Latest news with #SPAC
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
Red Sena to hold last meeting on July 11 before winding up
KUALA LUMPUR: Red Sena Bhd, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will hold its final meeting of members on July 11, as it enters the last phase of its winding-up process. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the company said a final cash distribution of RM4.91 million was completed on May 7, 2025, translating to RM0.00614125 per share for eligible shareholders. The final meeting, scheduled for 10.30am at Corus Hotel here will provide shareholders with a report from the liquidator on how the company's assets were managed and disposed of. Shareholders will also consider a resolution on how the company's books and records should be handled, as required under Sections 459 and 518(3)(c) of the Companies Act 2016. Following the conclusion of the meeting and submission of the required documents to the Companies Commission of Malaysia, Red Sena will be delisted from Bursa Malaysia. A further announcement will be made upon completion of the company's dissolution.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Business
- Associated Press
The Generation Essentials Group and Black Spade II Secure Shareholder Approval for NYSE-Listed Business Combination
PARIS & NEW YORK & SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 2, 2025-- The Generation Essentials Group ('TGE') and Black Spade Acquisition II Co (NASDAQ: BSII) ('Black Spade II') announced that their previously proposed business combination (the 'Business Combination') was approved at an extraordinary general meeting of Black Spade II's shareholders on May 30, 2025. The Business Combination is expected to close on June 3, 2025. Upon closing, TGE will become the publicly traded entity, with its Class A ordinary shares and warrants to be listed under the ticker symbols 'TGE' and 'TGEWS', respectively, on the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE American. About The Generation Essentials Group (formerly known as World Media and Entertainment Universal Inc.) The Generation Essentials Group, jointly established by AMTD Group, AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB) and AMTD Digital Inc. (NYSE: HKD), is headquartered in France and focuses on global strategies and developments in multi-media, entertainment, and cultural affairs worldwide as well as hospitality and VIP services. TGE comprises L'Officiel, The Art Newspaper, movie and entertainment projects. Collectively, TGE is a diversified portfolio of media and entertainment businesses, and a global portfolio of premium properties. About Black Spade Acquisition II Co Black Spade Acquisition II Co ('Black Spade II') is a blank check company incorporated for the purpose of effecting a business combination (Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC). Listed on the Nasdaq, Black Spade II was founded by Black Spade Capital, which runs a global portfolio consisting of a wide spectrum of cross-border investments, and consistently seeks to add new investment projects and opportunities to its portfolio. Black Spade II is Black Spade Capital's second SPAC. Black Spade Capital's first SPAC completed its business combination with VinFast Auto Ltd., a Vietnamese electric vehicle company, in August 2023. At the time, it was the third largest ever de-SPAC by deal value (based on Dealogic data available through April 2024). About AMTD Group AMTD Group is a conglomerate with a core business portfolio spanning across media and entertainment, education and training, and premium assets and hospitality sectors. About AMTD IDEA Group AMTD IDEA Group (NYSE: AMTD; SGX: HKB) represents a diversified institution and digital solutions group connecting companies and investors with global markets. Its comprehensive one-stop business services plus digital solutions platform addresses different clients' diverse and inter-connected business needs and digital requirements across all phases of their life cycles. AMTD IDEA Group is uniquely positioned as an active super connector between clients, business partners, investee companies, and investors, connecting the East and the West. For more information, please visit or follow us on X (formerly known as 'Twitter') at @AMTDGroup. About AMTD Digital Inc. AMTD Digital Inc. (NYSE: HKD) is a comprehensive digital solutions platform headquartered in France. Its one-stop digital solutions platform operates key business lines including digital media, content and marketing services, investments as well as hospitality and VIP services. For AMTD Digital's announcements, please visit Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute 'forward-looking' statements pursuant to the 'safe harbor' provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as 'will,' 'expects,' 'anticipates,' 'aims,' 'future,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'likely to,' and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs, plans, and expectations of AMTD IDEA Group and/or AMTD Digital, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the filings of AMTD IDEA Group and/or AMTD Digital with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and neither AMTD IDEA Group nor AMTD Digital undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. View source version on CONTACT: For AMTD IDEA Group: IR Office AMTD IDEA Group EMAIL:[email protected] For AMTD Digital Inc.: IR Office AMTD Digital Inc. EMAIL:[email protected] KEYWORD: NEW YORK UNITED STATES FRANCE SINGAPORE SOUTHEAST ASIA NORTH AMERICA ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT DIGITAL MARKETING SOURCE: AMTD Digital Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 06/02/2025 10:13 AM/DISC: 06/02/2025 10:12 AM
Associated Press
a day ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Berto Acquisition Corp. Announces the Separate Trading of its Ordinary Shares and Warrants, Commencing on or about June 5, 2025
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 2, 2025-- Berto Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: TACOU) (the 'Company'), the ninth special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Harry You, today announced that, commencing on or about June 5, 2025, holders of the units sold in the Company's initial public offering completed on May 1, 2025 (the 'offering'), may elect to separately trade the ordinary shares and warrants included in the units. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. The ordinary shares and warrants that are separated will trade on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbols 'TACO' and 'TACOW,' respectively, and those units not separated will continue to trade under the symbol 'TACOU.' Holders of units will need to have their brokers contact Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the Company's transfer agent, in order to separate the units into ordinary shares and warrants. A registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC') on April 29, 2025. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Berto Acquisition Corp. Berto Acquisition Corp., which is led by Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Financial Officer Harry You, is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The Company may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any industry or sector, and intends to capitalize on the ability of its management team to identify and combine with a business or businesses that can benefit from the management team's established relationships and operating experience. While its focus is broad because of management's perspective on technology, quantum computing and other growth industries, having looked at over a thousand acquisition targets over the past decade, it will be examining in particular, opportunities in artificial intelligence as well as in the rapidly growing wellness, longevity and aesthetics areas. Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that constitute 'forward-looking statements,' including with respect to the Company's search for an initial business combination. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and final prospectus for the Company's offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SEC's website, The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. View source version on CONTACT: Harry You Executive Chairman, Interim Chief Financial Officer Berto Acquisition Corp. [email protected] KEYWORD: NEW YORK UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FINANCE SOURCE: Berto Acquisition Corp. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 06/02/2025 08:35 AM/DISC: 06/02/2025 08:35 AM
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
SPACs trigger bad case of Wall Street amnesia
NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tragedy plus time is the formula for comedy, but on Wall Street it equals opportunity. Wait a while and even the costliest failures will be resurrected. Look no further than the phenomenon of cash-stuffed shells designed to find takeover targets, which are making an unlikely return just a few years after a fateful farce. Investors freely underwrote such blank-check firms in 2020 and 2021. In those two years alone, special-purpose acquisition companies raised some $250 billion with which to go shopping. Their 860 initial public offerings accounted for, opens new tab 62% of all market debuts, according to research outfit SPACInsider. Roughly half of them, however, failed to find a target within their typical two-year deadline, instead returning the cash to shareholders. They were the lucky ones. By custom, SPACs list at an initial price of $10. More than 90% of those that both found a merger partner and are still publicly listed trade below that all-important benchmark price as of early May. Dozens of them - including shared office-space lessor WeWork and electric-truck maker Lordstown Motors - collapsed, adding to the bonfire of billions. Disaster is no deterrent in finance, however. Onetime bond trader John Meriwether managed to raise money for an ill-fated second hedge fund following the $3.6 billion bailout orchestrated by the Federal Reserve of his highly leveraged Long-Term Capital Management. Jon Corzine was hired to run brokerage firm MF Global, and presided over its collapse in 2011, after he had already been ousted from both Goldman Sachs and the New Jersey governor's mansion. Before being elected U.S. president, Donald Trump kept luring investors into casino ventures despite his propensity for bankruptcy, opens new tab. Serial SPACsters flaunt a similar bravado. Among the 80 shell companies that have gone public this year or disclosed plans to do so, according to SPAC Research data, are ones sponsored by dealmaker Michael Klein, opens new tab, investment banking boutique Cantor Fitzgerald, opens new tab and buyout firm The Gores Group, opens new tab. The trio is part of a small club of 14 sponsors with at least eight SPACs apiece to their name, accounting for a combined 150. Even these impresarios have struggled, however. A fifth of their shell companies were liquidated. More than 40% are trading, or were sold, below the $10-a-share threshold, according to a Breakingviews analysis. Worse, there hasn't been much soul-searching about how to remake SPACs, beyond some enhanced disclosure requirements implemented, opens new tab last year by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There's a market nonetheless. This is partly because the money a blank-check firm raises is held in a trust typically earning interest from ultra-safe Treasury bills, and shareholders can get a refund on their contribution once the SPAC unveils a deal. Hedge fund managers therefore tend to regard shell companies as akin to fixed income investments with equity upside, which are especially appealing when markets swing wildly. The cash redemption rate in 2022 exceeded 80%. As CEOs and investors search for alternatives to sluggish traditional M&A and IPO markets, though, SPACs could represent a fresh opportunity, albeit with refinements. One would be to share the spoils, as started to become more of the norm. Sponsors typically receive a 20% stake in founder shares at a steep discount. Instead of keeping this entire 'promote,' setting some aside for other owners could persuade them not to redeem their shares. It would put real money on the table. Early SPAC advocate Chamath Palihapitiya boasted of making roughly $750 million from the vehicles he sponsored through his Social Capital, even as many other investors lost money. Another important factor is the size and cohort of investors a sponsor attracts by privately placing shares ahead of, or alongside, an acquisition. These private investments in public equity tailed off at the end of the boom. Their presence, depending on the reputation of the investors and the amount committed, can help validate a deal's valuation, one of the potential virtues of SPACs. Price discovery in an IPO can be dicey, as Venture Global (VG.N), opens new tab discovered earlier this year. The liquefied natural gas exporter had to slash its valuation after investors balked. Even then, shares tumbled when they began trading and are 48% below where they started. Simply having Fidelity or T. Rowe Price in a SPAC deal can't guarantee success, of course, but it at least adds an outside stamp of approval. Most important, however, is to seek healthier, more established companies as merger partners instead of unproven science projects. A SPAC is a poor substitute for early-stage venture-capital fundraising. The initial flood left a lot of firms hungry to do deals, though, in turn prematurely ushering too many private firms into publicly traded life. Gores provides a useful example of how deals can optimally work. In 2016, its first SPAC bought century-old Hostess Brands from buyout shop Apollo Global Management (APO.N), opens new tab and billionaire Dean Metropoulos for $725 million. JM Smucker (SJM.N), opens new tab paid $5.6 billion for the Twinkies maker seven years later. Verra Mobility's (VRRM.O), opens new tab share price also has more than doubled since another Gores SPAC acquired the electronic toll-payment service in 2018. The recent blank-check resurgence, by contrast, is sending mixed signals. Private equity firm Ares Management (ARES.N), opens new tab successfully extended the life of one it is sponsoring with only about 1% of shareholders redeeming, opens new tab, an indication of confidence. Backers including Soros Fund Management are kicking in $110 million of financing to supplement the $550 million of cash in its trust. And yet the vehicle is buying, opens new tab Kodiak Robotics, a self-driving truck technology startup that looks to be an incongruously early-stage venture for the New York Stock Exchange, in a $2.5 billion deal. Perhaps the biggest reason to remain skeptical about SPACs and their skewed economics is to consider which side of the trade buyout shops prefer: they are more likely to sponsor than sell into them. Collectively, private equity funds own stockpiles of aging companies that are proving difficult to sell or take public. If the industry starts embracing SPACs for exits, as occurred with Hostess and a handful of others, they might be worth a second look. For now, it's just a degenerative case of Wall Street amnesia. Follow @jgfarb, opens new tab on X
Globe and Mail
23-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Where Will SoFi Technologies Be in 3 Years?
SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) has had a bumpy ride. Its stock has fluctuated between $6 and $18 over the past year alone. The market is still trying to determine what to make of the all-digital bank. The business has performed well despite some sizable headwinds. Now, those headwinds are dissipating, which could finally allow SoFi Technologies to realize its full potential. But will the stock reward investors who buy now? Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » Here is where SoFi Technologies could trade in May 2028. High-octane growth has obscured tough challenges behind the scenes It can be tempting to pass judgment on a stock that hasn't performed well for an extended period. SoFi Technologies joined the public market via a reverse SPAC merger in mid-2021, and today, it's down nearly 50% from the all-time high it set shortly afterward. In the interim, however, it had been in far worse straits -- down by more than 83% at the bottom of its trough. However, context is essential, and there's a lot of relevant context in play with this company. For starters, SoFi went public at the height of a stock market bubble that was powered in part by the zero-percent benchmark interest rates that helped keep the economy functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the pandemic took the wind out of its core business. SoFi built its name in the student loan space, and the federal government temporarily froze repayments of those loans as part of its effort to keep Americans' finances secure amid the crisis. Additionally, the combination of monetary stimulus and widespread supply chain issues leading to shortages of goods and commodities eventually stoked inflation, which the Federal Reserve responded to by raising the federal funds rate off of its near-zero level at one of the sharpest paces in modern history. That essentially popped the stock market bubble. It also slammed the brakes on consumer borrowing. SoFi Technologies kept making strides through all of this, though. The company's digital banking ecosystem, accessible by customers through its smartphone super app, is wildly popular. SoFi's grown to over 10.9 million members from just 3.4 million in 2021. Plus, the company got a banking charter in 2022, which helped it generate net income for the first time last year. Not bad for a company dealing with a laundry list of problems. SoFi's core business could finally get back on track It's remarkable when you put numbers to it: SoFi's quarterly student loan originations peaked just before the pandemic at $2.4 billion in Q4 2019. The company's total net revenue was approximately $451 million that year. SoFi's student loan business has begun recovering, but originations were still only about $1.2 billion in Q1 2025. Yet management is guiding for over $3.2 billion in net revenue this year. The business has grown that much despite its former bread-and-butter student loan business imploding. The U.S. government is now aggressively pushing to get borrowers back to repaying their student loans. That could spark a wave of refinancing activity for SoFi, which has a much larger user base and greater access to capital than it did in 2019. The outlook for SoFi Technologies' stock Investors should be excited about what student loan growth could do for SoFi's business over the next several years as borrowers scramble to refinance their loans after the long repayment freeze. And that would come on top of SoFi's already-rampant growth. Its member base was up by 34% year over year in Q1 2025. And the digital bank still has vast cross-selling opportunities -- its average member uses just 1.45 of its products. SoFi's recent strides on the profitability front have begun driving its book value per share higher, and that growth should continue due to the operating leverage the company has achieved. SOFI Tangible Book Value (Per Share) data by YCharts. Today, the stock trades at 3.2 times its tangible book value (TBV). That might seem expensive at first glance. For example, JPMorgan Chase trades at almost 2.8 times its TBV. However, SoFi's TBV has grown by 14.6% over the past four quarters while JPMorgan's is up by 8.4%. That's a long-winded way of saying SoFi's membership and TBV growth warrant a premium. Management is guiding for a 12% increase in TBV this year. If SoFi sustains that growth rate over the next three years -- a reasonable expectation given the student loan growth ahead -- and if it keeps its current TBV ratio, the stock will trade near $19, almost 50% higher than its current price. I wouldn't be surprised if SoFi's growth accelerated and the stock did better, but I'd rather be overly cautious than expect too much and be disappointed. Either way, SoFi Technologies is a business headed in the right direction, and the stock's current valuation positions it for solid, if not outsized, shareholder returns over the next three years, and possibly beyond. Should you invest $1,000 in SoFi Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in SoFi Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SoFi Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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