Grove Collaborative surges after merger with Branson's SPAC

Grove Collaborative Holdings

21/06/2022 12:49

** Shares of natural consumer products maker Grove
Collaborative Holdings  GROV.N  rise >20% premarket, a day after
notching big gain in debut
    ** On Fri, GROV surged 67.8% to $10 after co completed
merger with billionaire Richard Branson's special purpose
acquisition co Virgin Group Acquisition Corp II (VGII)
    ** The $1.5 bln deal announced in Dec was to bring Grove
$435 mln, including $87 mln PIPE (private investment in public
equity)  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2ST2ZY  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nBw57ssv8a
    ** VGII raised ~$400 mln in its Mar 2021 IPO
    ** Morgan Stanley was exclusive financial advisor to Grove,
while Credit Suisse advised VGII
    ** Branson's first SPAC merged with DNA-testing firm 23andMe
 ME.O  last year in $3.5 bln deal  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2KA38W
    ** And Branson has been on the other side of SPAC deals.
Satellite provider Virgin Orbit  VORB.O  debuted in Dec after
its de-SPAC  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TJ1N2 and space tourism firm Virgin Galactic
 SPCE.N  went public in 2019
    ** ME closed at $2.51 on Fri, down 62% YTD
    ** VORB and SPCE closed at $3.51 and $6.25, respectively, on
Fri. Both stocks have lost >50% in 2022
    ** The SPAC market has sunk this year amid heightened
scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers, poor post-merger
performance for many stocks and high shareholder redemptions
prior to tie-ups  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2XO2KE

 (Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-332-219-1430))