UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
Or
☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from to
To
Commission File No. 001-39970
Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Cayman Islands | | 98-1566600 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
| | |
4001 Kennett Pike, Suite 302 | | |
Wilmington, DE | | 19807 |
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) | | (Zip Code) |
(302) 338-9130
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class | | Trading Symbol(s) | | Name of each exchange on which registered |
Units, each consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one redeemable warrant | | NRACU | | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share | | NRAC | | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Redeemable warrants, each whole warrant exercisable for one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50 | | NRACW | | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ |
Non-accelerated filer | ☒ | Smaller reporting company | ☒ |
| | Emerging growth company | ☒ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act): Yes ☒ No ☐
As of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the ordinary shares outstanding, other than shares held by persons who may be deemed affiliates of the registrant, computed by reference to the closing sales price for the ordinary shares on June 30, 2021, as reported on The Nasdaq Stock Market, was $233,530,500 (based on the closing sales price of the Class A ordinary shares on June 30, 2021 of $9.67).
As of March 11, 2022, there were 24,150,000 of the Registrant’s Class A ordinary shares and 6,037,500 of the Registrant’s Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, issued and outstanding.
Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation
FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND RISK FACTOR SUMMARY
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains statements that are forward-looking and as such are not historical facts. This includes, without limitation, statements under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding our financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations. These statements constitute projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following risks, uncertainties and other factors:
| ● | our being a company with no operating history and no operating revenues; |
| ● | our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses; |
| ● | our ability to complete our initial business combination; |
| ● | our expectations around the performance of a prospective target business or businesses; |
| ● | our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination; |
| ● | our directors and officers allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination; |
| ● | our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination; |
| ● | our pool of prospective target businesses in the technology industry and the effects on these sectors of broader economic trends, including the effects of the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic; |
| ● | the ability of our directors and officers to generate a number of potential business combination opportunities; |
| ● | our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic; |
| ● | the ability of our directors and officers to generate potential business combination opportunities; |
| ● | our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; |
| ● | the lack of a market for our securities; |
| ● | the use of proceeds not held in the Trust Account (as defined below) or available to us from interest income on the Trust Account balance; |
| ● | the Trust Account not being subject to claims of third parties; |
| ● | our financial performance; and |
| ● | the other risk and uncertainties discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). |
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
PART I.
References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) to “we,” “us,” “our” or the “Company” are to Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation, a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company. References to our “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors, and references to the “Sponsor” refer to Noble Rock Sponsor LLC, a Cayman Islands limited liability company. References to our “initial shareholders” refer to our Sponsor.
Item 1. Business.
Overview
Our business strategy is to utilize Noble Rock Advisors’ existing investment identification and evaluation platform to identify and complete our initial business combination with a company that our management believes, with proper utilization of our network and experience, has compelling potential for value creation through our involvement. Whitney Bower and Pete Low, with the support of our board and advisory team, will leverage their long-standing partnerships, vast investment experience, deep networks, and technology industry expertise to identify and generate attractive acquisition opportunities among middle-market technology companies with anticipated enterprise values between $750 million and $3 billion. To the extent the purchase price for any acquisition to be paid in cash exceeds the net proceeds available to us, we may issue debt or equity to consummate the acquisition. Such additional financing may come in the form of bank financings or preferred equity, common equity or debt offerings, or a combination of the foregoing.
We are a newly organized blank check company incorporated in November 2020 as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (the “Business Combination”). We have not selected any specific Business Combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any Business Combination target.
While we may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location, we intend to focus on industries that complement our management team’s background and to capitalize on the ability of our management team and the broader Noble Rock Advisors platform to identify, acquire and operate a business in the software and tech-enabled services sectors. We will seek to acquire one or more businesses with an aggregate enterprise value between $750 million and $3 billion. Noble Rock Advisors, Inc. (“Noble Rock Advisors”) is a Boston-based investor focused on market-leading technology companies in the software and tech-enabled services sectors with a deep focus on business-to-business (“B2B”) software, business-to-business-to-consumer (“B2B2C”) software, and tech-enabled services.
Our registration statement for our initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”) was declared effective on February 1, 2021. On February 4, 2021, we consummated our Initial Public Offering of 24,150,000 units (the “Units” and, with respect to the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units offered, the “Public Shares”), including 3,150,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments (the “Over-Allotment Units”), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $241.5 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $14.4 million, inclusive of approximately $9.1 million for deferred underwriting commissions.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we consummated the private placement (the “Private Placement”) of 4,553,334 warrants (each, a “Private Placement Warrant” and collectively, the “Private Placement Warrants”), at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement, $241.5 million ($10.00 per Unit) of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and certain of the proceeds of the Private Placement were placed in a Trust Account (“Trust Account”) with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee and 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 of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations, as determined by the Company, until the earlier of: (i) the completion of a Business Combination and (ii) the distribution of the Trust Account as described below.
Our management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of its Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Warrants, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. Our initial Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (net of amounts disbursed to management for working capital purposes, if permitted, and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting fees and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time we sign a definitive agreement in connection with the initial Business Combination. However, we will only complete a Business Combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
We consummated our Initial Public Offering on February 4, 2021. As of December 31, 2021, we had not yet commenced operations. All activity for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2021 related to our formation and the Initial Public Offering, and since the Initial Public Offering, the search for a prospective initial Business Combination. We will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of our initial Business Combination, at the earliest. We will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents from the proceeds derived from the Initial Public Offering.
We will provide the holders of our Public Shares (the “Public Shareholders”) with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially anticipated to be $10.00 per share, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay its tax obligations). The per-share amount to be distributed to Public Shareholders who redeem their Public Shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriters.
If we are unable to complete a Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, or February 4, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 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 (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish Public Shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
Effecting a Business Combination
Our Business Strategy
Our business strategy is to utilize Noble Rock Advisors’ existing investment identification and evaluation platform to identify and complete our initial Business Combination with a company that our management believes, with proper utilization of our network and experience, has compelling potential for value creation through our involvement. Whitney Bower and Pete Low, with the support of our board and advisory team, will leverage their long-standing partnerships, vast investment experience, deep networks, and technology industry expertise to identify and generate attractive acquisition opportunities among middle-market technology companies with anticipated enterprise values between $750 million and $3 billion. To the extent the purchase price for any acquisition to be paid in cash exceeds the net proceeds available to us, we may issue debt or equity to consummate the acquisition. Such additional financing may come in the form of bank financings or preferred equity, common equity or debt offerings, or a combination of the foregoing.
We believe our management team’s experience and track record, along with Noble Rock Advisors’ disciplined direct sourcing and thematic market research approach, are differentiated and will enable us to successfully identify and execute an initial Business Combination. We will leverage Noble Rock Advisors’ extensive network of relationships across the middle-market technology ecosystem to assist in the identification of a target for the initial Business Combination.
Noble Rock Advisors and our management team, board and advisors have experience in:
| ● | investing in leading technology companies to accelerate their growth and maturation; |
| ● | sourcing, structuring, acquiring, financing, and selling software and tech-enabled services businesses; |
| ● | fostering relationships with sellers, capital providers and target management teams. |
| ● | operating companies, setting and changing strategies, and identifying, mentoring and recruiting exceptional talent; |
| ● | developing and growing companies, both organically and through strategic transactions and acquisitions, and expanding the product range and geographic footprint; |
| ● | deploying a comprehensive value-creation toolkit including identifying avenues for growth acceleration and delivering operating efficiency; and |
| ● | accessing the capital markets, including financing businesses and helping companies transition to public ownership. |
The past performance of our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates, 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 identify a suitable candidate for our initial Business Combination. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team’s or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of our future performance. Our management team and their respective affiliates have been involved with a large number of public and private companies in addition to those identified above, not all of which have achieved similar performance levels. See “Item 1.A. Risk Factors — Past performance by our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of any business that we may acquire.”
Business Combination Criteria
Consistent with our business strategy, we expect to identify companies that have compelling growth potential and a combination of the characteristics detailed below. We will specifically target opportunities where we can leverage Noble Rock Advisors’ differentiated operating capabilities to accelerate growth or increase profitability. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter our initial Business Combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to acquire companies or assets that we believe have the following attributes:
| ● | B2B and B2B2C software and tech-enabled services businesses. We will focus on companies that are reshaping business information technology by providing critical, high-value-add solutions via software or tech-enabled services. We believe such companies are benefiting from the digitalization, cloud-migration, and proliferation of data across the enterprise. |
| ● | Healthy end markets with strong long-term secular trends. We will target companies that operate in markets with attractive long-term growth prospects and reasonable overall size or potential. |
| ● | Minimal technology risk with high switching costs. We will evaluate companies that provide or automate core solutions required to operate a business in their target markets, and whose solutions are difficult to displace due to their mission-critical nature. These solutions are characterized by systemic integration within end customer organizations, competitive differentiation and insulation from future disruptive technologies. |
| ● | Consistent and compelling growth prospects and significant recurring revenues. We will evaluate companies with attractive growth vectors that demonstrate a high level of recurring revenue and strong customer retention rates. We will seek companies that have the ability to generate strong revenue growth through new customer acquisition, cross-selling to existing customers, and acquisitions of complementary companies and products. |
| ● | Attractive, inherently profitable businesses with high operating leverage. We will evaluate companies that we believe possess not only an established business model and sustainable competitive advantages, but also inherently profitable unit economics. |
| ● | Knowledgeable management teams with relevant industry experience and a proven track record. We will target companies with expert management teams that have specialized knowledge of their respective industry sector and are active leaders in developing or deploying technology to provide a solution for a problem or challenge within their respective industry sector. |
| ● | Established business models. We will target companies with proven business models and a demonstrated ability to scale by extending product portfolios into new markets. |
| ● | Benefit from being a public company. We will focus on companies that will benefit from being publicly traded and can effectively utilize access to capital and the public profile associated with being a publicly-traded company. |
| ● | Platform that can become a consolidator. We will focus on companies that can benefit from our team’s experience driving growth through strategic add-on acquisitions. These companies are typically in fragmented markets with many participants offering overlapping solutions. |
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial Business Combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant.
Additional Disclosures
Our Acquisition Process
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct an extensive due diligence review, which may encompass, as applicable and among other things, meetings with members of the target’s management and other employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities and a review of financial and other information about the target and its industry.
Each of our directors and officers, directly or indirectly, own founder shares and/or Private Placement Warrants following the Initial Public Offering and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial Business Combination. Further, such officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular Business Combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial Business Combination.
Certain of our officers and directors presently have, 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 entity subject to his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations. As a result, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a Business Combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, then, subject to such officer’s and director’s fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law, he or she will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such Business Combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not expect these duties to materially affect our ability to complete our initial Business Combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other. Additionally, certain of our directors and officers are now, and our Sponsor, directors and officers may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. Our officers have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial Business Combination unless we obtain the written consent of the representatives of the underwriters. Our non-executive directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, no more than one other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act, provided that such company does not compete for the types of businesses we intend to acquire, until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial Business Combination.
Initial Business Combination
Nasdaq listing rules require that our initial Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the assets held in the Trust Account (net of amounts disbursed to management for working capital purposes, if permitted, and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting fees and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account). We refer to this as the 80% fair market value test. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. We do not currently intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial Business Combination, although there is no assurance that will be the case.
We anticipate structuring our initial Business Combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial Business Combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such Business Combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”). Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to our initial Business Combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in our initial Business Combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target business or issue a substantial number of new shares to third-parties in connection with financing our initial Business Combination. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial Business Combination could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding shares subsequent to our initial Business Combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% fair market value test. If our initial Business Combination involves more than one target business, the 80% fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we are not then listed on Nasdaq for whatever reason, we would no longer be required to meet the foregoing 80% fair market value test.
Competition
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. Additionally, the number of blank check companies looking for Business Combination targets has increased compared to recent years and many of these blank check companies are sponsored by entities or persons that have significant experience with completing Business Combinations. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination and we are obligated to pay cash for our Class A ordinary shares, it will potentially 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.
Human Capital Management
We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial Business Combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial Business Combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial Business Combination and the current stage of the Business Combination process.
Item 1.A. Risk Factors.
Risk Factor Summary
We are providing the following summary of the risk factors to enhance the readability and accessibility of our risk factor disclosures. We encourage you to carefully review the full risk factors discussed below in their entirety for additional information. Some of the factors that could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects include:
| ● | Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial Business Combination, which means we may complete our initial Business Combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination. |
| ● | The requirement that we complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame 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. |
| ● | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to vote in favor of such initial Business Combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote. |
| ● | Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential Business Combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek shareholder approval of such Business Combination. |
| ● | The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential Business Combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a Business Combination with a target. |
| ● | The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable Business Combination or optimize our capital structure. |
| ● | The 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. |
| ● | We may not be able to complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. |
| ● | Our search for a Business Combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a Business Combination, may be materially adversely affected by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the status of debt and equity markets. |
| ● | If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or warrants from public shareholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed Business Combination and reduce the public “float” of our securities. |
| ● | You are not entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies. |
| ● | Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for Business Combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial Business Combination. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on our redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. |
| ● | 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. |
| ● | Because we are not limited to a particular industry or any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial Business Combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations. |
| ● | We may engage in a Business Combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our Sponsor, directors or officers which may raise potential conflicts of interest. |
| ● | 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 may face risks related to companies in the technology industries. |
| ● | You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares and/or warrants, potentially at a loss. |
| ● | We are a newly incorporated company with no operating history and no operating revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective. |
| ● | Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss. |
| ● | Our warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our warrants could have a material effect on our financial results. |
| ● | We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results. |
| ● | We may face litigation and other risks as a result of the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. |
| ● | Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability continue as a “going concern.” |
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, including our financial statements and related notes, 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. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Relating to Our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial Business Combination, which means we may complete our initial Business Combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may not hold a shareholder vote to approve our initial Business Combination unless the Business Combination would require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange rules or if we decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons. For instance, Nasdaq listing rules currently allow us to engage in a tender offer in lieu of a general meeting, but would still require us to obtain shareholder approval if we were seeking to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares to a target business as consideration in any Business Combination. Therefore, if we were structuring a Business Combination that required us to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares, we would seek shareholder approval of such Business Combination. However, except as required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed Business Combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial Business Combination even if holders of a majority of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares do not approve of the Business Combination we consummate.
The requirement that we complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame 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 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a Business Combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial Business Combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial Business Combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the end of the 24-month period. 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. In July 2021, the SEC charged a SPAC for misleading disclosures, which could have been corrected with more adequate due diligence, and obtained substantial relief against the SPAC and its sponsor. Although we will invest in due diligence efforts and commit management time and resources to such efforts, there can be no assurance that our due diligence will unveil all potential issues with a target business and that we or our sponsor will not become subject to regulatory actions related to such efforts.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to vote in favor of such initial Business Combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Unlike many other blank check companies in which the initial shareholders agree to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by the public shareholders in connection with an initial Business Combination, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial Business Combination. As a result, in addition to our initial shareholders’ founder shares, we would need 7,875,001, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 1,312,501, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 21,000,000 public shares sold in the Initial Public Offering to be voted in favor of an initial Business Combination in order to have such initial Business Combination approved. Our directors and officers have also entered into the letter agreement, imposing similar obligations on them with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any. We expect that our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares at the time of any such shareholder vote. The anchor investor’s membership interests in our Sponsor may provide an incentive for it to vote its shares in favor of our initial Business Combination. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination, it is more likely that the necessary shareholder approval will be received than would be the case if such persons agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public shareholders.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential Business Combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek shareholder approval of such 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 approval. Accordingly, if we do not seek shareholder approval, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential Business Combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our initial Business Combination.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential Business Combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a Business Combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a Business Combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the Business Combination. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a Business Combination and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial Business Combination. If we are able to consummate an initial Business Combination, the per-share value of shares held by non-redeeming shareholders will reflect our obligation to pay and the payment of the deferred underwriting commissions. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 following such redemptions, or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial Business Combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related Business Combination and may instead search for an alternate Business Combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a Business Combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable Business Combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial Business Combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we 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.
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 increases. If our initial Business Combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the Trust Account until we liquidate the Trust Account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the Trust Account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
We may not be able to complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our Sponsor, directors and officers have agreed that we must complete our initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial Business Combination within such time period. 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, including as a result of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global hostilities, or a significant outbreak of infectious diseases. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow both in the U.S. and globally and, while the extent of the impact of the pandemic on us will depend on future developments, it could limit our ability to complete our initial Business Combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global hostilities, or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire.
If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within such time period, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 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 (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than $10.00 per share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors herein.
Our search for a Business Combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a Business Combination, may be materially adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and other events and the status of debt and equity markets.
The COVID-19 outbreak has adversely affected, and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global hostilities, or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) could adversely affect, economies and financial markets worldwide, business operations and the conduct of commerce generally, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a Business Combination could be, or may already have been, materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a Business Combination if concerns relating to COVID-19 or other events restrict travel or limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors, or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a Business Combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global hostilities, or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) continue for a prolonged period of time, our ability to consummate a Business Combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a Business Combination, may be materially adversely affected.
In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases), including as a result of increased market volatility and decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global hostilities, or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those related to the market for our securities and cross-border transactions.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or warrants from public shareholders or warrant holders, which may influence a vote on a proposed Business Combination and 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, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial Business Combination. Any such price per share may be different than the amount per share a public shareholder would receive if it elected to redeem its shares in connection with our initial Business Combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial Business Combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of 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, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates are under no obligation or duty to do so and 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. The purpose of such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of our initial Business Combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial Business Combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial Business Combination. This may result in the completion of our initial Business Combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our securities and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial Business Combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy 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 tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial Business Combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem public shares. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.
You are not entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
We are exempt from certain rules promulgated by the SEC related to certain blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors are not afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial Business Combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if the Initial Public Offering was subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the Trust Account to us unless and until the funds in the Trust Account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial Business Combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial Business Combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial Business Combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial Business Combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for Business Combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial Business Combination. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on our redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination and we are obligated to pay cash for our Class A ordinary shares, it will potentially reduce the resources available to us for our initial Business Combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a Business Combination. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors herein.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies increases, there may be more competition to find an attractive target for an initial Business Combination. This could increase the costs associated with completing our initial Business Combination and may result in our inability to find a suitable target for our initial Business Combination and/or complete or initial Business Combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many companies have entered into Business Combinations with special purpose acquisition companies, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial Business Combination, as well as many additional special purpose acquisition companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, effort and resources to identify a suitable target for an initial Business Combination.
In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial Business Combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close Business Combinations or operate targets post-Business Combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find a suitable target for and/or complete our initial Business Combination.
If the funds not being held in the Trust Account and the loans provided by our Sponsor for working capital are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we may be unable to complete our initial Business Combination.
The funds available to us outside of the Trust Account and the loan provided by our Sponsor for working capital may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the Initial Public Offering, assuming that our initial Business Combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. Management’s plans to address this need for capital through potential loans from certain of our affiliates are discussed in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” However, our affiliates are not obligated to make loans to us in the future, and we may not be able to raise additional financing from unaffiliated parties necessary to fund our expenses. Any such event in the future may negatively impact the analysis regarding our ability to continue as a going concern at such time.
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 enter 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. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless. See “— If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors herein.
Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial Business Combination.
In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial Business Combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-Business Combination entity might need to incur greater expense and/or accept less favorable terms. Furthermore, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post- Business Combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
In addition, after completion of any initial Business Combination, our directors and officers could be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to such initial Business Combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post- Business Combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post- Business Combination entity and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial Business Combination on terms favorable to our investors.
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 (and any other persons who may become an officer or director prior to the initial business combination will also be required to waive) any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and not to seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate an initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage shareholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our shareholders. Furthermore, a shareholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
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 (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the Trust Account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the Trust Account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the Trust Account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver only if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, 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.
Our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per public share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the Trust Account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Our Sponsor may not have sufficient funds available to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for such obligations, and therefore, no funds are currently set aside to cover any such 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 directors or officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our Sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the Trust Account are reduced below the lesser of (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, 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 may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
The securities in which we invest the funds held in the Trust Account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
The proceeds held in the Trust Account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, our public shareholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the Trust Account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in Trust Account the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share. Negative interest rates could also reduce the amount of funds we have available to complete our initial Business Combination.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or insolvency laws as a voidable performance. As a result, a liquidator 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 winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a winding-up or bankruptcy petition or an involuntary winding-up or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be subject to applicable insolvency law, and may be included in our liquidation estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any liquidation claims deplete the Trust Account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation would 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.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
| ● | restrictions on the nature of our investments; and |
| ● | restrictions on the issuance of securities; |
each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial Business Combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
| ● | registration as an investment company with the SEC; |
| ● | adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and |
| ● | reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations to which we are currently not subject. |
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. The proceeds held in the Trust Account may be invested by the trustee only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. Treasuries and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act. Because the investment of the proceeds will be restricted to these instruments, we believe we will meet the requirements for the exemption provided in Rule 3a-1 promulgated under the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a Business Combination. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Changes in laws or regulations or how such laws are interpreted or applied, or a failure to comply with any laws or regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial Business Combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements, our Business Combination may be contingent on our ability to comply with certain laws and regulations and any post-Business Combination company may be subject to additional laws and regulations. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time, including as a result of changes in economic, political, social and government policies, and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial Business Combination, 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.
If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within 24 months of the closing of the Initial Public Offering, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our Trust Account.
If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we will distribute the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), pro rata to our public shareholders by way of redemption and cease all operations except for the purposes of winding up of our affairs, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the Trust Account shall be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to windup, 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 Cayman Island Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands (the “Companies Act”). In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the initial 24 months before the redemption proceeds of our Trust Account become available to them and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our Trust Account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial Business Combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and then only in cases where investors have properly sought to redeem their Class A ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior thereto.
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, and thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offense and may be liable for a fine of up to approximately $18,300 and to imprisonment for up to five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual general meeting until after the consummation of our initial Business Combination. Our public shareholders will not have the right to appoint or remove directors prior to the consummation of our initial Business Combination.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual general meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on 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 discuss company affairs with management. In addition, as holders of our Class A ordinary shares, our public shareholders will not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors prior to consummation of our initial Business Combination. In addition, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of our board of directors for any reason.
The grant of registration rights to our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees may make it more difficult to complete our initial Business Combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to a registration rights agreement entered into in connection with the Initial Public Offering, at or after the time of our initial Business Combination, our initial shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of their founder shares after those shares convert to our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, our Sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of the Private Placement Warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants, and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register the resale of such warrants or the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise 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 Class A ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial Business Combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares that is expected when the ordinary shares owned by our initial shareholders or their permitted transferees, our Private Placement Warrants or warrants issued in connection with working capital loans are registered for resale.
Because we are not limited to a particular industry or any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial Business Combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
We may seek to complete a Business Combination with an operating company of any size (subject to our satisfaction of the 80% fair market value test) and in any industry, sector or geography. However, we will not, under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, be permitted to effectuate our initial Business Combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a Business Combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial Business Combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or development stage entity. Although our directors and officers 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 securities will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to our investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a Business Combination target. Accordingly, any shareholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a shareholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may seek acquisition opportunities outside the technology industry, which may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a Business Combination outside the technology industry, which may be 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 acquisition opportunity for our company. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors relevant to such acquisition. Accordingly, any shareholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a shareholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial Business Combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial Business Combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial Business Combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial Business Combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these criteria and guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective Business Combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our initial Business Combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek acquisition opportunities with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings.
To the extent we complete our initial Business Combination with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include investing in a business without a proven business model and with limited historical financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our directors and officers will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting firm regarding fairness. Consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial Business Combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion that the price we are paying is fair to our company 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 tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial Business Combination.
We may engage the underwriters from our Initial Public Offering or any of their affiliates to provide additional services to us. The underwriters are entitled to receive deferred commissions that will be released from the trust only on a completion of an initial Business Combination. These financial incentives may cause the underwriters to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after the Initial Public Offering.
We may engage the underwriters from our Initial Public Offering or any of their affiliates to provide additional services to us, 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 the underwriters or any of their affiliates fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation. The underwriters are also entitled to receive deferred commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial Business Combination. The fact that the underwriters or any of their affiliates’ financial interests 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.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preferred shares to complete our initial Business Combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial Business Combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial Business Combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association authorizes the issuance of up to 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 5,000,000 undesignated preferred shares, par value $0.0001 per share. As of March 11, 2022, there were 475,850,000 and 43,962,500 authorized but unissued Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares, respectively, available for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants but not upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares. Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein. As of December 31, 2020, there were no preferred shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares, and may issue preferred shares, in order to complete our initial Business Combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial Business Combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares to redeem the warrants or upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial Business Combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that prior to our initial Business Combination, we may not issue additional ordinary shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the Trust Account or (2) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial Business Combination. The issuance of additional ordinary shares or preferred shares:
| ● | may significantly dilute the equity interest of our public investors, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares; |
| ● | may subordinate the rights of holders of ordinary shares if preferred shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our ordinary shares; |
| ● | could cause a change of control if a substantial number of our 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 directors and officers; |
| ● | may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; |
| ● | may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Units, ordinary shares and/or warrants; and |
| ● | may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants. |
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial Business Combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders or warrant holders.
Subject to requisite shareholder approval by special resolution under the Companies Act, we may effect a Business Combination with a target company in another jurisdiction, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or reincorporate in another jurisdiction. Such transactions may result in tax liability for 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), in which the target company is located, or in which we reincorporate. In the event of a reincorporation pursuant to our initial Business Combination, such tax liability may attach prior to the consummation of redemptions of any of our public shares properly submitted to us for redemption in connection with such Business Combination. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to pay such taxes. Shareholders or warrant holders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
Failure to maintain our status as tax resident solely in the Cayman Islands could adversely affect our financial and operating results. Our intention is that prior to our initial Business Combination we should be resident solely in the Cayman Islands.
Continued attention must be paid to ensure that major decisions by the Company are not made from another jurisdiction, since this could cause us to lose our status as tax resident solely in the Cayman Islands. The composition of the board of directors, the place of residence of the individual members of the board of directors and the location(s) in which the board of directors makes decisions will all be important factors in determining and maintaining our tax residence in the Cayman Islands. If we were to be considered as tax resident within another jurisdiction, we may be subject to additional tax in that jurisdiction, which could negatively affect our financial and operating results, and/or our shareholders’ or warrant holders’ investment returns could be subject to additional or increased taxes (including withholding taxes).
Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial Business Combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial Business Combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
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, directors or officers which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our Sponsor, directors and officers with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our Sponsor, directors and officers. Certain of our directors and officers also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including those described under “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest.” Such entities may compete with us for Business Combination opportunities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria and guidelines for a Business Combination and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement that we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm, regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a Business Combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our Sponsor, directors or officers, 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.
Since our initial shareholders will lose their entire investment in us if our initial Business Combination is not completed, a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular Business Combination target is appropriate for our initial Business Combination.
Our initial shareholders hold 6,037,500 founder shares as of the date of this Annual Report, all of which are held by our Sponsor. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial Business Combination.
In addition, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable for one Class A ordinary share, for a purchase price of approximately $6.8 million in the aggregate, or $1.50 per warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a Business Combination. Each Private Placement Warrant may be exercised for one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein.
The founder shares are identical to the ordinary shares included in the Units except that: (1) prior to our initial Business Combination, only holders of the founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors and holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason; (2) the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions; (3) our initial shareholders, directors and officers have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive: (i) their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them, as applicable, in connection with the completion of our initial Business Combination; (ii) their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial Business Combination activity; and (iii) their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any founder shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame); (4) the founder shares will automatically convert into our Class A ordinary shares at the time of our initial Business Combination, or earlier at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described in more detail below; and (5) the founder shares are entitled to registration rights. If we submit our initial Business Combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our initial shareholders have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their founder shares and any public shares held by them purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of our initial Business Combination.
The personal and financial interests of our Sponsor, directors and officers may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target Business Combination, completing an initial Business Combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial Business Combination. This risk may become more acute as the 24-month deadline following the closing of the Initial Public Offering nears, which is the deadline for the completion of 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 have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the Trust Account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per-share amount available for redemption from the Trust Account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
| ● | default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial Business Combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; |
| ● | acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant; |
| ● | our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand; |
| ● | our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding; |
| ● | our inability to pay dividends on our ordinary shares; |
| ● | using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes; |
| ● | limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate; |
| ● | increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and |
| ● | limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
We may be able to complete only one Business Combination with the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
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 financial, economic, competitive and regulatory risks. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several Business Combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
| ● | solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or |
| ● | dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services. |
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous financial, economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial Business Combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete Business Combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial Business Combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other Business Combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial Business Combination. With multiple Business Combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence 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 acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial Business Combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial Business Combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a Business Combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete a Business Combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association do not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 following such redemptions, or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial Business Combination. 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, directors, officers, 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, and all ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate Business Combination.
In order to effectuate an initial Business Combination, blank check companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial Business Combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate an initial Business Combination, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, blank check companies 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 amended and restated memorandum and articles of association requires at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law. A resolution is deemed to be a special resolution as a matter of Cayman Islands law where it has been approved by either (1) holders of at least two-thirds (or any higher threshold specified in a company’s articles of association) of a company’s ordinary shares at a general meeting for which notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution has been given or (2) if so authorized by a company’s articles of association, by a unanimous written resolution of all of the company’s shareholders. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that special resolutions must be approved either by holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting (i.e., the lowest threshold permissible under Cayman Islands law) (other than amendments relating to provisions governing the appointment or removal of directors prior to our initial Business Combination, which require the approval of a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares attending and voting in a general meeting), or by a unanimous written resolution of all of our shareholders. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then issued and outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments, including the warrant agreement, or extend the time to consummate an initial Business Combination in order to effectuate our initial Business Combination. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any of the securities offered in the Initial Public Offering, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to our pre-Business Combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our Trust Account) may be amended with the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote at a general meeting, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement to facilitate the completion of an initial Business Combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to a company’s pre-Business Combination activity, without approval by holders of a certain percentage of the company’s shares. In those companies, amendment of these provisions typically requires approval by holders holding between 90% and 100% of the company’s public shares. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that any of its provisions, including those related to pre-Business Combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Warrants into the Trust Account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances), may be amended if approved by holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote in a general meeting, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our Trust Account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our ordinary shares (other than amendments relating to provisions governing the appointment or removal of directors prior to our initial Business Combination, which require the approval of a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares attending and voting in a general meeting). Our initial shareholders, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-Business Combination behavior more easily than some other blank check companies, and this may increase our ability to complete our initial Business Combination with which you do not agree. In certain circumstances, our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial Business Combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular Business Combination.
If the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants available to us prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial Business Combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial Business Combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial Business Combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed Business Combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. 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.
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 directors, officers or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial Business Combination. If we have not completed our initial Business Combination within the required time period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our initial shareholders will control the appointment of our board of directors until consummation of our initial Business Combination and will hold a substantial interest in us. As a result, they will appoint all of our directors prior to our initial Business Combination and may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial shareholders own 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. In addition, prior to our initial Business Combination, holders of the founder shares will have the right to appoint all of our directors and may remove members of our board of directors for any reason. Holders of our public shares will have no right to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares attending and voting in a general meeting. As a result, you will not have any influence over the appointment of directors prior to our initial Business Combination.
In addition, as a result of their substantial ownership in our company, our initial shareholders may exert a substantial influence on other actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of major corporate transactions. If our initial shareholders purchase any Class A ordinary shares in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their influence over these actions. Accordingly, our initial shareholders will exert significant influence over actions requiring a shareholder vote at least until the completion of our initial Business Combination.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial Business Combination.
Unlike some blank check companies, if
| ● | we issue additional ordinary shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of the initial Business Combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per ordinary share (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by our board of directors and, in the case of any such issuance to the Sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any founder shares held by the Sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance) (the “Newly Issued Price”), |
| ● | the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial Business Combination on the date of the completion of our initial Business Combination (net of redemptions), and |
| ● | the volume weighted average trading price of our Class A ordinary shares during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which we consummate our initial Business Combination (such price, the “Market Value”) is below $9.20 per share, |
then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 and $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices applicable to our warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 100% and 180%, respectively, 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.
Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial Business Combination.
We have issued warrants to purchase 8,050,000 Class A ordinary shares, at a price of $11.50 per whole share (subject to adjustment as provided herein), as part of the Units and, simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we issued in the Private Placement an aggregate of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. Our initial shareholders currently hold 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment as set forth herein. In addition, if our Sponsor, an affiliate of our Sponsor or certain of our directors and officers make any working capital loans, up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. To the extent we issue Class A ordinary shares to effectuate a Business Combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants or conversion rights could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the Business Combination. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a Business Combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the Units except that, so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by us (except under certain limited exceptions); (2) they (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our Sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial Business Combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) they (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights.
Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial Business Combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a Business Combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP, or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame.
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 acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 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. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial Business Combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
If our management team pursues a 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 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 our management team pursues 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 market, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial Business Combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
| ● | costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations and complying with commercial and legal requirements of overseas markets; |
| ● | rules and regulations regarding currency redemption; |
| ● | complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals; |
| ● | laws governing the manner in which future Business Combinations may be effected; |
| ● | tariffs and trade barriers; |
| ● | regulations related to customs and import/export matters; |
| ● | tax consequences, such as tax law changes, including termination or reduction of tax and other incentives that the applicable government provides to domestic companies, and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States; |
| ● | currency fluctuations and exchange controls; |
| ● | challenges in collecting accounts receivable; |
| ● | cultural and language differences; |
| ● | crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars; |
| ● | deterioration of political relations with the United States; |
| ● | obligatory military service by personnel; and |
| ● | government appropriation of assets. |
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 combination or, if we complete such combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Relating to the Post-Business Combination Company
We may face risks related to companies in the technology industries.
Business combinations with companies in the technology industries entail special considerations and risks. If we are successful in completing a Business Combination with such a target business, we may be subject to, and possibly adversely affected by, the following risks:
| ● | an inability to compete effectively in a highly competitive environment with many incumbents having substantially greater resources; |
| ● | an inability to manage rapid change, increasing consumer expectations and growth; |
| ● | an inability to build strong brand identity and improve subscriber or customer satisfaction and loyalty; |
| ● | a reliance on proprietary technology to provide services and to manage our operations, and the failure of this technology to operate effectively, or our failure to use such technology effectively; |
| ● | an inability to deal with our subscribers’ or customers’ privacy concerns; |
| ● | an inability to attract and retain subscribers or customers; |
| ● | an inability to license or enforce intellectual property rights on which our business may depend; |
| ● | any significant disruption in our computer systems or those of third parties that we would utilize in our operations; |
| ● | an inability by us, or a refusal by third parties, to license content to us upon acceptable terms; |
| ● | potential liability for negligence, copyright, or trademark infringement or other claims based on the nature and content of materials that we may distribute; |
| ● | competition for advertising revenue; |
| ● | competition for the leisure and entertainment time and discretionary spending of subscribers or customers, which may intensify in part due to advances in technology and changes in consumer expectations and behavior; |
| ● | disruption or failure of our networks, systems or technology as a result of computer viruses, “cyber-attacks,” misappropriation of data or other malfeasance, as well as outages, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, accidental releases of information or similar events; |
| ● | an inability to obtain necessary hardware, software and operational support; and |
| ● | reliance on third-party vendors or service providers. |
Any of the foregoing could have an adverse impact on our operations following a Business Combination. However, our efforts in identifying prospective target businesses will not be limited to the technology industries. Accordingly, if we acquire a target business in another industry, these risks we will be subject to risks attendant with the specific industry in which we operate or target business which we acquire, which may or may not be different than those risks listed above.
Subsequent to our completion of our initial Business Combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues 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 post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any shareholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a shareholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
After our initial Business Combination, our results of operations and prospects could be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political, social and government policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial Business Combination and if we effect our initial Business Combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
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 complete such Business Combination only if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to our initial Business Combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post Business Combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in our initial Business Combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new ordinary shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities 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 issued and 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 our control of the target business.
We may have limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect our initial Business Combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial Business Combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target’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 shareholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a shareholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
The directors and officers of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial Business Combination. The departure 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.
After our initial Business Combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all or substantially 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 or substantially 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.
Our letter agreements with our initial shareholders, officers and directors may be amended without shareholder approval.
Our letter agreements with our initial shareholders, officers and directors contains provisions relating to, among other things, restrictions on transfer of our founder shares and private placement warrants, indemnification of the trust account, waiver of redemption rights and participation in liquidating distributions from the trust account. The letter agreement may be amended without shareholder approval. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to the letter agreement 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 the letter agreements. Any such amendments to the letter agreement would not require approval from our shareholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
If our management following our initial Business Combination is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our initial Business Combination, any or all of our management could resign from their positions as officers of the company, and the management of the target business at the time of the Business Combination could remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with U.S. securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with U.S. 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.
Risks Relating to our Management Team
We are dependent upon our directors and officers and their departure could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and in particular, Whitney Bower and Pete Low. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our directors and officers, at least until we have completed our initial Business Combination. In addition, our directors and officers are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential Business Combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. Moreover, certain of our directors and officers have time and attention requirements for investment funds of which affiliates of our Sponsor are the investment managers. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our 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 our or a target’s 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.
In addition, the directors and officers of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial Business Combination. The departure 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. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular Business Combination. 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 the 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 our initial Business Combination. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our initial Business Combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential Business Combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our initial Business Combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial Business Combination.
Our directors and officers 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 directors and officers 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 employee prior to the completion of our initial Business Combination. Our officers are engaged in several other business endeavors for which they may be entitled to substantial compensation and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Certain of our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs, which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial Business Combination. For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance.”
Certain of our directors and officers are now, and our Sponsor, directors and officers may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us 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. Certain of our directors and officers are now, and our Sponsor, directors and officers may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. Our officers have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial Business Combination unless we obtain the written consent of the representatives of the underwriters. Our non-executive directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, to participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, no more than one other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act, provided that such company does not compete for the types of businesses we intend to acquire, until we have entered into a definitive agreement regarding our initial Business Combination and any such involvement may result in conflicts of interests as described above.
Our directors and officers also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties or otherwise have an interest in, and any other special purpose acquisition company with which they may become involved. 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 other entities prior to its presentation to us, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other.
For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance.” “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions — Administrative Agreement.”
Our directors, officers, 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.
In particular, affiliates of our Sponsor have invested in a diverse set of industries. As a result, there may be substantial overlap between companies that would be a suitable Business Combination for us and companies that would make an attractive target for such other affiliates.
Risks Relating to Our Securities
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares and/or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the Trust Account only upon the earliest to occur of: (1) our completion of an initial Business Combination, and then only in connection with those Class A ordinary shares that such shareholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (2) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial Business Combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial Business Combination activity; and (3) the redemption of our public shares if we have not completed an initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, subject to applicable law. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or 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 and/or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
We cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq 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. In general, we must maintain a minimum amount in shareholders’ equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum of 300 public holders. Additionally, in connection with our initial Business Combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the applicable exchange’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If any of our securities are delisted from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
| ● | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; |
| ● | reduced liquidity for our securities; |
| ● | a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; |
| ● | a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and |
| ● | a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or pre-empts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Our Units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants currently qualify as covered securities under such statute. Although the states are pre-empted from regulating the sale of covered securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities, which may negatively impact our ability to consummate our initial Business combination.
You will not be permitted to exercise your warrants unless we register and qualify the issuance of the underlying Class A ordinary shares or certain exemptions are available.
Pursuant to the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of our initial Business Combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file a registration statement covering the issuance of such shares, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial Business Combination and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the above requirements, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case, the number of Class A ordinary shares that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum amount of shares equal to 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment). However, no warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration is available. Notwithstanding the above, if our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our Private Placement Warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants that were included as part of the Units. In such an instance, our Sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the ordinary shares underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying ordinary shares. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise their warrants.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding public warrants.
Our warrants will be issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 65% 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 65% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem the outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant if, among other things, the last reported sale price of Class A ordinary shares for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders (the “Reference Value”) equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted). If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. Redemption of the outstanding warrants as described above could force you to: (1) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so; (2) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants; or (3) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, we expect would be substantially less than the market value of your warrants.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant if, among other things, the Reference Value equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted). In such a case, the holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of Class A ordinary shares determined based on the redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A ordinary shares. Any such redemption may have similar consequences to a cash redemption described above. In addition, such redemption may occur at a time when the warrants are “out-of-the-money,” in which case you would lose any potential embedded value from a subsequent increase in the value of the Class A ordinary shares had your warrants remained outstanding. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of ordinary shares received is capped at 0.361 Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.
In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the Class A ordinary shares. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to register the issuance of the security underlying the warrants within 15 business days of the closing of an initial business combination.
Our management’s ability to require holders of our Public Warrants to exercise such Public Warrants on a cashless basis will cause holders to receive fewer Class A ordinary shares upon their exercise of the Public Warrants than they would have received had they been able to exercise their public warrants for cash.
If we call our Public Warrants for redemption after the redemption criteria described elsewhere in this Annual Report have been satisfied, our management will have the option to require any holder that wishes to exercise its Warrant (including any warrants held by our sponsor, officers, directors or their permitted transferees) to do so on a “cashless basis.” If our management chooses to require holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, the number of Class A ordinary shares received by a holder upon exercise will be fewer than it would have been had such holder exercised his, her or its Warrant for cash. This will have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our Company.
Because each Unit contains one-third of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the Units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.
Each Unit contains one-third of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the Units, and only whole warrants will trade. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one whole warrant or a greater fraction of one whole warrant to purchase one 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 third of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive Business Combination partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this Unit structure may cause our Units to be worth less than if they included one whole warrant or a greater fraction of one whole warrant to purchase one whole share.
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 amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. 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.
The courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (1) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (2) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands Court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement 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 of 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.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include two-year director terms and the ability of our board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
General Risk Factors
We are a newly incorporated company with no operating history and no operating revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a newly incorporated company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial Business Combination with one or more target businesses. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a Business Combination and may be unable to complete our initial Business Combination. If we fail to complete our initial Business Combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operation 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.
Past performance by our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of any business that we may acquire.
Information regarding performance by our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee either (1) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial Business Combination or (2) of success with respect to any Business Combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team, Noble Rock Advisors or their respective affiliates or any related investment’s performance as indicative of our future performance of an investment in the company or the returns the company will, or is likely to, generate going forward.
We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a U.S. Holder of our 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 prior taxable year, our current taxable year, and our subsequent taxable years may depend upon the status of an acquired company pursuant to a 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. Additionally, even if we qualify for the start-up exception with respect to a given taxable year, there cannot be any assurance that we would not be a PFIC in other taxable years. Accordingly, there can be no assurances with respect to our status as a PFIC for our prior taxable year, our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for any taxable year, moreover, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. If we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, 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 with respect to its Class A ordinary shares, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would likely be unavailable with respect to our warrants in all cases. We urge U.S. Holders to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules to holders of our ordinary shares and warrants.
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 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 the end of any second quarter of a fiscal year, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the end of such fiscal year. 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 election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year or the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Our warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our warrants could have a material effect on our financial results.
On April 12, 2021, the staff of the SEC issued a public statement regarding the accounting and reporting considerations for warrants issued by special purpose acquisition companies entitled “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (’SPACs’)”. Specifically, the SEC Staff Statement focused on certain settlement terms and provisions related to certain tender offers following a business combination, which terms are similar to those contained in the warrant agreement governing our Warrants. As a result of the SEC Staff Statement, we reevaluated the accounting treatment of our 8,050,000 Public Warrants and 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants and determined to classify the Warrants as derivative liabilities measured at fair value, with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings.
As a result, included on our balance sheet as of December 31, 2021, contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are derivative liabilities related to embedded features contained within our Warrants. Accounting Standards Codification 815, Derivatives and Hedging, provides for the remeasurement of the fair value of such derivatives at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value being recognized in earnings in the statement of operations. As a result of the recurring fair value measurement, our financial statements and results of operations may fluctuate quarterly, based on factors, which are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we expect that we will recognize non-cash gains or losses on our warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material. The impact of changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting related to the accounting for our complex financial instruments. In light of the material weakness identified and the resulting restatement, although we have processes to identify and appropriately apply applicable accounting requirements, we plan to enhance our processes to identify and appropriately apply applicable accounting requirements to better evaluate and understand the nuances of the complex accounting standards that apply to our financial statements. Our plans at this time include providing enhanced access to accounting literature, research materials and documents and increased communication among our personnel and third-party professionals with whom we consult regarding complex accounting applications. The elements of our remediation plan can only be accomplished over time, and we can offer no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. We continue to evaluate steps to remediate the material weakness. These remediation measures may be time consuming and costly and there is no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.
A material weaknesses could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such a case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, our securities price may decline and we may face litigation as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
We may face litigation and other risks as a result of the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.
As a result of the material weaknesses we’ve identified, the changes in accounting for the warrants and for Class A ordinary shares subject to redemption, and other matters raised or that may in the future be raised by the SEC, we face potential for litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal and state securities laws, contractual claims or other claims arising from the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements. As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we have no knowledge of any such litigation or dispute. However, we can provide no assurance that such litigation or dispute will not arise in the future. Any such litigation or dispute, whether successful or not, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition or our ability to complete a business combination.
Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability continue as a “going concern.”
As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $868,000 cash in our operating bank account and working capital of approximately $1.0 million. Further, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans and will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of our initial Business Combination. In addition, we expect to have negative cash flows from operations as we pursue an initial Business Combination target. Management’s plans to address this need for capital through our initial Business Combination are discussed in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to consummate an initial business combination will be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this Annual Report do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate our initial Business Combination or our inability to continue as a going concern.
Item 1.B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
Item 2. Properties.
We currently maintain our executive offices at 4001 Kennett Pike, Suite 302, Wilmington, DE 19807. The cost for this space is included in the $30,000 per month fee that we pay our Sponsor for office space, administrative, financial and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
We are not currently subject to any material legal proceedings, nor, to our knowledge, is any material legal proceeding threatened against us or any of our officers or directors in their corporate capacity.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
None.
PART II.
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Our Units began trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market on February 2, 2021. Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one redeemable warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share. On March 24, 2021, we announced that holders of the Units may elect to separately trade the Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants included in the Units commencing on March 25, 2021. Any Units not separated continue to trade on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “NRACU.” Any underlying Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants that were separated trade on the The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbols “NRAC” and “NRACW,” respectively.
As of March 1, 2022, there was one holder of record of our Units, one holder of record of our separately traded Class A ordinary shares, and two holders of record of our redeemable warrants.
We have not paid any cash dividends on our Class A ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial Business Combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of our initial Business Combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial Business Combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any share dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our initial Business Combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
| (d) | Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans |
None.
The performance graph has been omitted as permitted under rules applicable to smaller reporting companies.
| (f) | Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings |
Unregistered Sales
On November 11, 2020, our Sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain expenses on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares (the “Founder Shares”). On February 1, 2021, the Company declared a stock dividend with respect to the Class B ordinary shares such that 0.05 Class B ordinary shares were issued for every one share of Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. The Sponsor agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 787,500 Founder Shares, on a pro rata basis, to the extent that the option to purchase additional units was not exercised in full by the underwriters, so that the Founder Shares would represent 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option; thus, these 787,500 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture.
Our Sponsor agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination or (ii) the date following the completion of the initial Business Combination on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of the shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, the Founder Shares will be released from the lockup.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.
Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one whole share of Class A ordinary shares at a price of $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants to the Sponsor was added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable for cash and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
The Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Private Placement Warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination.
Use of Proceeds
On February 4, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 24,150,000 Units at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $241.5 million. Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Oppenheimer & Co. and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. acted as joint book-running managers for the Initial Public Offering. The securities sold in the Initial Public Offering were registered under the Securities Act on a registration statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-252055). The SEC declared the registration statement effective on February 1, 2021.
Substantially concurrently with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $6.8 million.
In connection with the Initial Public Offering, we incurred offering costs of approximately $14.4 million (including deferred underwriting commissions of approximately $9.1 million). Other incurred offering costs consisted principally of preparation fees related to the Initial Public Offering. After deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions (excluding the deferred portion, which amount will be payable upon consummation of the initial Business Combination, if consummated) and the Initial Public Offering expenses, approximately $234.0 million of the net proceeds from our Initial Public Offering and certain of the proceeds from the private placement of the Private Placement Warrants (or $10.00 per Unit sold in the Initial Public Offering) was placed in the Trust Account and invested as described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
There has been no material change in the planned use of the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering and Private Placement as is described in the Company’s final prospectus related to the Initial Public Offering. For a description of the use of the proceeds generated from the Initial Public Offering, see “Item 1. Business.”
Item 6. [Reserved].
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
References to the “Company,” “our,” “us” or “we” refer to Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation. The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and the notes related thereto which are included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those set forth under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factor Summary,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on November 4, 2020. We were incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses that we have not yet identified (“Business Combination”).
Our sponsor is Noble Rock Sponsor LLC, a Cayman Island limited liability company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement for our Initial Public Offering was declared effective on February 1, 2021. On February 4, 2021, we consummated the Initial Public Offering of 24,150,000 units (the “Units” and, with respect to the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units being offered, the “Public Shares”), which includes 3,150,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments (the “Over-Allotment Units”), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $241.5 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $14.4 million. Of these offering costs, approximately $9.1 million and approximately $320,000 was for deferred underwriting commissions and deferred legal fees, respectively.
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we consummated the private placement (“Private Placement”) of 4,553,334 warrants (each, a “Private Placement Warrant” and collectively, the “Private Placement Warrants”), at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with our Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement, $241.5 million ($10.00 per Unit) of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and certain of the proceeds of the Private Placement were placed in a trust account (“Trust Account”) with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee and 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 of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations, as determined by us, until the earlier of: (i) the completion of a Business Combination and (ii) the distribution of the Trust Account as described below.
We intend to complete our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement of the Private Placement Warrants, our capital stock, debt or a combination of cash, stock and debt. The issuance of additional shares of our stock in a business combination:
| ● | may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares; |
| ● | may subordinate the rights of holders of our ordinary shares if preferred stock is issued with rights senior to those afforded our ordinary shares; |
| ● | could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our ordinary shares is issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; |
| ● | may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the stock ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and |
| ● | may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants. |
Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant debt to bank or other lenders or owners of a target, it could result in:
| ● | default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations; |
| ● | acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant; |
| ● | our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand; |
| ● | our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding; |
| ● | our inability to pay dividends on our ordinary shares; |
| ● | using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our ordinary shares if declared, our ability to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions, and fund other general corporate purposes; |
| ● | limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate; |
| ● | increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; |
| ● | limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, and execution of our strategy; and |
| ● | other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt. |
If we are unable to complete a Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, or February 4, 2023, (the “Combination Period”), we will (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 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 (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish Public Shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the remaining shareholders and the board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
Results of Operations
Our entire activity since November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2021 related to our formation, the preparation for the Public Offering, and since the closing of the Public Offering, the search for a prospective initial business combination. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. We will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We generate non-operating income in the form of gains on investment (net), dividends and interest held in trust account. We will incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, we had net income of approximately $9.4 million, which consisted of $11.5 million for a change in the fair value of derivative warrant liabilities, approximately $26,000 of income from investments held in the Trust Account, offset by approximately $769,000 of financing costs and approximately $1.3 million of general and administrative expenses.
For the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, we had a net loss of approximately $31,000, which consisted solely of general and administrative expenses.
Liquidity and Going Concern
As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $868,000 cash in our operating bank account and working capital of approximately $1.0 million.
Through December 31, 2021, our liquidity needs had been satisfied through a payment of $25,000 from our Sponsor to cover for certain expenses in exchange for the issuance of the Founder Shares and the loan of $45,000 from our Sponsor pursuant to the Note. Subsequent to the closing of the Initial Public Offering and Private Placement, the proceeds from the Private Placement not held in the Trust Account will be used to satisfy our liquidity. Including amounts borrowed subsequent to December 31, 2020, we borrowed a total of approximately $195,000 through the Note and we repaid the Note in full on February 5, 2021. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor, or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide us Working Capital Loans. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loan.
Based on the foregoing, management believes that we will have sufficient working capital and borrowing capacity from our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor, or certain of our officers and directors to meet its needs through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or one year from this filing. Over this time period, we will be using these funds for paying existing accounts payable, our monthly fees under the Administrative Services Agreement with our Sponsor, identifying and evaluating prospective initial Business Combination candidates, performing due diligence, including related travel costs, on prospective target businesses, selecting the target business to merge with or acquire, and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
However, in connection with the assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standard Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 205-40, “Presentation of Financial Statements – Going Concern,” we have until February 4, 2023 to consummate a Business Combination. It is uncertain that we will be able to consummate a Business Combination by this time. If a Business Combination is not consummated by this date, there will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution of the Company. Management has determined that the mandatory liquidation, should a Business Combination not occur, and potential subsequent dissolution raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should we be required to liquidate after February 4, 2023.
Related Party Transactions
Founder Shares
On November 11, 2020, the initial shareholders paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain expenses on our behalf in exchange for issuance of 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares (the “Founder Shares”). On February 1, 2021, we declared a stock dividend with respect to the Class B ordinary shares such that 0.05 Class B ordinary shares were issued for each share of Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. The initial shareholders agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 787,500 Founder Shares, on a pro rata basis, to the extent that the option to purchase additional units was not exercised in full by the underwriters, so that the Founder Shares would represent 20% of our issued and outstanding shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option; thus, these 787,500 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture.
The Initial Shareholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination or (ii) the date following the completion of the initial Business Combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of the shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, the Founder Shares will be released from the lockup.
Private Placement Warrants
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we consummated the Private Placement of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with our Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.
Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one whole share of Class A ordinary shares at a price of $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants to our Sponsor was added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If we do not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable for cash and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Our Sponsor and our officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Private Placement Warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination.
Related Party Loans
On November 11, 2020, our Sponsor agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for the payment of costs related to the Initial Public Offering pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). The Note was non-interest bearing, unsecured and due upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. As of December 31, 2020, we borrowed $45,000 under the Note. As of February 4, 2021, we had a cumulative borrowing of $195,000. We repaid the Note in full on February 5, 2021.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, our Sponsor, members of our founding team or any of their affiliates may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If we complete a Business Combination, we will repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to us. Otherwise, the Working Capital Loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the Trust Account. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, we may use a portion of proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. The Working Capital Loans would either be repaid upon consummation of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the lenders’ discretion, up to $1.5 million of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we had no borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.
Administrative Support Agreement
Commencing on the date that our securities were first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of the initial Business Combination and the liquidation, we agreed to pay our Sponsor a total of $30,000 per month for office space, administrative, financial and support services. For the year ended December 31, 2021, we incurred expenses under this agreement of $330,000, included as general and administrative expenses on the statements of operations. There were no expenses incurred for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020. As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts payable for these services.
In addition, our Sponsor, directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our Sponsor, directors, officers or any of their affiliates.
Contractual Obligations
Registration Rights
The initial shareholders and holders of the Private Placement Warrants are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement. The initial shareholders and holders of the Private Placement Warrants are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form registration demands, that we register such securities for sale under the Securities Act. In addition, these holders have “piggy-back” registration rights to include their securities in other registration statements filed by us. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Underwriting Agreement
We granted the underwriters a 45-day option from the date of the prospectus to purchase up to 3,150,000 additional Units at the Initial Public Offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option.
The underwriters were entitled to an underwriting discount of $0.20 per unit, or approximately $4.8 million in the aggregate, paid upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.375 per unit, or approximately $9.1 million in the aggregate will be payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that we complete a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement. In addition, the underwriters paid to us an amount equal to 0.25% of the offering gross proceeds, or $603,750 in the aggregate to reimburse certain expenses in connection with the Initial Public Offering.
Deferred Legal Fees
We engaged a legal counsel firm for legal advisory services, and the firm agreed to defer their fees in excess of $250,000 (“Deferred Legal Fees”). The deferred fee will become payable in the event that we complete a Business Combination. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we recorded $604,749 and $113,000 in deferred legal fees, respectively.
Critical Accounting Policies
This management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to fair value of financial instruments and accrued expenses. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
Investments held in Trust Account
Our portfolio of investments is comprised of U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less, or investments in money market funds that invest in U.S. government securities and generally have a readily determinable fair value, or a combination thereof. When our investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of U.S. government securities, the investments are classified as trading securities. When our investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of money market funds, the investments are recognized at fair value. Trading securities and investments in money market funds are presented on the balance sheets at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities is included in income on investments held in the Trust Account in the accompanying statement of operations. The estimated fair values of investments held in the Trust Account are determined using available market information.
Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
We account for our Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity (“ASC 480”).” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within our control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. Our Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of our control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, 24,150,000 and 0 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ equity section of our balance sheets.
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Immediately upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering, we recognized the remeasurement from initial book value to redemption amount value. The change in the carrying value of redeemable Class A ordinary shares resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit.
Derivative Warrant Liabilities
We do not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market, or foreign currency risks. We evaluate all of our financial instruments, including issued warrants to purchase ordinary shares, to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives, pursuant to ASC 480 and FASB ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”), Embedded Derivatives (“ASC 815-15”). The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is re-assessed at the end of each reporting period.
The warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering (the “Public Warrants”) and the Private Placement Warrants are recognized as derivative liabilities in accordance with ASC 815-40, Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (“ASC 815-40”). Accordingly, we recognize the warrant instruments as liabilities at fair value and adjusts the instruments to fair value at each reporting period. The liabilities are subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date until exercised, and any change in fair value is recognized in our statement of operations. The fair value of the Public Warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering were initially measured at fair value using a Monte Carlo simulation model. Subsequently, the fair value of the Public Warrants has been determined based on the observable listed trading price for such warrants. The fair value of the Private Placement Warrants has initially and subsequently been measured at fair value using a Black-Scholes Merton (BSM) model.
Offering Costs Associated with the Initial Public Offering
Offering costs consisted of legal, accounting, underwriting fees and other costs incurred through the Initial Public Offering that were directly related to the Initial Public Offering. Offering costs are allocated to the separable financial instruments issued in the Initial Public Offering based on a relative fair value basis, compared to total proceeds received. Offering costs associated with warrant liabilities are expensed as incurred, presented as non-operating expenses in the statement of operations. Offering costs associated with the Class A ordinary shares were charged to the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption. We classify deferred underwriting commissions as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.
Net Income Per Ordinary Share
We comply with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” We have two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. Net income per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period.
The calculation of diluted net income does not consider the effect of the warrants underlying the Units sold in the Initial Public Offering and the private placement warrants to purchase an aggregate of 11,775,540 shares of Class A ordinary shares in the calculation of diluted income per share, because exercise is contingent upon future events. The number of weighted average Class B ordinary shares for calculating basic net income per ordinary share was reduced for the effect of an aggregate of 787,500 Class B ordinary shares that were subject to forfeiture if the over-allotment option was not exercised in full or part by the underwriters. Since the contingency was satisfied as of September 30, 2021, we included these shares in the weighted average number as of the beginning of the period to determine the dilutive impact of these shares. Remeasurement associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging-Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. We adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of the ASU did not impact our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
We do not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards if currently adopted would have a material effect on our financial statements.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements and Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations.
JOBS Act
On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We qualify as an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act and are allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We elected to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
As an “emerging growth company”, we are not required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis), and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the CEO’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our initial public offering or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging-Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. We adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of the ASU did not impact our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Our management does not believe there are any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, that would have a material effect on our financial statements.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this Item.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
Reference is made to Pages F-1 through F-20 comprising a portion of this Report.
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.
Item 9.A. Controls and Procedures.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in our Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer has concluded that during the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2021, because of a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, the Company’s management has concluded that our control around the interpretation and accounting for certain complex features of the Class A ordinary shares and warrants issued by the Company was not effectively designed or maintained. This material weakness resulted in the restatement of the Company’s balance sheet as of February 4, 2021, and its interim financial statements for the quarters ended March 31, 2021 and June 30, 2021. Additionally, this material weakness could result in a misstatement of the warrant liability, Class A ordinary shares and related accounts and disclosures that would result in a material misstatement of the financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Internal Control over Financial Reporting
As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:
(1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company,
(2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and
(3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2021. In making these assessments, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013). Based on our assessments and those criteria, management determined that our internal controls over financial reporting were not effective as of December 31, 2021, because of material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. Specifically, our management has concluded that our control around the interpretation and accounting for complex financial instruments issued by the Company was not effectively designed or maintained. This material weakness resulted in the misstatement of the Company’s balance sheet as of February 4, 2021, and its interim financial statements for the quarters ended March 31, 2021, June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2021.
This Report does not include an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to our status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the three months ended December 31, 2021 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting except for the below:
The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer performed additional accounting and financial analyses and other post-closing procedures including consulting with subject matter experts related to the accounting for certain complex features of the Class A ordinary shares and warrants. The Company’s management has expended, and will continue to expend, a substantial amount of effort and resources for the remediation and improvement of our internal control over financial reporting. While we have processes to properly identify and evaluate the appropriate accounting technical pronouncements and other literature for all significant or unusual transactions, we have expanded and will continue to improve these processes to ensure that the nuances of such transactions are effectively evaluated in the context of the increasingly complex accounting standards.
Item 9.B. Other Information.
None.
Item 9.C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.
Not applicable.
PART III.
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
Our current directors and executive officers are as follows:
Name | | Age | | Title |
Whitney A. Bower | | 56 | | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman |
Pete Low | | 53 | | Chief Financial Officer and Director |
Michael D. Alter | | 54 | | Director |
David Habiger | | 53 | | Director |
David Lang | | 55 | | Director |
Aemish Shah | | 36 | | Director |
Whitney A. Bower has served as our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman since November 2020. Mr. Bower is the Founder and Managing Partner of Noble Rock Advisors, an independent sponsor of mid-market growth and private equity investments in the technology sector. Mr. Bower currently serves as a Director of NAVEX Inc., and an advisor to BC Partners, Cortex Building Intelligence, and Inflexion Private Equity. Prior to founding Noble Rock Advisors, Mr. Bower founded and managed 3i’s top quartile US private equity business and held roles on the firm’s Global Investment and Compliance Committees. Mr. Bower built his track record as a principal and deal lead at Geocapital Partners and Bain Capital Ventures where he led 10 investments in the US and Europe. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bower was Director of Marketing at internet software company, Open Market Inc (NASDAQ: OMKT), and Manager of Strategy & Business Development with Fortune 500 media company, Times Mirror (NYSE: TMC). Mr. Bower graduated from Harvard College and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is a former United States Peace Corps Volunteer and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. We believe Mr. Bower is well-qualified to serve on our board of directors based on his deep expertise in investing in technology companies in the software and tech-enabled services sectors, and his experience serving as advisor to companies in these sectors.
Pete Low, CPA, CA, ICD.D, has served as our Chief Financial Officer since November 2020 and as a director since January 2021. Mr. Low is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Saba Software Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based learning and talent management solutions for mid and large size enterprises around the globe. In April 2020, Saba Software was acquired by one of their primary competitors in the space, Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD), for approximately $1.3 billion. Prior to Saba Software, Mr. Low was the Chief Financial Officer of Halogen Software Inc., a leading provider of performance management solutions for small and medium size enterprises. Halogen Software was a publicly traded company before being acquired by Saba Software in May 2017. During his approximately 14 year tenure at both Halogen and Saba, Mr. Low oversaw the transition of an on-premise to cloud-based business, raised capital from a leading private equity firm, completed an initial public offering, acquired a European-based recruiting company, and expanded the business globally to serving over 3,000 customers in approximately 180 countries and 22 offices around the world. Prior to Halogen, Mr. Low was co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Axis Capital Corporation, a privately held, early stage venture capital business, managing both private capital as well as a public investment fund. Over the six years at Axis, he made investments in early-stage software companies and realized two successful portfolio exits to both Microsoft and IBM, before selling Axis to another venture capital fund in April 2006. Prior to Axis, Mr. Low was a senior tax manager at Deloitte LLP in the technology group. Mr. Low obtained his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Mount Allison University, regularly named as one of Canada’s top undergraduate schools. Mr. Low obtained his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation in 1994 and his ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors in 2015. Mr. Low has served on numerous private and not-for-profit boards both as a Director and as an Audit Chair. We believe Mr. Low is well-qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his public company and M&A experience, his close relationships with the venture capital and private equity community, and his governance credentials from both serving on boards and his ICD.D designation.
Michael D. Alter has served as a director since January 2021. Mr. Alter is a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Mr. Alter was the Executive Chairman (and former Interim CEO) of Vanco, a leading provider of electronic payment solutions to the faith-based and K-12 education communities. In 2013, he joined the board of The Tie Bar, LLC, a leading e-commerce destination for stylish men’s accessories, and served as the Chief Executive Officer until 2016. Prior to The Tie Bar, Mr. Alter was a co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll, a SaaS technology company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex. Mr. Alter co-founded SurePayroll in 2000 after six years as a Consultant with McKinsey and Company. Prior to receiving his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, Mr. Alter worked in various sales positions at IBM. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University. Mr. Alter is an active board and advisory board member for leading growth stage technology companies including: Vanco and First Stop Health, a leading telemedicine services company. Mr. Alter is a past recipient of the Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS CEO of the Year Award, and has been a nationally recognized spokesman on business issues, having served as a columnist for INC.com and appeared regularly in media outlets nationwide, including Bloomberg TV and the Wall Street Journal. We believe Mr. Alter is well qualified to serve on our board of directors based on his extensive experience growing, operating, and advising growth stage technology companies combined with his experience serving larger organizations for McKinsey and Company.
| 1 | To be updated based on D&O Questionnaires/confirmations. |
David Habiger has served as a director since January 2021. Mr. Habiger has also served as President and CEO of J.D. Power, a market research and data analytics company, since March 2018. Mr. Habiger previously served as CEO of Textura Corporation (NYSE: TXTR), a software company focused on construction management, from April 2015 through its sale to Oracle in June 2016. From July 2011 until its sale to Cisco Systems in August 2012, Mr. Habiger served as the CEO of NDS Group Ltd., a provider of video software and content security solutions. From 2005 until its sale to Rovi Corporation in 2011, Mr. Habiger served as President and CEO of Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC), a digital media software company. Mr. Habiger currently serves on the board of directors of Xperi Corporation, an intellectual property licensing company. Mr. Habiger also serves on the boards of directors of several private companies, and is Chairman of Sovos Compliance, a leading enterprise tax compliance software provider. Mr. Habiger is a director at the Chicago Federal Reserve and serves on the SABOR (Systems Activities, Bank Operations, and Risk) Committee and the Governance & HR Committee for the Federal Reserve. During the past five years, Mr. Habiger served as a public company board member of Enova, Control 4, Immersion Corporation, RealD, Inc., DTS, Inc., Echo Global, Stamps.com, GrubHub and Textura Corporation. Mr. Habiger received a B.B.A. in business administration from St. Norbert College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. We believe Mr. Habiger is well-qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive experience with the growth and development of technology companies, including service as a CEO at public and private companies.
David Lang has served as a director since January 2021. Mr. Lang is a private equity investor who specializes in healthcare services, healthcare technology and software/services sectors. He began his career as a financial analyst at Merrill Lynch, then moved to TA Associates as a software associate in 1990. Mr. Lang spent 25 years at TA Associates in various roles, including Managing Director in its healthcare team. At TA Associates, Mr. Lang led investments in numerous companies, including One Call Medical, TARGUSinfo, American Access Care, Alma Lasers, Intercontinental Exchange, National Imaging Associates, MQ Associates, Medsolutions/Evicore and Lawson Software. Mr. Lang is Chairman of the Board of Lahey Hospital and Medical Clinic, Director at American Endovascular, Alumni Ventures Group, Clearview Dermatology, Lexington Medical, Earthwatch Institute, and Community Action Partners. Mr. Lang graduated from Harvard College in 1989 and Harvard Business School in 1995. We believe Mr. Lang is well-qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his experience in the healthcare industry and his contacts and relationships.
Aemish Shah has served as a director since January 2021. Mr. Shah is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of General Global Capital (“GenGlobal”), a growth-stage technology investment firm focused on software and financial technology companies with notable investments that include Carta, SpaceX, SoFi, Impossible Foods, Digital Ocean, Rubrik, Grab Inc, Figure Technologies, CaaStle, Avant/Amount and Postmates. Mr. Shah has over fifteen years of experience as a technology investor and financial services banker. Over the course of his career, he has worked on over twenty successful M&A transactions with an aggregate value of over five billion dollars. Mr. Shah has also served on numerous non-profit boards and currently works with TeacherCraft, an EdTech non-profit focused on professional development. Prior to co-founding GenGlobal, Mr. Shah was a Partner at Grail Partners, a leading merchant bank focused on principal investing and advisory services in the financial services industry. While at Grail, Mr. Shah invested in and advised over a dozen companies. In this role, he assisted companies in raising capital, served as a board advisor and worked closely with company management to run finance and operations. Mr. Shah began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Associate in the financial advisory practice. At PwC, he focused on banking & capital markets, risk management, and also served as a member of the Firm’s Management Advisory Committee. Mr. Shah graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. We believe Mr. Shah is well qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience in investing in technology companies and in the financial services industry.
Director Independence
Nasdaq listing rules require that a majority of our board of directors be independent within one year of our Initial Public Offering. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We have four “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our board has determined that each of Michael D. Alter, David Habiger, David Lang and Aemish Shah is an independent director under applicable SEC and Nasdaq rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Number, Terms of Office and Election of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of six members. Prior to our initial Business Combination, holders of our founder shares will have the right to appoint all of our directors and remove members of the board of directors for any reason, and holders of our public shares will not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares attending and voting in a general meeting. Each of our directors will hold office for a two-year term. Subject to any other special rights applicable to the shareholders, any vacancies on our board of directors may be filled by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present and voting at the meeting of our board of directors or by a majority of the holders of our ordinary shares (or, prior to our initial Business Combination, holders of our founder shares).
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint persons to the offices set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association as it deems appropriate. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that our officers may consist of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, a President, a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, Vice Presidents, a Secretary, Assistant Secretaries, a Treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has three standing committees — an audit committee in compliance with Section 3(a)(58)(A) of the Exchange Act, a compensation committee and a nominating committee, each comprised of independent directors. Under Nasdaq listing rule 5615(b)(1), a company listing in connection with its initial public offering is permitted to phase in its compliance with the independent committee requirements. We do not intend to rely on the phase-in schedules set forth in Nasdaq listing rule 5615(b)(1).
Audit Committee
The members of our audit committee are Aemish Shah, Michael D. Alter and David Lang. Aemish Shah serves as chair of the audit committee.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that each of Aemish Shah and David Lang qualify as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the purpose and principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| ● | assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent registered public accounting firm’s qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent registered public accounting firm; |
| ● | the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us; |
| ● | pre-approving all audit and non-audit services to be provided by the independent registered public accounting firm or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures; |
| ● | reviewing and discussing with the independent registered public accounting firm all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence; |
| ● | setting clear hiring policies for employees or former employees of the independent registered public accounting firm; |
| ● | setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; |
| ● | obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent registered public accounting firm describing (1) the independent registered public accounting firm’s internal quality-control procedures and (2) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities, within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues; |
| ● | meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent registered public accounting firm, including reviewing our specific disclosures under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”; |
| ● | reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and |
| ● | reviewing with management, the independent registered public accounting firm, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. |
Compensation Committee
The members of our compensation committee are David Lang, David Habiger and Aemish Shah. David Lang serves as chair of the compensation committee.
We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the purpose and responsibility of the compensation committee, including:
| ● | reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation; |
| ● | reviewing and making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive-compensation and equity-based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers; |
| ● | reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans; |
| ● | implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| ● | assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| ● | approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees; |
| ● | producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and |
| ● | reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors. |
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and is directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
The members of our nominating and corporate governance committee are Michael D. Alter, David Habiger and Aemish Shah. Michael D. Alter serves as chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee.
We have adopted a nominating and corporate governance committee charter, which details the purpose and responsibilities of the nominating and corporate governance committee, including:
| ● | identifying, screening and reviewing individuals qualified to serve as directors, consistent with criteria approved by the board of directors, and recommending to the board of directors candidates for nomination for appointment at the annual general meeting or to fill vacancies on the board of directors; |
| ● | developing and recommending to the board of directors and overseeing implementation of our corporate governance guidelines; |
| ● | coordinating and overseeing the annual self-evaluation of the board of directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the company; and |
| ● | reviewing on a regular basis our overall corporate governance and recommending improvements as and when necessary. |
The charter also provides that the nominating and corporate governance committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of, and terminate, any search firm to be used to identify director candidates, and is directly responsible for approving the search firm’s fees and other retention terms.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, the board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our shareholders. Prior to our initial Business Combination, holders of our public shares will not have the right to recommend director candidates for nomination to our board of directors.
Code of Ethics
We have adopted a code of ethics and business conduct (our “Code of Ethics”) applicable to our directors, officers and employees. We have filed a copy of our form of our Code of Ethics as an exhibit to our Annual Report. We have also posted a copy of our Code of Ethics and the charters of our audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee on our website www.noblerockacquisitioncorp.com under “Governance.” Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this Annual Report. You are able to review these documents by accessing our public filings at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
| ● | duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be in the best interests of the company as a whole; |
| ● | duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose; |
| ● | duty to not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion; |
| ● | duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders; |
| ● | duty not to put themselves in a position in which there is a conflict between their duty to the company and their personal interests; and |
| ● | duty to exercise independent judgment. |
In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care, which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge, skill and experience which that director has.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders; provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.
Our management team, in their capacities as directors, officers or employees of our Sponsor or its affiliates or in their other endeavors, may choose to present potential Business Combinations to the related entities described above, current or future entities affiliated with or managed by our Sponsor, or third parties, before they present such opportunities to us, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law and any other applicable fiduciary duties.
Our directors and officers presently have, 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 entity. Accordingly, if any of our directors or officers becomes aware of a Business Combination opportunity that is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may need to honor these fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such Business Combination opportunity to such entity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other . Our directors and officers are also not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential Business Combinations and monitoring the related due diligence.
We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our directors or officers will materially affect our ability to identify and pursue Business Combination opportunities or complete our initial Business Combination.
Potential investors should also be aware of the following potential conflicts of interest:
| ● | None of our directors or officers is required to commit his or her full time to our affairs and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating his or her time among various business activities. |
| ● | In the course of their other business activities, our directors and officers may become aware of investment and business opportunities that may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as the other entities with which they are affiliated. Our management may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. For a complete description of our management’s other affiliations, see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officer and Corporate Governance.” |
| ● | Our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with the consummation of our initial Business Combination. Additionally, our initial shareholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares if we fail to consummate our initial Business Combination within 24 months after the closing of the Initial Public Offering. However, if our initial shareholders (or any of our directors, officers or affiliates) acquire public shares, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such public shares if we fail to consummate our initial Business Combination within the prescribed time frame. If we do not complete our initial Business Combination within such applicable time period, the proceeds of the sale of the Private Placement Warrants held in the Trust Account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. With certain limited exceptions, the founder shares will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our initial shareholders until the earlier of: (1) one year after the completion of our initial Business Combination; and (2) subsequent to our initial Business Combination (x) if the last reported sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share dividends, rights issuances, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial Business Combination or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. With certain limited exceptions, the Private Placement Warrants and the ordinary shares underlying such warrants, will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our Sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial Business Combination. Since our Sponsor and directors and officers will directly or indirectly own ordinary shares and warrants following the Initial Public Offering, our directors and officers may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial Business Combination. |
| ● | Our directors and officers may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular Business Combination. 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 to proceed with a particular Business Combination. |
| ● | Our directors and officers may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular Business Combination if the retention or resignation of any such directors and officers was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial Business Combination. |
The conflicts described above may not be resolved in our favor.
Accordingly, as a result of multiple business affiliations, our directors and officers have similar legal obligations relating to presenting business opportunities meeting the above-listed criteria to multiple entities. Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our directors and officers currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations:
Individual | | Entity | | Entity’s Business | | Affiliation |
Whitney A. Bower | | Noble Rock Advisors, Inc. | | Investment Firm | | Founder/Managing Partner |
| | BC Partners LLP | | Investment Firm | | Advisor |
| | Cortex Building Intelligence, Inc. | | IT Services | | Advisor |
| | Inflexion Private Equity | | Investment Firm | | Advisor |
| | NAVEX Inc. | | Software | | Director |
Pete Low | | N/A | | N/A | | N/A |
Michael D. Alter | | The University of Chicago | | Education | | Clinical Professor |
| | Vanco Payment Solutions Inc. | | Technology | | Director |
| | MAX Digital, LLC | | Technology | | Director |
| | First Stop Health, LLC | | Medical Services | | Director |
| | Quevos | | Consumer Goods | | Director |
| | Pippin Title | | Real Estate Software | | Director |
| | Wavecrest Growth Partners | | Investment Firm | | Advisor |
David Habiger | | J.D. Power & Associates | | Market Research | | President & CEO |
| | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago | | Federal Bank | | Director |
| | Xperi Corporation | | IP Licensing | | Director |
| | Sovos Compliance | | Tax Compliance Software | | Chairman |
David Lang | | Lahey Hospital and Medical Clinic | | Healthcare | | Chairman |
| | American Endovascular | | Healthcare | | Director |
| | Alumni Ventures Group | | Investment Firm | | Director |
| | Clearview Dermatology | | Healthcare | | Director |
| | Earthwatch Institute | | Environmental Nonprofit | | Director |
| | Community Action Partners | | Nonprofit | | Director |
| | Lexington Medical | | Healthcare | | Director |
| | Noble Rock Advisors, Inc. | | Investment Firm | | Advisor |
| | Wavecrest Growth Partners | | Investment Firm | | Advisor |
| | Schernecker Property Services | | Contractor | | Advisor |
Aemish Shah | | General Global Capital | | Investment Firm | | Managing Partner & Co-Founder |
�� | | Grail Partners | | Investment Firm | | Partner |
| | PricewaterhouseCoopers | | Financial Advisory | | Senior Associate |
| | TeacherCraft | | Nonprofit | | Advisor |
Accordingly, if any of the above directors or officers become aware of a Business Combination opportunity which is suitable for any of the above entities to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such Business Combination opportunity to such entity, and only present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) no individual serving as a director or an officer shall have any duty, except and to the extent expressly assumed by contract, to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; and (ii) we renounce any interest or expectancy in, or in being offered an opportunity to participate in, any potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for any director or officer, on the one hand, and us, on the other . We do not believe, however, that any of the foregoing fiduciary duties or contractual obligations will materially affect our ability to identify and pursue Business Combination opportunities or complete our initial Business Combination.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial Business Combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, directors or officers. In the event we seek to complete our initial Business Combination with such a company, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that such an initial Business Combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
In addition, our Sponsor or any of its affiliates may make additional investments in the company in connection with the initial Business Combination, although our Sponsor and its affiliates have no obligation or current intention to do so. If our Sponsor or any of its affiliates elects to make additional investments, such proposed investments could influence our Sponsor’s motivation to complete an initial Business Combination.
In the event that we submit our initial Business Combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our initial shareholders, directors and officers have agreed, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote any founder shares (and their permitted transferees will agree) and public shares held by them in favor of our initial Business Combination.
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
None of our directors or officers have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date that our securities are first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of our initial Business Combination and our liquidation, we will pay our Sponsor a total of $30,000 per month for office space, administrative, financial and support services. Other than as described herein, no compensation of any kind, including any finder’s fee, reimbursement or consulting fee, will be paid by us to our Sponsor, officers and directors, or any affiliate of our Sponsor or officers, prior to, or in connection with any services rendered in order to effectuate, the consummation of our initial Business Combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). However, our Sponsor, directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our Sponsor, directors, officers or our or any of their affiliates.
On December 31, 2020, each of our directors (or their affiliates), officers and advisors together with certain third-party investors, including our anchor investor, entered into an amended and restated limited liability company agreement (the “Sponsor LLC Agreement”) of our Sponsor, Noble Rock Sponsor LLC.
Pursuant to the Sponsor LLC Agreement, certain of our directors (or their affiliates), officers and advisors made capital contributions to our Sponsor in exchange for membership interests in our Sponsor in an aggregate amount of $25,000, with respect to the issuance of 6,037,500 of our founder shares to our Sponsor. In addition, certain of our directors (or their affiliates), officers and the third-party investors, including our anchor investor, agreed to make certain at-risk capital contributions up to an aggregate amount of $6,830,000, the proceeds of which were used by our Sponsor to purchase the Private Placement Warrants. Such persons also agreed to make additional capital contributions to our Sponsor upon request.
Upon or after the consummation of our initial Business Combination and as determined by members of our Sponsor, our directors (or their affiliates), officers and advisors and the third-party investors are entitled to receive distributions of the assets of our Sponsor in accordance with such persons’ then respective economic interests in our Sponsor.
After the completion of our initial Business Combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other compensation from the combined company. All compensation will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed Business Combination. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our officers after the completion of our initial Business Combination will be determined by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors.
We are not party to any agreements with our directors and officers that provide for benefits upon termination of employment. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business, and we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial Business Combination should be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential Business Combination.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters.
The following table sets forth information available to us at March 1, 2022 with respect to the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares held by:
| ● | each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares; |
| ● | each of our directors and executive officers that beneficially owns ordinary shares; and |
| ● | all our directors and executive officers as a group. |
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the Private Placement Warrants as these warrants are not exercisable within 60 days of March 1, 2022.
| | Class A Ordinary Shares | | | Class B Ordinary Shares(1) | |
| | Beneficially Owned | | | Approximate
Percentage of Class Issued and Outstanding Ordinary Shares | | | Beneficially Owned | | | Approximate Percentage of Class Issued and Outstanding Ordinary Shares | |
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner (2) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Noble Rock Sponsor LLC (our Sponsor)(3) | | | — | | | | — | | | | 6,037,500 | | | | 20.0 | % |
Whitney A. Bower(3) | | | — | | | | — | | | | 6,037,500 | | | | 20.0 | % |
Peter Low | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
Michael D. Alter | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
David Habiger | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
David Lang | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
Aemish Shah | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
Periscope Capital Inc.(4) | | | 1,312,808 | | | | 5.44 | % | | | | | | | | |
Glazer Capital, LLC(5) | | | 1,304,104 | | | | 5.40 | % | | | | | | | | |
All directors and executive officers as a group (6 individuals) | | | — | | | | — | | | | 6,037,500 | | | | 20.0 | % |
| (1) | Class B ordinary shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in Exhibit 4.2 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. |
| (2) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following entities or individuals is c/o Maples Fiduciary Services (Delaware) Inc., 4001 Kennett Pike, Suite 302, Wilmington, DE 19807. |
| (3) | Noble Rock Sponsor LLC, our Sponsor, is the record holder of the Class B ordinary shares reported herein. Our officers and directors (or their affiliates) are members of our Sponsor. Whitney A. Bower may be deemed to beneficially own shares held by our Sponsor by virtue of his control over our Sponsor. Other than Whitney A. Bower, no member of our Sponsor exercises voting or dispositive control over any of the shares held by our Sponsor. Accordingly, none of them will be deemed to have or share beneficial ownership of such shares. |
| (4) | According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 14, 2022, Periscope Capital Inc. is the beneficial owner of 975,908 Class A ordinary shares, and acts as investment manager of, and exercises investment discretion with respect to, certain private investment funds that collectively directly own 336,900 Class A ordinary shares of the Company. The business address for Periscope Capital Inc. is 333 Bay Street, Suite 1240, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 2R2. |
| (5) | According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 14, 2022, each of Glazer Capital, LLC and Paul J. Glazer, shares voting and dispositive power with regard to 1,304,104 Class A ordinary shares of the Company. The business address for each is 250 West 55th Street, Suite 30A, New York, New York 10019. |
Our initial shareholders beneficially own approximately 20.0% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares and have the right to elect all of our directors prior to our initial Business Combination as a result of holding all of the founder shares. Holders of our public shares will not have the right to appoint any directors to our board of directors prior to our initial Business Combination. In addition, because of their ownership block, our initial shareholders may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all other matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of significant corporate transactions.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
Founder Shares
On November 11, 2020, our Sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain expenses on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 5,750,000 Founder Shares. On February 1, 2021, the Company declared a stock dividend with respect to the Class B ordinary shares such that 0.05 Class B ordinary shares were issued for every one share of Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. The initial shareholders agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 787,500 Founder Shares, on a pro rata basis, to the extent that the option to purchase additional units was not exercised in full by the underwriters, so that the Founder Shares would represent 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option; thus, these 787,500 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture.
The Initial Shareholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination or (ii) the date following the completion of the initial Business Combination on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of the shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, the Founder Shares will be released from the lockup.
Private Placement Warrants
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.
Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one whole share of Class A ordinary shares at a price of $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants to the Sponsor was added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable for cash and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
The Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Private Placement Warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination.
If we do not complete an initial Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Public Offering, the proceeds of the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, subject to the requirements of applicable law, and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless.
Registration Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants, and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants or warrants issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans and upon conversion of the Founder Shares) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement signed upon the effective date of the Initial Public Offering. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Related Party Notes
On November 11, 2020, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $300,000 to be used for the payment of costs related to the Initial Public Offering pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). The Note was non-interest bearing, unsecured and due upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. As of February 4, 2021, the Company borrowed $195,000 under the Note. The Company repaid the Note in full on February 5, 2021.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor, members of the Company’s founding team or any of their affiliates may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company would repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to the Company. Otherwise, the Working Capital Loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the Trust Account. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. The Working Capital Loans would either be repaid upon consummation of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the lenders’ discretion, up to $1.5 million of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had no borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.
Administrative Agreement
Commencing on the date that the Company’s securities were first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of the initial Business Combination and the liquidation, the Company agreed to pay the Sponsor a total of $30,000 per month for office space, administrative, financial and support services.
In addition, the Sponsor, directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on the Company’s behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. The Company’s audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to the Sponsor, directors, officers or the Company’s or any of their affiliates.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
The following is a summary of fees incurred to Marcum LLP, for services rendered.
Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees for professional services rendered for the audit for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 financial statements, reviews of our quarterly financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings. The aggregate fees incurred by Marcum LLP for audit fees, inclusive of required filings with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, and of services rendered in connection with our initial public offering, totaled approximately $107,000 and $15,000, respectively.
Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit of our year-end financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay Marcum LLP any audit-related fees for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020.
Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice. We did not pay Marcum LLP any tax fees for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020.
All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. We did not pay Marcum LLP any other fees for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020.
PART IV.
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
| (a) | The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K: Financial Statements: See “Item 8. Index to Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” herein. |
| (b) | Exhibits: The exhibits listed in the accompanying index to exhibits are filed or incorporated by reference as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. |
No. | | Description of Exhibit |
3.1(1) | | Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company. |
4.1(1) | | Warrant Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent. |
4.2* | | Description of the Company’s securities. |
10.1(1) | | Letter Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, among the Company, the Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors. |
10.2(1) | | Investment Management Trust Agreement, February 1, 2021, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as trustee. |
10.3(1) | | Registration Rights Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, among the Company, the Sponsor and certain other security holders named therein. |
10.4(1) | | Administrative Services Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and the Sponsor. |
10.5(1) | | Sponsor Warrants Purchase Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and the Sponsor. |
10.6(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and Whitney A. Bower. |
10.7(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and Pete Low. |
10.8(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021 , between the Company and Michael D. Alter. |
10.9(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and David Habiger. |
10.10(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and David Lang. |
10.11(2) | | Indemnity Agreement, dated February 1, 2021, between the Company and Aemish Shah. |
14.01(2) | | Code of Ethics and Business Conduct of Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation. |
31.1* | | Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
31.2* | | Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
32.1** | | Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
32.2** | | Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
101.INS* | | Inline XBRL Instance Document. |
101.SCH* | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document. |
101.CAL* | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document. |
101.DEF* | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document. |
101.LAB* | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document. |
101.PRE* | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document. |
104 | | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101). |
(1) | Incorporated by reference to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on February 4, 2021. |
(2) | Incorporated by reference to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on April 8, 2021. |
Item 16. Form 10-K Summary.
None.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID Number 688) | F-2 |
Financial Statements: | |
Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2021 and 2020 | F-3 |
Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 | F-4 |
Statements of Changes in Shareholders’ Deficit for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 | F-5 |
Statements of Cash Flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 | F-6 |
Notes to Financial Statements | F-7 |
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of
Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related statements of operations, changes in shareholders’ deficit and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 14, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Explanatory Paragraph – Going Concern
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As more fully described in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company’s business plan is dependent on the completion of a business combination and the Company has determined that the mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution, should the Company be unable to complete a business combination, raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ Marcum llp
Marcum llp
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020.
New York, NY
March 11, 2022
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
BALANCE SHEETS
| | December 31, | |
| | 2021 | | | 2020 | |
Assets | | | | | | |
Current assets: | | | | | | |
Cash | | $ | 867,698 | | | $ | - | |
Prepaid expenses | | | 299,487 | | | | 6,759 | |
Total current assets | | | 1,167,185 | | | | 6,759 | |
Deferred offering costs | | | - | | | | 423,000 | |
Investments held in Trust Account | | | 241,526,002 | | | | - | |
Total Assets | | $ | 242,693,187 | | | $ | 429,759 | |
| | | | | | | | |
Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit | | | | | | | | |
Current liabilities: | | | | | | | | |
Accounts payable | | $ | - | | | $ | 15,000 | |
Accrued expenses | | | 119,875 | | | | 262,300 | |
Note payable - related party | | | - | | | | 45,000 | |
Total current liabilities | | | 119,875 | | | | 322,300 | |
Deferred legal fees | | | 604,749 | | | | 113,000 | |
Deferred underwriting commissions | | | 9,056,250 | | | | - | |
Derivative warrant liabilities | | | 7,031,280 | | | | - | |
Total liabilities | | | 16,812,154 | | | | 435,300 | |
Commitments and Contingencies (Note 6) | | | | | | | | |
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 24,150,000 and 0 shares subject to possible redemption at $10.00 per share at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, respectively | | | 241,500,000 | | | | - | |
Shareholders’ Deficit | | | | | | | | |
Preference shares, $0.0001 par value; 5,000,000 shares authorized; none issued or outstanding | | | - | | | | - | |
Class A ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 500,000,000 shares authorized; no non-redeemable shares issued or outstanding at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 | | | - | | | | - | |
Class B ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value; 50,000,000 shares authorized; 6,037,500 shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 | | | 604 | | | | 604 | |
Additional paid-in capital | | | - | | | | 24,396 | |
Accumulated deficit | | | (15,619,571 | ) | | | (30,541 | ) |
Total Shareholders’ Deficit | | | (15,618,967 | ) | | | (5,541 | ) |
Total Liabilities, Class A Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption and Shareholders’ Deficit | | $ | 242,693,187 | | | $ | 429,759 | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
| | For the Year Ended December 31, 2021 | | | For the Period From November 4, 2020 (Inception) through December 31, 2020 | |
General and administrative expenses | | $ | 1,321,717 | | | $ | 30,541 | |
Loss from operations | | | (1,321,717 | ) | | | (30,541 | ) |
Other income (expenses) | | | | | | | | |
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | | | 11,489,110 | | | | - | |
Financing costs - derivative warrant liabilities | | | (769,323 | ) | | | - | |
Income from investments held in Trust Account | | | 26,002 | | | | - | |
Net income (loss) | | $ | 9,424,072 | | | $ | (30,541 | ) |
| | | | | | | | |
Weighted average shares outstanding of Class A ordinary shares, basic and diluted | | | 21,900,411 | | | | - | |
Basic and diluted net income per share, Class A ordinary shares | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | - | |
Weighted average shares outstanding of Class B ordinary shares, basic | | | 5,964,144 | | | | 5,250,000 | |
Basic net income (loss) per share, Class B ordinary shares | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | (0.01 | ) |
Weighted average shares outstanding of Class B ordinary shares, diluted | | | 6,037,500 | | | | 5,250,000 | |
Diluted net income (loss) per share, Class B ordinary shares | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | (0.01 | ) |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDER’S DEFICIT
For the year ended December 31, 2021
| | Ordinary Shares | | | Additional | | | | | | Total | |
| | Class A | | | Class B | | | Paid-in | | | Accumulated | | | Shareholders’ | |
| | Shares | | | Amount | | | Shares | | | Amount | | | Capital | | | Deficit | | | Deficit | |
Balance - December 31, 2020 | | | - | | | $ | - | | | | 6,037,500 | | | $ | 604 | | | $ | 24,396 | | | $ | (30,541 | ) | | $ | (5,541 | ) |
Excess of cash received over fair value of private placement warrants | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | 85,150 | | | | - | | | | 85,150 | |
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares to redemption amount | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | (109,546 | ) | | | (25,013,102 | ) | | | (25,122,648 | ) |
Net income | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | 9,424,072 | | | | 9,424,072 | |
Balance - December 31, 2021 | | | - | | | $ | - | | | | 6,037,500 | | | $ | 604 | | | $ | - | | | $ | (15,619,571 | ) | | $ | (15,618,967 | ) |
For the period from November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020
| | Ordinary Shares | | | Additional | | | | | | Total | |
| | Class A | | | Class B | | | Paid-in | | | Accumulated | | | Shareholders’ | |
| | Shares | | | Amount | | | Shares | | | Amount | | | Capital | | | Deficit | | | Deficit | |
Balance - November 4, 2020 (inception) | | | - | | | $ | - | | | | - | | | $ | - | | | $ | - | | | $ | - | | | $ | - | |
Issuance of Class B ordinary shares to Sponsor | | | - | | | | - | | | | 6,037,500 | | | | 604 | | | | 24,396 | | | | - | | | | 25,000 | |
Net loss | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | (30,541 | ) | | | (30,541 | ) |
Balance - December 31, 2020 | | | - | | | $ | - | | | | 6,037,500 | | | $ | 604 | | | $ | 24,396 | | | $ | (30,541 | ) | | $ | (5,541 | ) |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
| | | | | For the Period From | |
| | | | | November 4, 2020 | |
| | For the Year Ended December 31, | | | (Inception) through December 31, | |
| | 2021 | | | 2020 | |
Cash Flows from Operating Activities: | | | | | | | | |
Net income (loss) | | $ | 9,424,072 | | | $ | (30,541 | ) |
Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash used in operating activities: | | | | | | | | |
General and administrative expenses paid by Sponsor in exchange for issuance of Class B ordinary shares | | | - | | | | 25,000 | |
Income from investments held in Trust Account | | | (26,002 | ) | | | - | |
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | | | (11,489,110 | ) | | | - | |
Financing costs - derivative warrant liabilities | | | 769,323 | | | | - | |
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | | | | | | | | |
Prepaid expenses | | | (292,728 | ) | | | (6,759 | ) |
Accrued expenses | | | 37,575 | | | | 12,300 | |
Deferred legal fees | | | 284,749 | | | | - | |
Net cash used in operating activities | | | (1,292,121 | ) | | | - | |
| | | | | | | | |
Cash Flows from Investing Activities: | | | | | | | | |
Cash deposited in Trust Account | | | (241,500,000 | ) | | | - | |
Net cash used in investing activities | | | (241,500,000 | ) | | | - | |
| | | | | | | | |
Cash Flows from Financing Activities: | | | | | | | | |
Proceeds from note payable related party | | | 150,000 | | | | - | |
Repayment of note payable to related party | | | (195,000 | ) | | | - | |
Proceeds received from initial public offering, gross | | | 241,500,000 | | | | - | |
Proceeds received from private placement | | | 6,830,004 | | | | - | |
Reimbursement from underwriter | | | 603,750 | | | | - | |
Offering costs paid | | | (5,228,935 | ) | | | - | |
Net cash provided by financing activities | | | 243,659,819 | | | | - | |
| | | | | | | | |
Net increase in cash | | | 867,698 | | | | - | |
Cash - beginning of the period | | | - | | | | - | |
Cash - end of the period | | $ | 867,698 | | | $ | - | |
| | | | | | | | |
Supplemental disclosure of noncash financing activities: | | | | | | | | |
Offering costs included in accounts payable | | $ | - | | | $ | 15,000 | |
Offering costs included in accrued expenses | | $ | 70,000 | | | $ | 250,000 | |
Offering costs included in deferred legal fees | | $ | 320,000 | | | $ | 113,000 | |
Offering costs paid by related party under promissory note | | $ | - | | | $ | 45,000 | |
Deferred underwriting commissions | | $ | 9,056,250 | | | $ | - | |
Remeasurement of Class A ordinary shares to redemption amount | | | 25,122,648 | | | $ | - | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 1. DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Noble Rock Acquisition Corporation (the “Company”) is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company on November 4, 2020. The Company was incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses that the Company has not yet identified (“Business Combination”). The Company is not limited to a particular industry or sector for purposes of consummating a Business Combination. The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”) and, as such, the Company is subject to all of the risks associated with early stage and emerging growth companies.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not yet commenced operations. All activity through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering (the “Initial Public Offering”) described below, and since the Initial Public Offering, the search for a prospective initial Business Combination. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company generates non-operating income in the form of interest income on investments held in trust from the proceeds of its Initial Public Offering
The Company’s sponsor is Noble Rock Sponsor LLC, a Cayman Island limited liability company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement for the Company’s Initial Public Offering was declared effective on February 1, 2021. On February 4, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 24,150,000 units (the “Units” and, with respect to the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units being offered, the “Public Shares”), which included 3,150,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments (the “Over-Allotment Units”), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $241.5 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $14.4 million. Of these offering costs, approximately $9.1 million and approximately $320,000 was for deferred underwriting commissions and deferred legal fees, respectively (Note 6).
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the private placement (“Private Placement”) of 4,553,334 warrants (each, a “Private Placement Warrant” and collectively, the “Private Placement Warrants”), at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million (Note 4).
Upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering and the Private Placement, $241.5 million ($10.00 per Unit) of the net proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and certain of the proceeds of the Private Placement were placed in a trust account (“Trust Account”) with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee and 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 of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations, as determined by the Company, until the earlier of: (i) the completion of a Business Combination and (ii) the distribution of the Trust Account as described below.
The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of its Initial Public Offering and the sale of Private Placement Warrants, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be applied generally toward consummating a Business Combination. The Company’s initial Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (as defined below) (net of amounts disbursed to management for working capital purposes, if permitted, and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting fees and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time the Company signs a definitive agreement in connection with the initial Business Combination. However, the Company will only complete a Business Combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Company will provide its holders of the Public Shares (the “Public Shareholders”) with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of a Business Combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek shareholder approval of a Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company, solely in its discretion. The Public Shareholders will be entitled to redeem their Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account (initially anticipated to be $10.00 per share, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay its tax obligations). The per-share amount to be distributed to Public Shareholders who redeem their Public Shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions the Company will pay to the underwriters (as discussed in Note 6). These Public Shares were recorded at a redemption value and classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering, in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity,” (“ASC 480). In such case, the Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation of a Business Combination and a majority of the shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. If a shareholder vote is not required by law and the Company does not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other legal reasons, the Company will, pursuant to the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association adopted by the Company upon the consummation of the Initial Public Offering (the “Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association”), conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing a Business Combination. If, however, a shareholder approval of the transactions is required by law, or the Company decides to obtain shareholder approval for business or legal reasons, the Company will offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. Additionally, each Public Shareholder may elect to redeem their Public Shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. If the Company seeks shareholder approval in connection with a Business Combination, the holders of the Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5) prior to the Initial Public Offering (the “Initial Shareholders”) agreed to vote their Founder Shares and any Public Shares purchased during or after the Initial Public Offering in favor of a Business Combination. In addition, the Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and Public Shares in connection with the completion of a Business Combination. In addition, the Company agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial Business Combination without the prior consent of the Sponsor.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association provides 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% or more of the Class A ordinary shares sold in the Initial Public Offering, without the prior consent of the Company.
The Company’s Sponsor, executive officers and directors agreed not to propose an amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association that would affect the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to provide for the redemption of its Public Shares in connection with a Business Combination or to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if the Company does not complete a Business Combination, unless the Company provides the Public Shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A ordinary shares in conjunction with any such amendment.
If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within 24 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering, or February 4, 2023, (the “Combination Period”), the Company will (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 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 (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish Public Shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the remaining shareholders and the board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to the Company’s obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In connection with the redemption of 100% of the Company’s outstanding Public Shares for a portion of the funds held in the Trust Account, each holder will receive a full pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not previously released to the Company to pay the Company’s taxes payable (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses).
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Initial Shareholders agreed to waive their liquidation rights with respect to the Founder Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. However, if the Initial Shareholders should acquire Public Shares in or after the Initial Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period. The underwriters agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission (see Note 6) held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the Trust Account that will be available to fund the redemption of the Company’s Public Shares. In the event of such distribution, it is possible that the per share value of the residual assets remaining available for distribution (including Trust Account assets) will be only $10.00 per share initially held in the Trust Account. In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, the Sponsor agreed that it will be liable to the Company if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to the Company, or a prospective target business with which the Company has entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per Public Share and (ii) the actual amount per Public Share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the Trust Account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under the Company’s indemnity of the underwriters of the Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, the Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. The Company will seek to reduce the possibility that the Sponsor will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have vendors, service providers (except the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which the Company does business, execute agreements with the Company waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account.
Liquidity and going concern
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately $868,000 in its operating bank account and working capital of approximately $1.0 million.
The Company’s liquidity needs to date have been satisfied through a payment of $25,000 from the Sponsor to cover for certain expenses in exchange for the issuance of the Founder Shares (as defined in Note 5), the loan of $195,000 from the Sponsor pursuant to the Note (as defined in Note 5), and the proceeds from the consummation of the Private Placement not held in the Trust Account. The Company repaid the Note in full on February 5, 2021. In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide the Company Working Capital Loans (as defined in Note 5). As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts outstanding under any Working Capital Loans.
Based on the foregoing, management believes that the Company will have sufficient working capital and borrowing capacity from the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors to meet its needs through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or one year from this filing. Over this time period, the Company will be using these funds for paying existing accounts payable, identifying and evaluating prospective initial Business Combination candidates, performing due diligence on prospective target businesses, paying for travel expenditures, selecting the target business to merge with or acquire, and structuring, negotiating and consummating the Business Combination.
However, in connection with the assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standard Board’s (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 205-40, “Presentation of Financial Statements – Going Concern,” the Company has until February 4, 2023 to consummate a Business Combination. It is uncertain that the Company will be able to consummate a Business Combination by this time. If a Business Combination is not consummated by this date, there will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution of the Company. Management has determined that the mandatory liquidation, should a Business Combination not occur, and potential subsequent dissolution raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should we be required to liquidate after February 4, 2023.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Risks and uncertainties
Management continues to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry and has concluded that while it is reasonably possible that the virus could have a negative effect on the Company’s financial position, results of its operations and/or search for a target company, the specific impact is not readily determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
NOTE 2. BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of presentation
The accompanying financial statements are presented in in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Emerging growth company
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Company’s financial statements with another public company that is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company that has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Use of estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires the Company’s management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from those estimates.
Cash and cash equivalents
The company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company had no cash equivalents.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Investments held in Trust Account
The Company’s portfolio of investments is comprised of U.S. government securities, within the meaning set forth in Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act, with a maturity of 185 days or less, or investments in money market funds that invest in U.S. government securities and generally have a readily determinable fair value, or a combination thereof. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of U.S. government securities, the investments are classified as trading securities. When the Company’s investments held in the Trust Account are comprised of money market funds, the investments are recognized at fair value. Trading securities and investments in money market funds are presented on the balance sheets at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities is included in income on investments held in the Trust Account in the accompanying statement of operations. The estimated fair values of investments held in the Trust Account are determined using available market information.
Concentration of credit risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of cash accounts in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the Federal Depository Insurance Coverage limit of $250,000. At December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company has not experienced losses on these accounts and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risks on such accounts.
Fair Value of financial instruments
The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities which qualify as financial instruments under the FASB ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements,” equal or approximate the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheets.
Fair value measurements
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received for sale of an asset or paid for transfer of a liability, in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. U.S. GAAP establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value.
The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements). These tiers consist of:
| ● | Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices for identical instruments in active markets; |
| ● | Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable such as quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets or quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and |
| ● | Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions, such as valuations derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant inputs or significant value drivers are unobservable. |
In some circumstances, the inputs used to measure fair value might be categorized within different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In those instances, the fair value measurement is categorized in its entirety in the fair value hierarchy based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.
Derivative warrant liabilities
The Company does not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market, or foreign currency risks. The Company evaluates all of its financial instruments, including issued warrants to purchase ordinary shares, to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives, pursuant to ASC 480 and FASB ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”), Embedded Derivatives (“ASC 815-15”). The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is re-assessed at the end of each reporting period.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering (the “Public Warrants”) and the Private Placement Warrants are recognized as derivative liabilities in accordance with ASC 815-40, Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (“ASC 815-40”). Accordingly, the Company recognizes the warrant instruments as liabilities at fair value and adjusts the instruments to fair value at each reporting period. The liabilities are subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date until exercised, and any change in fair value is recognized in the Company’s statement of operations. The fair value of the Public Warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering were measured at fair value using a Monte Carlo simulation model. The fair value of the Private Placement Warrants has been measured at fair value using a Black Scholes model at each reporting period. (See Notes 4, 7 and 9). As of December 31, 2021, the fair value of the Public Warrants has been determined based on the observable listed trading price for such warrants.
Offering costs associated with the Initial Public Offering
Offering costs consisted of legal, accounting, underwriting fees and other costs incurred through the Initial Public Offering that were directly related to the Initial Public Offering. Offering costs are allocated to the separable financial instruments issued in the Initial Public Offering based on a relative fair value basis, compared to total proceeds received. Offering costs associated with derivative warrant liabilities were expensed as incurred and presented as non-operating expenses in the statement of operations. Offering costs associated with the Class A ordinary shares were charged against the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares. The Company classifies deferred underwriting commissions as non-current liabilities as their liquidation is not reasonably expected to require the use of current assets or require the creation of current liabilities.
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption
The Company accounts for its Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in ASC Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Class A ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable Class A ordinary shares (including Class A ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, Class A ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. The Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, at December 31, 2021 and 2020, 24,150,000 and 0 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ equity section of the Company’s balance sheets, respectively.
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of the Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. This method would view the end of the reporting period as if it were also the redemption date for the security. Immediately upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company recognized the remeasurement from initial book value to redemption amount value. The change in the carrying value of redeemable Class A ordinary shares resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit.
Income taxes
ASC Topic 740 prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statements recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. The Company’s management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Company’s only major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. There were no unrecognized tax benefits and no amounts accrued for interest and penalties as of December 31, 2021 and 2020. The Company is currently not aware of any issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviation from its position.
There is currently no taxation imposed on income by the Government of the Cayman Islands. In accordance with Cayman federal income tax regulations, income taxes are not levied on the Company. Consequently, income taxes are not reflected in the Company’s financial statements. The Company’s management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Net income per ordinary share
The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements of FASB ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Income and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. Net income per ordinary share is calculated by dividing the net income by the weighted average ordinary shares outstanding for the respective period.
The calculation of diluted net income does not consider the effect of the warrants underlying the Units sold in the Initial Public Offering and the private placement warrants to purchase an aggregate of 11,775,540 shares of Class A ordinary shares in the calculation of diluted income per share, because their exercise is contingent upon future events. The number of weighted average Class B ordinary shares for calculating basic net income per ordinary share was reduced for the effect of an aggregate of 787,500 Class B ordinary shares that were subject to forfeiture if the over-allotment option was not exercised in full or part by the underwriters (see Note 5). Since the contingency was satisfied as of December 31, 2021, the Company included these shares in the weighted average number as of the beginning of the period to determine the dilutive impact of these shares. Remeasurement associated with the redeemable Class A ordinary shares is excluded from earnings per share as the redemption value approximates fair value.
The table below presents a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator used to compute basic and diluted net income per share for each class of ordinary shares:
| | For the Year Ended December 31, 2021 | | | For the Period From November 4, 2020 (Inception) through December 31, 2020 | |
| | Class A | | | Class B | | | Class A | | | Class B | |
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share: | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Numerator: | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Allocation of net income (loss) - Basic | | $ | 7,406,939 | | | $ | 2,017,133 | | | $ | - | | | $ | (30,541 | ) |
Allocation of net income (loss) - Diluted | | $ | 7,387,490 | | | $ | 2,036,582 | | | $ | - | | | $ | (30,541 | ) |
Denominator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Basic weighted average ordinary shares outstanding | | | 21,900,411 | | | | 5,964,144 | | | | - | | | | 5,250,000 | |
Effect of dilutive securities | | | - | | | | 73,356 | | | | - | | | | - | |
Diluted weighted average ordinary shares outstanding | | | 21,900,411 | | | | 6,037,500 | | | | - | | | | 5,250,000 | |
Basic net income (loss) per ordinary share | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | - | | | $ | (0.01 | ) |
Diluted net income (loss) per ordinary share | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | 0.34 | | | $ | - | | | $ | (0.01 | ) |
Recent accounting pronouncements
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt-Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging-Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of the ASU did not impact the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
The Company’s management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards if currently adopted would have a material effect on the accompanying financial statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 3. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING
On February 4, 2021, the Company consummated its Initial Public Offering of 24,150,000 Units, which includes 3,150,000 Over-Allotment Units, at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $241.5 million, and incurring offering costs of approximately $14.4 million. Of these offering costs, approximately $9.1 million and approximately $320,000 was for deferred underwriting commissions and deferred legal fees, respectively.
Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one redeemable warrant. Each whole Public Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment (see Note 7).
NOTE 4. PRIVATE PLACEMENT
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering, the Company consummated the Private Placement of 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants, at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant with the Sponsor, generating gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million. On February 4, 2021, the day of issuance, the fair value of the Private Placement warrants was approximately $6.7 million compared to the gross proceeds received of approximately $6.8 million, therefore, an excess of approximately $85,000 cash was received over the fair value of the Private Placement warrants. The excess in cash received over the fair value of the Private Placement warrants is recorded as additional paid in capital on the statement of changes in shareholders’ equity.
Each whole Private Placement Warrant is exercisable for one whole share of Class A ordinary shares at a price of $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants to the Sponsor was added to the proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If the Company does not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants will be non-redeemable for cash and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
The Sponsor and the Company’s officers and directors agreed, subject to limited exceptions, not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Private Placement Warrants until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination.
NOTE 5. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
Founder Shares
On November 11, 2020, the initial shareholders paid an aggregate of $25,000 for certain expenses on behalf of the Company in exchange for issuance of 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares (the “Founder Shares”). On February 1, 2021, the Company declared a stock dividend with respect to the Class B ordinary shares such that 0.05 Class B ordinary shares were issued for every one Class B ordinary share, resulting in an aggregate of 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. The initial shareholders agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 787,500 Founder Shares, on a pro rata basis, to the extent that the option to purchase additional units was not exercised in full by the underwriters, so that the Founder Shares would represent 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option; thus, these 787,500 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture.
The Initial Shareholders agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of (A) one year after the completion of the initial Business Combination or (ii) the date following the completion of the initial Business Combination on which the Company completes a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of the shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination, the Founder Shares will be released from the lockup.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Related Party Loans
On November 11, 2020, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $300,000 to be used for the payment of costs related to the Initial Public Offering pursuant to a promissory note (the “Note”). The Note was non-interest bearing, unsecured and due upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. Through February 4, 2021, the Company borrowed a total of $195,000 and repaid the Note in full on February 5, 2021.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, the Sponsor, members of the Company’s founding team or any of their affiliates may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes a Business Combination, the Company would repay the Working Capital Loans out of the proceeds of the Trust Account released to the Company. Otherwise, the Working Capital Loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the Trust Account. In the event that a Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of proceeds held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans but no proceeds held in the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. The Working Capital Loans would either be repaid upon consummation of a Business Combination, without interest, or, at the lenders’ discretion, up to $1.5 million of such Working Capital Loans may be convertible into warrants of the post Business Combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such Working Capital Loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had no borrowings under the Working Capital Loans.
Administrative Agreement
Commencing on the date that the Company’s securities were first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of the initial Business Combination and the liquidation, the Company agreed to pay the Sponsor a total of $30,000 per month for office space, administrative, financial and support services. For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company incurred expenses under this agreement of $330,000, included as general and administrative expenses on the accompanying statements of operations. For the period November 4, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, there were no expenses incurred. As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts payable for these services.
In addition, the Sponsor, directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on the Company’s behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable Business Combinations. The Company’s audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to the Sponsor, directors, officers or the Company’s or any of their affiliates.
NOTE 6. COMMITMENTS & CONTINGENCIES
Registration and Shareholder Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants, and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants or warrants issued upon conversion of the Working Capital Loans and upon conversion of the Founder Shares) were entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration and shareholder rights agreement signed upon the effective date of the Initial Public Offering. The holders of these securities were entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of the initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Underwriting Agreement
The Company granted the underwriters a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 3,150,000 additional Units at the Initial Public Offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option.
The underwriters were entitled to an underwriting discount of $0.20 per unit, or approximately $4.8 million in the aggregate, paid upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.375 per unit, or approximately $9.1 million in the aggregate will be payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement. In addition, the Company received reimbursement from the underwriters of certain expenses in connection with the Initial Public Offering in the aggregate amount of $603,750, equal to 0.25% of the offering gross proceeds.
Deferred Legal Fees
The Company engaged a legal counsel firm for legal advisory services, and the legal counsel agreed to defer their fees in excess of $250,000. The deferred fee will become payable in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company had deferred legal fees of approximately $605,000 and $113,000 in connection with such services on the accompanying balance sheet.
NOTE 7. DERIVATIVE WARRANT LIABILITIES
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had 8,050,000 Public Warrants and 4,553,334 Private Placement Warrants outstanding. There were no warrants outstanding as of December 31, 2020.
Public Warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of shares. No fractional Public Warrants will be issued upon separation of the Units and only whole Public Warrants will trade. The Public Warrants will become exercisable on the later of (a) 30 days after the completion of a Business Combination or (b) 12 months from the closing of the Initial Public Offering; provided in each case that the Company has an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available and such shares are registered, qualified or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky, laws of the state of residence of the holder (or holders are permitted to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under certain circumstances as a result of (i) the Company’s failure to have an effective registration statement by the 60th business day after the closing of the initial Business Combination or (ii) a notice of redemption described under “Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00”). The Company agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of its initial Business Combination, the Company will use its commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC and have an effective registration statement covering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants and will use its commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of the Company’s initial Business Combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares until the warrants expire or are redeemed. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the above requirements, the Company will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. However, no warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and the Company will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration is available. Notwithstanding the above, if the Company’s Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, the Company may, at its option, require holders of Public Warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event the Company so elects, it will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, and in the event the Company does not so elect, it will use its commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The warrants have an exercise price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustments, and will expire five years after the completion of a Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. In addition, if (x) the Company issues additional shares or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of the initial Business Combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per share (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by the board of directors, and in the case of any such issuance to the initial shareholders or their affiliates, without taking into account any Founder Shares held by them prior to such issuance) (the “Newly Issued Price”), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of the initial Business Combination on the date of the consummation of the initial Business Combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume weighted average trading price of Class A ordinary shares during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which the Company consummates its initial Business Combination (such price, the “Market Value”) is below $9.20 per share, the exercise price of each warrant will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) such that the effective exercise price per full share will be equal to 115% of the higher of (i) the Market Value and (ii) the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per-share redemption trigger price described under “Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00” and “Redemption of warrants for Class A ordinary shares when the price per Class A ordinary share equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of (i) the Market Value and (ii) the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 per-share redemption trigger price described under “Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to the higher of (i) the Market Value and (ii) the Newly Issued Price.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Public Warrants, except that, so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees, (i) they will not be redeemable by the Company, (ii) they (including Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the Sponsor until 30 days after the completion of the initial Business Combination, (iii) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) are subject to registration rights.
Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00:
Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the Private Placement Warrants):
| ● | in whole and not in part; |
| ● | at a price of $0.01 per warrant; |
| ● | upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption; and |
| ● | if, and only if, the last reported sale price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. |
The Company will not redeem the warrants as described above unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those Class A ordinary shares is available throughout the 30-day redemption period. Any such exercise would not be on a cashless basis and would require the exercising warrant holder to pay the exercise price for each warrant being exercised.
Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00:
Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may redeem the outstanding warrants:
| ● | in whole and not in part; |
| ● | at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of Class A ordinary shares determined by reference to an agreed table based on the redemption date and the fair market value of the Class A ordinary shares; |
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
| ● | if, and only if, the last reported sale price of Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $10.00 per share on the trading day prior to the date on which the Company sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and |
| ● | if the Reference Value is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted), the Private Placement Warrants must also concurrently be called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding Public Warrants, as described above. |
The fair market value of Class A ordinary shares mentioned above shall mean the volume-weighted average price of Class A ordinary shares for the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. In no event will the warrants be exercisable in connection with this redemption feature for more than 0.361 shares of Class A ordinary shares per warrant (subject to adjustment).
In no event will the Company be required to net cash settle any warrant. If the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period and the Company liquidates the funds held in the Trust Account, holders of warrants will not receive any of such funds with respect to their warrants, nor will they receive any distribution from the Company’s assets held outside of the Trust Account with the respect to such warrants. Accordingly, the warrants may expire worthless.
NOTE 8. CLASS A ORDINARY SHARES SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE REDEMPTION
The Company’s Class A ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of future events. The Company is authorized to issue 500,000,000 shares of Class A ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holder of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each share. As of December 31, 2021, there were 24,150,000 shares of Class A ordinary shares outstanding, all of which were subject to redemption. There were no Class A shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020.
As of December 31, 2021, Class A ordinary shares reflected on the balance sheet is reconciled on the following table:
| | As of December 31, | |
| | 2021 | |
Gross Proceeds | | $ | 241,500,000 | |
Less: | | | | |
Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants | | | (11,775,540 | ) |
Class A ordinary shares issuance costs | | | (13,347,108 | ) |
Plus: | | | | |
Remeasurement of carrying value to redemption value | | | 25,122,648 | |
Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption | | $ | 241,500,000 | |
NOTE 9. SHAREHOLDERS’ DEFICIT
Preference Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 5,000,000 preference shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, there were no preference shares issued or outstanding.
Class A Ordinary Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Holders of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each share. As of December 31, 2021, there were 24,150,000 Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding, all subject to possible redemption and therefore classified as temporary equity on the accompanying balance sheets. See Note 8. There were no Class A ordinary shares issued or outstanding as of December 31, 2020.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Class B Ordinary Shares - The Company is authorized to issue 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share. On November 11, 2020, the Company issued 5,750,000 Class B ordinary shares to the Initial Shareholders. On February 1, 2021, the Company declared a stock dividend with respect to the Class B ordinary shares such that 0.05 Class B ordinary shares were issued for each share of Class B ordinary shares, resulting in an aggregate of 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding. All shares and associated amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock dividend (see Note 5). Of the 6,037,500 Class B ordinary shares outstanding, up to 787,500 Class B ordinary shares were subject to forfeiture to the Company by the Initial Shareholders for no consideration to the extent that the underwriters’ over-allotment option was not exercised in full or in part, so that the Initial Shareholders will collectively own 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares after the Initial Public Offering. On February 4, 2021, the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option; thus, these 787,500 Founder Shares were no longer subject to forfeiture.
Ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders. Holders of Class A ordinary shares and holders of Class B ordinary shares will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of the shareholders except as required by law.
The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares at the time of the initial Business Combination, or earlier at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share sub-divisions, share dividends, rights issuances, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares, or equity-linked securities, are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts issued in the Initial Public Offering and related to the closing of the initial Business Combination, the ratio at which the Class B ordinary shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares will be adjusted (unless the holders of a majority of the issued and outstanding Class B ordinary shares agree to waive such anti-dilution adjustment with respect to any such issuance or deemed issuance) so that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Class B ordinary shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of all ordinary shares issued and outstanding upon the completion of the Initial Public Offering plus all Class A ordinary shares and equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with the initial Business Combination, excluding any shares or equity-linked securities issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial Business Combination.
NOTE 10. FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS
The following tables presents information about the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2021, by level within the fair value hierarchy:
| | Fair Value Measured as of December 31, 2021 | |
| | Level 1 | | | Level 2 | | | Level 3 | | | Total | |
Assets | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Investments held in Trust Account | | $ | 241,526,002 | | | $ | - | | | $ | - | | | $ | 241,526,002 | |
Liabilities: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Derivative public warrant liabilities | | $ | 4,467,750 | | | $ | - | | | $ | - | | | $ | 4,467,750 | |
Derivative private warrant liabilities | | | - | | | | - | | | | 2,563,530 | | | | 2,563,530 | |
Total derivative warrant liabilities | | $ | 245,993,752 | | | $ | - | | | $ | 2,563,530 | | | $ | 7,031,280 | |
There were no assets or liabilities measured on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2020.
Transfers to/from Levels 1, 2, and 3 are recognized at the beginning of the reporting period. In March 2021, as the Public Warrants begun separately trading, the fair value of the Public Warrants transferred from a Level 3 measurement to a Level 1 measurement. There were no other transfers between Levels during the year ended December 31, 2021
Level 1 assets include investments in mutual funds invested in government securities. The Company uses inputs such as actual trade data, benchmark yields, quoted market prices from dealers or brokers, and other similar sources to determine the fair value of its investments.
NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The fair value of the Public Warrants issued in connection with the Initial Public Offering were initially measured at fair value using a Monte Carlo simulation model. Subsequently, the fair value of the Public Warrants has been determined based on the observable listed trading price for such warrants. The fair value of the Private Placement Warrants has initially and subsequently been measured at fair value using a Black-Scholes Merton (BSM) model.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recognized a gain resulting from a decrease in the fair value of liabilities of approximately $11.5 million, presented as change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities on the accompanying statement of operations.
The estimated fair value of the Private Placement Warrants, and the Public Warrants prior to being separately listed and traded, was determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in a Monte Carlo simulation and BSM model are assumptions related to expected stock-price volatility, expected life, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield. The Company estimates the volatility of its ordinary shares based on historical volatility of select peer companies that matches the expected remaining life of the warrants. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero-coupon yield curve on the grant date for a maturity similar to the expected remaining life of the warrants. The expected life of the warrants is assumed to be equivalent to their remaining contractual term. The dividend rate is based on the historical rate, which the Company anticipates remaining at zero. Changes in these valuation assumptions can change the valuation significantly.
The following table provides quantitative information regarding Level 3 fair value measurements inputs at their measurement dates:
| | February 4, 2021 | | | December 31, 2021 | |
Exercise price | | | 11.50 | | | | 11.50 | |
Stock Price | | $ | 9.87 | | | $ | 9.71 | |
Option term to M&A | | | 5.00 | | | | 5.00 | |
Volatility | | | 20 | % | | | 11 | % |
Risk-free interest rate | | | 0.64 | % | | | 1.31 | % |
The change in the fair value of the derivative warrant liabilities measured utilizing Level 3 inputs for the year ended December 31, 2021, is summarized as follows:
Derivative warrant liabilities at January 1, 2021 | | $ | - | |
Issuance of Public and Private Warrants - Level 3 | | | 18,520,390 | |
Transfer of Public Warrants to Level 1 measurement | | | (11,775,540 | ) |
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities - Level 3 | | | (4,181,330 | ) |
Derivative warrant liabilities at December 31, 2021 - Level 3 | | $ | 2,563,520 | |
NOTE 11. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred up to the date financial statements were issued. The Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Date: March 11, 2022
| NOBLE ROCK ACQUISITION CORPORATION |
| |
| /s/ Whitney A. Bower |
| By: | Whitney A. Bower |
| | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
| /s/ Whitney A. Bower |
| Name: | Whitney A. Bower |
| Title: | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
| |
| /s/ Pete Low |
| Name: | Pete Low |
| Title: | Chief Financial Officer and Director |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
| | |
| /s/ Michael D. Alter |
| Name: | Michael D. Alter |
| Title: | Director |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
| | |
| /s/ David Habiger |
| Name: | David Habiger |
| Title: | Director |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
| | |
| /s/ David Lang |
| Name: | David Lang |
| Title: | Director |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
| | |
| /s/ Aemish Shah |
| Name: | Aemish Shah |
| Title: | Director |
| Date: | March 11, 2022 |
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