S-1/A 1 tm2028855-7_s1a.htm S-1/A tm2028855-7_s1a - block - 20.354166s
As filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 5, 2020.
Registration No. 333-249437
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Amendment No. 2
to
FORM S-l
REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Kingswood Acquisition Corp.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
(State or other jurisdiction of
organization)
6199
(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)
85-2432410
(I.R.S. Employer incorporation
or Identification Number)
17 Battery Place, Room 625
New York, NY 10004
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
Michael Nessim
Chief Executive Officer
Kingswood Acquisition Corp.
17 Battery Place, Room 625
New York, NY 10004
(212) 404-7002
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
Christopher M. Zochowski
Winston & Strawn LLP
1901 L Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 282-5000
David A. Sakowitz
Winston & Strawn LLP
200 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10166
Tel: (212) 294-6700
Mitchell Nussbaum
Giovanni Caruso
Loeb & Loeb LLP
345 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10154
Tel: (212) 407-4000
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box. □
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. □
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. □
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. □
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 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of Each Class of
Security Being Registered
Amount Being
Registered
Proposed Maximum
Offering Price per
Security(1)
Proposed Maximum
Aggregate
Offering Price(1)
Amount of
Registration Fee
Units, each consisting of one share of Class A Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and three-fourths of one redeemable warrant(2)
11,500,000 Units
$10.00
$115,000,000
$12,546.50
Shares of Class A Common Stock included as part of the units(3)
11,500,000 Shares
(4)
Redeemable warrants included as part of the 
units(3)
8,625,000 Warrants
(4)
Total
$115,000,000
$12,546.50(5)
(1)
Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee.
(2)
Includes 1,500,000 units, consisting of 1,500,000 shares of Class A Common Stock and 1,125,000 redeemable warrants, which may be issued upon exercise of a 30-day option granted to the underwriters to cover over-allotments, if any.
(3)
Pursuant to Rule 416, there are also being registered an indeterminable number of additional securities as may be issued to prevent dilution resulting from share sub-divisions, share dividends or similar transactions.
(4)
No fee pursuant to Rule 457(g).
(5)
Previously paid with the initial filing of this Registration Statement on October 13, 2020.
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED NOVEMBER 5, 2020
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS
Kingswood Acquisition Corp.
$100,000,000
10,000,000 Units
Kingswood Acquisition Corp. is a newly incorporated blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation and incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us.
This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one share of Class A Common Stock and three-fourths of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described herein. Only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. The warrants will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination and 12 months from the closing of this offering, and will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or our liquidation, as described herein. Subject to the terms and conditions described in this prospectus, we may redeem the warrants either for cash once the warrants become exercisable or for shares of Class A Common Stock commencing 90 days after the warrants become exercisable. The underwriters have a 30-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to an additional 1,500,000 units to cover over-allotments, if any.
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A Common Stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account described below as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock that were sold as part of the units in this offering, which we refer to as our public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, we will redeem 100% of 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to applicable law and certain conditions as further described herein.
Our sponsor, Kingswood Global Sponsor LLC, and one of our directors have committed to purchase an aggregate of 4,948,000 warrants (or 5,398,000 warrants if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $4,948,000 in the aggregate (or $5,398,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering.
Our initial stockholders, which include our sponsor, currently own an aggregate of 2,875,000 shares of Class B Common Stock, up to 375,000 of which will be surrendered to us for no consideration after the closing of this offering depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised. The shares of Class B Common Stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A Common Stock at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to the adjustments described herein. On any matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders, holders of Class B Common Stock and holders of Class A Common Stock will vote together as a single class, except as required by law.
Currently, there is no public market for our units, Class A Common Stock or warrants. We intend to apply to have applied to have our units listed on the New York Stock Exchange, or the NYSE, under the symbol “KWAC.U”. We expect that our units will be listed on the NYSE on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on the NYSE. We expect the shares of Class A Common Stock and warrants comprising the units to begin separate trading on the 90th day following the date of this prospectus unless Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., the representative of the underwriters, informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our satisfaction of certain conditions as described further herein. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, we expect that the shares of Class A Common Stock and warrants will be listed on the NYSE under the symbols “KWAC” and “KWAC WS,” respectively.
We are an “emerging growth company” under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities. Investors will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings.
Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
Per Unit
Total
Public offering price
$ 10.00 $ 100,000,000
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)
$ 0.55 $ 5,500,000
Proceeds, before expenses, to us
$ 9.45 $ 94,500,000
(1)
$0.20 per unit, or $2,000,000 in the aggregate (or $2,300,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), is payable in cash and units of the Company upon the closing of this offering. Includes $0.35 per unit, or $3,500,000 in the aggregate (or up to $4,025,000 in the aggregate if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions to be placed in a trust account located in the United States and released to the underwriters only upon the completion of an initial business combination. See also “Underwriting” for a description of compensation and other items of value payable to the underwriters. The underwriters have agreed to receive $625,000 of their commission due upon the consummation of the offering in the form of units of the Company.
Of the proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $101,000,000, or $116,150,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.10 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a trust account located in the United States with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, after deducting $2,000,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions payable upon the closing of this offering (or $2,300,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) and an aggregate of approximately $1,073,000 to pay fees and expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following the closing of this offering.
The underwriters are offering the units for sale on a firm commitment basis. The underwriters expect to deliver the units to the purchasers on or about         , 2020.
Sole Bookrunning Manager
Oppenheimer & Co.
Lead Manager
Odeon Capital Group, LLC
                 , 2020

 
Until                 , 2020 (25 days after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that buy, sell or trade our Class A Common Stock, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the dealers’ obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.
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We have not, and the underwriters have not, authorized anyone to provide you with information that is different from or inconsistent with that contained in this prospectus. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus.
PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION
In this prospectus, whenever we refer to the “internal rate of return” on a particular investment or group of investments, we mean the compound annual rate of return (expressed as a percentage) that has been earned on that investment or group of investments in the period from initial investment to exit, taking into account (a) the date or dates of payment by the relevant investors for the interests purchased, (b) the date or dates on which the relevant investors receive proceeds from the investment and (c) the amounts of such proceeds. For purposes of calculating the internal rate of return, all determinations are made on an average cost basis for any interests sold or otherwise transferred for value. Investments are considered to be “exited” when the original investment objective has been achieved through the receipt of cash and/or non-cash consideration upon the repayment of the investment or sale of an investment or through the determination that no further consideration was collectible.
Whenever we refer to the “multiple on equity investment” on a particular investment or group of investments, we mean the number that results from dividing the total cash and non-cash distributions received from an investment by the total amount invested.
Internal rate of return and multiple on equity investment are historical results relating to the past performance of certain of our Founders’ investments and are not necessarily indicative of future results, the achievement of which cannot be assured.
Unless otherwise stated, pound sterling amounts have been converted into U.S. dollars at the rate of €1 per $1.3071, as based on the spot exchange rate published by the Bank of England on August 24, 2020.
 
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SUMMARY
This summary only highlights the more detailed information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. As this is a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making an investment decision. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the information under “Risk Factors” and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before investing.
Unless otherwise stated in this prospectus or the context otherwise requires, references to:

“we,” “us,” “company” or “our company” are to Kingswood Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation;

“DGCL” are to the Delaware General Corporation Law as the same may be amended from time to time;

“financial backers” are to KPI (Nominees) Limited and Pollen Street Capital Group. As set forth herein in further detail, our financial backers have provided us with the initial capital to consummate the offering, will provide us with management expertise and deal sourcing and potentially will provide additional capital to consummate the initial business combination, at their sole discretion;

“Founders” are to our management team, board of directors and financial backers;

“founder shares” are to the shares of Class B Common Stock initially purchased by our sponsor in a private placement prior to this offering and the shares of Class A Common Stock that will be issued upon the automatic conversion of the shares of Class B Common Stock at the time of our initial business combination as described herein;

“initial stockholders” are to holders of our founder shares prior to this offering;

“management” or our “management team” are to our officers and directors;

“Common Stock” are to our Class A Common Stock and our Class B Common Stock;

“public shares” are to shares of Class A Common Stock sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market);

“public stockholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our initial stockholders and management team to the extent our initial stockholders and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that each initial stockholder’s and member of our management team’s status as a “public stockholder” will only exist with respect to such public shares;

“public warrants” are to the warrants sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market);

“private placement warrants” are to the warrants issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of this offering;

“sponsor” are to Kingswood Global Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company;

“underwriter shares” are to the shares of Class A Common Stock underlying the underwriter units;

“underwriter units” are to the Company’s units to be issued to the underwriters as partial payment for their commission in amount equal to $625,000;

“underwriter warrants” are to the warrants underlying the underwriter units; and

“warrants” are to the public warrants and the private placement warrants, collectively.
Unless we tell you otherwise, the information in this prospectus assumes that the underwriters will not exercise their over-allotment option.
General
We are a newly organized blank check company formed as a Delaware corporation for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Throughout this prospectus we will refer to this as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor
 
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has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us.
We believe that there are a significant number of target companies globally that could become attractive public companies, and we will seek to capitalize on the extensive operational and investment experience of our Founders and focus on companies that we believe are attractively valued and have significant growth prospects with the potential to generate robust value for our stockholders. Although we can acquire a company in any industry, we currently intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the financial services industry with a focus on delivering differentiated financial services in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors to the mass affluent and private client investor community.
Our management team is composed of disciplined acquirers with long-term track records of sourcing and acquiring value accretive businesses, building next-generation businesses across industries globally and generating significant returns for investors from those businesses. They are particularly experienced in the financial services industry, including integrated wealth and investment management platforms, and will provide investors with differentiated insights and access to sourcing opportunities. Each of these attributes will be further supported by the longstanding, deep expertise and accretive skillsets of the other Founders, each of whom has a track record of delivering value for investors. We intend to capitalize on the ability of the Founders to identify, acquire and manage businesses in the global financial services space that can benefit from their experience and differentiated global network.
Over the medium- to long-term, we intend to build a substantial integrated global wealth and investment management platform, underpinned by disciplined capital allocation, rigorous due diligence, and our in-place operational, technology, risk and compliance framework. The business will be primarily focused on serving all our clients’ financial needs holistically, covering a full suite of services including wealth advisory, insurance, investment management, investment banking services, asset accumulation, cash management, collateralized lending, and alternatives. We will leverage our growing distribution channels by serving as a distribution interface for best-in-class asset managers globally across all asset classes, providing our mass affluent and private client base with access on a cost-effective basis to high-quality institutional products not currently directly available to them. We intend to grow both organically and through acquisitions that will be successfully integrated utilizing our in-place management, operational and technology platform to drive increased margins through synergies and migration of client assets onto a centralized investment platform. We intend to capitalize on the robust consolidation activity in the high-growth fragmented global wealth and investment management sectors. As disciplined acquirers focused on value enhancement, we believe we can also drive significant additional value to our stockholders through our ability to arbitrage the valuation differentials that exist globally between companies matching our business combination criteria and that apply to a significantly scaled, high-growth and well-resourced listed entity generating above average ROCE (return on capital employed).
Business Strategy
Our acquisition and value creation strategy is to identify and complete our initial business combination with a market-leading, growth-oriented company. Although we may acquire a company in any industry, we intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the financial services industry with a focus on differentiated financial services in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors. These potential targets exhibit a broad range of business models and financial characteristics, from mature businesses with recurring revenues and strong cash flows to high-growth companies.
The global financial planning and advice market is significant and expanding. According to the Boston Consulting Group (“BCG”), personal financial wealth globally has nearly tripled over the past 20 years, rising from $80 trillion in 1999 to $226 trillion in 2019. According to BCG, North American wealth assets represented approximately 44% of global financial wealth in 2019, or nearly $100 trillion. While (as estimated by the World Federation of Exchanges) the COVID-19 pandemic erased more than $18 trillion from global markets over the course of February and March 2020, BCG projects that global wealth assets will continue to rise to between $243 trillion and $282 trillion by 2024, with the ranges depending on the speed of the global economic recovery from COVID-19. As the population and wealth assets continue to grow
 
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globally, we believe the wealth management industry will continue to see increased demand for financial planning and wealth management services, in particular from mass affluent and private clients.
Total global assets under management grew by 15% to approximately $89 trillion in 2019, up from approximately $77 trillion in 2018, according to BCG. North America experienced the strongest growth, with assets rising 19% in 2019 to $42 trillion. Retail clients, the fastest growing segment with assets rising by 19%, represented 42% or $37 trillion of global assets in 2019.1
In the U.S. wealth management sector alone, we believe there are several key factors that will continue to drive growth, including:

Advisors Moving Toward Independent Advisor Model.   As of December 31, 2018, 21% of advisors across all channels worked for registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) or hybrid RIA firms (those firms that can act either in a fiduciary-based advisory capacity or a suitability-based broker capacity) collectively, and such percentage is expected to grow to 23.9% by the end of 20232. One of the key factors driving the shift of financial advisors to the RIA channel is the ability to retain a greater share of the economics associated with the wealth management services they provide.

Increased Demand for Independent Advice.   Recent market trends indicate a preference by clients for the independent wealth management advice provided by RIAs and hybrid RIA firms. Wirehouse asset market share fell from 42.6% to 34.0% between 2007 and 2018 and is expected to fall further to 29.2% by 20231. Conversely, RIAs and hybrid RIA firms saw an increase in their collective asset market share from 16.8% to 24.2% between 2007 and 2018 and are expected to have an asset market share of 29.6% by 20231.

Lack of Succession Planning in the RIA Channel.   22% of all RIAs are unsure who their practice successor will be, the average age of an RIA advisor is 53 years and 24% of RIA advisors plan to exit the industry in the next nine years1. We believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing need for RIAs to prepare their firms for the next generation of leadership.

Projected Growth of Managed Accounts.   The United States is in the midst of a generational shift where baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are retired or retiring. The U.S. population aged 65 years and over is expected to increase by 72% from 2015 to 2040, increasing from 14.9% to an estimated 21.7% of the total U.S. population in 2040, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Accompanying this shift is an expected increase in demand for wealth management services as assets are moved out of 401(k) accounts and company-sponsored plans into managed accounts. This influx of retirement assets into flexible investment accounts represents a significant growth opportunity for the independent wealth management sector, specifically the growing RIA channel.
We believe that there are similar business and regulatory trends in other key international jurisdictions that are driving wealth management professionals toward independent, fee-based business models. In particular, in addition to targeting the RIA-led wealth management industry in the United States, we believe the heightened regulatory scrutiny, proliferating awareness of the fiduciary standard for wealth management and growing population of mass affluent clients in various regions globally will provide us with an increasing number of acquisition targets abroad. We believe that with the international composition of our Founders group and their skillsets, we are well-positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities in all international markets.
The independent wealth management industry, including RIAs and independent broker-dealers (“IBDs”), is highly fragmented. Over the past several years, there has been an increased level of consolidation in the wealth management industry, and we expect this trend to continue and accelerate.
Global wealth management M&A activity reached a new record high for the seventh consecutive year in 2019, with over 200 announced transactions and $285 billion of assets transacted, based on reported data.3 Consolidation in the industry has been fueled by firms seeking strategic or financial partnership opportunities to build scale, enhance margins, improve competitive positioning and access additional capital
1
BCG Global Asset Management 2020 “Protect, Adapt and Innovate” Report.
2
Cerulli U.S. RIA Marketplace 2019 Report and Cerulli 2019 Advisor Report.
 
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to fund corporate investments, launch or acquire additional capabilities and transition ownership from founders to the next generation of leaders. Increasing regulatory and technology costs have also fueled M&A activity.
Given the growth trends and fragmented nature of the industry, we believe there is a significant opportunity for us to capitalize on the consolidation activity taking place in the global wealth management industry. Our Founders have a differentiated ability to underwrite transactions across the financial services landscape, including the wealth and investment management sectors. We believe we are well-positioned to partner with a growing wealth management firm that can gain market share and use publicly traded equity to fund new business initiatives and execute roll up acquisitions of additional wealth managers. Additionally, we believe that the COVID-19 pandemic creates additional opportunities where otherwise healthy companies may be in need of capital unrelated to the strength of the underlying platform and we will be in a position to provide capital and strategic solutions, including access to the public capital markets for these companies.
Management Team
We are led by an experienced team of managers, operators and investors who have each played important roles in helping build, grow and exit profitable public and private businesses, both organically and through acquisitions, to create significant value for stakeholders. Our team collectively has several decades of experience operating and investing in companies and management teams across a wide range of industries, including financial services, bringing us a diversity of experiences as well as valuable expertise and perspective.
Our management team will consist of Gary Wilder, our Executive Chairman, and Michael Nessim, our Chief Executive Officer, who will both be supported by our non-executive directors and our two principal financial backers:

KPI (Nominees) Limited, a UK-incorporated company (“KPI”), which is wholly owned by Kingswood Property Finance LP (“KPFLP”), a UK private investment partnership that is in turn wholly owned and controlled by Gary Wilder and Jonathan Massing. KPI and its subsidiaries have approximately $8 billion of assets under advice and management; and

Pollen Street Capital Group (“Pollen Street”), a global alternative asset investment management company focused on the financial and business services sectors with $3.5 billion of assets under management across private equity and credit strategies.
Gary Wilder
Mr. Wilder, our Executive Chairman, has over 30 years of experience across corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, financing, operations, business development, sales and marketing and branding for companies across all industries, including wealth managers and broker dealers. Mr. Wilder has structured finance and private equity investment experience in Europe, Asia and the U.S. and has been involved in all phases of investment processes, including equity capital raising, fund structuring, debt financing, property acquisitions, asset management and sales. He has built an extensive network of deep relationships with key players, advisors, brokers, consultants, investment banks and analysts. Mr. Wilder has successfully executed over $30 billion in transaction across over 100 M&A, capital markets, structured finance and private equity transactions investing $4.2 billion of equity over the course of his career.
Mr. Wilder currently serves as Group Chief Executive Officer of Kingswood Holdings Limited (“KWG”), a publicly traded, fully integrated wealth and investment management group with over 16,000 active clients and approximately $6 billion of assets under advice and management, and as Executive Chairman of Kingswood US Holdings Inc (“Kingswood US”), KWG’s subsidiary and U.S. holding company. He joined the board of KWG in October 2017 as a non-executive director. Mr. Wilder’s key responsibilities at KWG include building strategic relationships with new and existing investors, bankers and financial advisers, directing capital raising efforts to drive the growth and expansion of the platform, strategic acquisitions, value enhancement and directing overall strategy to maximize stockholder returns.
3
The 2019 Echelon RIA M&A Deal Report.
 
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Mr. Wilder is also a co-founding partner of KPFLP and alongside his partner, Jonathan Massing, has undertaken a range of long-term private equity investments and financial transactions. In 2006, Mr. Wilder co-founded Moor Park Capital Partners, LLP, a private real estate firm based in London, where he currently serves as the Executive Chairman. Prior to founding Moor Park, Mr. Wilder was a Managing Partner and the Co-Head of European Funds Group at Nomura Holdings, a team he created following his role as head of Nomura’s Real Estate Principal Finance Group. He was also a member of Nomura’s Global Fixed Income Committee. Between 1999 and 2002, Mr. Wilder was Partner & Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston responsible for its European Real Estate Investment Banking business. Between 1994 and 1999, Mr. Wilder was a Managing Director at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank) in the Real Estate Group. Mr. Wilder is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the Cass Business School, University of London, where he attained a Bachelor of Science degree with honors. Mr. Wilder is authorized as a Senior Manager Function holder by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Michael Nessim
Mr. Nessim, our Chief Executive Officer, has over 24 years of experience in the financial services industry. Starting his career in 1995 as a registered representative with Josephthal & Co., a former independent retail brokerage firm, he built a team of registered representatives and sales support. In 1998, Mr. Nessim began an independently owned franchise of an independent broker dealer. He grew the business to over 100 advisors and 10 support staff. He has spent the majority of his career as an owner and operator of registered franchises (Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction).
Mr. Nessim is currently the President of Kingswood US. Mr. Nessim joined Kingswood US through KWG’s acquisition of a majority interest in Manhattan Harbor Capital (“MHC”). MHC is the majority owner of Benchmark Investments, Inc., an independent broker dealer, and Benchmark Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment advisor in the U.S. (together, “Benchmark”). Mr. Nessim currently serves as the President and CEO of Benchmark. Mr. Nessim’s key responsibilities include driving the continued growth of Benchmark as well as oversight and daily communication with the various management team leaders. He has grown Benchmark from 35 registered representatives to 180 registered representatives due to the successful completion of organic and inorganic growth initiatives. Mr. Nessim has played a crucial role in the successful integration of Benchmark’s RIA acquisition.
Mr. Nessim holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 65 Securities Licenses. He graduated from C.W. Post University with a degree in Business Management.
Non-Executive Directors
Our management team’s efforts to seek a suitable initial business combination target will be complemented and augmented by the expertise and network of relationships of our non-executive directors, who will provide extensive experience in business and financial matters.
R. Lawrence (Larry) Roth
Mr. Roth, our lead independent director, has over 30 years of experience as an operator of companies, a dealmaker, a strategic advisor and a successful entrepreneur. Mr. Roth, an Attorney and CPA, is currently the Managing Partner of RLR Strategic Partners LLC, a consulting company, where he works closely with senior management teams, boards of directors and advisory boards across the wealth management space to deliver high-impact strategic growth plans, as well as plan execution support. In addition to strategic planning, Mr. Roth also provides comprehensive M&A advisory solutions, delivered in association with Berkshire Global Advisors, a leading global boutique investment bank focused on mergers & acquisitions for the financial services sector.
With three decades of experience in the wealth management industry, Mr. Roth will complement our business combination strategy through the expertise and relationships he has built over time as a CEO of some of the largest independent firms in the industry; a current and past board member of both public and private entities; an investment banker who has structured numerous value-creating transactions; and an entrepreneur who has acquired early-stage retail financial advice businesses, and grown them to achieve profitable exits. He currently serves on the boards of directors as well as advisory boards for leading
 
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organizations in the wealth management industry, including: Advisory Board Chairman of Haven Tower Group, Member of the Board of Directors of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Member of the Board of Directors of Clark Capital Management Group and Editorial Advisory Board Member for Real Assets Adviser. From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Roth served as Chief Executive Officer of Cetera Financial Group, the second largest network of independent broker-dealers in the U.S. From 2013 to 2014, Mr. Roth was the Chief Executive Officer of Realty Capital Securities, a financial services firm engaged in the independent wealth management business. From 2006 to 2013, Mr. Roth was Chief Executive Officer of AIG Advisors Group, one of the largest networks of independent broker-dealers in the U.S. He has also previously served as a Managing Director of Berkshire Global Advisors and remains affiliated with the firm today as a Senior Advisor. Mr. Roth first entered the wealth management industry as an entrepreneur when he personally acquired Vestax, a Hudson, Ohio-based full-service independent broker-dealer that he grew and successfully sold to ING Group in 1997.
Mr. Roth has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and a J.D. from the University of Detroit School of Law. He is also a graduate of the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. He holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 FINRA registrations.
Jonathan Massing
Mr. Massing, one of our directors, has nearly 40 years of corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions experience. Mr. Massing is currently non-executive Deputy Chairman of KWG.
Mr. Massing is a specialist in commercial and corporate finance advice, buyouts, venture capital, advising on stockholder disputes, the valuation of private businesses and acting as a financial expert. As a Chartered Accountant, he has extensive experience in the sale and acquisition of private companies and also provides advice on debt structures and working capital facilities. Mr. Massing is an accredited mediator, with a specific interest in the resolution of business and commercial disputes.
In 1993, Mr. Massing became a founding partner of Kingswood LLP, a London-based professional advisory firm specializing in corporate finance and other professional services for private entrepreneurial businesses and smaller companies. In 1998, Mr. Massing set up Kingswood Investment Partners (“KIP”) as an independent, UK Financial Conduct Authority regulated, private equity investor. KIP also acts as General Partner to KPFLP. Formed in 2004, KPFLP has undertaken a range of long-term investments and financial transactions including: participating in real estate investments; private equity investments incorporating equity and loan capital to the small and medium-sized enterprises sector; subscribing for equity warrants and options; dealing in financial assets; and trading in listed equities, fixed income and currencies. In August 2017, KPFLP, through KPI, became the largest stockholder in KWG. Mr. Massing was appointed as a non-executive director of KWG in 2017 and, in 2019, he assumed the role of Deputy Chairman. Mr. Massing began his career as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in 1981.
Mr. Massing is a member of the Corporate Finance Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, holding the Corporate Finance Diploma entitling the use of the designation “CF”. In 2010, he was admitted as a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). Mr. Massing attained a Bachelor of Science with Honors at Cardiff University.
David Hudd
Mr. Hudd, one of our directors, has nearly 40 years of global legal and capital markets transactional experience. Mr. Hudd is currently a non-executive director of and legal consultant to KWG. Mr. Hudd is also senior counsel and a former partner of Hogan Lovells, where he served as Deputy CEO from 2014 to 2020.
Mr. Hudd joined Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) as its first dedicated capital markets partner in 1994 to establish the firm’s structured finance practice. Before his appointment as Deputy CEO, Mr. Hudd led the firm’s global finance practice. Mr. Hudd served as Head of Structured Finance at Banque Indosuez in London (now Crédit Agricole) between 1993 and 1994, as Head of Structured Finance at Sanwa International in
 
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London (now Mitsubishi UFJ Group) between 1991 and 1993, and as Head of Legal and subsequently Head of Structured Finance at Banque Paribas in London (now BNP Paribas) from 1985 to 1990. Mr. Hudd started his career as an Associate at Linklaters.
Mr. Hudd has been ranked as a market-leading lawyer for over 25 years by Chambers and Legal 500. Mr. Hudd graduated with an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and is qualified as a solicitor.
Howard Garland
Mr. Garland, one of our directors, is a Partner of Pollen Street and a member of the firm’s private equity and credit investment committees. He is currently a non-executive director of KWG.
He has extensive experience in the private equity sector since 1995, prior to which he created and ran a financial brokerage firm specializing in real estate. Mr. Garland is focused on investing in financial services businesses and credit opportunities and is the lead partner at Pollen Street in charge of KWG, the Polish BIK Group, as well as a number of credit investments and real estate platforms. He was previously the lead partner at Pollen Street in charge of the Italian bank Banca Sistema and Arrow Global.
Beginning in 2012, Mr. Garland spent three years assisting the Swedish credit institution Hoist Finance to enter the UK debt collecting and non-performing loan purchasing sector, acting as the UK Chief Operating Officer and supporting the acquisition of a number of UK companies and debt portfolios in both a structuring and operational role.
Mr. Garland has a 1st class honors degree in Mathematics from University College London.
Lisa Roth
Ms. Roth, one of our directors, has over 30 years of operational, business strategy, compliance and information security experience across the financial services industry. She is currently the president of Monahan & Roth, LLC, a professional consulting firm offering consulting, expert witness and mediation services on financial and investment services topics including regulatory compliance, product due diligence, suitability, supervision, information security and related topics. Previously, Ms. Roth founded ComplianceMAX Financial Corp. (purchased by National Regulatory Services in 2007), a regulatory compliance company offering technology and consulting services to more than 1,000 broker-dealers and investment advisers. Ms. Roth’s leadership at ComplianceMAX Financial Corp. led to the development of innovative audit and compliance workflow technologies now in use by some of the U.S.’s largest broker-dealers, investment advisors and other financial services companies. Ms. Roth has been engaged as an expert witness on more than 150 occasions, including FINRA, JAMS and AAA arbitrations, and Superior Court and other litigations, providing research, analysis, expert reports, damages calculations and/or testimony at depositions, hearings and trials.
Ms. Roth also serves as the President, AML Compliance Officer and Chief Information Security Officer of Tessera Capital Partners. Tessera is a limited-purpose broker dealer offering new business development, financial intermediary relations, client services and marketing support to investment managers and financial services firms. Ms. Roth holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 53, 4, 65, 99 Licenses. Previously, Ms. Roth has served in various executive capacities with Keystone Capital Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, First Affiliated Securities, Inc. (now First Allied Securities, Inc.), and other brokerage and advisory firms.
Ms. Roth attained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and was awarded the History Prize from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA.
Caroline O’Connell
Ms. O’Connell, one of our directors, has almost 30 years of leadership, operational, business strategy and marketing experience across the financial services industry. Ms. O’Connell’s track record includes building and leading high-performance teams across marketing, strategy, client experience, product management and communications disciplines to drive growth. She is currently the Chief Strategy and Customer Experience Officer of Equitable (formerly AXA Equitable) and a member of the firm’s Operating
 
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Committee. She is responsible for driving the firm’s growth strategy and overseeing the customer experience across all channels and product lines.
Previously, Ms. O’Connell held several roles at BNY Mellon, including Chief Strategy Officer for the firm’s Pershing franchise and Chief Marketing Officer for its Investment Services business. Ms. O’Connell is a board member of the Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is part of the Strategic Advisory Board for FTV Capital, a multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity firm, as well as Senior Advisor to Omega Venture Partners, a start-up venture capital firm specializing in human-enabled artificial intelligence. Ms. O’Connell is also co-founder of the Outthinker Chief Strategy Officer Roundtable and a member and former Chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee of The Women’s Forum of New York.
Ms. O’Connell holds FINRA series 7, 24 and 63 Licenses. Ms. O’Connell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Principal Financial Backers
KPI (Nominees) Limited
KPI is a private UK company that is wholly owned by KPFLP. Formed in 2004, KPI has undertaken a range of long-term investments and financial transactions including: private equity investments incorporating equity and loan capital to the SME sector; participating in real estate investments; life insurance and fixed and variable annuities; subscribing for equity warrants and options; dealing in financial assets; and trading in listed equities, fixed income and currencies. KPI and its subsidiaries have approximately $8 billion of assets under advice and management. KPFLP is managed by its General Partner, KIP, which is authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
KPI owns 67% of the ordinary share capital of KWG. KWG (previously European Wealth Group Limited), together with its subsidiaries is a growing and established wealth management business listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KWG. Client experience and breadth of services are at the heart of KWG’s offering granting access to specialist advice and distinctive investment products. Headquartered in London, KWG has over 170 employees across the UK, South Africa and the U.S.
KWG’s investment products are managed by highly experienced global investment managers and comprise equities, fixed income and alternative investments. KWG services individuals, family offices, charities, trusts, institutions and corporations by offering a full suite of personalized financial services and access to high-quality products on a cost-effective basis. As of August 21, 2020, KWG has over 16,000 active clients and approximately $6.0 billion of assets under advice and management.
KWG is split into three core businesses: UK Wealth and Investment Management, UK Institutional and Kingswood US:

UK Wealth and Investment Management is an integrated advisory business for retail and corporate clients providing a broad spectrum of financial planning and investment management solutions. UK Wealth had approximately $3.9 billion assets under advice and management as of August 21, 2020 and services approximately 11,700 private clients and 200 corporate pension schemes ranging in size from 10 to 5,000 members.

UK Institutional provides specialist fixed interest and cash-enhanced investment management to private clients, trusts, pension funds, universities and charities. It also manages money on behalf of third-party independent financial advisers. It currently manages total fixed interest investments of $1.0 billion.

Kingswood US currently incorporates interests in an independent broker dealer and registered investment adviser with current assets under management of $1.1 billion.
In September 2019, KWG received a permanent growth capital investment from Pollen Street to support its global growth strategy in the wealth management industry. Pollen Street’s investment comprised an initial commitment of up to £40 million ($52 million) of permanent growth capital to KWG.
 
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KWG’s established market position as a vertically integrated global wealth manager, track record of organic and inorganic strategic growth, established distribution and global relationship network will be a competitive advantage and resource to us as we execute our business strategy.
Members of our board, including Mr. Wilder and Mr. Nessim, have led significant organic and inorganic strategic growth initiatives at KWG to drive growth through enhanced wealth management capabilities, expanded geographic reach and broadened distribution.
Recent Organic Growth Initiatives Delivered for KWG

Enhanced and repositioned the wealth management customer proposition, reducing dependence on single advisers and ensuring that the customer’s relationship is with KWG;

Built out the senior management team with the hiring of a new industry specific Chief Risk Officer and a Chief Operating Officer;

Established partnerships with affiliates covering protection, mortgage services, foreign currency and tax/accounting support; and

Developed IT infrastructure, utilizing industry-leading platforms across both wealth management and investment management.
Recent Inorganic Growth Initiatives Delivered for KWG

Completed the acquisition of Thomas & Co., a financial advisory firm based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in February 2019. Serving around 500 clients and with approximately £150 million ($196 million) of assets under advice, Thomas & Co offers a wide range of services to its clients, including personal and company pensions, investments, and tax planning. The acquisition represented a major step in KWG’s strategy to become a leader in the UK wealth and investment management market and build a nationally recognized brand.

Completed the acquisition of a minority interest in Manhattan Harbor Capital in May 2019. Led by Mr. Nessim, MHC is a holding company with RIA and IBD operations in New York, Atlanta and San Diego. The partnership enabled KWG to gain a key, strategic foothold in the U.S., the largest wealth and investment management market in the world. By investing in MHC, KWG differentiated itself from its peers and supported its global aspirations of asset linking and cross-selling services, and the partnership provided a solid foundation for KWG’s U.S. expansion plans.

Completed the acquisition of WFI Financial (“WFI”), a major regional financial planning business based in Sheffield, UK, in September 2019. WFI has over £550 million ($719 million) of assets under management / assets under advice from over 970 family clients. The acquisition doubled the size of KWG’s wealth planning business and provided KWG with an opportunity to own a highly profitable regional financial planning business. The acquisition also marked KWG’s continued expansion of its national wealth management footprint in the UK.

A strategic partnership initiative with Pollen Street in September 2019, which comprised an initial commitment of £40 million ($52 million) and an additional £40 million through co-investments ($104 million in total) of permanent growth capital from funds managed and/or advised by Pollen Street to KWG, underpinning a strong, debt-free balance sheet.

Completed the acquisition of Chalice Capital Partners, an IBD, and Chalice Wealth Advisors, the firm’s RIA (together, “Chalice”), in May 2020. Located in San Diego, California, Chalice provides full service securities brokerage, advisory and investment banking services to a broad-based group of individuals and corporate clients and manages approximately $1.1 billion of assets.

KWG announced an agreement in May 2020 to increase its ownership in MHC to a majority stake, merge Chalice with MHC and rename the combined firm Kingswood US. The transaction provides KWG with a strong, robust and well-capitalized foundation to accelerate its U.S. growth strategy, including best-in-class, full-service operational and technology infrastructure. Kingswood US comprises a strong independent broker dealer and registered investment adviser businesses across the U.S., with key hubs in Atlanta, New York and San Diego. In addition, Kingswood US incorporates
 
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Kingswood Capital Markets, a national investment banking platform now supported by significant regulatory capital to leverage KWG’s expanding distribution channels and drive growth across equity and debt advisory, capital raising and M&A. In August 2020, KWG announced that, subject to regulatory approval, it will achieve majority ownership in MHC and complete the formation of Kingswood US.

Completed the acquisition of Sterling Trust Financial Consulting Limited (“Sterling Trust”) in June 2020, a high-quality regional UK wealth management business with £1.2 billion ($1.57 billion) in assets under management. Sterling Trust represents a transformative transaction for KWG, doubling the size and profitability of the wealth management business, adding experienced senior leaders and expanding additional regional reach in the UK.
Pollen Street
Established in 2013, Pollen Street is a global, independent alternative investment management company focused on the financial and business services sectors. Pollen Street has $3.5 billion of gross assets under management across private equity and credit strategies. Investors include leading pension funds, asset managers, banks and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street’s demonstrated approach and track record of supporting its partner companies to take advantage of global market opportunities and to build high growth, sustainable businesses will be highly valuable to our business strategy.
Pollen Street currently manages investments across a diverse sector base including a bank, consumer and corporate lenders, specialist insurance brokers, payments and foreign exchange businesses and technology software providers. It manages multiple regulated entities across the UK, Europe and the U.S.
The past performance of our management team, directors, financial backers or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee either (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team’s or advisors’ or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of our future performance.
Competitive Strengths
We believe the Founders will provide us with a significant pipeline of opportunities from which to evaluate potential business combinations that will benefit from our collective expertise, relationships and network. We believe that our competitive strengths include the following:
Seasoned Management Team with a Track Record of Creating Value
Our management team is led by our Executive Chairman Gary Wilder and our Chief Executive Officer Michael Nessim. With over 55 years of combined financial services, wealth management and private equity experience, Mr. Wilder and Mr. Nessim bring a strong track record, exclusive relationships and deep expertise that is suited to take advantage of the growing set of acquisition opportunities across the financial services industry, including the global wealth and investment management space, and to create stockholder value.
We believe our management team’s operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships in the U.S. and globally. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, their relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.
We believe that potential sellers of target businesses will view the fact that our management team has successfully closed over 100 combined M&A, capital markets, structured finance and private equity transactions across a diverse range of industries as a positive factor in considering whether to enter into a business combination with us.
 
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Accomplished Board of Directors
We have recruited and organized a group of accomplished, well-recognized, respected and engaged independent directors who will bring to us public company governance, executive leadership, operations oversight and capital markets expertise. Our board members have served as directors, officers, partners and other executive and advisory capacities for publicly-listed and privately owned companies and private equity and venture capital firms. Our directors have extensive experience with acquisitions, divestitures and corporate strategy and possess relevant domain expertise in the sectors where we expect to source business combination targets, including wealth and investment management. We believe their collective expertise, contacts and relationships make us a highly desirable merger partner.
In addition to supporting us in the areas of investment strategy, origination, assessments of key risks and opportunities and due diligence, members of our board of directors may also support us after the completion of our business combination in overseeing our investment management and value creation plan and strategy where relevant expertise exists. We believe the significant experience and established reputation of our directors will attract high-performing merger partners.
Differentiated Investment Thesis and Strategy
We believe we are unique among listed SPAC vehicles due to our Founders’ extensive knowledge, experience and network with respect to the financial services industry, including differentiated financial services firms in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors. Given the growth trends and fragmented nature of the industry, we believe there is a significant opportunity for us to capitalize on the consolidation activity taking place in the global wealth management industry. Our management team has the ability to identify transactions across the financial services landscape, including the wealth and investment management sectors. Additionally, the Founders are actively involved in operating, advising and investing in wealth and investment management firms, which we believe provides a unique value proposition for business combination targets.
We believe we are well-positioned to partner with a growing wealth and investment management firm that can gain market share and use publicly traded equity to fund new business initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Our medium-to-long term strategy is to build a substantial integrated global wealth and investment management platform. We intend to grow both organically and through acquisitions, which will be successfully integrated utilizing our in place management, operational and technology platform to drive increased margin through exploiting business synergies as we integrate acquisitions onto our centralized operating platform and through the migration of client assets onto our centralized investment platform to drive additional incremental margins. As disciplined acquirers focused on value enhancement, we believe we can also drive significant additional value to our stockholders through our ability to take advantage of the valuation differentials that exist globally between companies matching our business combination criteria and a significantly scaled and a well-resourced listed entity.
Extensive and Proprietary Deal Sourcing Network
We intend to maximize our pipeline of potential target investments by proactively approaching our extensive and proprietary network of relationships and contacts, including owners and directors of private and public companies, private equity funds, family offices, technology partners, investment bankers, industry consultants, lenders, attorneys, accountants and other trusted advisors across various sectors. Kingswood US has a team of investment bankers that can strengthen our sourcing efforts in the RIA and IBD sectors. We believe the prior investment experience and track record of our team and the extensive network of the Founders within the global and U.S. financial services and private equity markets will give us a competitive advantage when sourcing potential business combination opportunities.
Significant M&A, Capital Markets, Finance and Private Equity Expertise
The Founders consist of seasoned professionals with significant M&A, capital markets, finance and private equity experience across a wide variety of industries, structures and market conditions and have proven track records of producing outsized investor returns through all business cycles. Our team has an extensive track record of identifying, screening, acquiring and exiting companies profitably, with experience
 
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globally in the wealth and investment management space, as principal investors and as advisors. The Founders intend to apply the same disciplined approach to acquire a business that they have used in connection with their current advisory services and principal investment activities.
Our management team also has deep understanding and experience of all aspects of capital markets, which we believe is an important skill-set of a SPAC management team. We believe that the combined experience and network of the Founders in the public and private equity markets will allow us to effectively position our investment thesis for the business combination transaction, as well as for the combined company post-closing to deliver significant returns for our stockholders.
In connection with our initial business combination, our sponsor and certain of its affiliates in their sole discretion may consider entering into forward purchase agreements with respect to the purchase of units of the Company in a private placement that would close concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. The foregoing in no way creates a legal or contractual obligation of our sponsor or any of its affiliates to enter into forward purchase agreements, and our sponsor and its affiliates will determine whether to enter into such forward purchase agreements in their sole discretion.
Business Combination Criteria
Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating initial business combination opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to seek an initial business combination target and to acquire companies in the wealth and investment management industry that we believe:

have a defensible market position, with demonstrated advantages when compared to their competitors and which create barriers to entry against new competitors;

have strong, experienced management teams, or a platform that will allow us to assemble an effective management team with a track record of driving growth and profitability;

have recurring, predictable revenues and the history of, or the near-term potential to, generate stable and sustainable free cash flow;

are at an inflection point or are able to take advantage of public currency in order to drive improved financial performance;

have a diversified customer base better positioned to endure economic downturns and changes in the industry landscape;

provide a scalable platform for add-on acquisitions, which we believe will be an opportunity for our management team to deliver incremental stockholder value post-acquisition;

generate attractive returns on capital and have a compelling use for capital to achieve their growth strategy;

exhibit unrecognized value or other characteristics that we believe have been overlooked by the marketplace based on our analysis and due diligence review; and

can benefit from being publicly-traded, are prepared to be a publicly-traded company, are capable of generating consistent returns in excess of cost of capital and can effectively utilize access to the capital markets.
These criteria and guidelines 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 criteria and guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management team may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not materially meet the majority of the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria and guidelines in our stockholder communications related to our initial
 
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business combination, which, as discussed in this prospectus, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we would file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
Business Combination Process
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a detailed due diligence review of the issues that we deem important in order to determine the target company’s business quality and estimate its intrinsic value. That due diligence review will include, among other things, financial statement analysis, detailed document reviews, meetings with incumbent management and employees, consultations with relevant industry experts, competitors, customers and suppliers, as well as a review of additional financial, legal and other information that we will seek to obtain as part of our analysis of the target company. We will retain third party specialist consultants to assist in the due diligence process as necessary, covering areas including financial, commercial, regulatory and legal. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our two principal financial backers, KPI and Pollen Street.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our financial backers, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our financial backers, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Each of our financial backers, directors and officers may, directly or indirectly, own founder shares and/or private placement warrants following this 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 financial backers, 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.
Certain of our financial backers, officers and directors presently have fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such sponsor, officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. Accordingly, if any of our financial backers, officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which it, he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations to present the opportunity to such entity, it, he or she will honor its, his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity. We believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our financial backers, officers or directors will not materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any officer or director unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.
In addition, our financial backers and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. We do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
In accordance with the rules of the NYSE, our initial business combination must occur with one or more target businesses that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts held in trust and taxes payable
 
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on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. 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 which is a member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board will not be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of a target business or businesses, it may be unable to do so if the board is less familiar or experienced with the target company’s business, there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the company’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. Since any opinion, if obtained, would merely state that the fair market value of the target business meets the 80% of assets threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of a target business or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our stockholders. However, if required under applicable law, any proxy statement that we deliver to stockholders and file with the SEC in connection with a proposed transaction will include such opinion.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the 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 prior owners of the target business, the target management team or stockholders 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 outstanding voting securities of the target business 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 stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the 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 outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests 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 stockholders 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% of net assets test. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring such costs and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
Corporate Information
Our executive offices are located at 17 Battery Place, Room 625, New York, New York 10004, and our telephone number is +1 (212) 404-7002. We will maintain a corporate website. The information that may be contained on or accessible through our corporate website or any other website that we may maintain is not part of this prospectus or the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
We are 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
 
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JOBS Act”). As such, we are eligible to 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, or 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 non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A Common Stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
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 Common Stock held by non-affiliates is equal to or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th and (2) our annual revenues were equal to or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates is equal to or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th.
 
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The Offering
In making your decision on whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the backgrounds of the members of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company and the fact that this offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. You should carefully consider these and the other risks set forth in the section below entitled “Risk Factors”.
Securities offered:
10,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit, each unit consisting of:

one share of Class A Common Stock; and

three-fourths of one redeemable warrant.
NYSE symbols:
Units: “KWAC.U”
Class A Common Stock: “KWAC”
Warrants: “KWAC WS”
Trading commencement and separation of Class A Common Stock and warrants:
The units are expected to begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The shares of Class A Common Stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 90th day following the date of this prospectus unless Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the shares of Class A Common Stock and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into shares of Class A Common Stock and warrants. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase a multiple of four units, the number of warrants issuable to you upon separation of the units will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of warrants.
Separate trading of the Class A Common Stock and warrants is prohibited until we have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K
In no event will the Class A Common Stock and warrants be traded separately until we have filed with the SEC a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds at the closing of this offering. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering, which closing is anticipated to take place three business days from the date of this prospectus. If the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option.
Units:
Number outstanding before this offering
0
 
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Number outstanding after this offering
10,062,500
Common Stock:
Number outstanding before this offering
2,875,0001
Number outstanding after this offering
12,562,5002
Warrants:
Number of private placement warrants to be sold in a private placement simultaneously with this offering
4,948,000
Number of warrants to be outstanding after this offering and the private placement
12,494,8753
Exercisability
Each whole warrant offered in this offering is exercisable to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock. Only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade.
We structured each unit to contain three-fourths of one warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable for one share of Class A Common Stock, as compared to units issued by some other similar special purpose acquisition companies which contain whole warrants exercisable for one whole share, in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination as compared to units that each contain a warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive business combination partner for target businesses.
Exercise price
$11.50 per share, subject to adjustments as described herein.
In addition, if (x) we issue additional shares of Class A Common Stock or equity-linked securities for capital-raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per share of Class A Common Stock (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 our initial stockholders or
1
Includes up to 375,000 founder shares that will be surrendered to us for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised. Founder shares are currently classified as Class B Common Stock, which shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A Common Stock at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustments as described below adjacent to the caption “Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights.”
2
Comprised of 10,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock included in the units to be sold in this offering, 2,500,000 shares of Class B Common Stock (or founder shares) and 62,500 shares of Class A Common Stock underlying the underwriter units.
3
Comprised of 7,500,000 public warrants included in the units to be sold in this offering, 4,948,000 private placement warrants to be sold in the private placement and 46,875 warrants underlying the underwriter units.
 
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their affiliates, without taking into account any founder shares held by our initial stockholders or such affiliates, as applicable, 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, plus interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the consummation of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume-weighted average trading price of our Class A Common Stock during the 10-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 the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price described below under “— Redemption of Warrants” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price.
Exercise period
The warrants will become exercisable on the later of:

30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; and

12 months from the closing of this offering;
provided in each case that we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of Class A Common Stock 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 we permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under the circumstances specified in the warrant agreement. 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.
We are not registering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants at this time. However, 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 commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and, following the effective date of the registration statement, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A Common Stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement. If a registration statement covering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th business day after the closing of our initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another
 
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exemption from registration. Notwithstanding the above, if our shares of Class A Common Stock 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, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
The warrants will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. On the exercise of any warrant, the warrant exercise price will be paid directly to us and not placed in the trust account.
Redemption of Warrants
Once the warrants become exercisable, we may call the warrants for redemption (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 to each warrant holder, which we refer to as the “30-day redemption period”; and

if, and only if, the last reported sale price (the “closing price”) of our Class A Common Stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Stockholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.
We will not redeem the warrants as described above unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is then effective and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A Common Stock is available throughout the 30-day redemption period. 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.
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Founder shares
On August 17, 2020, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,312,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.006 per share. On October 22, 2020, our sponsor surrendered 718,750 founder shares for no
 
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consideration. On November 3, 2020, our sponsor surrendered an additional 718,750 founder shares for no consideration.
Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the Company’s expectation that the total size of this offering would be a maximum of 11,500,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering. Up to 375,000 of the founder shares will be surrendered for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment option is not exercised. If we increase or decrease the size of the offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, we will effect a share capitalization or a share repurchase or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to our Class B Common Stock immediately prior to the consummation of the offering in such amount as to maintain the ownership of our initial stockholders, on an as-converted basis, at 20.0% of our issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock upon the consummation of this offering (assuming our initial stockholders do not purchase any units in this offering).
The founder shares are identical to the shares of Class A Common Stock included in the units being sold in this offering, except that:

the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below;

the founder shares are entitled to registration rights;

our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to: (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 have not consummated our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; (iii) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this 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 consummate our initial
 
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business combination within the prescribed time frame; and (iv) vote any founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after this offering (including in open-market and privately negotiated transactions) in favor of our initial business combination. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in the event that only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum is present at a stockholders’ meeting held to vote on our initial business combination (and the underwriters’ over-allotment is not exercised), in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 640,626, or 6.41%, of the 10,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved; and the founder shares are automatically convertible into our Class A Common Stock at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described below adjacent to the caption “Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights.”
Transfer restrictions on founder shares
Our initial stockholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares and any shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon conversion thereof until the earlier to occur of (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (ii) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction after our initial business combination that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of Class A Common Stock for cash, securities or other property; except to certain permitted transferees and under certain circumstances as described herein under “Principal Stockholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants”. Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our initial stockholders with respect to any founder shares. We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this prospectus as the lock-up. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if (1) the closing price of our Class A Common Stock 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 our initial business combination or (2) we consummate a transaction after our initial business combination that results in our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares for cash, securities or other property, the founder shares will be released from the lock-up.
Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights
The founder shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A Common Stock at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations,
 
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reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional shares of Class A Common Stock or equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with our initial business combination, the number of shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, 20% of the total number of shares of Class A Common Stock outstanding after such conversion (after giving effect to any redemptions of shares of Class A Common Stock by public stockholders), including the total number of shares of Class A Common Stock issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the Company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding any shares of Class A Common Stock or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into shares of Class A Common Stock issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor, officers or directors upon conversion of working capital loans; provided that such conversion of founder shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis.
Voting Rights
Holders of record of our Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock will vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders, with each share of common stock entitling the holder to one vote except as required by law.
Private placement warrants
Our sponsor and one of our directors have committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 4,948,000 private placement warrants (or 5,398,000 warrants if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $4,948,000 in the aggregate (or $5,398,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. A portion of the purchase price of the private placement warrants will be added to the proceeds from this offering to be held in the trust account such that at the time of closing of this offering $101,000,000 (or $116,150,000 if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full) will be held in the trust account. The private placement warrants will be identical to the warrants sold in this offering except that, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, the private placement warrants (i) will not be redeemable by us, (ii) may not (including the Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holders until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) will be entitled to registration rights. If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than our sponsor or its permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this
 
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offering. If we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, the private placement warrants will expire worthless.
Underwriter units
In lieu of 0.625% of the gross proceeds of this offering, we have agreed to issue to Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and/or its designees, 62,500 units upon the consummation of this offering. The underwriter units are identical to the units in this offering, except that, so long as they are held by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. or its permitted transferees, the warrants underlying the underwriter units (i) will not be redeemable by us, (ii) may not (including the Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by the holders until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) will be entitled to registration rights. In addition, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. has agreed (i) to waive its redemption rights with respect to the shares underlying the underwriter units in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and (ii) to waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such shares if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering.
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and/or its designees will enter into a registration rights agreement with us giving them demand and “piggy-back” rights for periods of five and seven years, respectively, from the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part with respect to the registration under the Securities Act of the securities directly and indirectly issuable upon exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option. We will bear all fees and expenses attendant to registering the securities, other than underwriting commissions which will be paid for by the holders themselves. We will have no obligation to net cash settle the exercise of the warrants underlying the underwriter units.
Transfer restrictions on private placement warrants and underwriter units
The private placement warrants (including the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) and the underwriter units will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, except as described herein under “Principal Stockholders — Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants.”
Cashless exercise of private placement warrants
If holders of private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering their warrants for that number of shares of Class A Common Stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A Common Stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “sponsor exercise fair market value” (defined below) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the sponsor exercise fair
 
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market value. The “sponsor exercise fair market value” means the average reported closing price of the shares of Class A Common Stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent. We have agreed that these warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by the sponsor or its permitted transferees because it is not known at this time whether the sponsor or its permitted transferees will be affiliated with us following a business combination. If they remain affiliated with us, their ability to sell our securities in the open market will be significantly limited. We expect to have policies in place that restrict insiders from selling our securities except during specific periods.
Proceeds to be held in trust
account
NYSE rules require that at least 90% of the aggregate gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account. Of the net proceeds we will receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $101,000,000, or $116,150,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.10 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a segregated trust account located in the United States at JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (or at a brokerage institution selected by the Trustee that is acceptable to the Company) with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, after deducting $1,375,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions payable upon the closing of this offering (or $1,675,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) and an aggregate of $1,073,000 to pay fees and expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following the closing of this offering. The proceeds to be placed in the trust account include $3,500,000 (or up to $4,025,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) in deferred underwriting commissions.
Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will not be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 have not consummated our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public stockholders.
 
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Anticipated expenses and funding sources
Unless and until we complete our initial business combination, no proceeds held in the trust account will be available for our use, except the withdrawal of interest to pay our taxes and/or to redeem our public shares in connection with an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as described above. 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 that invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. We estimate the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $101,000 per year, assuming an interest rate of 0.1% per year; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. Unless and until we complete our initial business combination, we may pay our expenses only from such interest withdrawn from the trust account and:

the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not held in the trust account, which initially will be approximately $1,500,000 in working capital after the payment of approximately $1,073,000 in expenses relating to this offering; and

any loans or additional investments from our sponsor, members of our management team or their affiliates or other third parties, although they are under no obligation to advance funds or invest in us; provided that any such loans will not have any claim on the proceeds held in the trust account unless such proceeds are released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, at the option of the lender.
Conditions to completing our initial business combination
The rules of the NYSE and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation require that we must consummate an initial business combination 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 (excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount held in trust) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. Our board of directors will make the determination as to the fair market value of our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of our initial business combination (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm. While we consider it likely that our board of directors will be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of our initial business combination, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target’s assets or prospects. We
 
26

 
will complete our initial business combination only if the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or is otherwise not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders 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 the 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 outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target. 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 stockholders 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 taken into account for purposes of the 80% of net assets test described above, provided that, in the event that the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the transactions together as our initial business combination for purposes of seeking stockholder approval or conducting a tender offer, as applicable.
Permitted purchases of public shares and public warrants by our affiliates
If we seek stockholder 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, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and the NYSE rules. However, we understand that 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. None of the funds held in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange
 
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Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements. See “Proposed Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Permitted Purchases of Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction. Our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will not make any purchases if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) of, or Rule 10b-5 under, the Exchange Act.
The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the initial business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the 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 warrantholders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities 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 Class A Common Stock or warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business
combination
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.10 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on behalf of which a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the
 
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completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they may acquire during or after this offering in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
Manner of conducting
redemptions
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the initial business combination or (ii) without a stockholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed initial business combination or conduct 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 require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on the NYSE, we will be required to comply with the NYSE’s stockholder approval rules.
The requirement that we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above will be contained in provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will apply whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on the NYSE. Such provisions may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our shares of Common Stock entitled to vote thereon.
If we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting, we will:

conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules, and

file proxy materials with the SEC.
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders will count
 
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toward this quorum and, pursuant to the letter agreement, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote any founder shares they hold and any public shares purchased during or after this offering (including in open-market and privately negotiated transactions) in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in the event that only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum is present at a stockholders’ meeting held to vote on our initial business combination (and assuming the underwriters’ over-allotment option is not exercised), in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 640,626, or 6.41%, of the 10,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our initial stockholders, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or whether they were a public stockholder on the record date for the stockholder meeting held to approve the proposed transaction.
If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will:

conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E under the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers, and

file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination that contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
In the event that we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-l(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public stockholders not tendering more than the number of shares we are permitted to redeem. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete such initial business combination.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-l under the Exchange Act to purchase shares of our Class A Common Stock in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
 
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We intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the date on which the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination is to be held. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. We believe that this will allow our transfer agent to efficiently process any redemptions without the need for further communication or action from the redeeming public stockholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed initial business combination is not approved and we continue to search for a target company, we will promptly return any certificates or shares delivered by public stockholders who elected to redeem their shares.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides 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. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A Common Stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed initial business combination exceeds the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the initial business combination or redeem any shares in connection with such initial business combination, and all shares of Class A Common Stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
Limitation on redemption rights of stockholders holding 15% or more of the shares sold in this offering if we hold stockholder vote
Notwithstanding the foregoing redemption rights, if we seek stockholder 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 certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in
 
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concert or as a “group” (as defined in 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 this offering without our prior consent. We believe the restriction described above will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to redeem their shares as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights against a business combination if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem to no more than 15% of the shares sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including all shares held by those stockholders that hold more than 15% of the shares sold in this offering) for or against our initial business combination.
Release of funds in trust account on closing of our initial business combination
On the completion of our initial business combination, the funds held in the trust account will be used to pay amounts due to any public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights as described above under “Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business combination,” to pay the underwriters their deferred underwriting commissions, to pay all or a portion of the consideration payable to the target or owners of the target of our initial business combination and to pay other expenses associated with our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination, we may use the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account following the closing for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
Redemption of public shares and distribution and liquidation if no initial business combination
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we will have only 18 months from the closing of this offering to consummate our initial business combination. If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within
 
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such 18-month period, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject, in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within the 18-month time period.
Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering. However, if our initial stockholders or management team acquire public shares in or after this offering, 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 allotted 18-month time period.
The underwriters have agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission held in the trust account in the event that we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering and, in such event, such amount will be included with the funds held in the trust account that will be available to fund the redemption of our public shares.
Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a letter agreement, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of Class A Common Stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the
 
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conditions described above under “Limitations on Redemptions.” For example, our board of directors may propose such an amendment if it determines that additional time is necessary to complete our initial business combination. In such event, we will conduct a proxy solicitation and distribute proxy materials pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act seeking stockholder approval of such proposal and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon stockholder approval of such amendment.
Limited payments to insiders
There will be no finder’s fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or 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, the following payments will be made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, and, if made prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account:

An annual payment of $35,000 to each of Mr. Roth, Ms. Roth and Ms. O’Connell;

Repayment of up to an aggregate of $300,000 in loans made to us by our sponsor to cover offering-related and organizational expenses;

Payment to our sponsor of $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to us;

Reimbursement for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination; and

Repayment of loans that may be made by our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The terms of such warrants would be identical to those of the private placement warrants. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans.
Audit Committee
We will establish and maintain an audit committee in compliance with NYSE rules. Among its responsibilities, the audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates and monitor compliance with the other terms relating to this offering. If any noncompliance is identified, then the audit committee will be charged with the responsibility to promptly take all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or
 
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otherwise to cause compliance with the terms of this offering. For more information, see the section entitled “Management — Committees of the Board of Directors — Audit Committee.”
Risks
We are a blank check company that has conducted no operations and has generated no revenues to date. Until we complete our initial business combination, we will have no operations and will generate no operating revenues. In making your decision whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the background of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company. This offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. For additional information concerning how Rule 419 blank check offerings differ from this offering, please see “Proposed Business — Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419.” You should carefully consider these factors and the other risks set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors”.
 
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SUMMARY FINANCIAL DATA
The following table summarizes the relevant financial data for our business as of August 21, 2020 on an actual basis and as adjusted to give effect to the sale of the units in this offering, the sale of the private placement warrants and the other transactions described below as if they had occurred on that date. The summary financial data should be read together with our financial statements, which are included in this prospectus. We have not had any significant operations to date, so only balance sheet data is presented.
Balance Sheet Data
AUGUST 21, 2020
Actual
As Adjusted
Working capital (deficiency)
$ (16,801) $ 99,023,199
Total assets
65,000 102,523,197
Total liabilities
41,801 3,500,000
Value of common stock subject to possible conversion/tender
94,023,190
Stockholders’ equity
23,199 5,000,009
The “as adjusted” information gives effect to the sale of the units in this offering, the sale of the private placement warrants, repayment of up to an aggregate of $300,000 in loans made to us by our sponsor and the payment of the estimated expenses of this offering and assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option. The amount of “as adjusted” total assets includes the $101,000,000 held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, which amount, less deferred underwriting commissions, will be available to us only upon the consummation of our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering. The “as adjusted” working capital and “as adjusted” total assets include $3,500,000 being held in the trust account representing deferred underwriting commissions. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions.
If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us (less taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares. Our financial backers, initial stockholders, officers and directors have entered into letter agreements with us pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to consummate our initial business combination within such time period.
 
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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 prospectus, before making a decision to invest in our units. 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.
We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through this offering. 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. 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.
Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. In such case, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow stockholders 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 stockholder approval. Even if we seek stockholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our public stockholders do not approve of the business combination we complete. Please see the section entitled “Proposed Business — Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination” for additional information.
Your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of our initial business combination. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such stockholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to effect your investment decision regarding our initial 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 stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial stockholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote.
Our initial stockholders will own approximately 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock immediately following the completion of this offering (assuming our initial stockholders do not purchase any units in this offering). Our initial stockholders and management team also may from time to time purchase shares of Class A Common Stock prior to our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, if we seek stockholder approval of an initial business combination, such initial business combination will be approved if we receive the affirmative vote of a
 
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majority of the shares voted at such meeting, including the founder shares. As a result, in the event that only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum is present at a stockholders’ meeting held to vote on our initial business combination (and assuming the underwriters’ over-allotment option is not exercised), in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 640,626, or 6.41%, of the 10,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved. Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial stockholders and management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite stockholder approval for such initial business combination.
The ability of our public stockholders 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 minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. If too many public stockholders 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. 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. 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 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 stockholders 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 stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore 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 are 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. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B Common Stock results in the issuance of shares of Class A Common Stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the shares of Class B Common Stock at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The per share amount we will distribute to stockholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions. 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 stockholders 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 is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we
 
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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 your exercise of redemption rights until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we consummate our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of this offering 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 stockholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this 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 timeframe described above. 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.
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 recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the status of debt and equity markets.
Since it was first reported to have emerged in December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has spread across the world, including the United States. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in, and a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases could result in, a widespread health crisis adversely affecting the economies and financial markets worldwide, potentially including the business of any potential target business with which we intend to consummate a business combination. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination at all if concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or make it impossible or impractical to negotiate and consummate a transaction with the target company’s personnel, vendors and service providers in a timely manner, if at all. 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 that may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive 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, 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.
We may not be able to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of this offering, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and consummate our initial business combination within 18 months after the closing of this offering. 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. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 (which
 
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interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii), to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the other requirements of applicable law.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or public warrants from public stockholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A Common Stock.
If we seek stockholder 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 their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and the NYSE rules. However, 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. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. Such purchases may include a contractual acknowledgment that such stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights.
In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the 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 warrantholders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements. See “Proposed Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Permitted Purchases of Our Securities” for a description of how our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A Common Stock or public warrants and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
If a stockholder 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 submitting or tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, proxy materials or tender offer documents, 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
 
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submit public shares for redemption. For example, we intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent, or to deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed. See the section of this prospectus entitled “Proposed Business — Delivering Share Certificates in Connection with the Exercise of Redemption Rights.”
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A Common Stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind 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 or warrants, potentially at a loss.
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.
We intend to apply to have our units listed on the NYSE. We expect that our units will be listed on the NYSE on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. Following the date that the Class A Common Stock and warrants are eligible to trade separately, we anticipate that the Class A Common Stock and warrants will be separately listed on the NYSE. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on the NYSE. Although after giving effect to this offering we expect to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the NYSE listing standards, 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 share price levels. Generally, following our initial public offering, we must maintain a minimum amount of stockholders’ equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders). 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, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our stockholders’ equity would generally be required to be at least $5.0 million. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If the NYSE delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our 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;
 
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reduced liquidity for our securities;

a determination that our shares of Class A Common Stock are a “penny stock,” which will require brokers trading in our shares of Class A Common Stock 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

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 preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because we expect that our units and eventually our Class A Common Stock and warrants will be listed on the NYSE, our units, Class A Common Stock and warrants will qualify as covered securities under the statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our 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 the NYSE, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the completion of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and will file a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if this offering were 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. For a more detailed comparison of our offering to offerings that comply with Rule 419, please see “Proposed Business — Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419.”
If we seek stockholder 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 stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our shares of Class A Common Stock, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our shares of Class A Common Stock.
If we seek stockholder 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 certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined in Section 13 of the Exchange Act ), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ 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
 
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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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter 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 similar or greater technical, human and other resources to ours 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 this 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, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a stockholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
If the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 18 months, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of this offering, only $1,500,000 will be available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. We believe that, upon closing of this offering, the funds available to us outside of the trust account will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 18 months; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. 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 entered 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.
In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,073,000, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such increase or decrease. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $1,073,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is
 
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under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public stockholders may only receive an estimated $10.10 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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, our results of operations and our share price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct 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 within 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 debt financing to partially finance the initial business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
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 stockholders may be less than $10.10 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, 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 stockholders, 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 consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances.
Marcum LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, and the underwriters of this offering will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account.
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
 
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management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, 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 stockholders could be less than the $10.10 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have 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) $10.10 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 $10.10 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 our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those 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 $10.10 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 officers or directors 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 stockholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.10 per 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 $10.10 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, 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 and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. 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 stockholders may be reduced below $10.10 per share.
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 any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. 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 stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing
 
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the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’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, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary 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 stockholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. 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, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary 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 stockholders and the per- share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may 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;

adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and

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 of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long
 
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term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be 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 that invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. 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 intend to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. This offering is not intended for persons who are seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity; or (iii) absent consummating our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public stockholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be 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 a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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 will be 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 our initial business combination, and results of operations.
If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, our public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond 18 months before redemption from our trust account can occur.
If we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public stockholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public stockholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the DGCL. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond 18 months from the closing of this offering before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their
 
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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 we consummate our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their shares of Class A Common Stock. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public stockholders be entitled to distributions if we are unable to complete our initial business combination.
Our stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the 18th month from the closing of this offering in the event we do not consummate our initial business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.
Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful (potentially due to the imposition of legal proceedings that a party may bring or due to other circumstances that are currently unknown), then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.
We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our stockholders to appoint directors.
In accordance with the NYSE corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE. Under Section 211(b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our initial business
 
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combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.
We are not registering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
We are not registering the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under 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 commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the registration under the Securities Act of the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and thereafter will use commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following our initial business combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. 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 or correct or the SEC issues a stop order.
If the shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, under the terms of the warrant agreement, holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do so for cash and, instead, will be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption from registration.
In no event will warrants 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 or qualification is available.
If our shares of Class A Common Stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, not permit holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants to do so for cash and, instead, require them to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act. In the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available. Exercising the warrants on a cashless basis could have the effect of reducing the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of shares of Class A Common Stock upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold than upon a cash exercise.
In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities (other than upon a cashless exercise as described above) 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 the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws. 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 will 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 shares of Class A Common Stock included in the units. There may be a circumstance in which 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 included as part of units sold in this offering. 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 shares of Common Stock underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their
 
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warrants and sell the underlying shares of Common Stock. 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 shares of Class A Common Stock 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.
The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the shares of Class A Common Stock, and you do 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 shares of Class A Common Stock. 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 about 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 20 business days of the closing of an initial business combination.
The grant of registration rights to our initial stockholders and holders of our private placement warrants 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 shares of Class A Common Stock.
Pursuant to an agreement to be entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in this offering, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the shares of Class A Common Stock into which founder shares are convertible, holders of our private placement warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants and the shares of Class A Common Stock 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 shares of Class A Common Stock 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 Common Stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the stockholders 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 Common Stock that is expected when the shares of Common Stock owned by our initial stockholders, holders of our private placement warrants or holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
Because we neither are limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have selected any 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.
Our efforts to identify a prospective initial business combination target will not be limited to a particular industry, sector or geographic region. While we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify and acquire a business or businesses that can benefit from our management team’s established global relationships and operating experience. Our management team has a differentiated ability to underwrite transactions across the financial services landscape, including the wealth and investment management sectors. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits us from effectuating a business combination 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 a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors 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
 
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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 units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Past performance by our management team and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the Company.
Information regarding our management team and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance by our management team and their affiliates and the businesses with which they have been associated, is not a guarantee that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination, that we will be able to provide positive returns to our stockholders, or of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical experiences of our management team and their affiliates, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or as indicative of every prior investment by each of the members of our management team or their affiliates. The market price of our securities may be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, and our stockholders may experience losses on their investment in our securities.
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a business combination 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 business combination opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to investors in this offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event that we elect to pursue a business combination outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this prospectus regarding the areas of 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 ascertain or assess adequately all of the relevant risk factors. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders 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 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
 
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stockholders 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 stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we pay in our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm that the price we are paying is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders 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 proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
We may issue additional shares of Class A Common Stock or shares of Preferred Stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A Common Stock upon the conversion of the founder 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 therein. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 10,000,000 Shares of Class B Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of Preferred Stock, par value $0.0001 per share. Immediately after this offering, there will be 89,937,500 and 7,500,000 (assuming in each case that the underwriters have not exercised their over-allotment option and the forfeiture of up to 375,000 shares of Class B Common Stock) authorized but unissued shares of Class A Common Stock and shares of Class B Common Stock, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the shares of Class B Common Stock. The shares of Class B Common Stock are automatically convertible into shares of Class A Common Stock at the time of the consummation of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein and in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, including in certain circumstances in which we issue shares of Class A Common Stock or equity-linked securities related to our initial business combination. Immediately after this offering, there will be no shares of Preferred Stock issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of Class A Common Stock or shares of Preferred Stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A Common Stock upon conversion of the shares of Class B Common Stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth therein. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, like all provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, may be amended with a stockholder vote. The issuance of additional shares of Common Stock or shares of Preferred Stock:

may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering;
 
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may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A Common Stock if shares of Preferred Stock are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A Common Stock;

could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of Class A Common Stock 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 officers and directors; and

may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A Common Stock and/or warrants.
Resources could be expended in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, 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, consultants 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 are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on stockholders.
We may, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to requisite stockholder approval by special resolution under the DGCL, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a stockholder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the stockholder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to stockholders to pay such taxes. Stockholders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
After our initial business combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and 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 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.
We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our officers and directors and the members of our advisory board. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers, directors and members of our advisory board, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our officers and directors 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. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance
 
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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 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. However, the role of our key personnel in the target business 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.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. 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 our 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 the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Delaware law.
We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect 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 business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’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 stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss 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
 
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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, which could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our 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 officers and directors 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 employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our officers is engaged in other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. 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 “Management — Officers, Directors and Director Nominees.”
Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Following the completion of this offering and until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Each of our officers and directors presently has, 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, 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 another entity prior to its presentation to us, subject to their fiduciary duties under Delaware law. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis.
In addition, our sponsor and our officers and directors pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. We do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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 “Management — Officers, Directors and Director Nominees,” “Management — Conflicts of Interest” and “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”
Our officers, directors, 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, although we do not intend to do so. We do not have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from
 
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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.
The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a business combination. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our stockholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Delaware law and we or our stockholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our stockholders’ rights. See the section titled “Description of Securities — Certain Differences in Corporate Law — Stockholder Suits” for further information on the ability to bring such claims. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
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, officers, directors or existing holders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Management — Conflicts of Interest.” Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. 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 for a business combination as set forth in “Proposed Business — Effecting our initial business combination — Selection of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination” and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal 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, officers, directors or existing holders, 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 stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
Since our sponsor, officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they may acquire during or after this offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On August 17, 2020, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 4,312,500 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.006 per share. On October 22, 2020, our sponsor surrendered 718,750 founder shares for no consideration. On November 3, 2020, our sponsor surrendered an additional 718,750 founder shares for no consideration. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of this offering would be a maximum of 11,500,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering. Up to 375,000 of the founder shares will be surrendered for no consideration depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment is exercised. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor and one of our directors have committed to purchase an aggregate of 4,948,000 private placement warrants (or 5,398,000 warrants if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) for an aggregate purchase price of $4,948,000 (or $5,398,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), or $1.00 per warrant. The private placement warrants will also be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination.
 
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The personal and financial interests of our officers and directors 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 date that is 18 months after the closing of this offering nears, which is the deadline for us to consummate 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 stockholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this prospectus to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following this offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers 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 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 Class A Common Stock;

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 Class A Common Stock 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 only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of this 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. The net proceeds from this offering and the private placement of warrants will provide us with $97,500,000 (or $112,125,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $3,500,000, or up to $4,025,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full, of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account).
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
 
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with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. 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 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 business combination 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.
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 stockholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such 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 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 stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares of Class A Common Stock in exchange for all of the 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 shares of Class A Common Stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority stockholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in
 
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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 control of the target business. 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 do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our stockholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides 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. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder 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, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A Common Stock 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, all shares of Class A Common Stock 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, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination and that our stockholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, special purpose acquisition 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 certificate of incorporation will require the approval of holders of 65% of our Common Stock, and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require us to provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months of the closing of this offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination
 
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The provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation 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 65% of our Common Stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other special purpose acquisition companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of this offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our Common Stock entitled to vote thereon 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 Common Stock entitled to vote thereon. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding Common Stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our Common Stock upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation 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 certificate of incorporation which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Our sponsor, executive officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to written agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A Common Stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (net of permitted withdrawals), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, executive officers, directors or director nominees for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors may be amended without stockholder approval.
Our letter agreement with our sponsor, officers and directors contain provisions relating to transfer restrictions 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 stockholder approval (although releasing the parties from the restriction not to transfer the founder shares for 185 days following the date of this prospectus will require the prior written consent of the underwriters). While we do not expect our board to approve any amendment to the letter agreement prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to the letter agreement. Any such amendments to the letter agreement would not require approval from our stockholders and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
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 have not selected any specific business combination target but intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of
 
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the private placement warrants. As a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemption by public stockholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial 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. Further, we may be required to obtain additional financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, or to fund the purchase of other companies. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. 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 officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Our initial stockholders control a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Upon closing of this offering, our initial stockholders will own approximately 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. If our initial stockholders purchase any units in this offering or if our initial stockholders purchase any additional shares of Class A Common Stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our initial stockholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this prospectus. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were appointed by our sponsor, is and will be divided into three classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of three years with only one class of directors being appointed in each year. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to appoint new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual meeting of stockholders, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for appointment and our initial stockholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
Our initial stockholders paid an aggregate of $25,000, or approximately $0.006 per founder share and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of our Class A Common Stock.
The difference between the public offering price per share (allocating all of the unit purchase price to the Class A Common Stock and none to the warrant included in the unit) and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our Class A Common Stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to you and the other investors in this offering. Our initial stockholders acquired the founder shares at a nominal price, significantly contributing to this dilution. Upon closing of this offering, and assuming no value is ascribed to the warrants included in the units, you and the other public stockholders will incur an immediate and substantial dilution of approximately 84.6% (or $8.46 per share, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option), the difference between the pro forma net tangible book value per share after this offering of $1.54 and the initial offering price of $10.00 per unit. This dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provisions of the founder shares result in the issuance of shares of Class A Common Stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the founder shares at the time of our
 
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initial business combination. In addition, because of the anti-dilution protection in the founder shares, any equity or equity-linked securities issued in connection with our initial business combination would be disproportionately dilutive to our Class A Common Stock.
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 a majority of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of shares of Class A Common Stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
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 a majority 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 of public warrants if holders of at least a majority 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 a majority 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, convert the warrants into cash or shares, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of Class A Common Stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
If (i) we issue additional shares of Class A Common Stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per share of Class A Common Stock, (ii) 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 consummation of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value of our shares of Class A Common Stock is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger price described under “— Redemption of Warrants” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price.
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 outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A Common Stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “Description of Securities — Warrants — Public Stockholders’ Warrants — Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send proper notice of such redemption to the warrants holders and provided certain other conditions are met. 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 could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants.
None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us.
 
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Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our shares of Class A Common Stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We will be issuing warrants to purchase 7,500,000 of our shares of Class A Common Stock (or up to 8,625,000 shares of Class A Common Stock if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) as part of the units offered by this prospectus and, simultaneously with the closing of this offering, we will be issuing in a private placement an aggregate of 4,948,000 private placement warrants (or 5,398,000 warrants if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), at $1.00 per warrant. In addition, if the sponsor makes any working capital loans, it may convert those loans into up to an additional 300,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant. We may also issue shares of Class A Common Stock in connection with our redemption of our warrants.
To the extent we issue shares of Common Stock to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of Class A Common Stock upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock and reduce the value of the shares of Class A Common Stock issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because each unit contains three-fourths of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other special purpose acquisition companies.
Each unit contains three-fourths of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number of shares of Class A Common Stock to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one ordinary share and one warrant to purchase one whole 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 three-fourths of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if they included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
The determination of the offering price of our units and the size of this offering is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities and size of an offering of an operating company in a particular industry. Therefore, you may have less assurance that the offering price of our units properly reflects the value of such units than you would have in a typical offering of an operating company.
Prior to this offering there has been no public market for any of our securities. The public offering price of the units and the terms of the warrants were negotiated between us and the underwriters. In determining the size of this offering, management held customary organizational meetings with the representative of the underwriters, both prior to our inception and thereafter, with respect to the state of capital markets, generally, and the amount the underwriters believed they reasonably could raise on our behalf. Factors considered in determining the size of this offering, prices and terms of the units, including the Class A Common Stock and warrants underlying the units, include:

the history and prospects of companies whose principal business is the acquisition of other companies;

prior offerings of those companies;

our prospects for acquiring an operating business at attractive values;

a review of debt to equity ratios in leveraged transactions;

our capital structure;

an assessment of our management and their experience in identifying operating companies;

general conditions of the securities markets at the time of this offering; and
 
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other factors as were deemed relevant.
Although these factors were considered, the determination of our offering size, price and terms of the Units is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities of an operating company in a particular industry since we have no historical operations or financial results.
There is currently no market for our securities and a market for our securities may not develop, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
There is currently no market for our securities. Stockholders therefore have no access to information about prior market history on which to base their investment decision. Following this offering, the price of our securities may vary significantly due to one or more potential business combinations and general market or economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established and sustained.
Because we must furnish our stockholders 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 the proxy statement with respect to the vote on an initial business combination include historical and pro forma financial statement disclosure. 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 (“GAAP”) or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“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) (“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 statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
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 internal controls 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 stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our stockholders 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 Class A Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. 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
 
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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 an 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 Common Stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th. 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.
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 initial business combination.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2021. Only in the event that 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. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not 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 controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such business combination.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our shares of Class A Common Stock and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of shares of Preferred Stock, which may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any
 
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action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, except any claim (A) as to which the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction, or (D) any action arising under the Securities Act, as to which the Court of Chancery and the federal district court for the District of Delaware shall have concurrent jurisdiction. If an action is brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, a court may determine that this provision is unenforceable, and to the extent it is enforceable, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us 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 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.
Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target 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 initial business 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 we pursue a target 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 jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
 
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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;

rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;

complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;

laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;

exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;

tariffs and trade barriers;

regulations related to customs and import/export matters;

local or regional economic policies and market conditions;

unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;

challenges in managing and staffing international operations;

longer payment cycles;

tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;

currency fluctuations and exchange controls;

rates of inflation;

challenges in collecting accounts receivable;

cultural and language differences;

employment regulations;

underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;

corruption;

protection of intellectual property;

social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;

epidemics and pandemics;

regime changes and political upheaval;

terrorist attacks and wars; and

deterioration of political relations with the United States.
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 initial business combination, or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with United States 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, our management may resign from their positions as officers or directors of the company and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination will remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with United States securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with United States 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.
 
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After our initial business combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue will be derived from our operations in such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political and legal 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.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’s ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event that we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our initial business combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our initial business combination, and the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements and we may not be able to enforce our legal rights.
In connection with our initial business combination, we may relocate the home jurisdiction of our business from the State of Delaware to another jurisdiction. If we determine to do this, the laws of such jurisdiction may govern some or all of our future material agreements. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws in such jurisdiction may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the State of Delaware. The inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our future agreements could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of non-compliance.
We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.
 
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this prospectus may constitute “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “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. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus may include, for example, statements about:

our ability to select an appropriate target business or businesses;

our ability to complete our initial business combination;

our expectations around the performance of the 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 officers and directors 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;

our ability to consummate an initial business combination due to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic;

the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of 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 or available to us from interest income on the trust account balance;

the trust account not being subject to claims of third parties; or

our financial performance following this offering.
The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus 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, those factors described under the heading “Risk Factors”. 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.
 
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USE OF PROCEEDS
We are offering 12,500,000 units at an offering price of $10.00 per unit. We estimate that the net proceeds of this offering together with the funds we will receive from the sale of the private placement warrants will be used as set forth in the following table.
Without
Over-allotment
Option
Over-allotment
Option
Exercised
Gross proceeds
Gross proceeds from units offered to public(1)
$ 100,000,000 $ 115,000,000
Gross proceeds from private placement warrants offered in the private placement
4,948,000 5,398,000
Total gross proceeds
$ 104,948,000 $ 120,398,000
Offering expenses(2)
Underwriting commissions (2.0% of gross proceeds from units offered to public, excluding deferred portion)(3)
$ 1,375,000 $ 1,675,000
Legal fees and expenses
450,000 450,000
Accounting fees and expenses
40,000 40,000
Auditor fees and expenses
30,000 30,000
SEC and FINRA expenses
120,000 120,000
NYSE expenses
130,000 130,000
Directors and officers insurance
200,000 200,000
Printing and engraving expenses
33,000 33,000
Miscellaneous
70,000 70,000
Total offering expenses (other than underwriting
commissions)
$ 1,073,000 $ 1,073,000
Proceeds after offering expenses
$ 102,500,000 $ 117,650,000
Held in trust account(3)
$ 101,000,000 $ 116,150,000
% of public offering size
101% 101%
Not held in trust account
$ 1,500,000 $ 1,500,000
The following table shows the use of the approximately $1,500,000 of net proceeds not held in the trust account:(4)
Amount
% of
Total
Legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses in connection with
any business combination(5)
$ 550,000 36.6%
Legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting obligations
$ 100,000 6.7%
Payment for office space, utilities, administrative and support services
$ 250,000 16.7%
NYSE and other regulatory fees
$ 150,000 10.0%
Fees to certain independent directors
$ 210,000 14%
Working capital to cover miscellaneous expenses
$ 240,000 16%
Total
$ 1,500,000 100%
(1)
Includes amounts payable to public stockholders who properly redeem their shares in connection with our successful completion of our initial business combination.
(2)
A portion of the offering expenses has been paid from the proceeds of loans from our sponsor of up to $300,000 as described in this prospectus. These loans will be repaid upon completion of this offering
 
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out of the $1,500,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated for the payment of offering expenses other than underwriting commissions. In the event that offering expenses are less than set forth in this table, any such amounts will be used for post-closing working capital expenses.
(3)
The underwriters have agreed to receive $625,000 of their commission due upon the consummation of the offering in the form of units of the Company and to defer underwriting commissions of 3.5% of the gross proceeds of this offering. Upon and concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, up to $3,500,000, which constitutes the underwriters’ deferred commissions (or up to $4,025,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), will be paid to the underwriters from the funds held in the trust account. See “Underwriting”. The remaining funds, less amounts released to the trustee to pay redeeming stockholders, will be released to us and can be used to pay all or a portion of the purchase price of the business or businesses with which our initial business combination occurs or for general corporate purposes, including payment of principal or interest on indebtedness incurred in connection with our initial business combination, to fund the purchases of other companies or for working capital. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions.
(4)
These expenses are estimates only. Our actual expenditures for some or all of these items may differ from the estimates set forth herein. For example, we may incur greater legal and accounting expenses than our current estimates in connection with negotiating and structuring our initial business combination based upon the level of complexity of such business combination. In the event that we identify a business combination target in a specific industry subject to specific regulations, we may incur additional expenses associated with legal due diligence and the engagement of special legal counsel. In addition, our staffing needs may vary and as a result, we may engage a number of consultants to assist with legal and financial due diligence. We do not anticipate any change in our intended use of proceeds, other than fluctuations among the current categories of allocated expenses, which fluctuations, to the extent they exceed current estimates for any specific category of expenses, would not be available for our expenses. The amount in the table above does not include interest available to us from the trust account.
(5)
Includes estimated amounts that may also be used in connection with our initial business combination to fund a “no shop” provision and commitment fees for financing.
NYSE rules require that at least 90% of the gross proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants be deposited in a trust account. Of the $104,948,000 in gross proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, or $120,398,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, $101,000,000 ($10.10 per unit), or $116,150,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.10 per unit), will be deposited into a trust account with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company acting as trustee, after deducting $1,375,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions payable upon the closing of this offering (or $1,675,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) and an aggregate of approximately $1.1 million to pay fees and expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following the closing of this offering. The proceeds held in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury bills 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 that invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. We estimate the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $101,000 per year, assuming an interest rate of 0.1% per year; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. We expect that the interest earned on the trust account will be sufficient to pay income taxes. We will not be permitted to withdraw any of the principal or interest held in the trust account, except for the withdrawal of interest to pay our taxes and up to $100,000 to pay dissolution expenses, as applicable, if any, until the earliest of (i) the completion of our initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to consummate our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (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 have not consummated our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity.
 
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The net proceeds released to us from the trust account upon the closing of our initial business combination may be used as consideration to pay the sellers of a target business with which we complete our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination, we may use the balance of the cash released from the trust account following the closing for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop arrangements we may enter into following consummation of this offering. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, following this offering and prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, we will be prohibited from issuing additional securities that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination.
We believe that amounts not held in trust will be sufficient to pay the costs and expenses to which such proceeds are allocated. This belief is based on the fact that while we may begin preliminary due diligence of a target business in connection with an indication of interest, we intend to undertake in-depth due diligence, depending on the circumstances of the relevant prospective business combination, only after we have negotiated and signed a letter of intent or other preliminary agreement that addresses the terms of a business combination. However, if our estimate of the costs of undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating a business combination is less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may be required to raise additional capital, the amount, availability and cost of which is currently unascertainable. If we are required to seek additional capital, we could seek such additional capital through loans or additional investments from our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates, but such persons are not under any obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us.
We will pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of our management team. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.
Prior to the closing of this offering, our sponsor has agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. These loans are non-interest bearing, unsecured and are due at the earlier of December 31, 2020 or the closing of this offering. The loan will be repaid upon the closing of this offering out of the $1,500,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated to the payment of offering expenses.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used to repay such loaned amounts. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
 
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DIVIDEND POLICY
We have not paid any cash dividends on our Common Stock 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. If we increase or decrease the size of this offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, we will effect a share capitalization or other appropriate mechanism immediately prior to the consummation of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares at 20.0% of our issued and outstanding Common Stock upon the consummation of this offering. 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.
 
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DILUTION
The difference between the public offering price per share of Class A Common Stock, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units we are offering pursuant to this prospectus or the private placement warrants, and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our Class A Common Stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to investors in this offering. Such calculation does not reflect any dilution associated with the sale and exercise of warrants, including the private placement warrants, which would cause the actual dilution to the public stockholders to be higher, particularly where a cashless exercise is utilized. Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing our net tangible book value, which is our total tangible assets less total liabilities (including the value of shares of Class A Common Stock that may be redeemed for cash), by the number of outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock.
At August 21, 2020, our net tangible book deficit was $(16,801), or approximately $(0.01) per Class B ordinary share. After giving effect to the sale of 10,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock included in the units we are offering by this prospectus (or 11,500,000 shares of Class A Common Stock if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), the sale of the private placement warrants and the deduction of underwriting commissions and estimated expenses of this offering, our pro forma net tangible book value at August 21, 2020 would have been $5,000,009, or $1.54 per share (or $5,000,009 or $1.36 per share if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), representing an immediate increase in net tangible book value (as decreased by the value of 9,309,227 shares of Class A Common Stock that may be redeemed for cash, or 10,757,247 shares of Class A Common Stock if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) of $1.55 per share (or $1.37 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) to our initial stockholders as of the date of this prospectus and an immediate dilution to public stockholders from this offering of $8.46 per share (or $8.64 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full).
The following table illustrates the dilution to the public stockholders on a per-share basis, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units or the private placement warrants:
Without
Over-allotment
With
Over-allotment
Public offering price
$ 10.00 $ 10.00
Net tangible book deficit before this offering
(0.01) (0.01)
Increase attributable to public stockholders
1.55 1.37
Pro forma net tangible book value after this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants
1.54 1.36
Dilution to public stockholders
$ 8.46 $ 8.64
Percentage of dilution to public stockholders
84.6% 86.4%
For purposes of presentation, we have reduced our pro forma net tangible book value after this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option) by $94,023,190 because holders of up to approximately 93.1% of our public shares may redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account at a per share redemption price equal to the amount in the trust account as set forth in our tender offer or proxy materials (initially anticipated to be the aggregate amount held in trust two business days prior to the commencement of our tender offer or stockholders meeting, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable)), divided by the number of shares of Class A Common Stock sold in this offering.
 
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The following table sets forth information with respect to our initial stockholders and the public stockholders:
Purchased
Total Consideration
Average
Price
Per Share
Number
Percentage
Amount
Percentage
Initial Stockholders(1)
2,500,000 19.9% $ 25,000 0.02% $ 0.01
Public Stockholders
10,000,000 79.6% $ 100,000,000 99.98% $ 10.00
Underwriter shares
62.500 0.5% 0%
12,562,500 100.00% $ 100,025,000 100.00%
(1)
Assumes that up to 375,000 founder shares are surrendered to us for no consideration after the closing of this offering in the event the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option.
The pro forma net tangible book value per share after the offering (assuming that the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option) is calculated as follows:
Without
Over-allotment
With
Over-allotment
Numerator:
Net tangible book deficit before this offering
$ (16,801) $ (16,801)
Net proceeds from this offering and sale of the private placement
Warrants(1)
102,500,000 117,650,000
Plus: Offering costs paid in advance, excluded from tangible book
value before this offering
40,000 40,000
Less: Deferred underwriting commissions
(3,500,000) (4,025,000)
Less: Proceeds held in trust subject to redemption(2)
(94,023,190) (108,648,190)
$ 5,000,009 $ 5,000,009
Denominator:
Shares of Common Stock outstanding prior to this offering
2,875,000 2,875,000
Class B Common Stock forfeited if over-allotment is not exercised
(375,000)
Class A Common Stock included in the units offered
10,000,000 11,500,000
Class A Common Stock issued to underwriter
62,500 62,500
Less: Common Stock subject to redemption
(9,309,227) (10,757,247)
3,253,273 3,680,253
(1)
Expenses applied against gross proceeds include offering expenses of approximately $1,073,000 and underwriting commissions of $1,375,000 (if the underwriters’ over-allotment is not exercised) or $1,675,000 (if the underwriters’ over-allotment is exercised) (in all cases excluding deferred underwriting fees). See “Use of Proceeds.”
(2)
If we seek stockholder 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, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. In the event of any such purchases of our shares prior to the completion of our initial business combination, the number of shares of Class A Common Stock subject to redemption will be reduced by the amount of any such purchases, increasing the pro forma net tangible book value per share. See “Proposed Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Permitted Purchases of Our Securities.”
 
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CAPITALIZATION
The following table sets forth our capitalization at August 21, 2020, and as adjusted to give effect to the filing of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the sale of our units in this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and the application of the estimated net proceeds derived from the sale of such securities, assuming no exercise by the underwriters of their over-allotment option:
August 21, 2020
Actual
As
Adjusted
Note payable to related party(1)
$ $
Deferred underwriting commissions
3,500,000
Class A Common Stock, $0.0001 par value, 100,000,000 shares
authorized; and 9,309.227 shares are subject to possible redemption,
respectively(2)
94,023,190
Preferred Stock, $0.0001 par value; 1,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding, actual and as adjusted
Class A Common Stock, $0.0001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized; and 753,273 shares issued and outstanding (excluding 9,730,227 shares subject to possible redemption), actual and as adjusted, respectively
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Class B Common Stock, $0.0001 par value, 10,000,000 shares authorized, 2,875,000 and 2,500,000 shares issued and outstanding, actual and as adjusted, respectively(3)
288 250
Additional paid-in capital
24,712 5,001,485
Accumulated deficit
(1,801) (1,801)
Total stockholders’ equity
$ 23,199 $ 5,000,009
Total capitalization
$ 23,199 $ 102,523,199
(1)
Our sponsor may loan us up to $300,000 under an unsecured promissory note to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. The “as adjusted” information gives effect to the repayment of any loans received from our sponsor out of the proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants. To date, we have borrowed $0.00 under the promissory note with our sponsor.
(2)
Upon the completion of our initial business combination, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash at a per share price equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein whereby redemptions cannot cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 and any limitations (including, but not limited to, cash requirements) created by the terms of the proposed business combination.
(3)
Actual share amount is prior to any forfeiture of founder shares and as adjusted amount assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option and forfeiture of an aggregate of 375,000 founder shares.
 
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on July 27, 2020 as a Delaware corporation and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us. While we may pursue an initial business combination target in any industry, we currently intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the financial services industry with a focus on delivering differentiated financial services in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors to the mass affluent and private client investor community. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of this offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing.
The issuance of additional shares in connection with a business combination to the owners of the target or other investors:

may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B Common Stock resulted in the issuance of Class A Common Stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of Class B Common Stock;

may subordinate the rights of holders of Class A Common Stock if shares of Preferred Stock are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A Common Stock;

could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our Class A Common Stock 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 officers and directors;

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; and

may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Class A Common Stock and/or warrants.
Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant debt to bank or other lenders or the 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 Class A Common Stock;

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 Class A Common Stock 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;
 
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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.
As indicated in the accompanying financial statements, at August 21, 2020, we had $25,000 in cash and deferred offering costs of approximately $40,000. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete our initial business combination will be successful.
Results of Operations and Known Trends or Future Events
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for this offering. Following this offering, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents after this offering. There has been no significant change in our financial or trading position and no material adverse change has occurred since the date of our audited financial statements. After this offering, we expect to 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. We expect our expenses to increase substantially after the closing of this offering.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our liquidity needs have been satisfied prior to the completion of this offering through a payment of $25,000 capital contribution from our sponsor to cover for certain offering costs on behalf of us in exchange for the issuance of the founder shares to our sponsor and up to $300,000 in loans from our sponsor.
We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of the units in this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants for an aggregate purchase price of $104,948,000 (or $120,398,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), after deducting offering expenses of approximately $1,073,000 and underwriting commissions of $1,375,000 (or $1,675,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) (excluding deferred underwriting commissions of $3,500,000, or $4,025,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), will be $102,500,000 (or $117,650,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full). $101,000,000 (or $116,150,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be held in the trust account, which includes the deferred underwriting commissions described above. 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. The remaining approximately $1,500,000 will not be held in the trust account. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of approximately $1,073,000, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of approximately $1,073,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (excluding deferred underwriting commissions), to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay our taxes, if any. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. We expect the interest earned on the amount in the trust account will be sufficient to pay our income taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the trust account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
 
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Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we will have available to us the approximately $1,500,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account. We will use these funds to primarily identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our initial business combination. In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into private placement warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. The terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
We expect our primary liquidity requirements during that period to include: approximately $550,000 for legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses associated with structuring, negotiating and documenting successful business combinations; $100,000 for legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting requirements; $150,000 for the NYSE and other regulatory fees; $210,000 for fees paid to certain of our independent directors; and approximately $240,000 for general working capital that will be used for miscellaneous expenses and reserves net of estimated interest income. We will also pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team.
These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision 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 entered into an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.
Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. In addition, we intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement units, and, as a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemptions by public stockholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We may also obtain financing prior to the closing of our initial business combination to fund our working capital needs and transaction costs in connection with our search for and completion of our initial business combination. There is no
 
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limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following consummation of this offering. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In addition, following our initial business combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Controls and Procedures
We are not currently required to maintain an effective system of internal controls as defined by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will be required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer an emerging growth company would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to 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 independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement.
Prior to the closing of this offering, we have not completed an assessment, nor has our independent registered public accounting firm tested our systems, of internal controls. We expect to assess the internal controls of our target business or businesses prior to the completion of our initial business combination and, if necessary, to implement and test additional controls as we may determine are necessary in order to state that we maintain an effective system of internal controls. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the adequacy of internal controls. Many small and mid-sized target businesses we may consider for our initial business combination may have internal controls that need improvement in areas such as:

staffing for financial, accounting and external reporting areas, including segregation of duties;

reconciliation of accounts;

proper recording of expenses and liabilities in the period to which they relate;

evidence of internal review and approval of accounting transactions;

documentation of processes, assumptions and conclusions underlying significant estimates; and

documentation of accounting policies and procedures.
Because it will take time, management involvement and perhaps outside resources to determine what internal control improvements are necessary for us to meet regulatory requirements and market expectations for our operation of a target business, we may incur significant expenses in meeting our public reporting responsibilities, particularly in the areas of designing, enhancing, or remediating internal and disclosure controls. Doing so effectively may also take longer than we expect, thus increasing our exposure to financial fraud or erroneous financing reporting.
Once our management’s report on internal controls is complete, we will retain our independent registered public accounting firm to audit and render an opinion on such report when required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The independent registered public accounting firm may identify additional issues concerning a target business’s internal controls while performing their audit of internal control over financial reporting.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
The net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be invested 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
 
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invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements; Commitments and Contractual Obligations; Quarterly Results
As of August 21, 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. No unaudited quarterly operating data is included in this prospectus as we have not conducted any operations to date.
JOBS Act
The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an “emerging growth company” and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing 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 those of companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an “emerging growth company,” we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an independent registered public accounting firm’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 report of the independent registered public accounting firm 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 this offering or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
 
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PROPOSED BUSINESS
General
We are a newly organized blank check company formed as a Delaware corporation for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Throughout this prospectus we will refer to this as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us.
We believe that there are a significant number of target companies globally that could become attractive public companies, and we will seek to capitalize on the extensive operational and investment experience of our Founders and focus on companies that we believe are attractively valued and have significant growth prospects with the potential to generate robust value for our stockholders. Although we may acquire a company in any industry, we currently intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the financial services industry with a focus on delivering differentiated financial services in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors to the mass affluent and private client investor community.
Our management team is composed of disciplined acquirers with long-term track records of sourcing and acquiring value accretive businesses, building next-generation businesses across industries globally and generating significant returns for investors from those businesses. They are particularly experienced in the financial services industry, including integrated wealth and investment management platforms, and will provide investors with differentiated insights and access to sourcing opportunities. Each of these attributes will be further supported by the longstanding, deep expertise and accretive skillsets of the other Founders, each of whom has a track record of delivering value for investors. We intend to capitalize on the ability of the Founders to identify, acquire and manage businesses in the global financial services space that can benefit from their experience and differentiated global network.
Over the medium- to long-term, we intend to build a substantial integrated global wealth and investment management platform, underpinned by disciplined capital allocation, rigorous due diligence, and our in-place operational, technology, risk and compliance framework. The business will be primarily focused on serving all our clients’ financial needs holistically, covering a full suite of services including wealth advisory, insurance, investment management, investment banking services, asset accumulation, cash management, collateralized lending, and alternatives. We will leverage our growing distribution channels by serving as a distribution interface for best-in-class asset managers globally across all asset classes, providing our mass affluent and private client base with access on a cost-effective basis to high-quality institutional products not currently directly available to them. We intend to grow both organically and through acquisitions that will be successfully integrated utilizing our in-place management, operational and technology platform to drive increased margins through synergies and migration of client assets onto a centralized investment platform. We intend to capitalize on the robust consolidation activity in the high-growth fragmented global wealth and investment management sectors. As disciplined acquirers focused on value enhancement, we believe we can also drive significant additional value to our stockholders through our ability to arbitrage the valuation differentials that exist globally between companies matching our business combination criteria and that apply to a significantly scaled, high-growth and well-resourced listed entity generating above average ROCE (return on capital employed).
Business Strategy
Our acquisition and value creation strategy is to identify and complete our initial business combination with a market-leading, growth-oriented company. Although we may acquire a company in any industry, we intend to concentrate our efforts on identifying businesses in the financial services industry with a focus on differentiated financial services in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors. These potential targets exhibit a broad range of business models and financial characteristics, from mature businesses with recurring revenues and strong cash flows to high-growth companies.
 
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The global financial planning and advice market is significant and expanding. According to BCG, personal financial wealth globally has nearly tripled over the past 20 years, rising from $80 trillion in 1999 to $226 trillion in 2019. According to BCG, North American wealth assets represented approximately 44% of global financial wealth in 2019, or nearly $100 trillion. While (as estimated by the World Federation of Exchanges) the COVID-19 pandemic erased more than $18 trillion from global markets over the course of February and March 2020, BCG projects that global wealth assets will continue to rise to between $243 trillion and $282 trillion by 2024, with the ranges depending on the speed of the global economic recovery from COVID-19. As the population and wealth assets continue to grow globally, we believe the wealth management industry will continue to see increased demand for financial planning and wealth management services, in particular from mass affluent and private clients.
Total global assets under management grew by 15% to approximately $89 trillion in 2019, up from approximately $77 trillion in 2018, according to BCG. North America experienced the strongest growth, with assets rising 19% in 2019 to $42 trillion. Retail clients, the fastest growing segment with assets rising by 19%, represented 42% or $37 trillion of global assets in 2019.
In the U.S. wealth management sector alone, we believe there are several key factors that will continue to drive growth, including:

Advisors Moving Toward Independent Advisor Model.   As of December 31, 2018, 21% of advisors across all channels worked for RIAs or hybrid RIA firms (those firms that can act either in a fiduciary-based advisory capacity or a suitability-based broker capacity) collectively, and such percentage is expected to grow to 23.9% by the end of 2023. One of the key factors driving the shift of financial advisors to the RIA channel is the ability to retain a greater share of the economics associated with the wealth management services they provide.

Increased Demand for Independent Advice.   Recent market trends indicate a preference by clients for the independent wealth management advice provided by RIAs and hybrid RIA firms. Wirehouse asset market share fell from 42.6% to 34.0% between 2007 and 2018 and is expected to fall further to 29.2% by 20231. Conversely, RIAs and hybrid RIA firms saw an increase in their collective asset market share from 16.8% to 24.2% between 2007 and 2018 and are expected to have an asset market share of 29.6% by 20231.

Lack of Succession Planning in the RIA Channel.   22% of all RIAs are unsure who their practice successor will be, the average age of an RIA advisor is 53 years and 24% of RIA advisors plan to exit the industry in the next nine years1. We believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing need for RIAs to prepare their firms for the next generation of leadership.

Projected Growth of Managed Accounts.   The United States is in the midst of a generational shift where baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are retired or retiring. The U.S. population aged 65 years and over is expected to increase by 72% from 2015 to 2040, increasing from 14.9% to an estimated 21.7% of the total U.S. population in 2040, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Accompanying this shift is an expected increase in demand for wealth management services as assets are moved out of 401(k) accounts and company-sponsored plans into managed accounts. This influx of retirement assets into flexible investment accounts represents a significant growth opportunity for the independent wealth management sector, specifically the growing RIA channel.
We believe that there are similar business and regulatory trends in other key international jurisdictions that are driving wealth management professionals toward independent, fee-based business models. In particular, in addition to targeting the RIA-led wealth management industry in the United States, we believe the heightened regulatory scrutiny, proliferating awareness of the fiduciary standard for wealth management and growing populations of mass affluent clients in various regions globally will provide us with an increasing number of acquisition targets abroad. We believe that with the international composition of our Founders group and their skillsets, we are well-positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities in all international markets.
The independent wealth management industry, including RIAs and IBDs, is highly fragmented. Over the past several years, there has been an increased level of consolidation in the wealth management industry, and we expect this trend to continue and accelerate.
 
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Global wealth management M&A activity reached a new record high for the seventh consecutive year in 2019, with over 200 announced transactions and $285 billion of assets transacted, based on reported data. Consolidation in the industry has been fueled by firms seeking strategic or financial partnership opportunities to build scale, enhance margins, improve competitive positioning and access additional capital to fund corporate investments, launch or acquire additional capabilities and transition ownership from founders to the next generation of leaders. Increasing regulatory and technology costs have also fueled M&A activity.
Given the growth trends and fragmented nature of the industry, we believe there is a significant opportunity for us to capitalize on the consolidation activity taking place in the global wealth management industry. Our Founders have a differentiated ability to underwrite transactions across the financial services landscape, including the wealth and investment management sectors. We believe we are well-positioned to partner with a growing wealth management firm that can gain market share and use publicly traded equity to fund new business initiatives and execute roll up acquisitions of additional wealth managers. Additionally, we believe that the COVID-19 pandemic creates additional opportunities where otherwise healthy companies may be in need of capital unrelated to the strength of the underlying platform and we will be in a position to provide capital and strategic solutions, including access to the public capital markets for these companies.
Management Team
We are led by an experienced team of managers, operators and investors who have each played important roles in helping build, grow and exit profitable public and private businesses, both organically and through acquisitions, to create significant value for stakeholders. Our team collectively has several decades of experience operating and investing in companies and management teams across a wide range of industries, including financial services, bringing us a diversity of experiences as well as valuable expertise and perspective.
Our management team will consist of Gary Wilder, our Executive Chairman, and Michael Nessim, our Chief Executive Officer, who will both be supported by our non-executive directors and our two principal financial backers:

KPI, which is wholly owned by KPFLP, a UK private investment partnership that is in turn wholly owned and controlled by Gary Wilder and Jonathan Massing. KPI and its subsidiaries have approximately $8 billion) of assets under advice and management; and

Pollen Street, a global alternative asset investment management company focused on the financial and business services sectors with $3.5 billion of assets under management across private equity and credit strategies.
Gary Wilder
Mr. Wilder, our Executive Chairman, has over 30 years of experience across corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, financing, operations, business development, sales and marketing and branding for companies across all industries, including wealth managers and broker dealers. Mr. Wilder has structured finance and private equity investment experience in Europe, Asia and the U.S. and has been involved in all phases of investment processes, including equity capital raising, fund structuring, debt financing, property acquisitions, asset management and sales. He has built an extensive network of deep relationships with key players, advisors, brokers, consultants, investment banks and analysts. Mr. Wilder has successfully executed over $30 billion in transaction across over 100 M&A, capital markets, structured finance and private equity transactions investing $4.2 billion of equity over the course of his career.
Mr. Wilder currently serves as Group Chief Executive Officer of KWG, a publicly traded, fully integrated wealth and investment management group with over 16,000 active clients and approximately $6 billion of assets under advice and management, and as Executive Chairman of Kingswood US, KWG’s subsidiary and U.S. holding company. He joined the board of KWG in October 2017 as a non-executive director. Mr. Wilder’s key responsibilities at KWG include building strategic relationships with new and
 
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existing investors, bankers and financial advisers, directing capital raising efforts to drive the growth and expansion of the platform, strategic acquisitions, value enhancement and directing overall strategy to maximize stockholder returns.
Mr. Wilder is also a co-founding partner of KPFLP and alongside his partner, Jonathan Massing, has undertaken a range of long-term private equity investments and financial transactions. In 2006, Mr. Wilder co-founded Moor Park Capital Partners LLP, a private real estate firm based in London, where he currently serves as the Executive Chairman. Prior to founding Moor Park, Mr. Wilder was a Managing Partner and the Co-Head of European Funds Group at Nomura Holdings, a team he created following his role as head of Nomura’s Real Estate Principal Finance Group. He was also a member of Nomura’s Global Fixed Income Committee. Between 1999 and 2002, Mr. Wilder was Partner & Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston responsible for its European Real Estate Investment Banking business. Between 1994 and 1999, Mr. Wilder was a Managing Director at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank) in the Real Estate Group. Mr. Wilder is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the Cass Business School, University of London, where he attained a Bachelor of Science degree with honors. Mr. Wilder is authorized as a Senior Manager Function holder by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Michael Nessim
Mr. Nessim, our Chief Executive Officer, has over 24 years of experience in the financial services industry. Starting his career in 1995 as a registered representative with Josephthal & Co., a former independent retail brokerage firm, he built a team of registered representatives and sales support. In 1998, Mr. Nessim began an independently owned franchise of an independent broker dealer. He grew the business to over 100 advisors and 10 support staff. He has spent the majority of his career as an owner and operator of registered franchises (Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction).
Mr. Nessim is currently the President of Kingswood US. Mr. Nessim joined Kingswood US through KWG’s acquisition of a majority interest in MHC. MHC is the majority owner of Benchmark. Mr. Nessim currently serves as the President and CEO of Benchmark. Mr. Nessim’s key responsibilities include driving the continued growth of Benchmark as well as oversight and daily communication with the various management team leaders. He has grown Benchmark from 35 registered representatives to 180 registered representatives due to the successful completion of organic and inorganic growth initiatives. Mr. Nessim has played a crucial role in the successful integration of Benchmark’s RIA acquisitions.
Mr. Nessim holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 65 Securities Licenses. He graduated from C.W. Post University with a degree in Business Management.
Non-Executive Directors
Our management team’s efforts to seek a suitable initial business combination target will be complemented and augmented by the expertise and network of relationships of our non-executive directors, who will provide extensive experience in business and financial matters.
R. Lawrence (Larry) Roth
Mr. Roth, our lead independent director, has over 30 years of experience as an operator of companies, a dealmaker, a strategic advisor and a successful entrepreneur. Mr. Roth, an Attorney and CPA, is currently the Managing Partner of RLR Strategic Partners LLC, a consulting company, where he works closely with senior management teams, boards of directors and advisory boards across the wealth management space to deliver high-impact strategic growth plans, as well as plan execution support. In addition to strategic planning, Mr. Roth also provides comprehensive M&A advisory solutions, delivered in association with Berkshire Global Advisors, a leading global boutique investment bank focused on mergers & acquisitions for the financial services sector.
With three decades of experience in the wealth management industry, Mr. Roth will complement our business combination strategy through the expertise and relationships he has built over time as a CEO of some of the largest independent firms in the industry; a current and past board member of both public and private entities; an investment banker who has structured numerous value-creating transactions; and an
 
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entrepreneur who has acquired early-stage retail financial advice businesses, and grown them to achieve profitable exits. He currently serves on the boards of directors as well as advisory boards for leading organizations in the wealth management industry, including: Advisory Board Chairman of Haven Tower Group, Member of the Board of Directors of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Member of the Board of Directors of Clark Capital Management Group and Editorial Advisory Board Member for Real Assets Adviser. From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Roth served as Chief Executive Officer of Cetera Financial Group, the second largest network of independent broker-dealers in the U.S. From 2013 to 2014, Mr. Roth was the Chief Executive Officer of Realty Capital Securities, a financial services firm engaged in the independent wealth management business. From 2006 to 2013, Mr. Roth was Chief Executive Officer of AIG Advisors Group, one of the largest networks of independent broker-dealers in the U.S. He has also previously served as a Managing Director of Berkshire Global Advisors and remains affiliated with the firm today as a Senior Advisor. Mr. Roth first entered the wealth management industry as an entrepreneur when he personally acquired Vestax, a Hudson, Ohio-based full-service independent broker-dealer that he grew and successfully sold to ING Group in 1997.
Mr. Roth has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and a J.D. from the University of Detroit School of Law. He is also a graduate of the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. He holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 FINRA registrations.
Jonathan Massing
Mr. Massing, one of our directors, has nearly 40 years of corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions experience. Mr. Massing is currently non-executive Deputy Chairman of KWG.
Mr. Massing is a specialist in commercial and corporate finance advice, buyouts, venture capital, advising on stockholder disputes, the valuation of private businesses and acting as a financial expert. As a Chartered Accountant, he has extensive experience in the sale and acquisition of private companies and also provides advice on debt structures and working capital facilities. Mr. Massing is an accredited mediator, with a specific interest in the resolution of business and commercial disputes.
In 1993, Mr. Massing became a founding partner of Kingswood LLP, a London-based professional advisory firm specializing in corporate finance and other professional services for private entrepreneurial businesses and smaller companies. In 1998, Mr. Massing set up KIP as an independent, UK Financial Conduct Authority regulated, private equity investor. KIP also acts as General Partner to KPFLP. Formed in 2004, KPFLP has undertaken a range of long-term investments and financial transactions including: participating in real estate investments; private equity investments incorporating equity and loan capital to the small and medium-sized enterprises sector; subscribing for equity warrants and options; dealing in financial assets; and trading in listed equities, fixed income and currencies. In August 2017, KPFLP through KPI became the largest stockholder in KWG. Mr. Massing was appointed as a non-executive director of KWG in 2017 and, in 2019, he assumed the role of Deputy Chairman. Mr. Massing began his career as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in 1981.
Mr. Massing is a member of the Corporate Finance Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, holding the Corporate Finance Diploma entitling the use of the designation “CF”. In 2010, he was admitted as a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). Mr. Massing attained a Bachelor of Science with Honors at Cardiff University.
David Hudd
Mr. Hudd, one of our directors, has nearly 40 years of global legal and capital markets transactional experience. Mr. Hudd is currently a non-executive director of and legal consultant to KWG. Mr. Hudd is also senior counsel and a former partner of Hogan Lovells, where he served as Deputy CEO from 2014 to 2020.
Mr. Hudd joined Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) as its first dedicated capital markets partner in 1994 to establish the firm’s structured finance practice. Before his appointment as Deputy CEO, Mr. Hudd led the firm’s global finance practice. Mr. Hudd served as Head of Structured Finance at Banque Indosuez in London
 
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(now Crédit Agricole) between 1993 and 1994, as Head of Structured Finance at Sanwa International in London (now Mitsubishi UFJ Group) between 1991 and 1993, and as Head of Legal and subsequently Head of Structured Finance at Banque Paribas in London (now BNP Paribas) from 1985 to 1990. Mr. Hudd started his career as an Associate at Linklaters.
Mr. Hudd has been ranked as a market-leading lawyer for over 25 years by Chambers and Legal 500. Mr. Hudd graduated with an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and is qualified as a solicitor.
Howard Garland
Mr. Garland, one of our directors, is a Partner of Pollen Street and a member of the firm’s private equity and credit investment committees. He is currently a non-executive director of KWG.
He has extensive experience in the private equity sector since 1995, prior to which he created and ran a financial brokerage firm specializing in real estate. Mr. Garland is focused on investing in financial services businesses and credit opportunities and is the lead partner at Pollen Street in charge of KWG, the Polish BIK Group, as well as a number of credit investments and real estate platforms. He was previously the lead partner in charge of the Italian bank Banca Sistema and Arrow Global.
Beginning in 2012, Mr. Garland spent three years assisting the Swedish credit institution Hoist Finance to enter the UK debt collecting and non-performing loan purchasing sector, acting as the UK Chief Operating Officer and supporting the acquisition of a number of UK companies and debt portfolios in both a structuring and operational role.
Mr. Garland has a 1st class honors degree in Mathematics from University College London.
Lisa Roth
Ms. Roth, one of our directors, has over 30 years of operational, business strategy, compliance and information security experience across the financial services industry. She is currently the president of Monahan & Roth, LLC, a professional consulting firm offering consulting, expert witness and mediation services on financial and investment services topics including regulatory compliance, product due diligence, suitability, supervision, information security and related topics. Previously, Ms. Roth founded ComplianceMAX Financial Corp. (purchased by National Regulatory Services in 2007), a regulatory compliance company offering technology and consulting services to more than 1,000 broker-dealers and investment advisers. Ms. Roth’s leadership at ComplianceMax Financial Corp. led to the development of innovative audit and compliance workflow technologies now in use by some of the U.S.’s largest broker-dealers, investment advisors and other financial services companies. Ms. Roth has been engaged as an expert witness on more than 150 occasions, including FINRA, JAMS and AAA arbitrations, and Superior Court and other litigations, providing research, analysis, expert reports, damages calculations and/or testimony at depositions, hearings and trials.
Ms. Roth also serves as the President, AML Compliance Officer and Chief Information Security Officer of Tessera Capital Partners. Tessera is a limited-purpose broker dealer offering new business development, financial intermediary relations, client services and marketing support to investment managers and financial services firms. Ms. Roth holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 53, 4, 65, 99 Licenses. Previously, Ms. Roth has served in various executive capacities with Keystone Capital Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, First Affiliated Securities Inc. (now First Allied Securities Inc.), and other brokerage and advisory firms.
Ms. Roth attained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and was awarded the History Prize from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA.
Caroline O’Connell
Ms. O’Connell, one of our directors, has almost 30 years of leadership, operational, business strategy and marketing experience across the financial services industry. Ms. O’Connell’s track record includes building and leading high-performance teams across marketing, strategy, client experience, product management and communications disciplines to drive growth. She is currently the Chief Strategy and Customer Experience Officer of Equitable (formerly AXA Equitable) and a member of the firm’s Operating
 
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Committee. She is responsible for driving the firm’s growth strategy and overseeing the customer experience across all channels and product lines.
Previously, Ms. O’Connell held several roles at BNY Mellon, including Chief Strategy Officer for the firm’s Pershing franchise and Chief Marketing Officer for its Investment Services business. Ms. O’Connell is a board member of the Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is part of the Strategic Advisory Board for FTV Capital, a multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity firm, as well as Senior Advisor to Omega Venture Partners, a start-up venture capital firm specializing in human-enabled artificial intelligence. Ms. O’Connell is also co-founder of the Outthinker Chief Strategy Officer Roundtable and a member and former Chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee of The Women’s Forum of New York.
Ms. O’Connell holds FINRA series 7, 24 and 63 Licenses. Ms. O’Connell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Principal Financial Backers
KPI (Nominees) Limited
KPI is a private UK company that is wholly owned by KPFLP. Formed in 2004, KPI has undertaken a range of long-term investments and financial transactions including: private equity investments incorporating equity and loan capital to the SME sector; participating in real estate investments; life insurance and fixed and variable annuities; subscribing for equity warrants and options; dealing in financial assets; and trading in listed equities, fixed income and currencies. KPI and its subsidiaries have approximately $8 billion of assets under advice and management. KPFLP is managed by its General Partner, KIP, which is authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
KPI owns 67% of the ordinary share capital of KWG. KWG (previously European Wealth Group Limited), together with its subsidiaries is a growing and established wealth management business listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KWG. Client experience and breadth of services are at the heart of KWG’s offering granting access to specialist advice and distinctive investment products. Headquartered in London, KWG has over 170 employees across the UK, South Africa and the U.S.
KWG’s investment products are managed by highly experienced global investment managers and comprise equities, fixed income and alternative investments. KWG services individuals, family offices, charities, trusts, institutions and corporations by offering a full suite of personalized financial services and access to high-quality products on a cost-effective basis. As of August 21, 2020, KWG has over 16,000 active clients and approximately $6.0 billion of assets under advice and management.
KWG is split into three core businesses: UK Wealth and Investment Management, UK Institutional and Kingswood US:

UK Wealth and Investment Management is an integrated advisory business for retail and corporate clients providing a broad spectrum of financial planning and investment management solutions. UK Wealth had approximately $3.9 billion assets under advice and management as of August 21, 2020 and services approximately 11,700 private clients and 200 corporate pension schemes ranging in size from 10 to 5,000 members.

UK Institutional provides specialist fixed interest and cash-enhanced investment management to private clients, trusts, pension funds, universities and charities. It also manages money on behalf of third-party independent financial advisers. It currently manages total fixed interest investments of $1.0 billion.

Kingswood US currently incorporates interests in an independent broker dealer and registered investment adviser with current assets under management of $1.1 billion.
In September 2019, KWG received a permanent growth capital investment from Pollen Street to support its global growth strategy in the wealth management industry. Pollen Street’s investment comprised an initial commitment of up to £40 million ($52 million) of permanent growth capital to KWG.
 
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KWG’s established market position as a vertically integrated global wealth manager, track record of organic and inorganic strategic growth, established distribution and global relationship network will be a competitive advantage and resource to us as we execute our business strategy.
Members of our board, including Mr. Wilder and Mr. Nessim, have led significant organic and inorganic strategic growth initiatives at KWG to drive growth through enhanced wealth management capabilities, expanded geographic reach and broadened distribution.
Recent Organic Growth Initiatives Delivered for KWG

Enhanced and repositioned the wealth management customer proposition, reducing dependence on single advisers and ensuring that the customer’s relationship is with KWG;

Built out the senior management team with the hiring of a new industry specific Chief Risk Officer and a Chief Operating Officer;

Established partnerships with affiliates covering protection, mortgage services, foreign currency and tax/accounting support; and

Developed IT infrastructure, utilizing industry-leading platforms across both wealth management and investment management.
Recent Inorganic Growth Initiatives Delivered for KWG

Completed the acquisition of Thomas & Co., a financial advisory firm based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in February 2019. Serving around 500 clients and with approximately £150 million ($196 million) of assets under advice, Thomas & Co offers a wide range of services to its clients, including personal and company pensions, investments, and tax planning. The acquisition represented a major step in KWG’s strategy to become a leader in the UK wealth and investment management market and build a nationally recognized brand.

Completed the acquisition of a minority interest in MHC in May 2019. Led by Mr. Nessim, MHC is a holding company with RIA and IBD operations in New York, Atlanta and San Diego. The partnership enabled KWG to gain a key, strategic foothold in the U.S., the largest wealth and investment management market in the world. By investing in MHC, KWG differentiated itself from its peers and supported its global aspirations of asset linking and cross-selling services, and the partnership provided a solid foundation for KWG’s U.S. expansion plans.

Completed the acquisition of WFI, a major regional financial planning business based in Sheffield, UK, in September 2019. WFI has over £ 550 million ($719 million) of assets under management / assets under advice from over 970 family clients. The acquisition doubled the size of KWG’s wealth planning business and provided KWG with an opportunity to own a highly profitable regional financial planning business. The acquisition also marked KWG’s continued expansion of its national wealth management footprint in the UK.

A strategic partnership initiative with Pollen Street in September 2019, which comprised an initial commitment of £40 million ($52 million) and an additional £40 million through co-investments ($104 million in total), of permanent growth capital from funds managed and/or advised by Pollen Street to KWG, underpinning a strong, debt-free balance sheet.

Completed the acquisition of Chalice, in May 2020. Located in San Diego, California, Chalice provides full service securities brokerage, advisory and investment banking services to a broad-based group of individuals and corporate clients and manages approximately $1.1 billion of assets.

KWG announced an agreement in May 2020 to increase its ownership in MHC to a majority stake, merge Chalice with MHC and rename the combined firm Kingswood US. The transaction provides KWG with a strong, robust and well-capitalized foundation to accelerate its U.S. growth strategy, including best-in-class, full-service operational and technology infrastructure. Kingswood US comprises a strong independent broker dealer and registered investment adviser businesses across the U.S., with key hubs in Atlanta, New York and San Diego. In addition, Kingswood US incorporates Kingswood Capital Markets, a national investment banking platform now supported by significant
 
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regulatory capital to leverage KWG’s expanding distribution channels and drive growth across equity and debt advisory, capital raising and M&A. In August 2020, KWG announced that, subject to regulatory approval, it will achieve majority ownership in MHC and complete the formation of Kingswood US.

Completed the acquisition of Sterling Trust in June 2020, a high-quality regional UK wealth management business with £1.2 billion ($1.57 billion) in assets under management. Sterling Trust represents a transformative transaction for KWG, doubling the size and profitability of the wealth management business, adding experienced senior leaders and expanding additional regional reach in the UK.
Pollen Street
Established in 2013, Pollen Street is a global, independent alternative investment management company focused on the financial and business services sectors. Pollen Street has $3.5 billion of gross assets under management across private equity and credit strategies. Investors include leading pension funds, asset managers, banks and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street’s demonstrated approach and track record of supporting its partner companies to take advantage of global market opportunities and to build high growth, sustainable businesses will be highly valuable to our business strategy.
Pollen Street currently manages investments across a diverse sector base including a bank, consumer and corporate lenders, specialist insurance brokers, payments and foreign exchange businesses and technology software providers. It manages multiple regulated entities across the UK, Europe and the U.S.
The past performance of our management team, directors, financial backers or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee either (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team’s or advisors’ or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of our future performance.
Competitive Strengths
We believe the Founders will provide us with a significant pipeline of opportunities from which to evaluate potential business combinations that will benefit from our collective expertise, relationships and network. We believe that our competitive strengths include the following:
Seasoned Management Team with a Demonstrated Track Record of Creating Value
Our management team is led by our Executive Chairman Gary Wilder and our Chief Executive Officer Michael Nessim. With over 55 years of combined financial services, wealth management and private equity experience, Mr. Wilder and Mr. Nessim bring a strong track record, exclusive relationships and deep expertise that is suited to take advantage of the growing set of acquisition opportunities across the financial services industry, including the global wealth and investment management space, and to create significant stockholder value.
We believe our management team’s operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships in the U.S. and globally. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, their relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.
We believe that potential sellers of target businesses will view the fact that our management team has successfully closed over 100 combined M&A, capital markets, structured finance and private equity transactions across a diverse range of industries as a positive factor in considering whether to enter into a business combination with us.
 
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Accomplished Board of Directors
We have recruited and organized a group of accomplished, well-recognized, respected and engaged independent directors who will bring to us public company governance, executive leadership, operations oversight and capital markets expertise. Our board members have served as directors, officers, partners and other executive and advisory capacities for publicly-listed and privately owned companies and private equity and venture capital firms. Our directors have extensive experience with acquisitions, divestitures and corporate strategy and possess relevant domain expertise in the sectors where we expect to source business combination targets, including wealth and investment management. We believe their collective expertise, contacts and relationships make us a highly desirable merger partner.
In addition to supporting us in the areas of investment strategy, origination, assessments of key risks and opportunities and due diligence, members of our board of directors may also support us after the completion of our business combination in overseeing our investment management and value creation plan and strategy where relevant expertise exists. We believe the significant experience and established reputation of our directors will attract high-performing merger partners.
Differentiated Investment Thesis and Strategy
We believe we are unique among listed SPAC vehicles due to our Founders’ extensive knowledge, experience and network with respect to the financial services industry, including differentiated financial services firms in the wealth management, financial advisory and investment management sectors. Given the growth trends and fragmented nature of the industry, we believe there is a significant opportunity for us to capitalize on the consolidation activity taking place in the global wealth management industry. Our management team has the ability to indentify transactions across the financial services landscape, including the wealth and investment management sectors. Additionally, the Founders are actively involved in operating, advising and investing in wealth and investment management firms, which we believe provides a unique value proposition for business combination targets.
We believe we are well-positioned to partner with a growing wealth and investment management firm that can gain market share and use publicly traded equity to fund new business initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Our medium-to-long-term strategy is to build a substantial integrated global wealth and investment management platform. We intend to grow both organically and through acquisitions, which will be successfully integrated utilizing our in place management, operational and technology platform to drive increased margin through exploiting business synergies as we integrate acquisitions onto our centralized operating platform and through the migration of client assets onto our centralized investment platform to drive additional incremental margins. As disciplined acquirers focused on value enhancement, we believe we can also drive significant additional value to our stockholders through our ability to take advantage of the valuation differentials that exist globally between companies matching our business combination criteria and a significantly scaled and a well-resourced listed entity.
Extensive and Proprietary Deal Sourcing Network
We intend to maximize our pipeline of potential target investments by proactively approaching our extensive and proprietary network of relationships and contacts, including owners and directors of private and public companies, private equity funds, family offices, technology partners, investment bankers, industry consultants, lenders, attorneys, accountants and other trusted advisors across various sectors. Kingswood US has a team of investment bankers that can strengthen our sourcing efforts in the RIA and IBD sectors. We believe the prior investment experience and track record of our team and the extensive network of the Founders within the global and U.S. financial services and private equity markets will give us a competitive advantage when sourcing potential business combination opportunities.
Significant M&A, Capital Markets, Finance and Private Equity Expertise
The Founders consist of seasoned professionals with significant M&A, capital markets, finance and private equity experience across a wide variety of industries, structures and market conditions and have proven track records of producing outsized investor returns through all business cycles. Our team has an extensive track record of identifying, screening, acquiring and exiting companies profitably, with experience
 
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globally in the wealth and investment management space, as principal investors and as advisors. The Founders intend to apply the same disciplined approach to acquire a business that they have used in connection with their current advisory services and principal investment activities.
Our management team also has deep understanding and experience of all aspects of capital markets, which we believe is an important skill set of a SPAC management team. We believe that the combined experience and network of the Founders in the public and private equity markets will allow us to effectively position our investment thesis for the business combination transaction, as well as for the combined company post-closing to deliver significant returns for our stockholders.
In connection with our initial business combination, our sponsor and certain of its affiliates in their sole discretion may consider entering into forward purchase agreements with respect to the purchase of units of the Company in a private placement that would close concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. The foregoing in no way creates a legal or contractual obligation of our sponsor or any of its affiliates to enter into forward purchase agreements, and our sponsor and its affiliates will determine whether to enter into such forward purchase agreements in their sole discretion.
Business Combination Criteria
Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating initial business combination opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to seek an initial business combination target and to acquire companies in the wealth and investment management industry that we believe:

have a defensible market position, with demonstrated advantages when compared to their competitors and which create barriers to entry against new competitors;

have strong, experienced management teams, or a platform that will allow us to assemble an effective management team with a track record of driving growth and profitability;

have recurring, predictable revenues and the history of, or the near-term potential to, generate stable and sustainable free cash flow;

are at an inflection point or are able to take advantage of public currency in order to drive improved financial performance;

have a diversified customer base better positioned to endure economic downturns and changes in the industry landscape;

provide a scalable platform for add-on acquisitions, which we believe will be an opportunity for our management team to deliver incremental stockholder value post-acquisition;

generate attractive returns on capital and have a compelling use for capital to achieve their growth strategy;

exhibit unrecognized value or other characteristics that we believe have been overlooked by the marketplace based on our analysis and due diligence review; and

can benefit from being publicly-traded, are prepared to be a publicly-traded company, are capable of generating consistent returns in excess of cost of capital and can effectively utilize access to the capital markets.
These criteria and guidelines 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 criteria and guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management team may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not materially meet the majority of the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria and guidelines in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this prospectus, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we would file with the SEC.
 
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Business Combination Process
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a detailed due diligence review of the issues that we deem important in order to determine the target company’s business quality and estimate its intrinsic value. That due diligence review will include, among other things, financial statement analysis, detailed document reviews, meetings with incumbent management and employees, consultations with relevant industry experts, competitors, customers and suppliers, as well as a review of additional financial, legal and other information that we will seek to obtain as part of our analysis of the target company. We will retain third party specialist consultants to assist in the due diligence process as necessary, covering areas including financial, commercial, regulatory and legal. In addition, we have agreed not to enter into a definitive agreement regarding an initial business combination without the prior consent of our two principal financial backers, KPI and Pollen Street.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our financial backers, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our financial backers, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Each of our financial backers, directors and officers may, directly or indirectly, own founder shares and/or private placement warrants following this 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 financial backers, 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.
Certain of our financial backers, officers and directors presently have fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such sponsor, officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity. Accordingly, if any of our financial backers, officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which it, he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations to present the opportunity to such entity, it, he or she will honor its, his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such opportunity to such entity. We believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our financial backers, officers or directors will not materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any officer or director unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.
In addition, our financial backers and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies, businesses or investments may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an initial business combination. We do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Initial Business Combination
In accordance with the rules of the NYSE, our initial business combination must occur with one or more target businesses that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts held in trust and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. 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 which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the
 
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satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board will not be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of a target business or businesses, it may be unable to do so if the board is less familiar or experienced with the target company’s business, there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the company’s assets or prospects, including if such company is at an early stage of development, operations or growth, or if the anticipated transaction involves a complex financial analysis or other specialized skills and the board determines that outside expertise would be helpful or necessary in conducting such analysis. Since any opinion, if obtained, would merely state that the fair market value of the target business meets the 80% of assets threshold, unless such opinion includes material information regarding the valuation of a target business or the consideration to be provided, it is not anticipated that copies of such opinion would be distributed to our stockholders. However, if required under applicable law, any proxy statement that we deliver to stockholders and file with the SEC in connection with a proposed transaction will include such opinion.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the 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 prior owners of the target business, the target management team or stockholders 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 outstanding voting securities of the target business 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 stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the 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 outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests 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 stockholders 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% of net assets test. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring such costs and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure will make us an attractive business combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we will offer a target business an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger or other business combination with us. In a business combination transaction with us, the owners of the target business may, for example, exchange their capital stock, shares or other equity securities in the target business for our shares of Class A Common Stock (or shares of a new holding company) or for a combination of shares of our Class A Common Stock and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. We believe target businesses will find this method a more expeditious and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. The typical initial public offering process takes a significantly longer period of time than the typical business combination transaction process, and there are significant expenses, market and other uncertainties
 
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in the initial public offering process, including underwriting discounts and commissions, marketing and road show efforts that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a business combination with us.
Furthermore, once a proposed business combination is completed, the target business will have effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriters’ ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring or could have negative valuation consequences. Following an initial business combination, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital, an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with stockholders’ interests and the ability to use its shares as currency for acquisitions. Being a public company can offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
While we believe that our structure and our management team’s backgrounds will make us an attractive business partner, some potential target businesses may view our status as a blank check company, such as our lack of an operating history and our ability to seek stockholder approval of any proposed initial business combination, negatively.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A Common Stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
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 Common Stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th.
Financial Position
With funds available for a business combination initially in the amount of $97,500,000 (assuming no redemptions) after payment of $3,500,000 of deferred underwriting fees (or $112,125,000 (assuming no redemptions) after payment of $4,025,000 of deferred underwriting fees if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our initial business combination using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the target business to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available to us.
Effecting Our Initial Business Combination
General
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations for an indefinite period of time following this offering. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of this offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing. We may seek to complete our initial business combination with
 
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a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.
If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or used for redemptions of our Class A Common Stock, we may use the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account following the closing for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us. Accordingly, there is no current basis for investors in this offering to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the target business with which we may ultimately complete our initial business combination. Although our management will assess the risks inherent in a particular target business with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a target business may encounter. Furthermore, some of those risks may be outside of our control, meaning that we can do nothing to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely affect a target business.
We may seek to raise additional funds through a private offering of debt or equity securities in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and we may effectuate our initial business combination using the proceeds of such offering rather than using the amounts held in the trust account. In addition, we intend to target businesses with enterprise values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, and, as a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemptions by public stockholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would expect to complete such financing only simultaneously with the completion of our initial business combination. In the case of an initial business combination funded with assets other than the trust account assets, our proxy materials or tender offer documents disclosing the initial business combination would disclose the terms of the financing and, only if required by law, we would seek stockholder approval of such financing. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following consummation of this offering. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities or otherwise. None of our financial backers, officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Sources of Target Businesses
We anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment bankers and private investment funds. Target businesses may be brought to our attention by such unaffiliated sources as a result of being solicited by us through calls or mailings. These sources may also introduce us to target businesses in which they think we may be interested on an unsolicited basis, since many of these sources will have read this prospectus and know what types of businesses we are targeting. Our officers and directors, as well as their affiliates, may also bring to our attention target business candidates of which they become aware through their business contacts as a result of formal or informal inquiries or discussions they may have, as well as attending trade shows or conventions. In addition, we expect to receive a number of proprietary deal flow opportunities that would not otherwise necessarily be available to us as a result of the track record and business relationships of our officers and directors. While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our
 
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management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. However, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by the company prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). In addition, commencing on the date of this prospectus, we will pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, utilities, secretarial and administrative support services provided to members of our management team. Any such payments prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than the foregoing, there will be no finder’s fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or 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).
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors, or from completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event that we seek to complete our initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Initial Business Combination
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspection of facilities, as applicable, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us. If we determine to move forward with a particular target, we will proceed to structure and negotiate the terms of the business combination transaction.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of, and negotiation with, a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination. The company will not pay any consulting fees to members of our management team, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered to or in connection with our initial business combination.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:

subject us to negative economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact on the particular industry in which we operate after our initial business combination; and

cause us to depend on the marketing and sale of a single product or limited number of products or services.
 
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Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. The determination as to whether any of the members of our management team will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, we will seek stockholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other reasons.
Under the NYSE’s listing rules, stockholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:

We issue shares of Common Stock that will be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of shares of our Common Stock then issued and outstanding (other than in a public offering);

Any of our directors, officers or substantial stockholders (as defined by the NYSE rules) has a 5% or greater interest earned on the trust account (or such persons collectively have a 10% or greater interest), directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired or otherwise and the present or potential issuance of shares of Common Stock could result in an increase in outstanding shares of Common Stock or voting power of 5% or more; or

The issuance or potential issuance of shares of Common Stock will result in our undergoing a change of control.
Permitted Purchases of Our Securities
If we seek stockholder 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, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and the NYSE rules. However, 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. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
 
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In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.
The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the business combination or (ii) 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 warrantholders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities 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 Class A Common Stock or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the stockholders with whom our initial stockholders, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated purchases by either the stockholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by stockholders (in the case of Class A Common Stock) following our mailing of proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates enter into a private purchase, they would identify and contact only potential selling stockholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our initial business combination, whether or not such stockholder has already submitted a proxy with respect to our initial business combination but only if such shares have not already been voted at the stockholder meeting related to our initial business combination. Our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase shares from based on a negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will only purchase shares if such purchases comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws. Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will not make purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) of, or Rule 10b-5 under, the Exchange Act. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
Redemption Rights for Public Stockholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A Common Stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.10 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they may hold in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
 
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Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides 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. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A Common Stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed initial business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the initial business combination or redeem any shares, and all shares of Class A Common Stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof. However, we may raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop arrangements we may enter into following consummation of this offering, in order to, among other reasons, satisfy such net tangible assets or minimum cash requirements.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A Common Stock upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) without a stockholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct 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 require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or whether we were deemed to be a foreign private issuer (which would require a tender offer rather than seeking stockholder approval under SEC rules). Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on the NYSE, we will be required to comply with the NYSE’s stockholder approval rules.
The requirement that we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above will be contained in provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will apply whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on the NYSE. Such provisions may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our shares of Common Stock entitled to vote thereon, so long as we offer redemption in connection with such amendment.
If we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:

conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules; and

file proxy materials with the SEC.
In the event that we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. A quorum for such meeting will be present if the holders of a majority of issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote at the meeting are represented in person or by proxy. Our sponsor, officers and directors will count toward this quorum and, pursuant to the letter agreement, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to
 
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vote their founder shares, private placement shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering (including in open-market and privately negotiated transactions) in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in the event that only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum is present at a stockholders’ meeting held to vote on our initial business combination (and assuming the underwriters’ over-allotment option is not exercised), in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 640,626, or 6.41%, of the 10,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved. These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreement of our sponsor, officers and directors, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem their public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or whether they were a public stockholder on the record date for the stockholders meeting held to approve the proposed transaction.
If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will:

conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E under the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers, and

file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
In the event that we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-l(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public stockholders not tendering more than the number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemption pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-l under the Exchange Act to purchase our shares of Class A Common Stock in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
We intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their share certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the scheduled vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the scheduled vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. We believe that this will allow our transfer agent to efficiently process any redemptions without the need for further communication or action from the redeeming public stockholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed initial business combination is not approved and we continue to search for a target company, we will promptly return any certificates or shares delivered by public stockholders who elected to redeem their shares.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides 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. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration