We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the Initial Public Offering, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. Our 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 them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after the Initial Public Offering, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.
We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after the Initial Public Offering, 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 such underwriter or its affiliate 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 underwriters’ or their respective affiliates’ financial interests 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.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws or regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments 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. 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 an initial business combination, and results of operations.
On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules relating to, among other items, enhancing disclosures in business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amending the financial statement requirements applicable to transactions involving shell companies; and increasing the potential liability of certain participants in proposed business combination transactions. These rules, if adopted, whether in the form proposed or in revised form, may materially adversely affect our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.
The Business Combination may be subject to U.S. foreign investment regulations, which may impose conditions on the consummation of the Business Combination or may cause the Company to be unable to consummate the Business Combination.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) is an interagency committee authorized to review the national security implications associated with investments that give a foreign person control over a U.S. business, as well as certain non-controlling but non-passive foreign equity investments in U.S. businesses involved in critical technologies, critical infrastructure and sensitive personal data. Whether CFIUS has jurisdiction to review a transaction depends on, among other factors, the nature of the business and nexus to national security, and the structure of the transaction, particularly concerning the control rights that it would afford to the foreign person, including governance and information access rights.
The Business Combination will result in investments by non-U.S. persons in various U.S. entities that may be a covered transaction subject to CFIUS jurisdiction. For example, entities affiliated with GBIF Management Ltd., an entity organized in Canada, will indirectly hold between 24.1% and 32.4% of the issued and outstanding common stock of the Company after the Business Combination, assuming the No Redemption scenario and the 86% Redemptions scenario, respectively, as defined in the Form S-4. In addition, GBIF Management Ltd. will have the right to designate one director to the board of the Company after the Business Combination.
Any review of the Business Combination by CFIUS may impact transaction certainty, timing, feasibility and cost, among other things. CFIUS has broad authority to mitigate national security risks of a transaction, including requiring mitigation measures such as limiting governance or information access rights or even blocking a transaction. Accordingly, there can be no assurances that such investors will be able to maintain, or proceed with, such investments on terms acceptable to the parties to the Business Combination or such investors.
The process of government review could be lengthy. Because we have only a limited time to complete the Business Combination, our failure to obtain any required approvals within the requisite time-period may require us to liquidate. If we liquidate, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata share of amounts held in the trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless. This will also cause you to lose any potential investment opportunity in the Business Combination and the chance of realizing future gains on your investment through any price appreciation in the combined company.
Risks Relating to Our Securities
The NYSE 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.
Our units, Class A common stock and warrants are listed on the NYSE. We cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on the NYSE in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on the NYSE prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the NYSE’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the NYSE’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE. For instance, in order for our Class A common stock to be listed upon the consummation of our initial business combination, at such time, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, our total market capitalization would be required to be at least $200,000,000, the aggregate market value of publicly-held shares would be required to be at least $100,000,000 and we would be required to have at least 400 round lot holders. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
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