Shares of Meta Material, formerly Torchlight, rise 6%

Meta Materials

28/06/2021 13:04

June 28 (Reuters) - Shares of Meta Material Inc  MMAT.O 
rose 6% premarket on Monday, ahead of the first day of trading
after a merger that saw the niche hi-tech materials maker
swallow Torchlight Energy Resources that was at the center of
huge speculative bets by small individual traders.
    Torchlight's stock rose 74% last Monday as retail investors
piled into the stock with record volumes. The shares, however,
gave up some of the gains after the company upsized its stock
offering.
    In a reverse takeover to list on the Nasdaq and access the
U.S. capital markets, Metamaterial Inc, a smart materials and
photonics company, last year agreed to merge with Torchlight, an
oil and gas producer. The deal includes plans to divest the
legacy energy assets.
    Torchlight said on Friday that it closed the deal and the
new company, Meta Materials Inc, would begin trading under the
ticker symbol "MMAT" on Monday.
    The company, which pushed back the closing of the deal to
June 30, upsized its stock offering to $250 million last week
from $100 million to take advantage of the share price rally.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2O33DW
    Torchlight also said on Friday it paid a special dividend to
its stockholders of record on June 24 and that it implemented a
previously approved 1 for 2 reverse stock split.
    The Plano, Texas-based company traces its roots back to Pole
Perfect, incorporated in 2007 in Nevada to market feminine
fitness dance studios utilizing the advantages of pole dancing.
    In November 2010, Pole Perfect bought Torchlight Energy and
abandoned all of its previous business plans within the health
and fitness industries before formally changing its name to
Torchlight in 2011.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2O42M6

 (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju
Samuel)
 ((arathys.nair@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 8780 (Extn 2726);
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArathySom;))