ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |
(Address of principal executive offices) |
(Zip Code) | |
Title of each class |
Trading Symbol(s) |
Name of each exchange on which registered | ||
one-fourth of one redeemable warrant |
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| Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||
Non-accelerated filer |
☒ | Smaller reporting company | ||||
| Emerging growth company | ||||||
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report on Form 10-K”) constitute “forward-looking statements.” Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team’s 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K 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; |
| • | the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of potential business combination opportunities; |
| • | our public securities’ liquidity and trading; |
| • | 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. |
| • | 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; or |
| • | our pool of prospective target businesses. |
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The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K 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 Part I, Item 1A., “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.
PART I
References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “we,” “us,” “our,” “company” or “our company” are to Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Corp. References to our “management” or our “management team” are to our executive officers and directors, and references to our “sponsor” are to Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Sponsor GmbH, a German limited liability company. References to “Rocket Internet” are to Rocket Internet SE, a societas europea affiliated with our sponsor.
| ITEM 1. | BUSINESS. |
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company and incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Our purpose is to pursue a business strategy of promoting the long-term value of our subsidiaries, associated companies or other investments.
Our sponsor is an affiliate of Rocket Internet, a successful technology investor.
Expiration of Completion Period
On March 14, 2023, we announced that we do not expect to consummate an initial business combination before our mandatory liquidation date of March 25, 2023. Due to our inability to consummate an initial business combination within the time period required by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we are redeeming our public shares in accordance with the provisions of our amended and restated articles memorandum and articles of association. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless.
Our Management Team
Our management team consists of:
| • | Oliver Samwer, our Chairman and Director; |
| • | Soheil Mirpour, our Chief Executive Officer and Director; |
| • | Donald E. Stalter Jr., our Chief Financial Officer and Director. |
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Oliver Samwer, our Chairman and Director, is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Internet. Mr. Samwer co-founded Rocket Internet in 2007, and played an integral role in taking the company public at a valuation of over €4.0 billion in October 2014. Under Mr. Samwer’s leadership, Rocket Internet has invested in more than 300 companies in over 50 countries, providing a range of technology and technology-adjacent services from payments processing to takeaway food delivery. Prior to co-founding Rocket Internet, Mr. Samwer co-founded Jamba AG (acquired by VeriSign, Inc. in 2004) and Alando.de AG (acquired by eBay Inc. in 1999). In addition to his work at Rocket Internet SE, Mr. Samwer has served in a range of capacities at GFC Global Founders Capital GmbH, Rocket Internet’s venture arm. Mr. Samwer has served as a member of the board of directors of Westwing Group AG since February 2019 and HelloFresh SE since June 2018, and serves as a member of the board of directors of several private companies. Mr. Samwer holds a business degree from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar.
Soheil Mirpour, our Chief Executive Officer and Director, was a member of the Management Board of Rocket Internet from March 2020 to February 2023. Prior to that, Mr. Mirpour worked as a consultant advising clients, including Rocket Internet, since August 2018, and previously served as the Senior Vice President of Investments of Rocket Internet, leading the company’s efforts in Growth and Private Equity investments. Before joining Rocket Internet, he worked in Private Equity at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) since January 2016 and prior to that as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley since July 2015. Mr. Mirpour started his career at UniCredit Bank as a banker in 2008. He was a Scholar of the Foundation of German Academic Scholarship (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) and holds a business degree from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany.
Donald E. Stalter Jr., our Chief Financial Officer and Director, has been managing the North American portfolio for GFC Global Founders Capital GmbH in various capacities since January 2017, where he is responsible for investments such as Brex, Inc., Cedar.ai, Inc., Culture Amp Pty Ltd, Deel, Inc., FamPay, Inc., Mothership Technologies, Inc., TherapyMatch, Inc. (Headway), Hyper Labs, Inc. (HyperScience), Karat Financial Technologies, Inc. and Kalshi, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Stalter worked with software entrepreneurs and investors on data, operations and fundraising efforts since 2013. From 2011 to 2013, he worked in business development at Airbnb, Inc., and worked at Groupon, Inc. from 2009 to 2011. Earlier in his career, Mr. Stalter worked for Kennet Partners in London and at Credit Suisse in San Francisco. Mr. Stalter is a member of the boards of directors of various private companies. He holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago.
Our Relationship with Rocket Internet
Our sponsor is an affiliate of Rocket Internet. Founded in 2007, Rocket Internet is an internet company headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Rocket Internet incubates and invests in internet and technology companies globally.
Rocket Internet is a successful technology investor, with a 15-year track record in technology investing across all stages of the venture life cycle. Rocket Internet focuses on fast-growing companies with proven business models, turning innovative start-ups into leaders in their target markets. Its investment team consists of more than 25 technology investors.
Status as a Public Company
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. 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 Class A ordinary shares 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.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th.
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Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that we have 24 months from the closing of this offering to complete our initial business combination. If we do not 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 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any), and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and other requirements of 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 initial business combination within the 24-month time period.
Our sponsor, officers and directors 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 sponsor or management team 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 sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and 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. If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time.
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 $1,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, together with any additional financing arrangements that we may enter into prior to the completion of our initial business combination, 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 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 $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account, the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.00. However, the proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public shareholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by shareholders will not be substantially less than $10.00.
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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, prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. 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. Our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriter of this offering will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our 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 sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance 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. 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 share.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers, 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. However, our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriter
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of this offering will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We will have access to up to approximately $1,000,000 from the proceeds of this offering with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, shareholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.
If we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency 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 shareholders. 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 shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders 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 some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, (ii) in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of our initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event that we seek shareholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a shareholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may be amended by a special resolution, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of at least two-thirds of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company.
Employees
We currently have three executive officers. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the initial business combination process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
We have registered our securities 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, this Annual Report contains financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We are required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting.
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We are a Cayman Islands exempted company. Exempted companies are Cayman Islands companies conducting business mainly outside the Cayman Islands and, as such, are exempted from complying with certain provisions of the Companies Law. As an exempted company, we have applied for and received a tax exemption undertaking from the Cayman Islands government that, in accordance with Section 6 of the Tax Concessions Law (2018 Revision) of the Cayman Islands, for a period of 20 years from the date of the undertaking, no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations will apply to us or our operations and, in addition, that no tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciations or which is in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax will be payable (i) on or in respect of our shares, debentures or other obligations or (ii) by way of the withholding in whole or in part of a payment of dividend or other distribution of income or capital by us to our shareholders or a payment of principal or interest or other sums due under a debenture or other obligation of us.
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 shareholder 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 our Initial Public 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 Class A ordinary shares that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30, 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.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30 or (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30.
Available Information
Our internet website address is https://www.rocketgrowthopportunities.com. We make available, free of charge, annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Reports of beneficial ownership filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act are also available on our website. Information in, or that can be accessed through, this website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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| ITEM 1A. | RISK FACTORS |
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making a decision to invest in our units. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Relating to our Search for, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks
We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands 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. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern.”
In connection with our assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB’s Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” management determined that we are within 12 months of our mandatory liquidation as of the time of filing this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In connection with our assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” this and our expected financing needs raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern until the earlier of the consummation of our business combination or the date we are required to liquidate, which is March 25, 2023.
We will not be able to complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our Initial Public Offering, cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we will redeem our public shares and liquidate.
We will not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our Initial Public Offering. As a result, 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and other requirements of applicable law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, if we wind up for any other reason prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will follow the foregoing procedures with respect to the liquidation of the trust account as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to applicable Cayman Islands law. In either such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per public share, or less than $10.00 per public share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders are entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our Initial Public Offering or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our Initial Public Offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of our Initial Public Offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we are listed on the NYSE, 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 initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our Initial Public Offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
If the net proceeds of our Initial Public Offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate until the completion of our business combination. 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 or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination. If we entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business.
In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,000,000, 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. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such increase or decrease. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such 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. Up to $2,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at
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the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor 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 do not 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 shareholders may only receive an estimated $10.00 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. Our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriter of our Initial Public Offering have not and will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account.
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 do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriter of our Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
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The securities in which we invest the proceeds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the interest income available for payment of taxes or reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
The net proceeds of our Initial Public Offering and certain proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants are held in an interest-bearing trust account. The proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in direct U.S. Treasury obligations having a maturity of 185 days or less, or in certain money market funds which invest only in direct U.S. Treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. Treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event of very low or negative yields, the amount of interest income (which we may withdraw to pay income taxes, if any) would be reduced. In the event that we do not complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income. If the balance of the trust account is reduced as a result of negative interest rates, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance if, 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 shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a
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“preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency 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 shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we would be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities would be severely restricted and, as a result, we may abandon our efforts to consummate a business combination and liquidate the Company.
On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules (the “SPAC Rule Proposals”) that would, among other items, impose additional disclosure requirements in business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amend the financial statement requirements applicable to business combination transactions involving such companies; update and expand guidance regarding the general use of projections in SEC filings, as well as when projections are disclosed in connection with proposed business combination transactions; increase the potential liability of certain participants in proposed business combination transactions; and impact the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), including a proposed rule that would provide SPACs a safe harbor from treatment as an investment company if they satisfy certain conditions that limit a SPAC’s duration, asset composition, business purpose and activities. The SPAC Rule Proposals have not yet been adopted and may be adopted in the proposed form or in a different form that could impose additional regulatory requirements on SPACs.
As described further above, the SPAC Rule Proposals relate, among other matters, to the circumstances in which SPACs such as the Company could potentially be subject to the Investment Company Act and the regulations thereunder. The SPAC Rule Proposals would provide a safe harbor for such companies from the definition of “investment company” under Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act, provided that a SPAC satisfies certain criteria, including a limited time period to announce and complete a business combination. Specifically, to comply with the safe harbor, the SPAC Rule Proposals would require a company to file a report on Form 8-K announcing that it has entered into an agreement with a target company for a business combination no later than 18 months after the effective date of its registration statement for its initial public offering (the “IPO Registration Statement”). A SPAC would then be required to complete a business combination no later than 24 months after the effective date of the IPO Registration Statement. Because the SPAC Rule Proposals have not yet been adopted, there is currently uncertainty concerning the applicability of the Investment Company Act to a SPAC, including a company like ours, that has not entered into a definitive agreement within 18 months after the effective date of its IPO Registration Statement or that does not complete its initial business combination within 24 months. As a result, it is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. If we are deemed to be an investment company and subject to compliance with and regulation under the Investment Company Act, our activities would be severely restricted. In addition, we would be subject to additional burdensome regulatory requirements and expenses for which we have not allotted funds.
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Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we 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, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
Our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond 24 months before redemption from our trust account can occur.
The proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public shareholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the Companies Law. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond 24 months from the closing of our Initial Public Offering before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless we consummate our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their Class A ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we do not complete our initial business combination.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that, immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offense and may be liable for a fine and to imprisonment in the Cayman Islands.
We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. holder of our Class A ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. There can be no assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year (and, in the case of the startup exception, potentially not until after the two taxable years following our current taxable year). However, our actual PFIC status for any taxable year will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, in order to enable the U.S. holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. We urge U.S. investors to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules.
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We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
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 internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an initial business combination.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with this Annual Report. However, because we qualify as an emerging growth company, we are not required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such business combination.
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Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, you may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. Federal courts may be limited.
We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. We will also be subject to the federal securities laws of the United States. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders’ derivative action in a Federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by Maples and Calder, our Cayman Islands legal counsel, that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (i) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preference 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.
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Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
On April 12, 2021, the Staff of the SEC issued a statement entitled “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”)” (the “Staff Statement”) informing market participants that certain warrants issued by SPACs may require classification as a liability of the entity measured at fair value, with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings. We had previously accounted for our private placement warrants and public warrants as equity. After considering the Staff Statement, we determined that our warrants should be recorded as derivative liabilities on the balance sheet and measured at fair value at issuance (on the date of the consummation of our initial public offering) and at each reporting date, with changes in fair value recognized in the statement of operations in the period of the change. Accordingly, on May 21, 2021, the audit committee of our board of directors (the “audit committee”), based on the recommendation of management, concluded that certain of our previously issued financial statements should be restated to reflect a reclassification of our warrants as liabilities in application of Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 815-40, Derivatives and Hedging, Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity.
In addition, in certain of our previously issued financial statements, a portion of our redeemable Class A ordinary shares (the “public shares”) were classified as permanent equity to maintain shareholders’ equity in excess of $5,000,000 on the basis that we will consummate our initial business combination only if we have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 immediately prior to or upon such consummation. However, in connection with the preparation of our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2021, management re-evaluated our application of ASC 480-10-S99, Accounting For Redeemable Equity Instruments, to our accounting classification of public shares in light of recent comment letters issued by the Staff of the SEC to certain other special purpose acquisition companies. Upon such re-evaluation, management determined that the public shares include redemption provisions that require classification of the public shares as temporary equity, regardless of the minimum net tangible asset requirement discussed above. Accordingly, on November 18, 2021, the audit committee, based on the recommendation of management, concluded that certain of our previously issued financial statements should be restated to reflect a reclassification of all of our public shares to permanent equity in application of ASC 480-10-S99.
In light of the above, management concluded that the foregoing reclassifications resulted in a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to our evaluation and review of complex financial instruments.
We continue to take steps to remediate the material weakness. If we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, any such newly identified material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and the price of our securities may decline as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
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Risks Relating to our Sponsor and Management Team
We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our officers and directors and the members of our advisory board. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers, directors and members of our advisory board, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs.
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 the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in 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 also serve as officers and board members for other entities.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors may be amended without shareholder approval.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors contain provisions relating to transfer restrictions of our founder shares and private placement warrants, indemnification of the trust account, waiver of redemption rights and participation in liquidating distributions from the trust account. The letter agreement may be amended without shareholder approval (although releasing the parties from the restriction not to transfer the founder shares for 180 days following the date of this prospectus will require the prior written consent of the underwriter). It is possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to the letter agreement. Any such amendments to the letter agreement would not require approval from our shareholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
Risks Related to Our Securities
The market for our securities may be illiquid, which may adversely affect the price of our securities.
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.
Holders of Class A ordinary shares will not be entitled to vote on any appointment of directors we hold prior to our initial business combination.
Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to our initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, you may not have any say in the management of our company prior to the consummation of an initial business combination.
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Our sponsor controls a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our sponsor owns 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary. Accordingly, our sponsor may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. If our sponsor purchases any additional Class A ordinary shares in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase its control. Neither our sponsor nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this prospectus. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, the founder shares, all of which are held by our initial shareholders, will, in a vote to continue the company in a jurisdiction outside the Cayman Islands (which requires the approval of at least two thirds of the votes of all ordinary shares), entitle the holders to ten votes for every founder share. This provision of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least two-thirds of the ordinary shares voting in at our general meeting. Furthermore, our board of directors, whose members were appointed by our sponsor, is and will be divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. We may not hold an annual general meeting to appoint new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office. If there is an annual general meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for appointment and our sponsor, because of its ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome.
Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, the NYSE may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
Only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. As a result, the NYSE may consider us to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:
| • | we have a board that includes a majority of “independent directors,” as defined under the rules of the NYSE; |
| • | we have a compensation committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and |
| • | we have a nominating and corporate governance committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities. |
We do not intend to utilize these exemptions and intend to comply with the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE. However, if we determine in the future to utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
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Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement do not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem 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 closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send proper notice of such redemption to the warrants holders 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. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that the closing price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption and provided that certain other conditions are met, including that holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of Class A ordinary shares determined based on the redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
As of December 31, 2022, we have outstanding warrants to purchase 6,675,000 of our Class A ordinary shares as part of our public units and private placement to purchase 4,893,333 of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, if the sponsor makes any working capital loans, up to $2,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants at the price of $1.50 per warrant. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares in connection with our redemption of our warrants.
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To the extent we issue ordinary shares to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because each unit contains one-fourth of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other special purpose acquisition companies.
Each unit contains one-fourth of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number of Class A ordinary shares to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one 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-fourth of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one 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.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of our Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants have been issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or correcting any mistake, including to conform the provisions of the warrant agreement to the description of the terms of the warrants and the warrant agreement set forth in this prospectus, or defective provision, (ii) amending the provisions relating to cash dividends on ordinary shares as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement, (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, or (iv) to provide for delivery of alternative issuances in the case of a reclassification, reorganization or similar events, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of Class A ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We have not registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
We have not registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as
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practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days, after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the registration under the Securities Act of the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and thereafter will use commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following our initial business combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the Class A ordinary shares 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 Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, under the terms of the warrant agreement, holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do so for cash and, instead, will be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption from registration. If holders exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, the number of Class A ordinary shares that they will receive upon such cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum amount of shares equal to 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment).
In no event will warrants 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 or qualification is available.
If our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, not permit holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants to do so for cash and, instead, require them to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act. In the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available. Exercising the warrants on a cashless basis could have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of Class A ordinary shares upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold than upon a cash exercise.
In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities (other than upon a cashless exercise as described above) 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 the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws. 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 will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. There may be a circumstance in which an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants included as part of units sold in our Initial Public Offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying ordinary shares. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
The provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of not less than two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company (or 65% of our ordinary shares with respect to
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amendments to the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account), which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other special purpose acquisition companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our Initial Public Offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public shareholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by special resolution, under Cayman Islands law which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of at least two-thirds of the shareholders who attend and vote at a general meeting of the company, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our ordinary shares. Our sponsor, who beneficially owns 20% of our ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our Initial Public Offering or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares. Our shareholders 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 sponsor, officers or directors for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our shareholders would need to pursue a shareholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
| ITEM 1B. | UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS. |
None.
| ITEM 2. | PROPERTIES. |
We currently utilize office space at Boundary Hall, Cricket Square, Grand Cayman, KY1-1102, Cayman Islands made available by our sponsor as our executive offices. We pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of our management team. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
| ITEM 3. | LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. |
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.
| ITEM 4. | MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES |
Not applicable.
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PART II
| ITEM 5. | MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED SHAREHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES. |
Market Information
Our units trade on the NYSE under the symbol “RKTAU”, and our Class A ordinary shares trade on the NYSE under the symbol “RKTA”. Our public warrants were delisted and do no longer trade on the NYSE effective as of January 4, 2023.
Holders
As of December 31, 2022, there was 1 holder of record of our units, 1 holder of record of our Class A ordinary shares, 1 holder of record of our Class B ordinary shares and 2 holders of record of our warrants.
Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of 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. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
For a description of the use of the proceeds generated in our Initial Public Offering, see Part I, Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
| ITEM 6. | SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA. |
Not applicable.
| ITEM 7. | MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS. |
The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and the notes thereto which are included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those set forth under “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Report.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on January 27, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company and incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.
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On March 14, 2023, we announced that we do not expect to consummate an initial business combination before our mandatory liquidation date of March 25, 2023. Due to our inability to consummate an initial business combination within the time period required by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, we are redeeming our public shares in accordance with the provisions of our amended and restated articles memorandum and articles of association. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless.
Results of Operations and Known Trends or Future Events
For the year ended December 31, 2022, we had net income of $11,966,686, which included income from the change in fair value of the warrant liability of $8,846,817, and Interest earned on investments held in Trust Account of $3,913,657, partially offset by loss from operations of $793,791.
For the period from January 27, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had a net operating income of approximately $7.15 million, which included a gain from the change in fair value of the warrant liability of approximately $8.4 million and interest income on cash and investments held in Trust Account of $13,476 partially offset by loss from operations of $667,282 and offering cost expense allocated to warrants of $561,706.
Our business activities from inception to December 31, 2022 consisted primarily of our formation and completing our initial public offering (“Initial Public Offering” or “IPO”), and since the offering, our activity has been limited to identifying and evaluating prospective acquisition targets for an initial business combination.
Liquidity, Capital Resources and Going Concern Consideration
As of December 31, 2022, we had cash outside our trust account of $30,420, and working capital of $770,057. All remaining cash was held in the trust account and is generally unavailable for our use, prior to an initial business combination or liquidation.
Our liquidity needs have been satisfied prior to the completion of the Initial Public Offering through a payment of $25,000 capital contribution from our sponsor to cover certain offering costs on behalf of us in exchange for the issuance of the founder shares to our sponsor and up to $300,000 in loans from our sponsor.
On March 25, 2021, we consummated our Initial Public Offering of 25,000,000 units (the “Units”). Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share, $0.0001 par value per share and one-fourth of one redeemable warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. The Units were sold at a price of $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds to us of $250,000,000. We granted Citigroup Global Markets Inc., the underwriter in the Initial Public Offering (the “Underwriter”), a 45-day option to purchase up to 3,750,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments, if any. On March 26, 2021, the Underwriter partially exercised the over-allotment option to purchase an additional 1,700,000 units (the “Over-Allotment Units”), which purchase settled on March 30, 2021, generating gross proceeds of $17,000,000. Simultaneously with the closing of the exercise of the over-allotment option, the Company completed the private sale (the “Private Placement”) of an aggregate of 226,666 warrants (the “Private Placement Warrants”) to our sponsor at a purchase price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant, generating gross proceeds of $340,000, which was used to pay the underwriting discount of 2% of the over-allotment gross proceeds.
Transaction costs of the Initial Public Offering (including the partial exercise of the underwriter’s over-allotment option) amounted to $15,188,496 consisting of $5,340,000 of underwriting discount, $9,345,000 of deferred underwriting discount, and $503,496 of other offering costs.
Upon closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Private Placement, and the sale of the Over-Allotment Units, a total of $267.0 million ($10.00 per Unit) was placed in a U.S.-based trust account, with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee. The proceeds held in the trust account have been invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 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.
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We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (excluding deferred underwriting commissions), to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay our taxes, if any. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. See Note 2 to our financial statements. We expect the interest earned on the amount in the trust account will be sufficient to pay our income taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the trust account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
We have determined that we may need to raise additional funds in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination or liquidation, including working capital, costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with Financial Accounting Standard Board’s Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” the Company has until March 25, 2023 to consummate a Business Combination. The Company will not be able to consummate a Business Combination by this time, and there will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution of the Company. Management has determined that the mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after July 11, 2023. The Company intends to continue to search for and seek to complete a Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date. The Company is within 12 months of its mandatory liquidation date as of the time of filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
These financial statements do not include any adjustments relating to the recovery of the recorded assets or the classification of the liabilities that might be necessary should the Company be unable to continue as a going concern.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements; Commitments and Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2022, 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 quarterly operating data is included in this prospectus as we have not conducted any operations to date.
Commitments and Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2022, we did not have any long-term debt, capital, or operating lease obligations.
Administrative Support Agreement
Commencing on the date its securities were first listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the Company agreed to pay the Sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of the Company’s management team. Upon completion of the initial Business Combination or the Company’s liquidation, the Company will cease paying these monthly fees.
Registration Rights
The holders of the (i) founder shares, which were issued in a private placement prior to the closing of the IPO, (ii) Private Placement Warrants, which were issued in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of the IPO and the Class A ordinary shares underlying such Private Placement Warrants and (iii) Private Placement Warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans have registration rights to require the Company to register a sale of any of the Company’s securities held by them pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on the effective date of the IPO. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
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Underwriting Agreement
Upon consummation of the IPO on March 25, 2021 and settlement of the purchased over-allotment on March 30, 2021, the underwriter was paid a cash underwriting fee of 2.0% of the gross proceeds, or $5,340,000 in the aggregate.
The underwriter is entitled to a deferred underwriting discount of 3.5% of the gross proceeds of the IPO and purchased over-allotment, or $9,345,000 in the aggregate. The deferred fee will be payable to the underwriter from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes an initial Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results could materially differ from those estimates. We have identified the following critical accounting policies:
This management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to fair value of financial instruments and accrued expenses. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. Except as set forth below, there have been no significant changes in our critical accounting policies as discussed in the final prospectus filed by us with the SEC on March 22, 2021.
Warrant Liability
We evaluated the public warrants and private placement warrants in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification(“ASC”)Topic 815-40, “Derivatives and Hedging — Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity” and concluded that a provision in our warrant agreement related to certain tender or exchange offers precludes the warrants from being accounted for as components of equity. As the warrants meet the definition of a derivative as contemplated in ASC 815, the warrants are recorded as derivative liabilities on the Balance Sheets and measured at fair value at inception (on the date of the IPO) and at each reporting date in accordance with ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, with changes in fair value recognized in the Statements of Operations in the period of change.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
We account for our ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in ASC 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) is classified as a liability instrument and is measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable ordinary shares (including ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within our control) is classified as temporary equity. At all other times, ordinary shares is classified as shareholders’ equity. Our ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that is considered to be outside of our control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, 26,700,000 ordinary shares subject to possible redemption is presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ equity section of our balance sheets. The dissolution expense of $100,000 is not included in the redemption value of the shares subject to redemption since it is only taken into account in the event of the Company’s liquidation.
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Net Income Per Ordinary Share
We apply the two-class method in calculating earnings per share. Net income per ordinary share, basic and diluted for Class A redeemable ordinary shares is calculated by dividing the interest income earned on the Trust Account by the weighted average number of Class A redeemable ordinary shares outstanding since original issuance. Net income per ordinary share, basic and diluted for Class B non-redeemable ordinary shares is calculated by dividing the net income, less income attributable to Class A redeemable ordinary shares, by the weighted average number of Class B non-redeemable ordinary shares outstanding for the periods presented.
Our statement of income applies the two-class method in calculating net income per share. Basic and diluted net income per ordinary share for Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares is calculated by dividing net income attributable to the Company by the weighted average number of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares outstanding, allocated proportionally to each class of shares.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging-Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”),which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current U.S. GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. The Company early adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 27, 2021 (inception). Adoption of the ASU did not impact the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on our financial statements.
JOBS Act
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”) contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We qualify as an “emerging growth company” and under the JOBS Act are 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, the financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Additionally, as an “emerging growth company,” we are not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s 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 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s 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 CEO’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our Initial Public Offering or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
| ITEM 7A. | QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK. |
As a “smaller reporting company” as defined by Item 10 of Regulation S-K, the Company is not required to provide the information required by this Item.
| ITEM 8. | FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA. |
This information appears following Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
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| ITEM 9. | CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE. |
None.
| ITEM 9A. | CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES. |
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in Company reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
As required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2022.
We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:
| (1) | pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company, |
| (2) | provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and |
| (3) | provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. |
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2022. In making these assessments, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013). Based on our assessments and those criteria, management determined that we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022.
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Management has implemented remediation steps to improve our internal control over financial reporting. Specifically, we expanded and improved our review process for complex securities and related accounting standards. We plan to further improve this process by enhancing access to accounting literature, identification of third-party professionals with whom to consult regarding complex accounting applications and consideration of additional staff with the requisite experience and training to supplement existing accounting professionals.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to our status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules13a-15(f)and15d-15(f)of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting, except for the events that led to the restatement of our previously issued financial statements, as described above.
| ITEM 9B. | OTHER INFORMATION. |
None.
PART III
| ITEM 10. | DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE. |
Officers and Directors
Our officers and directors are as follows:
| Name |
Age |
Position | ||
| Oliver Samwer |
50 | Chairman, Director | ||
| Soheil Mirpour |
33 | Chief Executive Officer, Director | ||
| Donald E. Stalter Jr. |
41 | Chief Financial Officer, Director | ||
| Marcus Englert |
57 | Director | ||
| Norbert Lang |
61 | Director | ||
| Pierre Louette |
60 | Director | ||
| Aneel Ranadivé |
38 | Director |
Oliver Samwer, our Chairman and Director, is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Internet. Mr. Samwer co-founded Rocket Internet in 2007, and played an integral role in taking the company public at a valuation of over €4.0 billion in October 2014. Under Mr. Samwer’s leadership, Rocket Internet has invested in more than 300 companies in over 50 countries, providing a range of technology and technology-adjacent services from payments processing to takeaway food delivery. Prior to co-founding Rocket Internet, Mr. Samwer co-founded Jamba AG (acquired by VeriSign, Inc. in 2004) and Alando.de AG (acquired by eBay Inc. in 1999). In addition to his work at Rocket Internet SE, Mr. Samwer served in a range of capacities at GFC Global Founders Capital GmbH, Rocket Internet’s venture arm. Mr. Samwer has served as a member of the board of directors of Westwing Group AG until February 2019 and HelloFresh SE until June 2018, and serves as a member of the board of directors of several private companies. Mr. Samwer holds a business degree from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar.
Soheil Mirpour, our Chief Executive Officer and Director, was a member of the Management Board of Rocket Internet from March 2020 to February 2023. Prior to that, Mr. Mirpour worked as a consultant advising clients, including Rocket Internet, since August 2018, and previously served as the Senior Vice President of Investments of Rocket Internet, leading the company’s efforts in Growth and Private Equity investments. Before joining Rocket Internet, he worked in Private Equity at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) since January 2016 and prior to that as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley since July 2015. Mr. Mirpour started his career at UniCredit Bank as a banker in 2008. He was a Scholar of the Foundation of German Academic Scholarship (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) and holds a business degree from WHU—Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany.
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Donald E. Stalter Jr., our Chief Financial Officer and Director, has been managing the North American portfolio for GFC Global Founders Capital GmbH in various capacities since January 2017, where he is responsible for investments such as Brex, Inc., Cedar.ai, Inc., Culture Amp Pty Ltd, Deel, Inc., FamPay, Inc., Mothership Technologies, Inc., TherapyMatch, Inc. (Headway), Hyper Labs, Inc. (HyperScience), Karat Financial Technologies, Inc. and Kalshi, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Stalter worked with software entrepreneurs and investors on data, operations and fundraising efforts since 2013. From 2011 to 2013, he worked in business development at Airbnb, Inc., and worked at Groupon, Inc. from 2009 to 2011. Earlier in his career, Mr. Stalter worked for Kennet Partners in London and at Credit Suisse in San Francisco. Mr. Stalter is a member of the boards of directors of various private companies. He holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago.
Marcus Englert, who has served as a director since March 2021, serves as an industry advisor for Digital and e-Commerce at TRITON Partners, a position he has held since 2016. In this role, Mr. Englert currently serves as chairman of the board of European Directories Group (EDSA), a leading European local search provider, and as member of the board of Sunweb Group, a leading European online tour operator. He also serves as senior partner and managing director at Texas Atlantic Capital (since 2011), a group of media and ecommerce venture capital funds, and as senior advisor and managing director at Solon Management Consulting GmbH &Co. KG (since 2011). Mr. Englert has held board positions at Rocket Internet SE (chairman of the supervisory board) since 2014 and Zattoo International AG (member of the supervisory board) since 2015. Prior to that, he served as deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Sixt Leasing AG as chairman of the supervisory board of Media Broadcast GmbH (part of TDF Group) and as chairman of the supervisory board of Real Time Technology AG. Prior to that, he held various leading positions in the media industry for more than 13 years. Mr. Englert holds a Master degree in Physics (Dipl. Phys.) from the University of Munich as well as a PhD in nuclear physics from the European Center for Nuclear Research, CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Furthermore, Mr. Englert holds an MBA from the European Institute for Business Affairs, INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France.
Norbert Lang, who has served as a director since March 2021, is a management consultant and the chief executive officer of Scito Invest GmbH, a position he has held since 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Lang served as Chief Financial Officer of United Internet AG for over 20 years. He currently serves as a member of a number of supervisory boards, 1&1 AG (since 2015) and Rocket Internet SE (since 2015). Prior to that, Mr. Lang was a member of the supervisory board of Hi-Media S.A., united-domains AG, GMX & WEB.DE Mail & Media SE, 1&1 Telecommunication Holding SE. Mr. Lang was also a member of the advisory board of Versatel Telefommunications GmbH.
Pierre Louette, who has served as a director since March 2021, is the Chief Executive Officer of Les Echos-Le Parisien Group, the media branch of the LVMH Group, a role he has held since 2018. In addition, he has been a member of the supervisory board of Rocket Internet SE since 2016 and a member of the audit committee of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux since 2017. Prior to that, Mr. Louette served in several other management positions. He was deputy Chief Executive Officer at Orange group from 2010 to 2018, chairman and chief executive officer at Agence France Presse (AFP) from 2003 to 2010, he co-managed Europatweb, the internet investment fund created by Bernard Arnault, when he joined LVMH and Group Arnault from 2000 to 2003, held various positions, such as general secretary and executive vice president for communication, at France Televisions from 1995 to 1996 and served as executive advisor on communication and media issues in the French prime minister’s office under Edouard Balladur from 1993 to 1995. Mr. Louette began his career at the National Audit Office (Cour des Comptes). Mr. Louette holds a degree from the Paris Institute of Political Sciences, a law degree from the Sorbonne and is a graduate from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration.
Aneel Ranadivé, who has served as a director since March 2021, is an American businessman, entrepreneur and the founding and managing partner of Soma Capital, a position he has held since 2015. Through Soma Capital, he has invested into companies such as Rappi, Inc., Cruise LLC, ScriptDash Inc. (Alto Pharmacy), Rippling Payments, Inc., Razorpay Software Private Limited and Ironclad, Inc.. He is also part of the group holding the majority interest in the NBA team Sacramento Kings since 2013. In 2010, Mr. Ranadivé founded Tag, Inc. (formerly Pinchit, Inc.), a location sharing app backed by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Tim Draper. From 2009 to 2010,
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Mr. Ranadivé worked for Nielsen Media Sync in San Francisco. Furthermore, Mr. Ranadivé co-founded GlanceGuide, a video analytics company acquired by Nielsen, in 2009 and founded BoredAt, an anonymous social network backed by Redpoint Ventures, in 2008. Mr. Ranadivé started his career in investment banking at Bank of America in 2006. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Columbia University, where he graduated in Mathematics in 2006.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of six members and is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being appointed in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term. In accordance with the NYSE corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Aneel Ranadivé and Pierre Louette, will expire at our first annual general meeting. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Marcus Englert and Norbert Lang, will expire at the second annual general meeting. The term of office of the third class of directors, consisting of Oliver Samwer, Soheil Mirpour and Donald E. Stalter Jr., will expire at the third annual general meeting.
Prior to the completion of an initial business combination, any vacancy on the board of directors may be filled by a nominee chosen by holders of a majority of our founder shares. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason.
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 officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
Director Independence
The rules of the NYSE require that a majority of our board of directors be independent within one year of our initial public offering. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person who, in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, has no material relationship with the listed company (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the company). Our board of directors has determined that each of Marcus Englert, Norbert Lang, Pierre Louette and Aneel Ranadivé is an “independent director” as defined in the NYSE listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Upon the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, our board of directors will have three standing committees: an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Both our audit committee and our compensation committee will be composed solely of independent directors. Subject to phase-in rules, the rules of the NYSE and Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors, and the rules of the NYSE require that the compensation committee and the nominating and corporate governance committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Each committee will operate under a charter that will be approved by our board and will have the composition and responsibilities described below. The charter of each committee will be available on our website following the closing of this offering.
Audit Committee
We established an audit committee of the board of directors. Norbert Lang, Marcus Engler and Pierre Louette serve as members of our audit committee, and Mr. Lang chairs the audit committee. Under the NYSE 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. Each of our audit committee members meets the independent director standard under the NYSE listing standards and under Rule 10-A-3(b)(1) under the Exchange Act.
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Each member of the audit committee will be financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Mr. Lang will qualify as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| • | assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent registered public accounting firm’s qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent auditors; 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 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 policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent registered public accounting firm describing (1) the independent auditor’s internal quality-control procedures and (2) 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; |
| • | meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent auditor, including reviewing our specific disclosures under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”; 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. |
Compensation Committee
We established a compensation committee of the board of directors. Pierre Louette, Marcus Englert and Aneel Ranadivé serve as members of our compensation committee. Under the NYSE 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. Each of our compensation committee members are independent and Mr. Louette chair the compensation committee.
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We adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
| • | reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our chief executive officer’s compensation, evaluating our chief executive officer’s 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 making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive compensation and equity based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers; |
| • | reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans; |
| • | implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| • | assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| • | approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees; |
| • | producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and |
| • | reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors. |
Notwithstanding the foregoing, as indicated above, other than the payment to our sponsor of $10,000 per month, for up to 24 months, for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support and reimbursement of expenses, no compensation of any kind, including finders, consulting or other similar fees, will be paid to any of our existing shareholders, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates, prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate the consummation of an initial business combination. Accordingly, 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 also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent 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 the NYSE and the SEC.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
We established a nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. The members of our nominating and corporate governance are Marcus Englert, Norbert Lang and Aneel Ranadivé and Mr. Englert serves as chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee.
We adopted a nominating and corporate governance committee charter, which details the purpose and responsibilities of the nominating and corporate governance committee, including:
| • | identifying, screening and reviewing individuals qualified to serve as directors, consistent with criteria approved by the board, and recommending to the board of directors candidates for nomination for appointment at the annual general meeting or to fill vacancies on the board of directors; |
| • | developing and recommending to the board of directors and overseeing implementation of our corporate governance guidelines; |
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| • | coordinating and overseeing the annual self-evaluation of the board of directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the company; and |
| • | reviewing on a regular basis our overall corporate governance and recommending improvements as and when necessary. |
The charter also provides that the nominating and corporate governance committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of, and terminate, any search firm to be used to identify director candidates, and will be directly responsible for approving the search firm’s fees and other retention terms.
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 shareholders. Prior to our initial business combination, holders of our public shares will not have the right to recommend director candidates for nomination to our board of directors.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our officers currently serves, or in the past year has served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more officers serving on our board of directors.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. We have filed a copy of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics as an exhibit to our registration statement on Form S-1 (Registration No. 333-252913), which was declared effective by the SEC on March 22, 2021. You can review this document by accessing our public filings at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and the charters of the committees of our board of directors will be provided without charge upon request from us. See “Where You Can Find Additional Information.” If we make any amendments to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics other than technical, administrative or other non-substantive amendments, or grant any waiver, including any implicit waiver, from a provision of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer principal accounting officer or controller or persons performing similar functions requiring disclosure under applicable SEC or NYSE rules, we will disclose the nature of such amendment or waiver on our website. The information included on our website is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a company’s memorandum and articles of association may provide for indemnification of officers and directors, except to the extent any such provision may be held by the Cayman Islands courts to be contrary to public policy, such as to provide indemnification against willful default, fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide for indemnification of our officers and directors to the maximum extent permitted by law, including for any liability incurred in their capacities as such, except through their own actual fraud, willful default or willful neglect. We expect to purchase a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors.
Except with respect to any public shares they may acquire in this offering or thereafter (in the event we do not consummate an initial business combination), our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any services provided to us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will only be able to be satisfied by us if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination.
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Our indemnification obligations may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
| ITEM 11. | EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION. |
Officer and Director Compensation
None of our officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date that our securities are first listed on the NYSE through the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation, we will pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of our management team. In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than quarterly audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and officers for their out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with our activities on our behalf in connection with identifying and consummating an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
After the completion of our initial business combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed initial 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 initial 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.
In addition, certain of our officers, directors and employees will have personal and financial interests in us as a result of shared profits they are expected to receive from affiliates of our sponsor, including Rocket Internet, following the successful consummation of our initial business combination.
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 management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination. We are not party to any agreements with our officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
35
| ITEM 12. | SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS. |
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares as of March 31, 2023, by:
| • | each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares; |
| • | each of our officers and directors; and |
| • | all our officers and directors as a group. |
The following table is based on 26,700,000 Class A ordinary shares and 6,675,000 Class B ordinary shares outstanding as of March 31, 2023. Unless otherwise indicated, it is believed that all persons named in the table below have sole voting and investment power with respect to all ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
| Class A Ordinary Shares | Class B Ordinary Shares | |||||||||||||||
| Name and Address of Beneficial Owners(1) | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned |
% of Class |
Number of Shares Beneficially Owned (2) |
% of Class |
||||||||||||
| Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Sponsor GmbH (3) |
— | — | 6,675,000 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||||
| First Trust Capital Management L.P. (4) |
2,680,904 | 10.04 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
| Glazer Capital, LLC (5) |
1,769,024 | 6.6 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
| Saba Capital Management, L.P. (6) |
1,573,777 | 5.9 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
| 683 Capital Management, LLC (7) |
1,490,000 | 5.6 | % | — | — | |||||||||||
| Soheil Mirpour |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Donald E. Stalter Jr. |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Oliver Samwer |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Marcus Englert |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Pierre Louette |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Norbert Lang |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Aneel Ranadivé |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| All directors and executive officers as a group (7 individuals) |
— | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| * | Less than one percent |
| (1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following is c/o Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Corp., Boundary Hall, Cricket Square, Grand Cayman, KY1-1102, Cayman Islands. |
| (2) | Interests shown consist solely of shares of Class B ordinary shares which are referred to herein as founder shares. Such shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A ordinary shares at the time of our initial business combination or earlier at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in the section entitled “Description of Securities.” |
| (3) | Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Sponsor GmbH is the record holder of the shares reported herein. Atrium 122. Europäische VV SE (“Atrium”) is the sole shareholder of Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Sponsor GmbH. Brillant 3087. SE & Co. Verwaltungs KG (“Brillant”), the sole shareholder of Atrium, is controlled by Rocket Internet. Rocket Internet is controlled by Global Founders GmbH (“Global Founders”), which is |
36
| controlled by Rocata GmbH (“Rocata”). Zerena GmbH (“Zerena”) is the sole shareholder of Rocata. Accordingly, Atrium, Brillant, Rocket Internet, Global Founders, Rocata and Zerena may each be deemed to have voting and dispositive power with respect to the ordinary shares of Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Corp. |
| (4) | Holdings as of February 28, 2023 as reported on Schedule 13G filed by First Trust Capital Management L.P. (“FTCM”), First Trust Capital Solutions L.P. (“FTCS”) and FTCS Sub GP LLC (“Sub GP”; each of FTCM, FTCS and Sub GP, a “Reporting Person”). FTCM is an investment adviser registered with the SEC. Each of FTCS and Sub GP is a control person of FTCM. FTCM is an investment adviser registered with the SEC that provides investment advisory services to, among others, (i) series of Investment Managers Services Trust II, an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, specifically First Trust Multi-Strategy Fund and First Trust Merger Arbitrage Fund, and (ii) Highland Capital Management Institutional Fund II, LLC. The principal business address for each Reporting Person is 225 W. Wacker Drive, 21st Floor, Chicago, IL 60606. |
| (5) | Holdings as of December 31, 2022 as reported on Schedule 13G filed by Glazer Capital, LLC (“Glazer Capital”) and Mr. Paul J. Glazer with respect to shares held by certain funds and managed accounts to which Glazer Capital serves as investment manager (collectively, the “Glazer Funds”). Mr. Glazer is the Managing Member of Glazer Capital. The address of the business office of each of the Reporting Persons is 250 West 55th Street, Suite 30A, New York, New York 10019. |
| (6) | Holdings as of December 31, 2022, as reported on Schedule 13G/A filed by Saba Capital Management, L.P. (“Saba Capital”), Saba Capital Management GP, LLC (“Saba GP”) and Mr. Boaz R. Weinstein (together, the “Reporting Persons”). The Reporting Persons have entered into a Joint Filing Agreement, dated August 26, 2022, pursuant to which the Reporting Persons have agreed to file this statement and any subsequent amendments hereto jointly in accordance with the provisions of Rule 13d-1(k)(1) under the Act. |
| (7) | Holdings as of as of December 31, 2022 as reported on Schedule 13G/A filed by 683 Capital Management, LLC, 683 Capital Partners, LP and Ari Zweiman (collectively, the “Reporting Persons”). As the investment manager of 683 Capital Partners, LP, 683 Capital Partners, LLC may be deemed to have beneficially owned the 1,490,000 shares beneficially owned by 683 Capital Partners, LP. Ari Zweiman, as the Managing Member of 683 Capital Management, LLC, may be deemed to have beneficially owned the 1,490,000 shares beneficially owned by 683 Capital Management, LLC. The principal business address for each of the Reporting Persons is 1700 Broadway, Suite 4200, New York, NY 10019. |
| ITEM 13. | CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE. |
On February 1, 2021, the sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, to cover certain offering costs in consideration for 7,187,500 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (the “founder shares”). Up to 937,500 founder shares were subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriter’s over-allotment option is exercised. On March 26, 2021, the underwriter partially exercised its over-allotment option to purchase an additional 1,700,000 Units, which purchase settled on March 30, 2021, which resulted in 425,000 Class B ordinary shares no longer being subject to forfeiture. On May 6, 2021, the sponsor forfeited 512,500 founder shares for no consideration as a result of the underwriter not exercising the remainder of the over-allotment option.
Our sponsor has purchased an aggregate of 4,893,333 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $7,340,000 in the aggregate, in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold in our initial public offering except that the private placement warrants, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, (i) will not be redeemable by us (subject to certain exceptions), (ii) may not (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holders until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) will be entitled to registration rights. The private placement warrants (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise thereof) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holder.
We currently utilize office space at Boundary Hall, Cricket Square, Grand Cayman, KY1-1102, Cayman Islands made available by our sponsor as our executive offices. Commencing on the date of this prospectus, we will pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of our management team. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.
No compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. However, these individuals will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates.
37
Prior to the closing of our initial public offering, our sponsor loaned us funds to be used for a portion of the expenses of our initial public offering. Such loans were repaid and the promissory note evidencing such loans terminated upon the closing of our initial public offering.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required on a non-interest basis. If we complete an initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. 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 $2,000,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor 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.
Any of the foregoing payments to our sponsor, repayments of loans from our sponsor or repayments of working capital loans prior to our initial business combination will be made using funds held outside the trust account.
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 shareholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, furnished to our shareholders. 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 general 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.
We have also entered into a registration rights agreement with respect to the founder shares and private placement warrants.
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The audit committee of our board of directors will adopt a policy setting forth the policies and procedures for its review and approval or ratification of “related party transactions.” A “related party transaction” is any consummated or proposed transaction or series of transactions: (i) in which the company was or is to be a participant; (ii) the amount of which exceeds (or is reasonably expected to exceed) the lesser of $120,000 or 1% of the average of the company’s total assets at year end for the prior two completed fiscal years in the aggregate over the duration of the transaction (without regard to profit or loss); and (iii) in which a “related party” had, has or will have a direct or indirect material interest. “Related parties” under this policy will include: (i) our directors, nominees for director or officers; (ii) any record or beneficial owner of more than 5% of any class of our voting securities; (iii) any immediate family member of any of the foregoing if the foregoing person is a natural person; and (iv) any other person who maybe a “related person” pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K under the Exchange Act. Pursuant to the policy, the audit committee will consider (i) the relevant facts and circumstances of each related party transaction, including if the transaction is on terms comparable to those that could be obtained in arm’s-length dealings with an unrelated third party, (ii) the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction, (iii) whether the transaction contravenes our code of ethics or other policies, (iv) whether the audit committee believes the relationship underlying the transaction to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders and (v) the effect that the transaction may have on a director’s status as an independent member of the board and on his or her eligibility to serve on the board’s committees. Management will present to the audit committee each proposed related party transaction, including all relevant facts and circumstances relating thereto. Under the policy, we may consummate related party transactions only if our audit committee approves or ratifies the transaction in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the policy. The policy will not permit any director or officer to participate in the discussion of, or decision concerning, a related person transaction in which he or she is the related party.
38
| ITEM 14. | PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES. |
The following is a summary of fees paid or to be paid to Marcum LLP, or Marcum, for services rendered.
Audit Fees. During the year ended December 31, 2022 and the period from January 27, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, fees for our independent registered public accounting firm were approximately $83,000 and $39,000 for the services Marcum performed in connection with the audit of our December 31, 2022 and 2021 financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10K.
Audit-Related Fees. During the year ended December 31, 2022 and the period from January 27, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, fees for our independent registered public accounting firm were approximately $0 and $65,000 for the services Marcum performed in connection with our Initial Public Offering.
Tax Fees. During the year ended December 31, 2022 and the period from January 27, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, our independent registered public accounting firm did not render services to us for tax compliance, tax advice and tax planning.
All Other Fees. During the year ended December 31, 2022 and the period from January 27, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, there were no fees billed for products and services provided by our independent registered public accounting firm other than those set forth above.
Pre-Approval Policy
Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of our Initial Public Offering. As a result, the audit committee did not pre-approve all of the foregoing services, although any services rendered prior to the formation of our audit committee were approved by our board of directors. Since the formation of our audit committee, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will pre-approve all auditing services and permitted non-audit services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit).
PART IV
| ITEM 15. | EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES. |
| (a) | The following documents are filed as part of this report: |
| (1) | Financial Statements |
| Page | ||||
| Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB 668) |
F-2 | |||
| Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 |
F-3 | |||
| F-4 | ||||
| F-5 | ||||
| F-6 | ||||
| F-7 | ||||
| (2) | Financial Statement Schedule |
None.
| (3) | Exhibits |
39
We hereby file as part of this Report the exhibits listed in the attached Exhibit Index. Exhibits which are incorporated herein by reference can be inspected and copied at the public reference facilities maintained by the SEC, 100 F Street, N.E., Room 1580, Washington, D.C. 20549. Copies of such material can also be obtained from the Public Reference Section of the SEC, 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549, at prescribed rates or on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.
.
| ITEM 16. | FORM 10-K SUMMARY |
None.
| * | Filed herewith. |
| ** | Furnished herewith |
40
| Page | ||||
F-2 |
||||
F-3 |
||||
F-4 |
||||
F-5 |
||||
F-6 |
||||
F-7 – F-19 |
||||
December 31, 2022 |
December 31, 2021 |
|||||||
| ASSETS: |
||||||||
| Cash |
$ | $ | ||||||
| Prepaid expense |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Total current assets |
||||||||
| Other assets |
||||||||
| Investments held in Trust Account |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| TOTAL ASSETS |
$ |
$ |
||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT |
||||||||
| Accrued expenses |
$ | $ | ||||||
| Current tax liability |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Total current liabilities |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Deferred underwriting fee |
||||||||
| Warrant liabilities |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Total Liabilities |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Commitments Contingencies |
||||||||
| Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, $ |
||||||||
| Shareholders’ Deficit: |
||||||||
| Preferred shares, $ |
||||||||
| Class A ordinary shares, $ |
||||||||
| Class B ordinary shares, $ |
||||||||
| Additional paid-in capital |
||||||||
| Accumulated deficit |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Total Shareholders’ Deficit |
( |
) |
( |
) | ||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT |
$ |
$ |
||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
For the Period from January 27, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 |
|||||||
| Formation and operating costs |
$ | $ | ||||||
| Loss from operations |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||
| Other income: |
||||||||
| Interest earned on cash and marketable securities held in Trust Account |
||||||||
| Transaction costs allocable to warrants |
( |
) | ||||||
| Unrealized gain on fair value changes of warrants |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Total other income, net |
||||||||
| Income before provision for income taxes |
||||||||
| Provision for income taxes |
||||||||
| Net income |
$ |
$ |
||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Weighted average shares outstanding, Redeemable Class A ordinary shares |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Basic and diluted net income per share, Redeemable Class A ordinary shares |
$ |
$ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Weighted average shares outstanding, Non-redeemable Class B ordinary shares |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Basic and diluted net income per share, Non-redeemable Class B ordinary shares |
$ |
$ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
Class A Ordinary shares |
Class B Ordinary shares |
Additional Paid-in Capital |
Accumulated Deficit |
Total Shareholder’s Deficit |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shares |
Amount |
Shares |
Amount |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance as of January 27, 2021 (inception) |
$ | $ | $ | $ | — | $ | — | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor |
— | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Remeasurement of Class A Ordinary Shares to possible redemption amount |
— | — | — | — | ( |
) | ( |
) | ( |
) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Forfeiture of Class B Ordinary Shares by Sponsor |
— | ( |
) | ( |
) | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income |
— | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
| Balance as of December 31, 2021 |
$ |
$ |
$ |
( |
) | $ |
( |
) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption |
— |
— |
— |
— |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
| Balance as of December 31, 2022 |
$ |
$ |
$ |
( |
) |
$ |
( |
) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
For the Period from January 27, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 |
|||||||
| Cash Flows from Operating Activities: |
||||||||
| Net income |
$ | $ | ||||||
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: |
||||||||
| Interest earned on marketable securities held in Trust Account |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||
| Transaction costs incurred in connection with Initial Public Offering |
||||||||
| Unrealized gain on fair value changes of warrants |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||
| Changes in operating assets and liabilities: |
||||||||
| Prepaid expense |
( |
) | ||||||
| Other assets |
( |
) | ||||||
| Accrued expenses |
( |
) | ||||||
| Accrued tax liability |
||||||||
| Net cash used in operating activities |
( |
) | ( |
) | ||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Cash Flows from Investing Activities: |
||||||||
| Purchase of investment held in Trust Account |
( |
) | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Net cash used in investing activities |
( |
) | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Cash Flows from Financing Activities: |
||||||||
| Proceeds from sale of Units, net of underwriting discounts |
||||||||
| Proceeds from sale of Private Warrants |
||||||||
| Proceeds from issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor |
||||||||
| Proceeds from issuance of promissory note to Sponsor |
||||||||
| Payments on promissory note issued to Sponsor |
( |
) | ||||||
| Payment of deferred offering costs |
( |
) | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Net Change in Cash |
( |
) |
||||||
| Cash – Beginning |
||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Cash – Ending |
$ |
$ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Supplemental Disclosure of Non-cash Financing Activities: |
||||||||
| Initial recognition of ordinary shares subject to possible redemption including overallotment |
$ | $ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Deferred underwriter fee charged to additional paid-in capital |
$ | $ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Initial recognition of warrant liability |
$ | $ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption |
$ | $ | ||||||
| |
|
|
|
|||||
| Gross proceeds |
$ | |||
| Less: |
||||
| Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants |
( |
) | ||
| Class A ordinary shares issuance costs |
( |
) | ||
| Plus: |
||||
| Remeasurement of carrying value to redemption value |
||||
| Interest earned on investments held in Trust account |
||||
| Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, 12/31/2021 |
||||
| Interest earned on investments held in Trust account |
||||
| |
|
|||
| Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption, 12/31/2022 |
$ | |||
| |
|
2022 |
||||
| Current tax |
$ |
|||
| Deferred tax |
||||
| |
|
|||
| Total tax liability |
$ |
|||
| |
|
|||
2022 |
||||
| Statutory federal income tax rate (benefit) |
% | |||
| German Tax rate |
% | |||
| Effective tax rate |
% | |||
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
For the Period from January 27, 2021 (Inception) through December 31, 2021 |
|||||||||||||||
Class A |
Class B |
Class A |
Class B |
|||||||||||||
| Net income per share for Class A ordinary shares: |
||||||||||||||||
| Net income |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Less: Allocation of income to Class B ordinary shares |
||||||||||||||||
| Adjusted net income |
||||||||||||||||
| Weighted average shares outstanding of Class A ordinary shares |
||||||||||||||||
| Basic and diluted net income per share, Class A ordinary shares |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Level 1 — | Valuations based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access. Valuation adjustments and block discounts are not being applied. Since valuations are based on quoted prices that are readily and regularly available in an active market, valuation of these securities does not entail a significant degree of judgment. | |
| Level 2 — | Valuations based on (i) quoted prices in active markets for similar assets and liabilities, (ii) quoted prices in markets that are not active for identical or similar assets, (iii) inputs other than quoted prices for the assets or liabilities, or (iv) inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by market through correlation or other means. | |
| Level 3 — | Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement. |
| • | in whole and not in part; |
| • | at a price of $ |
| • | upon not less than30days’ prior written notice of redemption(the “ period”) to each warrant holder; and |
| • | if, and only if, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $ within a ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
| • | in whole and not in part; |
| • | at $ |
| • | if, and only if, the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $ within the ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and |
| • | if the closing price of the Class A ordinary shares for any within a ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $ |
December 31, 2022 |
Quoted Prices In Active Markets (Level 1) |
Significant Other Observable Inputs (Level 2) |
Significant Other Unobservable Inputs (Level 3) |
|||||||||||||
| Assets: |
||||||||||||||||
| Investments held in Trust Account |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Liabilities: |
||||||||||||||||
| Public Warrants Liability |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Private Placement Warrants Liability |
||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
December 31, 2021 |
Quoted Prices In Active Markets (Level 1) |
Significant Other Observable Inputs (Level 2) |
Significant Other Unobservable Inputs (Level 3) |
|||||||||||||
| Assets: |
||||||||||||||||
| Investments held in Trust Account |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Liabilities: |
||||||||||||||||
| Public Warrants Liability |
$ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Private Placement Warrants Liability |
||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
| Fair Value at December 31, 2021 |
$ |
|||
| Change in fair value of private warrants |
( |
) | ||
| |
|
|||
| Fair Value at December 31, 2022 |
$ |
|||
| |
|
Inputs |
December 31, 2022 |
December 31, 2021 |
||||||
| Risk-free interest rate |
% | % | ||||||
| Expected term remaining (years) |
||||||||
| Expected volatility |
% | % | ||||||
| Share price |
$ | $ | ||||||
Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities Corp | ||||||
| Date: March 31, 2023 |
By: |
/s/ Soheil Mirpour | ||||
Soheil Mirpour | ||||||
Chief Executive Officer | ||||||
Name |
Position |
Date | ||
| /s/ Oliver Samwer Oliver Samwer |
Chairman, Director |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Soheil Mirpour Soheil Mirpour |
Chief Executive Officer and Director (Principal Executive Officer, Director) |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Donald E. Stalter Jr. Donald E. Stalter Jr. |
Chief Financial Officer and Director (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer, Director) |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Marcus Englert Marcus Englert |
Director |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Norbert Lang Norbert Lang |
Director |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Pierre Louette Pierre Louette |
Director |
March 31, 2023 | ||
| /s/ Aneel Ranadivé Aneel Ranadivé |
Director |
March 31, 2023 | ||