Item 1A. Risk Factors
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, before making a decision to invest in our securities. 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, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial business combination if the business combination would not require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. Except for as required by applicable law or stock exchange requirement, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Even if we seek shareholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if a majority of our public shareholders do not approve of the business combination we complete. Please see the section entitled “ Item 1. Business — Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination ” for additional information.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial shareholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Our initial shareholders now own 20% of our outstanding
ordinary shares as of the date of this Annual Report. Our initial shareholders and management team also may from time-to-time purchase
ordinary shares prior to our initial business combination. Our articles provide that, if we seek shareholder approval of an initial business
combination, such initial business combination will be approved if we receive the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the voted
at such meeting of the company. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 11,255,626 or
37.5% of the 30,015,000 public shares sold in the IPO to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial
business combination approved (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the parties to the Letter Agreement do not acquire any public
shares). Assuming that only the holders of one-third of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares, representing a quorum under our articles,
vote their ordinary shares at a general meeting of the company, we will not need any public shares in addition to our founder shares to
be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to approve an initial business combination. However, if our initial business
combination is structured as a statutory merger or consolidation with another company under Cayman Islands law, a special resolution passed
by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares which are represented in person or by proxy and are voted at a general
meeting of the company will need to be passed by our shareholders approving a plan of merger. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval
of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial shareholders and management team to vote in favor of our initial business
combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite shareholder approval for such initial business combination.
Your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of our initial business combination. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such shareholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding our initial business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
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The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination.
Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would not allow us to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure, and may substantially dilute your investment in us.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure. As a result, our obligations to redeem public shares for which redemption is requested may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure and may result in substantial dilution from your purchase of our ordinary shares. The effect of this dilution will be greater for shareholders who do not redeem. We may not be able to generate sufficient value from the completion of our initial business combination in order to overcome the dilutive impact of these and other factors, and, accordingly, you may incur a net loss on your investment. Please see “— Risks Relating to Our Securities — The nominal purchase price paid by our sponsor, sponsor affiliates and a consultant (the initial shareholders) for the founder shares may result in significant dilution to the implied value of your public shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination, and the value of the founder shares following completion of our initial business combination is likely to be substantially higher than the nominal price paid for them, even if the trading price of our ordinary shares at such time is substantially less than $10.00 per share .”
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with your exercise of redemption rights until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
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The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within the completion window may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within the completion window. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the timeframe described above. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation. The length of time it may take us to complete our diligence and negotiate a business combination may reduce the amount of time available for us to ultimately complete an initial business combination should such diligence or negotiations not lead to a consummated initial business combination.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by events that are outside of our control, such as increased geopolitical unrest, pandemic outbreaks (such as COVID-19), and volatility in the debt and equity markets.
Our ability to find a potential target business and the business of any potential business with which we may consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected by events that are outside of our control. For example, geopolitical unrest (such as the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the military conflict in Israel and Gaza, and tensions involving Iran and related regional conflicts), including war, terrorist activity and acts of civil or international hostility are increasing. In particular, although the length, impact and outcome of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine, the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, and escalating tensions involving Iran and related regional actors are highly unpredictable, these conflicts could lead to significant market and other disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices and supply of energy resources, instability in financial markets, supply chain interruptions, political and social instability, changes in consumer or purchaser preferences as well as increase in cyberattacks and espionage.
Similarly other events outside of our control, including natural disasters, climate-related events, pandemics or health crises (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) may arise from time to time, any such events may cause significant volatility and declines in the global markets, disproportionate impacts to certain industries or sectors, disruptions to commerce (including to economic activity, travel and supply chain), loss of life and property damage, and may adversely affect the global economy or capital markets, and the business of any potential target business with which we may consummate a business combination and could be materially adversely affected. In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by these and other events, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity in third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable or at all.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, in which case we would redeem our public shares.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within the completion window. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will, as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes paid or 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 constitute full and complete payment and completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions or other distributions, if any), subject to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
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Any redemption of public shareholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our articles 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 Act. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the duration of the completion window 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 seek shareholder approval to amend our articles either to extend the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination or with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, or we consummate our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their public shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we are unable to complete our initial business combination.
We may decide not to extend the term we have to consummate our initial business combination, in which case we would redeem our public shares.
We have until the end of the completion window to consummate our initial business combination. If we anticipate that we may be unable to consummate our initial business combination within such period, we may seek shareholder approval to amend our articles to extend the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination. However, we may decide not to seek to extend the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination. If we do not seek to extend the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination, and we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within the applicable time period, we will, as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares for a pro rata portion of the funds held in the trust account, subject to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may elect to purchase public shares or warrants from public shareholders, which may reduce the public “float” of our securities.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market prior to the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgment that such shareholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights.
In the event that our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. It is intended that, if Rule 10b-18 would apply to purchases by sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates, then such purchases will comply with Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act, to the extent it applies, which provides a safe harbor for purchases made under certain conditions, including with respect to timing, pricing and volume of purchases.
Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase public shares, rights or warrants in such transactions.
The purpose of any such transactions could be to (i) increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of the business combination, (ii) reduce the number of public warrants outstanding and/or increase the likelihood of approval on any matters submitted to the public warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination or (iii) satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
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In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our securities may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements. Additionally, in the event our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates were to purchase public shares or warrants from public shareholders, such purchases would be structured in compliance with the requirements of Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act including, in pertinent part, through adherence to the following:
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our registration statement/proxy statement filed for our business combination transaction would disclose the possibility that our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants from public shareholders outside the redemption process, along with the purpose of such purchases;
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if our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates were to purchase public shares or warrants from public shareholders, they would do so at a price no higher than the price offered through our redemption process;
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our registration statement/proxy statement filed for our business combination transaction would include a representation that any of our securities purchased by our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates would not be voted in favor of approving the business combination transaction;
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our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates would not possess any redemption rights with respect to our securities or, if they do acquire and possess redemption rights, they would waive such rights; and
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we would disclose in a Form 8-K, before our security holder meeting to approve the business combination transaction, the following material items:
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the amount of our securities purchased outside of the redemption offer by our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates, along with the purchase price;
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the purpose of the purchases by our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates;
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the impact, if any, of the purchases by our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates on the likelihood that the business combination transaction will be approved;
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the identities of our security-holders who sold to our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates (if not purchased on the open market) or the nature of our security-holders (e.g., 5% security-holders) who sold to our sponsor, initial shareholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates; and
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the number of our securities for which we have received redemption requests pursuant to our redemption offer.
Please see “Item 1. Business — Permitted Purchases of Our Securities ” for a description of how such persons will determine from which shareholders to seek to acquire securities.
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If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for submitting or tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or submit public shares for redemption. For example, we intend to require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent, or to deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a shareholder vote, we intend to require a public shareholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed. See the section of this Annual Report entitled “Item 1. Business — Manner of Conducting Redemptions .”
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of other blank check companies subject to Rule 419 of the Securities Act.
Since the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete one or more initial business combinations with a target business or businesses, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will be listed on a national securities exchange meeting certain quantitative requirements set out in Rule 3a51-1(a)(2) of the Exchange Act, 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 were immediately tradable following the IPO and we will have a longer period of time to complete our respective initial business combinations than do companies subject to Rule 419.
Moreover, if the IPO were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination. For a more detailed comparison of our offering to offerings that comply with Rule 419, please see “ Proposed Business — Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419 ” of the prospectus.
However, if we are not able to list our ordinary shares on Nasdaq or any other national stock exchange, and if we fail to have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001, we may be required to comply with the “penny stock rules” and this could negatively affect the market for our securities and our ability to complete an initial business combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our ordinary shares, you may lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our articles provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a group (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
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Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for attractive business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult and increase the cost for us to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders.
We expect to encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well-established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess similar or greater technical, human and other resources to ours or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a shareholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination.
In addition, in recent years, the number of SPACs that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for SPACs have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many SPACs preparing for an initial public offering, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available to consummate an initial business combination. Because there are more SPACs seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.
If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders.
If the net proceeds of the IPO not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the duration of the completion window, 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.
Of the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of
private placement warrants, only $1,300,000 was available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements.
We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, together with funds available from loans from our sponsor, its
affiliates or our management team will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the duration of the completion window; however,
we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate, and our sponsor, its affiliates or our management team are under no obligation to
advance funds to us in such circumstances. 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, although we do not have any current intention to do so. 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.
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In the event that our offering expenses exceeded our estimate of $790,600, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, unless funded by the proceeds of loans available from our sponsor, its affiliates or our management team, the amount of funds we intended to be held outside the trust account would have decreased by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses were less than our estimate of $790,600, the amount of funds we intended to be held outside the trust account would have increased 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 $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant, at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercisability and exercise price. 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to 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.
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 (except for our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will 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. The underwriters of the IPO as well as our registered independent public accounting firm did 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, 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, 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 (except for the company’s independent auditors), 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 public 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 underwriters of the IPO 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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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 the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case 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 public share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination or force us to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
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restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
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restrictions on the issuance of securities, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
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registration as an investment company with the SEC;
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adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
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reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are not subject to.
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In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless it can qualify for an exclusion, a company must ensure that it is engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that its activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of its assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not intend to spend a considerable amount of time actively managing the assets in the trust account for the primary purpose of achieving investment returns. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the investment management trust agreement only permits the proceeds held in the trust account to be held uninvested as cash, in an interest-bearing or non-interest bearing demand deposit account at a U.S. chartered commercial bank with consolidated assets of $100 billion or more selected by the trustee that is reasonably satisfactory to us, or invested in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations; the holding of these assets in this form is intended to be temporary and for the sole purpose of facilitating the intended business combination and may at any time be held uninvested as cash or in an interest-bearing or non-interest bearing demand deposit account at a U.S. chartered commercial bank with consolidated assets of $100 billion or more selected by the trustee that is reasonably satisfactory to us. Pursuant to the investment management trust agreement, the trustee will not be permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds in this manner, and by focusing our directors’ and officers’ time toward, and operating our business for the purpose of, acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund or investing in assets for the purpose of achieving investment returns on such assets), we intend to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. The offering is not intended for persons who are seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. Instead, the trust account will be intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) (x) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our articles not for the purpose of approving, or in conjunction with the consummation of, an initial business combination (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 the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to the rights of holders of our ordinary shares or pre-initial business combination activity, or (y) if we extend the completion window and such extension is conditioned upon depositing additional funds into the trust account, upon the end of a 30-day cure period after the date any such funds were required to be deposited but were not so deposited; or (iii) absent an initial business combination within the completion window, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public shareholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as described above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act.
Further, under the subjective test of a “investment company” pursuant to Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act, even if the funds deposited in the trust account were invested in the assets discussed above (U.S. government securities or money market funds registered under the Investment Company Act), such assets, other than cash, are “securities” for purposes of the Investment Company Act and, therefore, nevertheless, there is a risk that we could be deemed an unregistered investment company and subject to the Investment Company Act at any time. If our circumstances change over time, we will update our disclosure to reflect how such changes impact the risk that we may be considered to be operating as an unregistered investment company.
In the adopting release for the 2024 SPAC Rules (as defined below), the SEC provided guidance that a SPAC’s potential status as an “investment company” depends on a variety of factors, such as a SPAC’s duration, asset composition, business purpose and activities and “is a question of facts and circumstances” requiring individualized analysis. If we were deemed to be an unregistered investment company and subject to compliance with and regulation under the Investment Company Act, we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and expenses for which we have not allotted funds. Unless we are able to modify our activities so that we would not be deemed an investment company, we would either register as an investment company or wind down and abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead liquidate the company. As a result, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders and would be unable to realize the potential benefits of an initial business combination, including the possible appreciation of the combined company’s securities.
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To mitigate the risk that we might be deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we may, at any time, instruct the trustee to liquidate the securities held in the trust account and instead to hold the funds in the trust account in cash until the earlier of the consummation of our initial business combination or our liquidation. As a result, following the liquidation of securities in the trust account, the interest earned on the funds held in the trust account may be materially reduced, which would reduce the dollar amount our public shareholders would receive upon any redemption or liquidation of the company.
Pursuant to the trust agreement, we may only hold the funds in the trust account uninvested as cash, in an interest-bearing or non-interest-bearing demand deposit account at a U.S. chartered commercial bank with consolidated assets of $100 billion or more selected by the trustee that is reasonably satisfactory to us, or in U.S. government securities, within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. government treasury obligations and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act. U.S. government treasury obligations are considered “securities” for purposes of the Investment Company Act, while cash is not. As noted above, one of the factors the SEC identified as relevant to the determination of whether a SPAC which holds securities could potentially be deemed an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act is the SPAC’s duration. To mitigate the risk of us being deemed to be an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act) and thus subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act, we may, at any time, instruct Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the trustee with respect to the trust account, to liquidate the U.S. government securities or money market funds held in the trust account and thereafter to hold all funds in the trust account uninvested in cash or in an interest-bearing or non-interest-bearing demand deposit account until the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination or liquidation of the company. Following such liquidation, the rate of interest we receive on the funds held in the trust account may be materially decreased. As a result, any decision to liquidate the securities held in the trust account and thereafter to hold all funds in the trust account uninvested in cash or in an interest-bearing or non-interest-bearing demand deposit account would reduce the dollar amount our public shareholders would receive upon any redemption or liquidation of the company.
Changes in laws or regulations or in how such laws or regulations are interpreted or applied, 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 rules and regulations enacted by various national, regional and local governing bodies, including for example, the SEC, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly and our efforts to comply with such new and evolving laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention. 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.
On January 24, 2024, the SEC issued final rules (the “2024 SPAC Rules”), effective as of July 1, 2024, that formally adopted some of the SEC’s proposed rules for SPACs that were released on March 30, 2022. The 2024 SPAC Rules, among other items, impose additional disclosure requirements in initial public offerings by SPACs and 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 could impact the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. The 2024 SPAC Rules may materially adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete, and the costs associated with, our initial business combination, and results of operations.
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Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offence and may be liable to a fine of $18,292.68 and to imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual general meeting until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our shareholders to appoint directors.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. There is no requirement under the Companies Act for us to hold annual or extraordinary general meetings to appoint directors. Until we hold an annual general meeting, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to appoint directors and to discuss company affairs with management. Our board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual general meeting) serving a three-year term.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
Our efforts to identify a prospective initial business combination target will not be limited to a particular industry, sector or geographic region. While we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify and combine with a business or businesses that can benefit from our management team’s established relationships and operating experience. Our management team has extensive experience in identifying and executing strategic investments and has done so successfully in a number of sectors. While our focus is broad because of our perspective on technology and other growth industries having looked at over a thousand acquisition targets over the past decade, we will be examining in particular, opportunities in AI as well as in the rapidly growing wellness, longevity and aesthetics areas. Our articles prohibit us from effectuating a business combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. In recent years, a number of target businesses have underperformed financially post-business combination. There are no assurances that the target business with which we consummate our initial business combination will perform as anticipated. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our Units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target.
Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
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Evolving regulatory requirements and increasing public and private scrutiny may adversely affect our search for potential opportunities in the AI industry with which to complete our initial business combination.
While we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to examine in particular opportunities in AI as well as in the rapidly growing wellness, longevity and aesthetics areas. The regulation of AI and its broader application is a rapidly evolving topic amongst lawmakers and policymaking organizations. While comprehensive regulation around the existence, parameters, application and use cases for AI remain in its early stages, we expect that the regulatory environment governing AI platforms and activities will rapidly develop in the future and that a substantial amount of public and private scrutiny will be placed on artificial intelligence as a whole. Sweeping regulations, additional compliance and development costs, as well as the attention of government agencies and private organizations may have an adverse effect on potential investment opportunities in a target company. In addition, compliance with additional or revised rules and regulations in AI industry may make it harder, more time consuming and costly, and may constrain the circumstances under which we could complete a business combination or otherwise impair our ability to complete a business combination with a target in AI industry.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders.
We may not be required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the consideration we are paying for the business is fair to our company and its shareholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliate (as defined in our articles) of our sponsor, officers or directors, or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the consideration we are paying is fair to our company and its shareholders from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our shareholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
We may choose to incur substantial debt to complete
our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from
the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance
of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have
a variety of negative effects, including:
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default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
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acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
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our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
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our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding;
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our inability to pay dividends on our ordinary shares;
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using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
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limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
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increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
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limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
The post-business combination company may issue shares to investors in connection with our initial business combination at a price which is less than $10.00 or the prevailing market price of our shares at that time, which could dilute the interests of our existing shareholders and add costs.
In connection with our initial business combination, the post-business combination company may issue shares to investors in private placement transactions (so-called PIPE transactions) in order to complete an initial business combination and provide sufficient liquidity and capital to the post-business combination entity. The price of the shares so issued in connection with an initial business combination may be less, and potentially significantly less, than $10.00 per share or the market price for our shares at such time. Any such issuances of equity securities at a price that is less than $10.00 or the prevailing market price of our shares at that time could be structured to ensure a return on investment to the investors and could dilute the interests of our existing shareholders in a manner that would not ordinarily occur in a traditional initial public offering and could result in both a reduction in the trading price of our shares to the price at which the post-business combination company issues such equity securities and fluctuations in the net tangible book value per share of the combined company’s securities following the completion of our initial business combination. The post-business combination company may also provide price protection or other incentives, or issue convertible securities such as preferred equity or convertible debt, and the exercise or conversion price of those securities may be fixed or adjustable, and may be less, and potentially significantly less, than $10.00 per share or the market price for our shares at such time. Such issuances could also result in additional transaction costs related to our initial business combination compared to a traditional initial public offering, including the placement fees associated with the engagement of a placement agent in connection with PIPE transactions.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from the IPO and the private placement of warrants provided us with $300,150,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $1,409,400 of underwriting commissions paid at the closing of the IPO, $790,600 of other offering expenses, and excluding approximately $1,300,000 held outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements).
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We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
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solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset, or
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dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we decide to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our business combination strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our articles do not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold although any agreement in connection with our initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all public shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares in connection with such initial business combination, all public shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
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In order to effectuate an initial business combination, SPACs have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our articles or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination that our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, SPACs have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, SPACs have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our articles requires a special resolution under Cayman Islands law, which requires the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares which are represented in person or by proxy and are voted at a general meeting of the company, and amending our warrant agreement requires a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. In addition, our articles require us to provide our public shareholders (except our sponsor, sponsor affiliates, directors and officers to the extent they acquire public shares) with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our articles not for the purpose of approving, or in conjunction with the consummation of, an initial business combination (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered in the IPO, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
The provisions of our articles 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 which are represented in person or by proxy and are voted at a general meeting of the company, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other SPACs. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our articles to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Our articles provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of the IPO 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) and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by special resolution, under Cayman Islands law passed by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares which are represented in person or represented by proxy and are voted at a general meeting of the company. Our initial shareholders, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares, will participate in any vote to amend our articles 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 articles which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other SPACs, 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 articles.
Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our articles otherwise than for the purpose of approving, or in conjunction with the consummation of, an initial business combination (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 the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to the rights of holders of our public shares or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public shareholders (excluding our sponsor, sponsor affiliates, directors and officers to the extent they acquire public shares) with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes paid or 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.
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Certain agreements related to the IPO may be amended without shareholder approval.
Each of the agreements related to the IPO to which we are a party, other than the warrant agreement and the investment management trust agreement, may be amended without shareholder approval. Such agreements are: the Underwriting Agreement; the Letter Agreement; the registration rights agreement among us and our initial shareholders; the Sponsor Warrants Purchase Agreement between us and our sponsor; and the administrative services agreement among us, our sponsor and an affiliate of our sponsor. These agreements contain various provisions that our public shareholders might deem to be material. For example, our Letter Agreement and the underwriting agreement contain certain lock-up provisions with respect to the founder shares, private placement warrants and other securities held by our initial shareholders, sponsor, officers and directors. Amendments to such agreements would require the consent of the applicable parties thereto and would need to be approved by our board of directors, which may do so for a variety of reasons, including to facilitate our initial business combination. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to any of these agreements prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board of directors, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to any such agreement. Any amendment entered into in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to such initial business combination, and any other material amendment to any of our material agreements will be disclosed in a filing with the SEC. Any such amendments would not require approval from our shareholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities. For example, amendments to the lock-up provision discussed above may result in our initial shareholders selling their securities earlier than they would otherwise be permitted, which may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.
We intend to target businesses with enterprise
values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants. As a result,
if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemption
by public shareholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We cannot
assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be
unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon
that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. Further, we may be required to obtain additional
financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance
or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing
our initial business combination, or to fund the purchase of other companies. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination,
our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution
to public shareholders. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may
require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have
a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders
is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Our initial shareholders control a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Upon closing of the IPO, our initial shareholders owned 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our articles.
If our initial shareholders purchased any Units in the IPO or if our initial shareholders purchase any additional public shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial shareholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Annual Report.
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Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our ordinary shares. In addition, 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 for three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. We may not hold an annual or extraordinary 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 until at least the completion of the business combination. 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 initial shareholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
We may not be able to complete an initial
business combination since such initial business combination may be subject to regulatory review and approval requirement, including foreign
investment regulations and review by government entities such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”),
or may be ultimately prohibited.
Our initial business combination may be subject to regulatory review and approval requirements by governmental entities, or ultimately prohibited. For example, CFIUS has authority to review direct or indirect foreign investments in U.S. companies. Among other things, CFIUS is empowered to require certain foreign investors to make mandatory filings, to charge filing fees related to such filings, and to self-initiate national security reviews of foreign direct and indirect investments in U.S. companies if the parties to that investment choose not to file voluntarily. In the case that CFIUS determines an investment to be a threat to national security, CFIUS has the power to unwind or place restrictions on the investment. Whether CFIUS has jurisdiction to review an acquisition or investment transaction depends on — among other factors — the nature and structure of the transaction, including the level of beneficial ownership interest and the nature of any information or governance rights involved. For example, investments that result in “control” of a U.S. business by a foreign person always are subject to CFIUS jurisdiction. CFIUS’s expanded jurisdiction under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 and implementing regulations that became effective on February 13, 2020 further includes investments that do not result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person but afford certain foreign investors certain information or governance rights in a U.S. business that has a nexus to “critical technologies,” “critical infrastructure” and/or “sensitive personal data.”
Our sponsor owns approximately 20.0% of our issued
and outstanding ordinary shares as of the date of this Annual Report. Our sponsor is exclusively “controlled” for CFIUS purposes
by Mr. You, who is a U.S. citizen, and thus we do not believe that our sponsor is a “foreign person” as defined in the
CFIUS regulations. However, it is possible that non-U.S. persons could be involved in our initial business combination (e.g., as existing
shareholders of a target company or as PIPE investors), which may increase the risk that our initial business combination becomes subject
to regulatory review, including review by CFIUS. As such, an initial business combination with a U.S. business or foreign business with
U.S. subsidiaries that we may wish to pursue may be subject to CFIUS review. If a particular proposed initial business combination with
a U.S. business falls within CFIUS’s jurisdiction, we may determine that we are required to make a mandatory filing or that we will
submit to CFIUS review on a voluntary basis, or to proceed with the transaction without submitting to CFIUS and risk CFIUS intervention,
before or after closing the transaction. CFIUS may decide to block or delay our proposed initial business combination, impose conditions
with respect to such initial business combination or request the President of the United States to order us to divest all or a portion
of the U.S. target business of our initial business combination that we acquired without first obtaining CFIUS approval, which may limit
the attractiveness of, delay or prevent us from pursuing certain target companies that we believe would otherwise be beneficial to us
and our shareholders. As a result, the pool of potential targets with which we could complete an initial business combination may be limited
and we may be adversely affected in terms of competing with other SPACs which do not have any foreign ownership issues. In addition, certain
federally licensed businesses may be subject to rules or regulations that limit foreign ownership.
The process of government review, whether by CFIUS or otherwise, could be lengthy. Because we have only a limited time to complete our initial business combination, our failure to obtain any required approvals within the requisite time period may require us to abandon our initial business combination. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within the applicable time period required under our articles, including as a result of extended regulatory review of a potential initial business combination, we will, as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares for a pro rata portion of the funds held in the trust account, subject to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such event, our shareholders will miss the opportunity to benefit from an investment in a target company and the appreciation in value of such investment.
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Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that the proxy statement with respect to the vote on an initial business combination include historical and pro forma financial statement disclosure. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”). These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
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 our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2026. 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. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such business combination.
We may seek business combination opportunities with a high degree of complexity that require significant operational improvements, which could delay or prevent us from achieving our desired results.
We may seek business combination opportunities with large, highly complex companies that we believe would benefit from operational improvements. While we intend to implement such improvements, to the extent that our efforts are delayed or we are unable to achieve the desired improvements, the business combination may not be as successful as we anticipate.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination. If we are not able to achieve our desired operational improvements, or the improvements take longer to implement than anticipated, we may not achieve the gains that we anticipate. Furthermore, some of these risks and complexities may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks and complexities will adversely impact a target business. Such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.
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Our initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not be tax-efficient to our shareholders and warrant holders. As a result of our business combination, our tax obligations may be more complex, burdensome and uncertain.
Although we will attempt to structure our initial business combination in a tax-efficient manner, tax structuring considerations are complex, the relevant facts and law are uncertain and may change, and we may prioritize commercial and other considerations over tax considerations. For example, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to any requisite shareholder approval, we may structure our business combination in a manner that requires shareholders and/or warrant holders to recognize gain or income for tax purposes, effect a business combination with a target company in another jurisdiction, or reincorporate in a different jurisdiction (including, but not limited to, the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located). We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant holders to pay taxes in connection with our business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, a shareholder or a warrant holder may need to satisfy any liability resulting from our initial business combination with cash from its own funds or by selling all or a portion of the shares or warrants received. In addition, shareholders and warrant holders may also be subject to additional income, withholding or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after our initial business combination.
In addition, we may effect a business combination with a target company that has business operations outside of the United States, and possibly, business operations in multiple jurisdictions. If we effect such a business combination, we could be subject to significant income, withholding and other tax obligations in a number of jurisdictions with respect to income, operations and subsidiaries related to those jurisdictions. Due to the complexity of tax obligations and filings in other jurisdictions, we may have a heightened risk related to audits or examinations by U.S. federal, state and local and non-U.S. taxing authorities. This additional complexity and risk could have an adverse effect on our after-tax profitability and financial condition.
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Risks Relating to the Post-Business Combination Company
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining debt financing to partially finance the initial business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of our securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public shareholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public shareholders.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
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We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any shareholders or warrant holders who choose to remain shareholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new ordinary shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target.
However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new ordinary shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding ordinary shares subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority shareholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain control of the target business.
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Risks Relating to Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
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costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations;
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rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
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complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;
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laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
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exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;
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tariffs and trade barriers;
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regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
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local or regional economic policies and market conditions;
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unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
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challenges in managing and staffing international operations;
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longer payment cycles;
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tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
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currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
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rates of inflation;
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challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
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cultural and language differences;
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employment regulations;
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underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;
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corruption;
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protection of intellectual property;
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social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;
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regime changes and political upheaval;
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terrorist attacks, natural disasters, widespread health emergencies and wars; and
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deterioration of political relations with the United States.
We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such initial business combination, or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes in international trade policies,
tariffs and treaties affecting imports and exports may have a material adverse effect on our search for an Initial Business Combination
target, our ability to complete an Initial Business Combination, and/or our business, financial condition and results of operations following
completion of an Initial Business Combination.
There have recently been significant changes to
international trade policies and tariffs affecting imports and exports. The U.S. has implemented a range of new tariffs and increases
to existing tariffs, and, in response to the tariffs announced by the U.S., other countries have imposed new or increased tariffs on certain
exports from the United States. There is currently significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and
other countries with respect to trade policies, government regulations and tariffs. We cannot predict whether, and to what extent, current
tariffs will continue or trade policies will change in the future. Any significant increases in tariffs on goods or materials or other
changes in trade policy, or the perception that such changes could occur, could negatively affect our search for a Business Combination
target and/or our ability to complete our initial business combination. For example, if we pursue a target company which sources or manufactures
material components outside of the U.S., these changes could materially impact such target company’s business and financial performance.
Similarly, if we pursue a target company which exports products outside of the U.S., retaliatory tariff and trade measures imposed by
other countries could affect such target’s ability to export products and therefore adversely affect its sales. We may not be able
to adequately address the risks presented by these tariffs or other potential trade policy changes. As a result, we may deem it costly,
impractical or risky to complete an initial business combination with a particular target or with a target in a particular industry or
from a particular country. Consequently, the pool of potential target companies may be reduced, which could impair our ability to identify
a suitable target and to complete an initial business combination. The business prospects of a particular target for an initial business
combination could change even after we enter into a business combination agreement, as a result of tariffs or the threat of tariffs that
may have a material impact on that target’s business. Accordingly, changes in trade and tariff policies could prevent or make it
difficult or more expensive for us to complete an initial business combination. Tariffs and threats of tariffs and other potential trade
policy changes could also lead to material adverse effects on a post-business combination company.
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If social unrest, acts of terrorism, regime changes, changes in laws and regulations, political upheaval or policy changes or enactments occur in a country in which we may operate after we effect our initial business combination, it may result in a negative impact on our business.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, political events in another country may significantly affect our business, assets or operations. Social unrest, acts of terrorism, regime changes, changes in laws and regulations, political upheaval, and policy changes or enactments could negatively impact our business in a particular country.
Many countries have difficult and unpredictable legal systems and underdeveloped laws and regulations that are unclear and subject to corruption and inexperience, which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, our ability to seek and enforce legal protections, including with respect to intellectual property and other property rights, or to defend ourselves with regard to legal actions taken against us in a given country, may be difficult or impossible, which could adversely impact our operations, assets or financial condition.
Rules and regulations in many countries are often ambiguous or open to differing interpretation by responsible individuals and agencies at the municipal, state, regional and federal levels. The attitudes and actions of such individuals and agencies are often difficult to predict and inconsistent.
Delay with respect to the enforcement of particular rules and regulations, including those relating to customs, tax, environmental and labor, could cause serious disruption to operations abroad and negatively impact our results.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States or with a company that is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
Following our initial business combination, our management may resign from their positions as officers or directors of the company and the existing management of the target business at the time of the business combination may remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with United States securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our initial business combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all of our assets will be located outside the United States; therefore, investors may not be able to enforce federal securities laws or their other legal rights.
It is possible that after our initial business combination, a majority of our directors and officers will reside outside of the United States and all of our assets will be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights, to effect service of process upon all of our directors or officers or to enforce judgments of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors and officers under United States laws.
After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue will be derived from our operations in such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and legal policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial business combination and if we effect our initial business combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
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Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’ ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in or transfer by way of continuation to another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the Cayman Islands to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
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Risks Relating to Our Management Team
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.
Members of our management team and board of directors have significant experience as board members, officers or executives of other companies. As a result, certain of those persons have been, may be, or may become, involved in proceedings, investigations and litigation relating to the business affairs of the companies with which they were, are, or may in the future be, affiliated. This may have an adverse effect on us, which may impede our ability to consummate an initial business combination.
During the course of their careers, members of our management team and board of directors have had significant experience as board members, officers or executives of other companies. As a result of their involvement and positions in these companies, certain persons were, are now, or may in the future become, involved in litigation, investigations or other proceedings relating to the business affairs of such companies or transactions entered into by such companies. Such claims, and any such litigation, investigations or other proceedings may divert our management team’s and board’s attention and resources away from identifying and selecting a target business or businesses for our initial business combination and may negatively affect our reputation, which may impede our ability to complete an initial business combination. Such involvement has, and may lead to, media coverage and public awareness. Any such claims or investigations may be detrimental to our reputation and could negatively affect our ability to identify and complete an initial business combination and may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
Past performance by our management team and their affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, our management team or businesses associated with them is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team is not a guarantee either (i) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate or (ii) that we will be able to locate a suitable candidate for our initial business combination. You should not rely on the historical record of the performance of our management team’s or businesses associated with them as indicative of our future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or is likely to, generate going forward.
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination outside
of our management’s areas of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate
offers an attractive business combination opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent
in any particular business combination candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant
risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our Units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to our public shareholders
than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue a business
combination outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable
to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this Annual Report regarding the areas of our management’s expertise
would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to ascertain
or assess adequately all of the relevant risk factors. Accordingly, any shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following our initial
business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction
in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of
care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy
solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement
or material omission.
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We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their loss, or a reduction in the amount of time they can dedicate to our initial business combination, 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. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
We may approve an amendment or waiver of the letter agreement that would allow our sponsor to directly, or members of our sponsor to indirectly, transfer founder shares and private placement warrants or membership interests in our sponsor in a transaction in which the sponsor removes itself as our sponsor before identifying a business combination, which may deprive us of key personnel.
While there is no current intention to do so,
and the members of our management team and sponsor have not done so with any previously formed SPACs, we may approve an amendment or waiver
of the letter agreement that would allow the sponsor to directly, or members of our sponsor to indirectly, transfer founder shares and
private placement warrants or membership interests in our sponsor in a transaction in which the sponsor removes itself as our sponsor
before identifying a business combination. Additionally, subject to the consent of the managing member of our sponsor (Harry You), there
is no contractual restriction on the ability of the members of the sponsor to share, sell or otherwise dispose of part or all of the membership
interests in our sponsor, including the membership interests held by Harry You, the Executive Chairman of the board of directors. As a
result, there is a risk that our sponsor and our officers and directors may divest their ownership or economic interests in us or in our
sponsor, which would likely result in our loss of certain key personnel, including Harry You. Additionally, there can be no assurance
that any replacement sponsor or key personnel will successfully identify a business combination target for us, or, even if one is so identified,
successfully complete such business combination.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
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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. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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
may have fiduciary duties to other entities. If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote
substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time
to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including blank check companies, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination,
we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our sponsor, its managing members, and our
officers and directors are, and in the future may become, affiliated with such entities (such as operating companies or investment vehicles)
that are engaged in a similar business. We do not have employment contracts with our officers and directors that will limit their ability
to work at other businesses. Our officers and directors presently and any of them in the future may have, additional fiduciary or contractual
obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity
to such entities. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should
be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior
to its presentation to us, subject to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our articles provide that, to the fullest extent
permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer or sponsor shall have any duty, except and to the extent
expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of
business as us, and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential
transaction or matter which (a) may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other or (b)
the presentation of which would breach an existing legal obligation of a member of director, officer or sponsor to any other entity. The
purpose for the surrender of corporate opportunities is to allow officers, directors or other representatives with multiple business affiliations
to continue to serve as an officer of our company or on our board of directors. Our officers and directors may from time to time be presented
with opportunities that could benefit both another business affiliation and us. In the absence of the “corporate opportunity”
waiver in our articles, certain candidates would not be able to serve as an officer or director. We believe we substantially benefit from
having representatives who bring significant, relevant and valuable experience to our management, and, as a result, the inclusion of the
“corporate opportunity” waiver in our articles provide us with greater flexibility to attract and retain the officers and
directors that we feel are the best candidates. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our
officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business.
Our officers and directors presently have and,
in the future, may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director
is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors
becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual
obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity, subject
to their fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands Law. As a result, our sponsor, officers and directors could have conflicts of interest
in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other special purpose acquisition company with which
they may become involved.
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Our officers, directors, security-holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, security-holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or officers. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination target.
The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a business combination. For example, a prospective initial business combination with a shorter timeline to completion could cause our directors and executive officers to prioritize it over finding an even more attractive acquisition target which may be more difficult or time-intensive to consummate. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our shareholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Cayman Islands law and we or our shareholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our shareholders’ rights.
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “ Management — Conflicts of Interest .” Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a business combination as set forth in “ Item 1. Business — Business Combination Criteria ” and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the consideration we are paying is fair to our company and its shareholders from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public shareholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the IPO, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. These financial incentives may cause them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after the IPO, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the IPO, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing financial advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing. We may pay such underwriter or its affiliate fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation; provided that no agreement will be entered into with any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates and no fees or other compensation for such services will be paid to any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates prior to the date that was 60 days from the date of the IPO prospectus, unless such payment would not be deemed underwriters’ compensation in connection with the IPO. The underwriters’ or their respective affiliates’ financial interests that are tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such additional services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
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Since our sponsor, sponsor affiliates, officers and directors, any other holder of our founder shares, including any non-managing sponsor investors, and the underwriters will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they may acquire after the IPO), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On November 11, 2024, our Sponsor and its affiliates
purchased $23,957 for an aggregate of 6,887,500 ordinary shares and a consultant, Meteora, paid $1,043 for an aggregate of 300,000 ordinary
shares (none of the shares issued to Meteora were subject to forfeiture in connection with the exercise of the over-allotment option as
described below). On April 29, 2025, we capitalized $31.63 standing to the credit of our share premium account and issued an additional
316,250 ordinary shares, resulting in our Sponsor, Sponsor Affiliates, and Meteora holding an aggregate of 7,503,750 ordinary shares.
All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the share capitalization. The “sponsor affiliates”
include Harry You, who acts as our Chairman of the board of directors and the managing member of the Sponsor, and Robert You, adult son
of Harry You. Both Messrs. You directly own membership interests in our sponsor. Out of the total 7,503,750 founder shares held by our
sponsor, sponsor affiliates and a consultant, the sponsor, Harry You Robert You and a consultant each directly holds 2,688,300, 2,401,200,
2,101,050 and 313,200 founder shares, respectively, each purchased at approximately $0.003 per share. Of these, up to 978,750 of the founder
shares held by the Sponsor and Sponsor’s affiliates were subject to forfeiture up to the extent to which the underwriters’
over-allotment option was not exercised. In connection with the consummation of the IPO on May 1, 2025, the underwriters exercised their
over-allotment option in full, and as such the founder shares were no longer subject to forfeiture. Prior to such initial investment in
the company, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the
amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued.
The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation at the time that the total size of the IPO would be a maximum of 30,015,000 Units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after the IPO. The underwriters exercised their over-allotment option in full, and accordingly none of the founder shares held by our sponsor and sponsor affiliates were forfeited. In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 3,500,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one ordinary share at a price of $10.50 per share within the first 12 months following the closing of an initial business combination or $11.50 per share after the 12-month anniversary of the closing of the initial business combination, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $3,500,000 in the aggregate, in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of the IPO. The personal and financial interests of our officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the end of the completion window nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
Risks Relating to Our Securities
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier to occur of: (i) in connection with our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those public shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our articles not for the purpose of approving, or in conjunction with the consummation of, an initial business combination (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, and the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the completion window, we will as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to lawfully available funds, redeem 100% of the public shares at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned thereon (which interest shall be net of taxes paid or payable and up to $100,000 to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares. 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.
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Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our securities are listed on Nasdaq. Although after giving effect to the IPO we met the minimum initial listing standards set forth in Nasdaq listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels.
Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
●
a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
●
reduced liquidity for our securities;
●
a determination that our ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
●
a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
●
a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our Units, ordinary shares and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, our Units, ordinary shares and warrants will qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
The nominal purchase price paid by our sponsor, sponsor affiliates and a consultant (the initial shareholders) for the founder shares may result in significant dilution to the implied value of your public shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination, and the value of the founder shares following completion of our initial business combination is likely to be substantially higher than the nominal price paid for them, even if the trading price of our ordinary shares at such time is substantially less than $10.00 per share.
Because our sponsor, sponsor affiliates and a consultant each acquired the founder shares at a nominal price (approximately $0.003 per share), our public shareholders incurred an immediate and material dilution upon the closing of the IPO.
While we offered our ordinary shares at an offering
price of $10.00 per share and the amount in our trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share, implying an initial
value of $10.00 per public share, our initial shareholders, prior to the IPO, paid only a nominal aggregate purchase price of $25,000
for 7,503,750 founder shares, or approximately $0.003 per share. As a result, the value of your public shares may be significantly diluted
in the event we consummate an initial business combination, when the founder shares are converted into public shares.
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For example, the following table shows the dilutive effect of the founder shares on the implied value of the public shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination assuming that our equity value at that time is $300,150,000, which is the amount we would have for our initial business combination in the trust account assuming no interest is earned on the funds held in the trust account, and no public shares are redeemed in connection with our initial business combination. At such valuation, each of our ordinary shares would have an implied value of $8.00 per share upon consummation of our initial business combination, which is a 20.0% decrease as compared to the initial implied value per public share of $10.00.
Public shares
30,015,000
Founder shares
7,503,750
Total shares
37,518,750
Total funds in trust available for initial business combination (1)
$
300,150,000
Implied value per share following consummation of initial business combination (1)(2)
$
8.00
Public shareholders’ investment per share
$
10.00
Investment of initial shareholders per share (3)
$
0.47
(1)
Does not take into account other potential impacts on our valuation at the time of the business combination, such as the trading price of our public shares, the terms of the business combination transaction (including any equity issued to or retained by, or cash or other consideration paid to, the target’s shareholder or other third parties), the business combination transaction costs, or the target’s business itself, including its assets, liabilities, management and prospects. For instance, the potential dilution experienced by holders of our ordinary shares may be mitigated if the business combination agreement is structured such that the potential dilutive impact of the founder shares is borne by all shareholders in the pro forma company.
(2)
Note that redemptions of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination would further reduce the implied value of our ordinary shares. For instance, in this example, if 50% of the public shares were redeemed in connection with our initial business combination, the implied value per ordinary share would be $6.67.
(3)
The total investment of the initial shareholders, including the sponsor, sponsor affiliates and the consultant, in the equity of the company, inclusive of the purchase of founder shares totaling $25,000 and the sponsor’s $3,500,000 investment in the private placement warrants, is $3,525,000.
Upon the closing of the IPO, our initial shareholders invested in us an aggregate of $3,525,000, comprised of the $25,000 purchase price for the founder shares and the $3,500,000 purchase price for the private placement warrants. Assuming no additional shares are issued upon exercise of any warrants held by the sponsor, even if the trading price of our ordinary shares were as low as $0.47 per share, the value of the founder shares would be equal to the initial investment of the initial shareholders in us. As a result, our initial shareholders are likely to be able to make a substantial profit on its investment in us at a time when our public shares have lost significant value. Accordingly, our management team, which owns interests in our sponsor and includes member directly owns founder shares, may be more willing to pursue a business combination with a riskier or less-established target business than would be the case if our sponsor and sponsor affiliates had paid the same per share price for the founder shares as our public shareholders paid for their public shares.
You will not be permitted to exercise your warrants unless we register and qualify the underlying ordinary shares or certain exemptions are available.
If the issuance of the ordinary shares upon exercise of the warrants is not registered on a registration statement on Form S-1, Form S-3, Form F-1, or Form F-3, as applicable, following our initial business combination, and qualified or exempt from registration or qualification under applicable state securities laws, holders of warrants will not be entitled to exercise such warrants and such warrants 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 ordinary shares included in the Units.
We are registering the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants in the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part because the warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, which may be within one year of the IPO. However, because the warrants will be exercisable until their expiration date of up to five years after the completion of our initial business combination, in order to comply with the requirements of Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act following the consummation of our initial business combination under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days, after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-1, S-3, F-1, or F-3, as applicable, for the registration under the Securities Act of the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants, to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following the closing of our initial business combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the 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.
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If the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered on Form S-1, S-3, F-1, or F-3, as applicable, under the Securities Act under the terms of the warrant agreement, then beginning on the 61 st business day after the closing of our initial business combination and ending upon such registration statement being declared effective by the SEC, and during any other period when we have failed to maintain an effective registration statement covering the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the public warrants, holders of public warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will have the right to exercise such public warrants on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption.
In no event will warrants be exercisable for cash, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the ordinary shares issuable upon such exercise of such warrants have been registered on a registration statement on Form S-1, Form S-3, Form F-1, or Form F-3, as applicable, following our initial business combination, and qualified or deemed exempt from registration or qualification under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder.
If our 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, require holders of public warrants who exercise their public warrants 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, or we will use our 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.
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.
You may only be able to exercise your public warrants on a “cashless basis” under certain circumstances, and if you do so, you will receive fewer ordinary shares from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
The warrant agreement provides that in the following circumstances holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do for cash and will, instead, be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act: (i) if the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the terms of the warrant agreement; if we have so elected and the 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; and (iii) if we have so elected and we call the public warrants for redemption. If you exercise your public warrants on a cashless basis, you would pay the warrant exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of ordinary shares equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number ordinary shares underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of our ordinary shares (as defined in the next sentence) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” is the average reported closing price of the ordinary shares for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent or on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, as applicable. As a result, you would receive fewer ordinary shares from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders and holders of our private placement warrants and underwriter warrants may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares.
Pursuant to the Letter Agreement, our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the founder shares, holders of our private placement warrants, underwriter warrants, and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants, underwriter warrants, and the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, underwriter warrants (subject to certain limitations with respect to the registration of the underwriter warrants and underlying shares pursuant to FINRA rules described in more detail elsewhere in this Annual Report), and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such warrants or the ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of such warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our ordinary shares that is expected when the ordinary shares owned by our initial shareholders, holders of our private placement warrants, holders of underwriter warrants, or holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
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We may issue additional ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our articles authorize the issuance of up to 550,000,000 ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 5,000,000 preference shares, par value $0.0001 per share. Following the IPO and the full exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, there are 512,481,250 authorized but unissued ordinary shares available for issuance.
We may target businesses with enterprise values
that are greater than what we could acquire with the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants. We may need
additional financing to complete our initial business combination, or to fund the operations or growth of the target business, in the
form of equity or debt financing. Although we have no commitment as of the date of this Annual Report, we may issue a substantial number
of additional ordinary shares or preference shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after
completion of our initial business combination. Additionally, following the closing of the business combination, additional shares may
be issued under an employee incentive plan or upon exercise of any warrants, including private placement warrants that may be issued upon
conversion of working capital loans. The issuance of additional ordinary shares or preference shares:
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may significantly dilute the equity interest of our public shareholders;
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may subordinate the rights of holders of ordinary shares if preference shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our ordinary shares;
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may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us;
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could cause a change in control if a substantial number of ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;
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may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Units, ordinary shares and/or warrants; and
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may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
However, our articles provide, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination. These provisions of our articles, like all provisions of our articles, may be amended with a shareholder vote.
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 ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or to correct any defective provision or 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, (ii) adjusting the provisions relating to cash dividends on ordinary shares as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement or (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder of public warrants if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash or shares, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
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A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination .
If (i) we issue additional ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share (with the Newly Issued Price to be determined in good faith by our board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to our initial shareholders or their affiliates, without taking into account any founder shares held by our initial shareholders or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance), (ii) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds (including from such issuances and the IPO), and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value of our ordinary shares is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the last sales price of the ordinary shares that triggers the Company’s right to redeem the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. This may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
We may redeem your unexpired public warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem all of the outstanding public warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like and for certain issuances of ordinary shares and equity- linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination as described elsewhere in this prospectus) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption. We will not redeem the public warrants unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering issuance of the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the public warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day measurement period, or we have elected to require the exercise of the public warrants on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. If and when the public warrants become redeemable by us, we may not exercise our redemption right if the issuance of ordinary shares upon exercise of the public warrants is not exempt from registration or qualification under applicable state blue sky laws or we are unable to effect such registration or qualification. We will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify such ordinary shares under the blue sky laws of the state of residence in those states in which warrants were offered by us in the IPO. Redemption of the outstanding public warrants could force you to (1) exercise your public warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your public 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 public warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your public warrants.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We issued warrants to purchase 15,007,500 ordinary shares as part of the Units offered in the IPO and, simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 3,500,000 private placement warrants, at $1.00 per warrant. In addition, we issued 3,750,000 underwriter warrants to the representatives at the closing and if our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors makes any working capital loans, such lender may convert those loans into up to an additional 1,500,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant.
To the extent we issue ordinary shares to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional 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 ordinary shares and reduce the value of the 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.
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Because each Unit contains one-half of one
warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the Units may be worth less than Units of other SPACs.
Each Unit contains one-half 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 the number of 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-half 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 it included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
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 have waived any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum. With respect to any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, we note, however, that there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this provision and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for state and federal courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.
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.
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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 are governed by our articles, the Companies Act (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 Ogier (Cayman) LLP, 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 obtained against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States; and (ii) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us or our directors or officers predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is currently no statutory enforcement or treaty between the United States and the Cayman Islands providing for enforcement 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, given by a court of competent jurisdiction (the courts of the Cayman Islands will apply the rules of Cayman Islands private international law to determine whether the foreign court is a court of competent jurisdiction), 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. Furthermore, it is uncertain that Cayman Islands courts would enforce: (1) judgments of U.S. courts obtained in actions against us or other persons that are predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws; or (2) original actions brought against us or other persons predicated upon the Securities Act. Ogier has informed us that there is uncertainty with regard to Cayman Islands law relating to whether a judgment obtained from the U.S. courts under civil liability provisions of the securities laws will be determined by the courts of the Cayman Islands as penal, punitive in nature. 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.
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General Risk Factors
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 recently incorporated blank check company
under the laws of the Cayman Islands with limited operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which
to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We 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.
Past performance by our management team, our advisors and their respective affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the company.
Information regarding our management team, our advisors and their respective affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance by our management team, our advisors and their respective affiliates and the businesses with which they have been associated, is not a guarantee that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination, that we will be able to provide positive returns to our shareholders, or of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical experiences of our management team, our advisors and their respective affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or as indicative of every prior investment by each of the members of our management team, our advisors or their respective affiliates. The market price of our securities may be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, and our shareholders may experience losses on their investment in our securities.
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.
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 ordinary shares or warrants, the U.S. Holder may be subject to
adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current
and subsequent taxable years may depend on the status of an acquired company pursuant to our initial business combination and whether
we qualify for the PFIC start-up exception. Depending on the particular circumstances the application of the start-up exception may be
subject to uncertainty, and there cannot be any assurance that we will qualify for the start-up exception. Accordingly, there can be no
assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for
any taxable year, however, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. In addition, our U.S. counsel expresses
no opinion with respect to our PFIC status for any taxable year.
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Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. Holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, including a PFIC annual information statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and, under current law, 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. For a more detailed explanation of the tax consequences of PFIC classification to U.S. Holders, see the section of the prospectus captioned “ Taxation — United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — U.S. Holders — Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules .”
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction, which may result in taxes imposed on shareholders or warrant holders.
We may, in connection with our initial business combination or otherwise and, to the extent applicable, subject to requisite shareholder approval by special resolution under the Companies Act, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a shareholder or warrant holder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder or warrant holder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity (or may otherwise result in adverse tax consequences). We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders or warrant holders to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrant holders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of our ordinary shares or warrants after the reincorporation.
The 1% U.S. federal excise tax on stock buybacks could be imposed on redemptions of our stock if we were to become a “covered corporation” in the future.
On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which, among other things, generally imposes a 1% U.S. federal excise tax (the “Excise Tax”) on certain repurchases of stock by “covered corporations” (which include publicly traded domestic (i.e., U.S.) corporations and certain domestic subsidiaries of publicly traded foreign (i.e., non-U.S.) corporations) occurring on or after January 1, 2023. The Excise Tax is imposed on the repurchasing corporation itself, not its holders from which the stock is repurchased. The amount of the Excise Tax is generally 1% of the fair market value of the shares repurchased at the time of the repurchase. However, for purposes of calculating the Excise Tax, repurchasing corporations are permitted to net the fair market value of certain new stock issuances against the fair market value of stock repurchases during the same taxable year. In addition, certain exceptions apply to the Excise Tax. The U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) has authority to provide regulations and other guidance to carry out, and prevent the abuse or avoidance of the Excise Tax. On April 12, 2024, the Treasury published proposed Treasury regulations addressing the Excise Tax. Such proposed Treasury regulations clarify many aspects of the Excise Tax, although the interpretation and operation of certain other aspects of the Excise Tax remain unclear. Although these proposed Treasury regulations are not final, taxpayers generally may rely on them until final Treasury regulations are issued. However, there can be no assurance that final Treasury regulations will not adversely affect the accuracy of the below description of the Excise Tax considerations that may be applicable to us if we were to become a “covered corporation” in the future.
As a Cayman Islands exempted company, we are currently not a “covered corporation” for purposes of the Excise Tax. Accordingly, we generally would not be subject to the Excise Tax on a redemptions of our stock in connection with an extension of the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination or in connection with our liquidation if we fail to consummate our initial business combination by such date. If we were to become a “covered corporation” in the future, whether and to what extent we would be subject to the Excise Tax on a redemption of our stock would depend on a number of factors, including (i) whether the redemption is treated as a repurchase of stock for purposes of the Excise Tax, (ii) the fair market value of the redemption treated as a repurchase of stock, (iii) the structure of our initial business combination, (iv) the nature and amount of any “PIPE” or other equity issuances (whether in connection with our initial business combination or otherwise) issued within the same taxable year of a redemption treated as a repurchase of stock and (v) the content of final Treasury regulations and other additional guidance from the Treasury addressing the Excise Tax. As noted above, the Excise Tax would be payable by the repurchasing corporation, and not by the redeeming holder. If we were to become a “covered corporation” in the future, the imposition of the Excise Tax on us as a result of redemptions by us could reduce the amount of cash available to pay redemptions or reduce the cash available to the target business in connection with our initial business combination, which could cause investors in our securities who do not redeem or the other shareholders of the combined company to economically bear the impact of such Excise Tax. The proceeds placed in the trust account and the interest earned thereon shall not be used to pay for the possible Excise Tax or any other similar fees or taxes that may be levied on the Company pursuant to any current, pending or future rules or laws, including without limitation any excise tax due under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 on any redemptions or stock buybacks by our company.
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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 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 is equal to or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30 th , 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 to or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30 th . 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.
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