EV firm Microvast to go public through $3 bln merger with SPAC

Ark Solutions

01/02/2021 12:25

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Electric-vehicle battery maker Microvast
said on Monday it would go public through a merger with
blank-check company Tuscan Holdings Corp  THCB.O , in a deal
that values the combined entity at roughly $3 billion. 
    The deal with Tuscan was announced in November. However, the
financial details were not disclosed then.
    Microvast will receive $822 million in gross cash proceeds,
which includes a private investment of $540 million from
investors like Oshkosh Corp, BlackRock Inc  BLK.N , Koch
Strategic Platforms and InterPrivate Investment Partners. 
    Microvast, which was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in
Texas, made batteries that powered the electric buses used at
the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
    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.
    Electric vehicle firm Faraday Future, online learning
platform Nerdy and smart-lock maker Latch are other companies
that have announced mergers with blank-check companies so far
this year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2K32V3  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2K4483  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2K32V3
    Tuscan raised $240 million in its initial public offering in
March 2019. (bwnews.pr/3plj0Kf)

 (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh
Kuber)
 ((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))