Shareholders in special purpose acquisition company Reinvent Technology Partners Y on Tuesday approved a business combination with self-driving startup Aurora Innovation that expects to see Aurora trading on the Nasdaq as soon as Thursday.
The completion of the SPAC, including Securities and Exchange Commission review, took just under four months, among the fastest SPAC merger completions ever. The business combination is expected to close Wednesday, whereupon Aurora will receive approximately $1.8 billion in proceeds raised by RTPY plus cash on Aurora’s balance sheet.
When the merger was announced in July, proceeds included $600 million in Aurora’s cash for a total of $2.5 billion. It was unclear if the lower number reflects Aurora’s cash burn or early redemptions by SPAC investors, who can opt out of a deal and get back their original $10 per share if they don’t like the merger target.
The speed of the deal is remarkable because of growing SEC scrutiny of SPACs, a shortened path to public trading that has looser rules than traditional initial public offerings.
Reinvent Technology Partners Y (NASDAQ: RTPY) and the founders of Aurora agreed to a four-year lockup of their shares with 25% being released each year following Wednesday’s expected closing. Other shareholders who purchased RTPY shares as part of a private investment in public equity (PIPE) cannot sell their shares for 180 days.
Embark Trucks SPAC expected to close next week
The vote totals are expected to be included in an SEC 8-K filing unavailable on the SEC’s website Tuesday evening. RTPY will change its name to Aurora Innovation Inc., which will trade under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: AUR and NASDAQ: AUROW, reflecting stock warrants that PIPE and other early investors received as part of their SPAC purchases.
A second SPAC-sponsored autonomous trucking company, Embark Trucks, is expected to close its business combination with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. next Tuesday and begin trading by the end of next week.
A third autonomous trucking SPAC, Plus, has been delayed and won’t close by next Monday, the latest date given by sponsor Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp..
Aurora is building the technology and business to commercialize self-driving at scale both in trucking and passenger mobility, beginning with Aurora Horizon driverless trucks in 2023 and autonomous ride-hailing passenger vehicles in 2024.Its trucking manufacturing partners include Paccar Inc. and Volvo Trucks, both of which invested in Aurora.
Proceeds from the business combination represent the largest-ever autonomous vehicle or robotics company primary raise in a go-public transaction.
“Upon the closing, this new capital will further support our timeline toward delivering the technology to make the movement of goods and people safer, more reliable and efficient,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora co-founder and CEO.
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source https://d0llars.com/spac-shareholders-approve-public-debut-for-self-driving-startup-aurora-innovation/
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