Gores Guggenheim (NASDAQ:GGPI) announced this morning that it expects to provide $850 million in proceeds to its target company Polestar ahead of its vote to complete the deal scheduled for tomorrow, June 22.
This would mean just 25% redemptions, and, because it has already passed its redemption deadline on Friday, that number only stands to go down should some redeemers choose to revoke their decision. Gores Guggenheim now stands to have the lowest redemptions of any SPAC reaching the finish line since December 23, 2021, when FS II had 1.2% redeemed completing its transaction with Pardes Biosciences.
Gores Guggenheim accomplished this without any public non-redemption agreements from major shareholders.
In the press release, Gores Guggenheim Chairman Alec Gores described the redemption levels as an “incredible feat” in the current macro environment and it is difficult to disagree, but also goes to show that it’s still possible to get a good result in this market. However, it should be noted that GGPI put a considerable amount of work into marketing this deal.
Nonetheless, one would hope this is a small sign of confidence returning to the SPAC market with at least the uncertainty on near-term Fed actions lifted. But, Gores Guggenheim is also steered by an experienced team – one that ranks 13th among 69 serial SPAC sponsors that SPACInsider tracks based on the average returns from its eight closed deals.
The deal also appears to have rekindled some energy from retail investors. As an EV manufacturer much further along with commercialization than most SPAC targets in that realm, Polestar has attracted enthusiasm to Gores Guggenheim’s stock, which experienced a 13.2% bump in Friday trading.
This momentum has pushed it up to around $10.90 in early morning trading and according to Refinitiv data, just 21.3% of the SPAC’s public shares are held by institutional investors. Gores Guggenheim had about 13.4% short interest as of May 31, according to Morningstar.
Gores Guggenheim and Polestar initially announced their $20 billion combination on September 27. Gothenburg, Sweden-based Polestar produces two consumer EV models that are on the road in Europe, North America, China, and Asia Pacific.
From 2022 onward, Polestar plans to launch one new EV model per year including a performance SUV expected to debut in October and a smaller SUV coupe slated for 2023. It generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2021 and projects $17.3 billion for 2025.
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