allotment option, creating a naked short position. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing units in the open market. A naked short position is more likely to be created if the underwriters are concerned that there may be downward pressure on the price of the units in the open market after pricing that could adversely affect investors who purchase in this offering. As an additional means of facilitating this offering, the underwriters may bid for, and purchase, units in the open market to stabilize the price of the units. These activities may raise or maintain the market price of the units above independent market levels or prevent or retard a decline in the market price of the units. The underwriters are not required to engage in these activities and may end any of these activities at any time.
We and the underwriters have agreed to indemnify each other against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.
We are not under any contractual obligation to engage any of the underwriters to provide any services for us after this offering, and have no present intent to do so. However, any of the underwriters may introduce us to potential target businesses or assist us in raising additional capital in the future. If any of the underwriters provide services to us after this offering, we may pay such underwriter fair and reasonable fees that would be determined at that time in an arms length negotiation; provided that no agreement will be entered into with any of the underwriters and no fees for such services will be paid to any of the underwriters prior to the date that is 90 days from the date of this prospectus, unless FINRA determines that such payment would not be deemed underwriters compensation in connection with this offering and we may pay the underwriters of this offering or any entity with which they are affiliated a finders fee or other compensation for services rendered to us in connection with the completion of a business combination.
A prospectus in electronic format may be made available on websites maintained by one or more underwriters, or selling group members, if any, participating in this offering. The representative may agree to allocate a number of units to underwriters for sale to their online brokerage account holders. Internet distributions will be allocated by the representative to underwriters that may make Internet distributions on the same basis as other allocations.
The underwriters and their respective affiliates are full service financial institutions engaged in various activities, which may include securities trading, commercial and investment banking, financial advisory, investment management, investment research, principal investment, hedging. financing and brokerage activities. Certain of the underwriters and their respective affiliates may in the future perform various financial advisory and investment banking services for us, for which they will receive customary fees and expenses.
In addition, in the ordinary course of their various business activities, the underwriters and their respective affiliates may make or hold a broad array of investments and actively trade debt and equity securities (or related derivative securities) and financial instruments (including bank loans) for their own account and for the accounts of their customers and may at any time hold long and short positions in such securities and instruments. Such investment and securities activities may involve our securities and instruments. The underwriters and their respective affiliates may also make investment recommendations or
141
publish or express independent research views in respect of such securities or instruments and may at any time hold, or recommend to clients that they acquire, long or short positions in such securities and instruments.
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our units or other securities. The initial public offering price was determined by negotiations between us and the representative.
The determination of our per unit offering price was more arbitrary than would typically be the case if we were an operating company. Among the factors considered in determining initial public offering price were the history and prospects of companies whose principal business is the acquisition of other companies, prior offerings of those companies, our management, our capital structure, and currently prevailing general conditions in equity securities markets, including current market valuations of publicly traded companies considered comparable to our company. We cannot assure you, however, that the price at which the units, common shares or warrants will sell in the public market after this offering will not be lower than the initial public offering price or that an active trading market in our units, common shares or warrants will develop and continue after this offering.
In relation to each Member State of the European Economic Area which has implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a Relevant Member State) an offer to the public of any of our securities may not be made in that Relevant Member State, except that an offer to the public in that Relevant Member State of any of our securities may be made at any time under the following exemptions under the Prospectus Directive, if they have been implemented in that Relevant Member State:
(a) to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive;
(b) to fewer than 150, natural or legal persons (other than qualified investors as defined in the Prospectus Directive), as permitted under the Prospectus Directive, subject to obtaining the prior consent of the representatives for any such offer; or
(c) in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive, provided that no such offer of our securities shall result in a requirement for the publication by us or any underwriter of a prospectus pursuant to Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive.
For the purposes of this provision, the expression an offer to the public in relation to any of our securities in any Relevant Member State means the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and any of our securities to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase any of our securities, as the same may be varied in that Member State by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive in that Member State, the expression Prospectus Directive means Directive 2003/71/EC (as amended, including by Directive 210/73/EU) (and amendments thereto, including the 2010 PD Amending Directive, to the extent implemented in the Relevant Member State), and includes any relevant implementing measure in the Relevant Member State.
No registration pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law of Japan (Law No. 25 of 1948, as amended) (the FIEL) has been made or will be made with respect to the solicitation of the application for the acquisition of our securities.
Accordingly, our securities have not been, directly or indirectly, offered or sold and will not be, directly or indirectly, offered or sold in Japan or to, or for the benefit of, any resident of Japan (which term as used herein means any person resident in Japan, including any corporation or other entity organized under the laws of Japan) or to others for re-offering or re-sale, directly or indirectly, in Japan or to, or for the benefit of, any resident of Japan except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements, and otherwise in compliance with, the FIEL and the other applicable laws and regulations of Japan.
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Please note that the solicitation for newly-issued or secondary securities (each as described in Paragraph 2, Article 4 of the FIEL) in relation to the securities constitutes either a QII only private placement or a QII only secondary distribution (each as described in Paragraph 1, Article 23-13 of the FIEL). Disclosure regarding any such solicitation, as is otherwise prescribed in Paragraph 1, Article 4 of the FIEL, has not been made in relation to the securities. The securities may only be transferred to QIIs.
Please note that the solicitation for newly-issued or secondary securities (each as described in Paragraph 2, Article 4 of the FIEL) in relation to the securities constitutes either a small number private placement or a small number private secondary distribution (each as is described in Paragraph 4, Article 23-13 of the FIEL). Disclosure regarding any such solicitation, as is otherwise prescribed in Paragraph 1, Article 4 of the FIEL, has not been made in relation to the securities. The securities may only be transferred en bloc without subdivision to a single investor.
Each underwriter has represented and agreed that:
(a) it has only communicated or caused to be communicated and will only communicate or cause to be communicated an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) received by it in connection with the issue or sale of our securities in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply to us; and
(b) it has complied and will comply with all applicable provisions of the FSMA with respect to anything done by it in relation to our securities in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom.
The securities may be sold only to purchasers in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec purchasing, or deemed to be purchasing, as principal that are accredited investors, as defined in National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus Exemptions or subsection 73.3(1) of the Securities Act (Ontario), and are permitted clients, as defined in National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations. Any resale of the securities must be made in accordance with an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the prospectus requirements of applicable securities laws.
Securities legislation in certain provinces or territories of Canada may provide a purchaser with remedies for rescission or damages if this prospectus supplement (including any amendment thereto) contains a misrepresentation, provided that the remedies for rescission or damages are exercised by the purchaser within the time limit prescribed by the securities legislation of the purchasers province or territory. The purchaser should refer to any applicable provisions of the securities legislation of the purchasers province or territory for particulars of these rights or consult with a legal advisor.
Pursuant to section 3A.3 (or, in the case of securities issued or guaranteed by the government of a non-Canadian jurisdiction, section 3A.4) of National Instrument 33-105 Underwriting Conflicts (NI 33-105), the underwriters are not required to comply with the disclosure requirements of NI 33105 regarding underwriter conflicts of interest in connection with this offering.
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Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, New York, has passed upon the validity of the securities offered hereby on behalf of us. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Palo Alto, California, advised the underwriters in connection with the offering of the securities.
The financial statements of Leisure Acquisition Corp. as of September 25, 2017 and for the period from September 11, 2017 (inception) through September 25, 2017 appearing in this prospectus have been audited by Marcum LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, as set forth in their report thereon (which contains an explanatory paragraph relating to substantial doubt about the ability of Leisure Acquisition Corp. to continue as a going concern as described in Note 1 to the financial statements), appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, and are included in reliance on such report given on the authority of such firm as experts in auditing and accounting.
We have filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-1 under the Securities Act with respect to the securities we are offering by this prospectus. This prospectus does not contain all of the information included in the registration statement. For further information about us and our securities, you should refer to the registration statement and the exhibits and schedules filed with the registration statement. Whenever we make reference in this prospectus to any of our contracts, agreements or other documents, the references are materially complete but may not include a description of all aspects of such contracts, agreements or other documents, and you should refer to the exhibits attached to the registration statement for copies of the actual contract, agreement or other document.
Upon completion of this offering, we will be subject to the information requirements of the Exchange Act and will file annual, quarterly and current event reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You can read our SEC filings, including the registration statement, over the Internet at the SECs website at www.sec.gov. You may also read and copy any document we file with the SEC at its public reference facility at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549.
You may also obtain copies of the documents at prescribed rates by writing to the Public Reference Section of the SEC at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the operation of the public reference facilities.
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F-1
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders
of Leisure Acquisition Corp.
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Leisure Acquisition Corp. (the Company) as of September 25, 2017, and the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders equity and cash flows for the period from September 11, 2017 (inception) through September 25, 2017. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Companys management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. Our audit included consideration of internal control over financial reporting as a basis for designing audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Companys internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion. An audit also includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Leisure Acquisition Corp. as of September 25, 2017 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from September 11, 2017 (inception) through September 25, 2017 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company has no present revenue, its business plan is dependent on the completion of a financing and the Companys cash and working capital as of September 25, 2017 are not sufficient to complete its planned activities for the upcoming year. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern. Managements plans regarding these matters are also described in Notes 1 and 3. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
/s/ Marcum LLP
Marcum LLP
New York, NY
October 2, 2017, except for Note 8, as to which the date is November 28, 2017
F-2
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ASSETS |
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Current asset cash | $ | 101,582 | ||
Deferred offering costs | 60,000 | |||
Total Assets | $ | 161,582 | ||
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY |
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Current liabilities |
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Accrued offering costs | $ | 5,000 | ||
Promissory notes related parties | 136,582 | |||
Total Current Liabilities | 141,582 | |||
Commitments |
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Stockholders Equity |
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Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 authorized; none issued and outstanding | | |||
Common stock, $0.0001 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized; 7,187,500 shares issued and outstanding(1) | 719 | |||
Additional paid-in capital | 24,281 | |||
Accumulated deficit | (5,000 | ) | ||
Total Stockholders Equity | 20,000 | |||
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY | $ | 161,582 |
(1) | Includes an aggregate of 937,500 shares held by the initial stockholders that are subject to forfeiture to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment is not exercised in full (Note 7). |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
F-3
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Formation costs | $ | 5,000 | ||
Net Loss | $ | (5,000 | ) | |
Weighted average shares outstanding, basic and diluted(1) | 6,250,000 | |||
Basic and diluted net loss per common share | $ | (0.00 | ) |
(1) | Excludes an aggregate of 937,500 shares held by the initial stockholders that are subject to forfeiture to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment is not exercised in full (Note 7). |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
F-4
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Common Stock(1) | Additional Paid-in Capital |
Accumulated Deficit |
Total Stockholders Equity |
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Shares | Amount | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance September 11, 2011 (inception) | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||||||||||
Issuance of common stock to initial stockholders(1) | 7,187,500 | 719 | 24,281 | | 25,000 | |||||||||||||||
Net loss | | | | (5,000 | ) | (5,000 | ) | |||||||||||||
Balance September 25, 2017 | 7,187,500 | $ | 719 | $ | 24,281 | $ | (5,000 | ) | $ | 20,000 |
(1) | Includes an aggregate of 937,500 shares held by the initial stockholders that are subject to forfeiture to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment is not exercised in full (Note 7). |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
F-5
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Cash Flows from Operating Activities: |
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Net loss | $ | (5,000 | ) | |
Net cash used in operating activities | (5,000 | ) | ||
Cash Flows from Financing Activities: |
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Proceeds from issuance of common stock to initial stockholders | 25,000 | |||
Proceeds from promissory notes related parties | 136,582 | |||
Payment of offering costs | (55,000 | ) | ||
Net cash provided by financing activities | 106,582 | |||
Net Change in Cash | 101,582 | |||
Cash Beginning | | |||
Cash Ending | $ | 101,582 | ||
Non-Cash Investing and Financing Activities: |
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Deferred offering costs included in accrued offering costs | $ | 5,000 |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
F-6
Leisure Acquisition Corp. (the Company) is a newly organized blank check company incorporated in Delaware on September 11, 2017. The Company was formed for the purpose of acquiring, through a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, recapitalization, exchangeable share transaction or other similar business transaction, one or more operating businesses or assets that the Company has not yet identified (a Business Combination).
At September 25, 2017, the Company had not yet commenced operations. All activity through September 25, 2017 relates to the Companys formation and the Proposed Offering (as defined below), which is described below. The Company has selected December 31 as its fiscal year end.
The Companys ability to commence operations is contingent upon obtaining adequate financial resources through a proposed initial public offering of 20,000,000 units at $10.00 per unit (or 23,000,000 units if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) (Units), which is discussed in Note 3 (the Proposed Offering) and the sale of 6,825,000 warrants (or 7,425,000 warrants if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) (the Private Placement Warrants) at a price of $1.00 per warrant in a private placement to Hydra LAC, LLC, an affiliate of Hydra Management, LLC (the Hydra Sponsor), MLLP GLL Funding LLC, an affiliate of Matthews Lane Capital Partners, LLC (the Matthews Lane Sponsor, and, together with the Hydra Sponsor, the Sponsors), HG Vora Special Opportunities Master Fund, Ltd. (HG Vora) and certain members of our management team that will close simultaneously with the Proposed Offering. The Companys management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of the Proposed Offering and Private Placement Warrants, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. The Companys initial Business Combination must be with one or more target businesses that together have a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the balance in the Trust Account (as defined below) (excluding deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time of the signing of an agreement to enter into a Business Combination. In addition, the Companys Business Combination must be approved by HG Vora as a condition to the Contingent Forward Purchase Contract (as described in Note 6). The Company will only complete a 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 not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act. There is no assurance that the Company will be able to successfully effect a Business Combination. Upon the closing of the Proposed Offering, management has agreed that $10.00 per Unit sold in the Proposed Offering and the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be held in a trust account (Trust Account) and invested in U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 180 days or less or in any open-ended investment company that holds itself out as a money market fund meeting the conditions of Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act, as determined by the Company, until the earlier of: (i) the consummation of a Business Combination or (ii) the distribution of the Trust Account as described below.
The Company will provide its stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares included in the Units sold in the Proposed Offering (the 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) 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 stockholders will be entitled to redeem their shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then on deposit in the Trust Account (initially $10.00 per share, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay franchise and income taxes). The per share amount to be distributed to stockholders who redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriters (see Note 7). The common stock subject
F-7
to redemption will be recorded at a redemption value and classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the Proposed Offering, in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 480 Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.
The Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation of a Business Combination and, if the Company seeks stockholder approval, a majority of the outstanding shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a stockholder vote is not required by law and the Company does not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, the Company will, pursuant to its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, a stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or the Company decides to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, the Company will offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If the Company seeks stockholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsors and the Companys other initial stockholders (collectively, the Initial Stockholders) have agreed to vote their Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5) and any Public Shares held by them in favor of approving a Business Combination. Additionally, each public stockholder may elect to redeem their Public Shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Companys Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a group (as defined under Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to an aggregate of 20% or more of the common stock sold in the Proposed Offering.
The Company will have until 24 months from the closing of the Proposed Offering to consummate a Business Combination (the Combination Period). 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 no more than ten business days thereafter, redeem 100% of the outstanding 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 and not previously released to pay franchise and income taxes (less up to $75,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the remaining stockholders and the Companys board of directors, proceed to commence a voluntary liquidation and thereby a formal dissolution of the Company, subject in each case to its obligations to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of applicable law. The underwriter has agreed to waive its rights to the deferred underwriting commission held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Companys Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the assets remaining available for distribution (including Trust Account assets) will be less than the $10.00 per Unit in the Proposed Offering.
The Initial Stockholders have agreed to (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and Public Shares in connection with the completion of a Business Combination, (ii) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to their Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and (iii) not to propose an amendment to the Companys Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation that would affect the
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substance or timing of the Companys obligation to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if the Company does not complete a Business Combination, unless the Company provides the public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares in conjunction with any such amendment. However, the Initial Stockholders will be entitled to liquidating distributions with respect to any Public Shares acquired if the Company fails to consummate a Business Combination or liquidates within the Combination Period.
In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsors have agreed to be liable to the Company if and to the extent any claims by a vendor for services rendered or products sold to the Company, or a prospective target business with which the Company has discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per Public Share or (ii) such lesser amount per share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets. This liability will not apply with respect to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account or to any claims under the Companys indemnity of the underwriters of the Proposed Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act). Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, the Sponsors will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. The Company will seek to reduce the possibility that the Sponsors will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers, prospective target businesses or other entities with which the Company does business, execute agreements with the Company waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account.
At September 25, 2017, the Company had $101,582 in cash and working capital deficit of $40,000. The Company has incurred and expects to continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its financing and acquisition plans. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued. Management plans to address this uncertainty through a Proposed Offering as discussed in Note 3. There is no assurance that the Companys plans to raise capital or to consummate a Business Combination will be successful within the Combination Period. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
The accompanying financial statements 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 SEC.
The Company is an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of 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 stockholder 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
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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 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 comparison of the Companys 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.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with 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 revenues and 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 statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from our estimates.
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 September 25, 2017.
Deferred offering costs consist of underwriting, legal, accounting and other expenses incurred through the balance sheet date that are directly related to the Proposed Offering and that will be charged to stockholders equity upon the completion of the Proposed Offering. Should the Proposed Offering prove to be unsuccessful, these deferred costs, as well as additional expenses to be incurred, will be charged to operations.
The Company complies with the accounting and reporting requirements of ASC Topic 740 Income Taxes, which requires an asset and liability approach to financial accounting and reporting for income taxes. Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are computed for differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities that will result in future taxable or deductible amounts, based on enacted tax laws and rates applicable to the periods in which the differences are expected to affect taxable income. Valuation allowances are established, when necessary, to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized.
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 recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. As of September 25, 2017, 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.
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The Company may be subject to potential examination by federal, state and city taxing authorities in the areas of income taxes. These potential examinations may include questioning the timing and amount of deductions, the nexus of income among various tax jurisdictions and compliance with federal, state and city tax laws. The Companys management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
The provision for income taxes was deemed to be immaterial for the period from September 11, 2017 (inception) through September 25, 2017.
The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements of ASC Topic 260, Earnings Per Share. Net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period, excluding shares of common stock subject to forfeiture by the Initial Stockholders. Weighted average shares were reduced for the effect of an aggregate of 937,500 shares of common stock that are subject to forfeiture if the over-allotment option is not exercised by the underwriters (see Note 7). At September 25, 2017, the Company did not have any dilutive securities and other contracts that could, potentially, be exercised or converted into common stock and then share in the earnings of the Company. As a result, diluted loss per common share is the same as basic loss per common share for the periods.
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentration of credit risk consist of cash accounts in a financial institution which, at times may exceed the Federal depository insurance coverage of $250,000. At September 25, 2017, the Company had not experienced losses on this account and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risks on such account.
The fair value of the Companys assets and liabilities, which qualify as financial instruments under ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures, approximates the carrying amounts represented in the accompanying balance sheets, primarily due to their short-term nature.
Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Companys consolidated financial statements.
Pursuant to the Proposed Offering, the Company will offer for sale 20,000,000 Units, (or 23,000,000 Units if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full) at a purchase price of $10.00 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one share of common stock and one-half of one warrant (Public Warrant). Each whole Public Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 (see Note 7).
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In connection with the Proposed Offering, affiliates of the Hydra Sponsor and Matthews Lane Sponsor, the Strategic Investor and certain members of management have committed to purchase an aggregate of 6,825,000 Private Placement Warrants (or 7,425,000 Private Placement Warrants if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full), at $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant ($6,825,000 in the aggregate, or $7,425,000 in the aggregate if the over-allotment option is exercised in full) in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the consummation of the Proposed Offering. Each Private Placement Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $11.50. The proceeds from the Private Placement Warrants will be added to the proceeds from the Proposed Offering to be held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the proceeds of 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 Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to the Private Placement Warrants.
On September 11, 2017, the Company issued an aggregate of 7,187,500 shares of common stock to the Initial Stockholders (Founder Shares) for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. The Founder Shares include an aggregate of up to 937,500 shares subject to forfeiture by the Initial Stockholders to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment is not exercised in full or in part, so that the Initial Stockholders will own, 20% of the Companys issued and outstanding shares after the Proposed Offering (assuming the Initial Stockholders do not purchase any Public Shares in the Proposed Offering) (see Note 8).
The securities subscription agreements of certain of the Initial Stockholders each include a provision that provides for the automatic forfeiture of Founder Shares in the amount required to maintain the ownership of our Initial Stockholders, in the aggregate, at 20% of our outstanding shares upon consummation of the Proposed Offering.
The Initial Stockholders have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Founder Shares until the earlier of (i) one year after the date of the completion of a Business Combination, or (ii) the date on which the last sales price of the Companys common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations and recapitalizations) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing 150 days after a Business Combination, or earlier, in each case, if subsequent to a Business Combination, the Company completes a subsequent liquidation, merger, stock exchange, or other similar transaction which results in all of the Companys stockholders having the right to exchange their common stock for cash, securities or other property.
The Company has agreed to enter into an agreement, commencing on the date our securities are first listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market through the earlier of the completion of a Business Combination or the Companys liquidation, to pay the Hydra Sponsor, or its affiliates or assignees, a monthly fee of up to $10,000 for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support.
On September 11 and 21, 2017, the Company entered into promissory notes with the Sponsors and HG Vora, whereby the Sponsors and HG Vora agreed to loan the Company up to an aggregate of $400,000 (the Promissory Notes) in order to finance expenses related to the Proposed Offering. The Promissory Notes are non-interest bearing and due on the earlier of (i) June 30, 2018 or (ii) the date on which the Company completes the Proposed Offering. As of September 25, 2017, the Company had $136,582 in
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borrowings outstanding under the Promissory Notes. On September 26 and 27, 2017, the Company borrowed an additional aggregate amount of $238,418 under the Promissory Notes, thereby bringing the total amount outstanding under the Promissory Notes to $375,000.
In order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsors and HG Vora have agreed to loan up to an aggregate of $1,000,000, in accordance with unsecured promissory notes to be issued to the Sponsors and HG Vora pursuant to an expense advance agreement to be entered into, to be provided to the Company and from which the Company may draw down from time to time in the event that funds held outside of the Trust Account are insufficient to fund the Companys expenses and other working capital requirements after the Proposed Offering and prior to a Business Combination and may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds from time to time or at any time, as may be required (Working Capital Loans). The Working Capital Loans would either be paid upon completion of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the holders discretion, up to $1,000,000 of the Working Capital Loans may be converted into warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the 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.
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants (and their underlying securities), Private Placement Units (and their underlying securities) (as defined below) and any warrants that may be issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans (and their underlying securities) will be entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement to be signed prior to or on the effective date of the Proposed Offering. The holders of these securities will be entitled to make up to two demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company register such securities. In addition, the holders will have certain piggy-back registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of a Business Combination and rights to require the Company to register for resale such securities pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act. However, the registration rights agreement will 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. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
The Company will grant the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments at the Proposed Offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.
The underwriters will be entitled to a cash underwriting discount of two percent (2.0%) of the gross proceeds of the Proposed Offering, or $4,000,000 (or up to $4,600,000 if the underwriters over-allotment is exercised in full). In addition, the underwriters are entitled to a deferred fee of three and one-half percent (3.5%) of the gross proceeds of the Proposed Offering, or $7,000,000 (or up to $8,050,000 if the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full). Up to $0.05 per unit (or up to $1,000,000) of the deferred fee (or up to $1,150,000, depending upon the extent to which the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised) may be paid to third parties (who are members of FINRA) that assist the Company in consummating its initial Business Combination. The election to make such payments to third parties will be solely at the discretion of the Companys management team, and such third parties will be selected by the management team in their sole and absolute discretion. The deferred fee will be paid in cash upon the closing of a Business Combination from the amounts held in the Trust Account, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
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The Company plans on entering into a contingent forward purchase contract (the Contingent Forward Purchase Contract) with HG Vora to purchase, in a private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $62,500,000 to occur concurrently with the consummation of the Business Combination, 6,250,000 Units on the same terms as the sale of the Units in the Proposed Offering at $10.00 per Unit (Private Placement Units). In the event the gross proceeds from the Proposed Offering are less than $200,000,000, the total number of Private Placement Units to be purchased by our strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will be reduced proportionally. However, the total number of Private Placement Units to be purchased by the Companys strategic investor under the contingent forward purchase contract will not change in the event the gross proceeds from the Proposed Offering are more than $200,000,000. The funds from the sale of the Private Placement Units will be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the Business Combination; any excess funds from the Private Placement Units will be used for working capital in the post-transaction company. This commitment is independent of the percentage of stockholders electing to redeem their public shares.
As a closing condition to the Contingent Forward Purchase Contract, the Company has agreed not to consummate a Business Combination without HG Voras consent; which approval can be withheld for any reason.
Preferred Stock The Company is authorized to issue 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock with a par value of $0.0001 per share with such designation, rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by the Companys Board of Directors. At September 25, 2017, there were no shares of preferred stock issued or outstanding.
Common Stock The Company is authorized to issue 100,000,000 shares of common stock with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders of the Companys common stock are entitled to one vote for each share. At September 25, 2017, there were 7,187,500 shares of common stock issued and outstanding, of which 937,500 shares are subject to forfeiture to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment option is not exercised in full so that the Companys Initial Stockholders will own 20% of the issued and outstanding shares after the Proposed Offering (assuming the Initial Stockholders do not purchase any Public Shares in the Proposed Offering) (see Note 8).
Warrants Public Warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of shares. No fractional shares will be issued upon exercise of the Public Warrants. The Public Warrants will become exercisable on the later of (a) 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination and (b) 12 months from the closing of the Proposed Offering; provided in each case that the Company has an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Public Warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available. The Company has agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of a Business Combination, the Company will use its best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Public Warrants. The Company will use its best efforts to cause the same to become effective and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement, and a current prospectus relating thereto, until the expiration of the Public Warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. Notwithstanding the above, if the Companys common stock is at the time of any exercise of a Public Warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies 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, the Company
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will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but will be required to use its best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. The Public Warrants will expire five years after the completion of a Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.
The Private Placement Warrants will be identical to the Public Warrants underlying the Units being sold in the Proposed Offering, except that the Private Placement Warrants and the common stock issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination, subject to certain limited exceptions. Additionally, the Private Placement Warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis and be non-redeemable so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees. If the Private Placement Warrants are held by someone other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by the Company and exercisable by such holders on the same basis as the Public Warrants.
The Company may redeem the Public Warrants (except with respect to the Private Placement Warrants):
| in whole and not in part; |
| at a price of $0.01 per warrant; |
| at any time during the exercise period; |
| upon a minimum of 30 days prior written notice of redemption; and |
| if, and only if, the last sale price of the Companys common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third business day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
| If, and only if, there is a current registration statement in effect with respect to the shares of common stock underlying such warrants. |
If the Company calls the Public Warrants for redemption, management will have the option to require all holders that wish to exercise the Public Warrants to do so on a cashless basis, as described in the warrant agreement.
The exercise price and number of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants may be adjusted in certain circumstances including in the event of a stock dividend, or recapitalization, reorganization, merger or consolidation. However, the warrants will not be adjusted for issuance of common stock at a price below its exercise price. Additionally, in no event will the Company be required to net cash settle the warrants. If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and the Company liquidates the funds held in the Trust Account, holders of warrants will not receive any of such funds with respect to their warrants, nor will they receive any distribution from the Companys assets held outside of the Trust Account with the respect to such warrants. Accordingly, the warrants may expire worthless.
The Company evaluates subsequent events and transactions that occur after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Other than as described, the Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
On September 26 and 27, 2017, the Company borrowed an additional aggregate amount of $238,418 under the Promissory Notes, thereby bringing the total amount outstanding under the Promissory Notes to $375,000.
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Pursuant to the securities subscription agreements entered into by certain of the Initial Stockholders and based on the terms of the Proposed Offering such Initial Stockholders would forfeit an aggregate of 1,437,500 Founder Shares that would be surrendered and returned to the Company for nil consideration upon consummation of the Proposed Offering, which would leave an aggregate of 5,750,000 Founder Shares outstanding. The 5,750,000 Founder Shares include an aggregate of up to 750,000 shares subject to forfeiture by the Initial Stockholders to the extent that the underwriters over-allotment is not exercised in full or in part, so that the Initial Stockholders will own, 20% of the Companys issued and outstanding shares after the Proposed Offering (assuming the Initial Stockholders do not purchase any Public Shares in the Proposed Offering).
The financial statements have been modified to reflect the terms of the Proposed Offering.
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$200,000,000
LEISURE ACQUISITION CORP.
20,000,000 Units
PROSPECTUS
December 1, 2017
MORGAN STANLEY
EARLYBIRDCAPITAL, INC.
Until December 26, 2017 (25 days after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that buy, sell or trade our common stock, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the dealers obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.