- The SPAC team that took Playboy Group public in what’s turned out to be a wildly successful deal is launching a $50M IPO for Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:MCAEU), its third special purpose acquisition company.
- Dr. Suying Liu, whose Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. I took Playboy public in a SPAC deal that’s seen the stock soar more than 300% since the merger closed in February, aims to sell 5M investment units for MCAEU.
- Liu and his team wrote in an S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that each unit will consist of one Class A share and 0.1 rights entitling the holder to a second share once the SPAC makes its initial acquisition.
- That’s an unusual term for a SPAC, whose units usually include one share plus a fractional warrant entitling holders to buy an addition share in the future. However, special purpose acquisition companies’ warrants have recently come under major SEC scrutiny.
- The SPAC’s sponsor has also granted underwriters an option to buy as many as 750,000 extra units for any overallotments.
- Additionally, Liu’s company and bookrunner Chardan Capital Markets have agreed to put $1.85M in the new SPAC to purchase 185,000 investment units. That will rise to $2M for 2M units if underwriters exercise all overallotment options.
- Liu has served on the board of Playboy (NASDAQ:PLBY) board since Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. I closed its deal to take the company public. Prior to that, he briefly served as Hudson Capital’s head of corporate strategy after working as an investment strategist at Mansion Capital LLC and JPMorgan Chase.
- The financier’s second SPAC, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:MCAD) (NASDAQ:MCADU), agreed earlier this month to take Better Therapeutics Inc. public at a $187M valuation.
- However, Wall Street has been less enthusiastic so far about that deal, with MCADU gaining only 2.9% on the merger’s announcement. The SPAC has also given back some of that in recent weeks to close Monday at $10.59, up just 2.6% from where the units traded before the Better Therapeutics news became public.
- As for Liu’s latest SPAC, management wrote in the S-1 that Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. III will aim “to identify and acquire a business with untapped opportunity for building a public company."
- "We intend to focus our search for an initial business combination on private companies in North America that have positive operating cash flow or compelling economics and clear paths to positive operating cash flow, significant assets and successful management teams that are seeking access to the U.S. public capital markets," management wrote.
- Plans call for the new SPAC’s investment units to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “MCAEU.” Its shares and rights will later trade separately under the symbols “MCAE,” and “MCAER,” respectively.
(Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the SPAC's units consist of one share plus 0.1 "warrants" rather than the correct one share plus 0.1 "rights.")