Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information
Our Units, Class A ordinary shares and warrants are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbols PEPLU, PEPL and PEPLW, respectively. Holders of the 17,000,000 Units sold in the IPO and subsequent over-allotment exercise may elect to separately trade our Class A ordinary shares and our warrants included in the Units.
Holders
As of March 21, 2023, there was one holder of record of our Units, one holder of record of our Class A ordinary shares, 41 holders of record of our Class B ordinary shares and two holders of record of our warrants. Because many of our securities are held by brokers and other institutions in street name on behalf of holders for whose benefit such securities are held, without obtaining a current list of nonobjecting beneficial owners, we are unable to estimate the total current number of beneficial owners represented by these record holders.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Securities
In June 2021, we issued an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share, to our sponsor. Prior to the consummation of the IPO, our sponsor returned to us at no cost an aggregate of 1,437,500 founder shares, which were cancelled. The sponsor agreed to forfeit up to an aggregate of 562,500 founder shares, on a pro rata basis, to the extent that the option to purchase additional Units is not exercised in full by the underwriters, so that the founder shares will represent 20% of our issued and outstanding shares after the IPO. In connection with the over-allotment exercise, the remaining unexercised over-allotment option on 250,000 Units was terminated. As such, 62,500 founder shares were forfeited by the sponsor and 500,000 founder shares were no longer subject to forfeiture. As of December 31, 2022, there is an aggregate of 4,250,000 founder shares outstanding.
On October 19, 2021, we consummated the IPO of 15,000,000 Units, at a price of $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds of $150,000,000 and incurring offering costs of approximately $16,900,000, of which $5,300,000 was for deferred underwriting commissions), and approximately $7,987,000 was the excess of fair value over price paid for the founder shares sold to the anchor investors. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acted as sole book-running manager in the IPO. The securities sold in the IPO were registered under the Securities Act on a registration statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-259861) which was declared effective by the SEC on October 14, 2021. Simultaneously with the consummation of the IPO, we consummated the sale of 7,500,000 private placement warrants, at a price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, in a private placement to our sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $7,500,000. The private placement warrants were sold to the sponsor and its designees.
On October 29, 2021, pursuant to the over-allotment option exercise, the underwriter purchased an additional 2,000,000 Units generating net proceeds to us of approximately $20,000,000 in the aggregate, and incurring an additional offering costs of $1,100,000 in connection with the over-allotment exercise (of which $700,000 was for deferred underwriting fees). Substantially concurrently with the over-allotment exercise, we completed the private sale of an aggregate of 600,000 additional private placement warrants to our sponsor at a purchase price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, generating gross proceeds to us of $600,000.
Following the IPO, sale of private placement warrants and the over-allotment exercise, an aggregate amount of $171.7 million ($10.10 per unit) has been placed in our trust account established in connection with the IPO.
Transaction costs amounted to $17,992,203 consisting of $3,400,000 of underwriting fees paid, $5,950,000 of underwriting fees deferred, $7,986,797 for the fair value of founder shares issued to the anchor investors and $655,406 of other offering costs. In addition, $891,154 of cash is held outside of the trust account as at December 31, 2022 and is available for working capital purposes.
On January 11, 2023, we held an Extraordinary General Meeting. At the Extraordinary General Meeting, our shareholders approved an amendment to our Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association to extend the date by which we must consummate our Business Combination from April 19, 2023 to October 19, 2023.