Blockchain payment company Roxe nears $3.65 bln SPAC deal-sources

CHI Special Acquisition

21/06/2022 20:19

(Updates with more on the deal)
    By Echo Wang
    June 21 (Reuters) - Blockchain-based payments company Roxe
Holdings Inc is nearing a deal to go public through a merger
with blank check company Goldenstone Acquisition Ltd  GDST.O  at
a combined valuation of $3.65 billion, according to people
familiar with the matter.
    The deal bucks an unfavorable market environment with
cryptocurrencies plunging in value and investors largely losing
interest in special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) of
this sort partly because of disappointing returns.
    None of the Roxe investors plans to sell their stakes, the
sources said. Goldenstone raised just $57.5 million in its
initial public offering in March this year, a slither of the
deal's value.  
    Roxe investors are also entitled to an earnout for
additional shares in the combined company if certain stock price
targets are met, according to the sources.
    A deal could be announced later on Tuesday, the sources
said, requesting anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
    Founded in 2019, Roxe connects banks, payment firms and
remittance companies, facilitating cross-border payments using
their private blockchain tokens. It does not use
cryptocurrencies, whose market value has been volatile.
    Bitcoin fell below $20,000 on June 18 for the first time
since December 2020. It has plummeted around 60% this year. The
overall crypto market has slumped to around $900 billion, down
from a record $3 trillion in November.  L1N2Y503U 
    This would be Roxe's founder Haohan Xu's second SPAC merger
this year after he agreed to take crypto exchange Apifiny public
earlier this year in a $530 million deal.
    About 600 SPACs that went public in the past couple of years
are still trying to complete deals, according to data from
Dealogic. A little over six months into 2022, 26 SPAC mergers
have been terminated in the United States, according to data
from industry tracker Spac Research. That compares with a total
of 18 in the whole of 2021, and 7 in 2020.

 (Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)
 ((E.Wang@thomsonreuters.com; +1 9172873971; Reuters Messaging:
E.Wang@thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))