Tuscan Holdings Corp. (stock symbol: THCB), a SPAC that raised approximately $276 million when it went public in March 2019,, has reached an agreement to merge with Microvast, a manufacturer of electric-vehicle batteries.
They have not yet filed an investor presentation:
THCB is trading at $10.40 in premarket trading this morning.
EV battery maker Microvast to go public through SPAC merger
By Reuters Staff
November 13, 2020
(Reuters) - Electric-vehicle battery maker Microvast has agreed to go public through a merger with Tuscan Holdings Corp THCB.O, the blank-check company said here on Friday.
Microvast, whose batteries powered the electric buses used in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, expects to generate more than $100 million in revenue this financial year, its founder Yang Wu said in a statement.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
A blank-check firm, also known as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), uses proceeds from an initial public offering to buy a private company, typically within two years. The private company is then taken public.
SPACs have been behind some major listings this year, with electric-car maker Fisker FSR.N and Nikola Corp NKLA.O choosing the route to go public.
Microvast was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Texas. Tuscan raised $240 million in its initial public offering last year. ( bwnews.pr/3plj0Kf)
Reporting by Niket Nishant and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni
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An earlier article from Bloomberg:
icrovast in Talks to Go Public Via Tuscan SPAC Merger
Bloomberg News
November 11, 2020, 7:58 PM CST
Updated on November 11, 2020, 8:57 PM CST
-- Tuscan is seeking to raise about $200 million in new equity
-- A deal would value combined entity at about $2 billion or more
Microvast, a maker of electric batteries, is in advanced talks to go public through a merger with the blank-check company Tuscan Holdings Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Tuscan, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is seeking to raise about $200 million in new equity to fund the transaction, said the people, who asked not to identified because the talks are private. The transaction would value the combined entity at about $2 billion or higher, the people said.
Negotiations could be delayed or fall apart and the terms could still change, the people said. Representatives for Tuscan and Microvast didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Founded in 2006, Stafford, Texas-based Microvast operates a manufacturing center in Huzhou, China. Its batteries have been used to power electric buses in cities including Shanghai and Auckland as well as during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, according to its website. The company counts CITIC Securities and CDH Investments among its investors.
Earlier this year, Microvast said it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium to develop low-cost and fast-charge batteries for electric vehicle applications.
“Programs like this are critical to advancing the technology needed to meet both near- and long-term goals that will enable broader scale vehicle electrification,” Steve Zimmer, executive director of the U.S. Council for Automotive Research, USABC’s parent, said in a statement at the time.
Tuscan, led by Chief Executive Officer Stephen A. Vogel and President and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Epstein, raised $276 million in March 2019 and said it would initially focus on finding a target in the cannabis industry, but added that it wouldn’t be limited to any particular industry or geographic region.
— With assistance by Gillian Tan, and Dong Cao
(Updates to add more information on the deal in second paragraph.)
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