Singapore Stock Exchange SPAC listing framework comes into effect

The Singapore Exchange announced that the listing rules of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) on the main board of the Singapore Exchange will come into effect on September 3, 2021.

The key points and requirements covered by the SPAC framework of SGX include that the market capitalization of a company should not be less than S $150 million (about RMB 722 million) when listing through SPAC, and that SPAC must complete the M & A transaction within 24 months after listing, and if the relevant conditions are met, the time limit can be extended by up to 12 months. Within six months from the listing of SPAC to the M & A transaction, the promoters' shares are in a lock-up period, and sponsors who meet the relevant requirements are required to perform a lock-up period of more than six months for 50 per cent of their holdings; according to the market capitalization of SPAC, sponsors must subscribe for no less than 2.5 to 3.5 per cent of the shares (stocks, units or warrants) at the time of SPAC listing. Mergers and acquisitions can only be conducted with the approval of more than half of the independent directors and the vote of more than half of the shareholders; the warrants held by shareholders can be separated from common shares and the dilution effect caused by the exercise of warrants shall not exceed 50 per cent; all independent shareholders are entitled to redemption; and the maximum number of "boost incentive" shares held by sponsors at the time of the listing of SPAC is 20 per cent.

Chen Wenren, CEO of the regulatory company of the SGX, pointed out that the SPAC framework of the SGX will provide companies with richer ways of financing and have more certainty in terms of price and enforcement; it is hoped that the introduction of the SPAC system will attract more high-quality companies to list on the SGX, providing investors with more investment options and opportunities; to achieve this goal, the SGX will focus on the quality of the sponsors and their past records. In the system design, the SGX has also enhanced the interests and risks involved by the sponsors, as well as the interest relevance between the sponsors and shareholders.

Getaround, a car-sharing company, may trade through SPAC

Getaround, a car-sharing company backed by Softbank Corp., is in talks with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altitude Acquisition Corp about a merger and listing on September 2, 2021. In this potential deal, Getaround is valued at about $1.7 billion.

Getaround was founded in 2009, is a P2P model of private car rental service startup, headquartered in San Francisco, California, the current business mainly serves the American market, but also covers some overseas regions through other brands. Getaround offers 24-hour road assistance services, car kits, iPhone apps and web apps, including insurance, making it easy for people to share cars. It currently operates in more than 100 cities in the United States and more than 170 locations in Europe, with 6 million users worldwide. Since Getaround bought Paris-based car rental platform Divvy for $300m in April 2019, Getaround has become the largest and fastest-growing car-sharing company in Europe. So far, Getaround has raised more than $800m from investors, including Softbank Corp. and Menlo Ventures, the last time it raised more than $1 billion in September 2020.

Altitude Acquisition Corp was launched on August 26 last year and completed its initial public offering on December 10, 2020, with 26.1 million units raising $261 million, each consisting of one Class A common share and 1/2 redeemable warrants. According to its prospectus, the SPAC initially focused on tourism and related sectors, with companies worth more than $1 billion.

Humacyte, a regenerative medicine company, went public successfully through SPAC

On September 1, 2021, Humacyte, a company that develops regenerated tissues and organs, acquired Alpha Healthcare Acquisition Corp. The merger is officially listed for trading on the NASDAQ capital market under the symbol "HUMA". Through the merger, Humacyte received $175 million in PIPE financing and $70 million in cash gains, totaling $245 million. Its PIPE investors include Fresenius Medical Care, OrbiMed, Monashee Investment Management, Alexandria Venture Investments and other health-care-focused funds.

Humacyte was founded in 2004 and was co-founded by Laura Niklason, Shannon Dahl and Juliana Blum, MD. The company's core technology is to further develop acellular tissue that can be used to treat injuries and chronic diseases on the basis of Niklason and Dahl research. According to its introduction, the process of "acellular" is designed to solve the problem of immune rejection. Humacyte is committed to developing innovative technologies in regenerative medicine, focusing on a new type of blood vessel, and is currently conducting three phase 3 clinical trials worldwide, with estimated potential sales of up to $12.1 billion.

Alpha Healthcare Acquisition Corp launched at the end of August last year and completed its initial public offering on September 18, 2020, with 10 million units raising $100m, each consisting of one Class A common share and 1/2 redeemable warrants. It is reported that Rajiv Shukla, the sponsor of the SPAC, listed DermTech (DMTK), a melanoma testing company, through SPAC as early as 2019, and its share price has risen by more than 1000% in the past 12 months.

Viyi algorithm Company and Venus merge SPAC to go public

On September 1st, 2021, WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc's subsidiary VIYI algorithms ("VIYI Algo") announced that it would go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Venus Acquisition Corporation, in which VIYI algorithms was valued at $400m. After the completion of the deal, Venus will change its name to MicroAlgo Inc.,. The merger will be completed in the third quarter of this year.

Viyi is one of the top five central processing algorithm services in China. By 2020, Viyi had captured 5 per cent of the market share of centralized algorithmic services provided to the Internet advertising and online game acceleration industry. Viyi's revenue comes mainly from central processing algorithm services for the Internet advertising and Internet gaming industry, as well as smart chips and services, including software development. Viyi's revenue growth has been cumulative since 2017. Specifically, Viyi's revenue growth rate reached 31.9% in 2018, 52.6% in 2019 and 176.8% in 2020.

At present, the technology and solutions of Viyi are mainly in the field of Internet multimedia video advertising and Internet game entertainment. Viyi has always successfully provided enterprise customers with advertising distribution solutions, online game agency solutions, software services and integrated solutions. Since September 2020, Viyi has developed its smart chip solutions by acquiring its 100% owned subsidiary Fe-da Electronics, as Viyi believes that the demand for algorithms in semiconductors is growing rapidly and represents huge market potential. In the medium to long term, Viyi will continue to adhere to its strategic thinking. By improving each iteration of the one-stop intelligent data management solution provided by Viyi's proprietary central processing algorithm service, Viyi can help customers improve service efficiency, innovate patterns in their business, and actively enhance the industry value of central processing algorithms serving general areas of the data intelligent processing industry.

On June 29, US Eastern time, US biopharmaceutical company Pardes Biosciences, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Pardes") announced that it had reached a final merger agreement with FS Development Corp. II (NASDAQ: FSII), a SPAC company owned by Foresite Capital. The transaction is expected to close in October this year, and the combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "PRDS". Pardes was founded in early 2020 and announced its listing through SPAC just four months after completing round A financing in February this year. It is reported that the total amount of capital raised for the deal is expected to be about $276 million, of which nearly $200 million comes from SPAC company FS Development Corp. II, which just raised $175 million in its IPO in February this year. In addition, about $75 million comes from PIPE investors, including Foresite Capital, FS Development Corp. II subsidiaries, RA Capital Management and Gilead. The proceeds will mainly be used to push Pardes's oral antiviral candidate PBI-0451 into clinical phase, and the pipeline is expected to start clinical trials later this year. According to Pardes, the protease is "highly conservative", which means that even if novel coronavirus mutates, it will not change much. This indicates that PBI-0451 may continue to be effective for current and new variants of the virus.