| • | | 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 business. |
| • | | 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 stock. |
| • | | The requirement that we consummate an initial business combination by April 22, 2024 may give potential 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 partners, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our business combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders. |
| • | | If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed. |
| • | | We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our shareholders from a financial point of view. |
| • | | We may engage in a business combination with one or more businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our Sponsor, executive officers, directors or Initial Shareholders which may raise potential conflicts of interest. |
| • | | We may only be able to complete one business combination with the net proceeds of our 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. |
| • | | Our executive officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination. |
| • | | Our executive officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including another blank check company, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. |
| • | | 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. |
| • | | The NYSE could suspend trading in our securities or delist our securities from the NYSE subsequent to July 22, 2024, which is three years from our IPO. |
| • | | 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 Combination Period, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.61 per share (as of December 31, 2023), or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless. |
We may seek to further extend the Combination Period, which could have a material adverse effect on the amount held in our Trust Account and other adverse effects on our Company.
We may seek to further extend the Combination Period. Such an extension would require the approval of our Public Shareholders, who will be provided the opportunity to redeem all or a portion their public shares. Such redemptions will likely have a material adverse effect on the amount held in our Trust Account, our capitalization, principal shareholders and other impacts on our Company or management team, such as our ability to maintain our listing on NYSE.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us or third parties could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with whom 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 also lack sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. Any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have material adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements and numerous complex tax laws. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
On January 24, 2024, the SEC adopted the 2024 SPAC Rules requiring, among other matters, (i) additional disclosures relating to SPAC business combination transactions; (ii) additional disclosures relating to dilution and to conflicts of interest involving sponsors and their affiliates in both SPAC initial public offerings and business combination transactions; (iii) additional disclosures regarding projections included in SEC filings in connection with proposed business combination transactions; and (iv) the requirement that both the SPAC and its target company be co-registrants for business combination registration statements
In addition, the SEC’s adopting release provided guidance describing circumstances in which a SPAC could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act, including its duration, asset composition, business purpose, and the activities of the SPAC and its management team in furtherance of such goals.
Compliance with the 2024 SPAC Rules and related guidance may (i) increase the costs of and the time needed to negotiate and complete an initial business combination and (ii) constrain the circumstances under which we could affect our ability to complete an initial business combination.
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.
The SEC’s adopting release with respect to the 2024 SPAC Rules provided guidance relating to the potential status of SPACs as investment companies subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act and the regulations thereunder. Whether a SPAC is an investment company is dependent on specific facts and circumstances and we can give no assurance that a claim will not be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including (i) restrictions on the nature of our investments; and (ii) 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: (i) registration as an investment company; (ii) adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and (iii) reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations.
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading in securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. We are mindful of the SEC’s investment company definition and guidance and intend to complete an initial business combination with an operating business, and not with an investment company, or to acquire minority interests in other businesses exceeding the permitted threshold.
We do not believe that our business activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the Trust Account were initially 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; the holding of these assets in this form is intended to be temporary and for the sole purpose of facilitating the intended business combination. To mitigate the risk that we might be deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, which risk increases the longer that we hold investments in the Trust Account, on June 13, 2023, we instructed Continental, as trustee of the Trust Account, to liquidate the investments held in the Trust Account and instead to hold the funds in the Trust Account in cash or in an interest-bearing demand deposit account at a bank.
Pursuant to the Trust Agreement, Continental is not permitted to invest in securities or assets other than as described above. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments, and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we intended to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. Our Initial Public Offering was not intended for persons who were seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The Trust Account is intended solely as a temporary depository for funds pending the earliest to occur of: (a) the completion of our initial business combination; (b) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our Amended and Restated Memorandum to affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within the Combination Period; or (c) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the Combination Period.
We are aware of litigation claiming that certain SPACs should be considered investment companies. Although we believe that these claims are without merit, we cannot guarantee that we will not be deemed to be an investment company and thus subject to 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 an initial business combination or may result in our liquidation. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our Public Stockholders may receive only approximately $10.61 (as of December 31, 2023) per public share upon the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless.
For the complete list of risks relating to our operations and the initial business combination, other than as set forth above, see the section titled “Risk Factors” contained in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 24, 2022 and March 22, 2023, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 14, 2023, August 11, 2023, May 11, 2023, November 11, 2022, August 11, 2022, May 11, 2022, November 11, 2021 (as amended) and August 31, 2021, the Extension Proxy Statement filed with the SEC on February 29, 2024 and in the other reports we file with the SEC. Furthermore, if any of the events occur described in the aforementioned filings, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected or we could face liquidation. 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 in the aforementioned filings are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware
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