Commercial transportation and industrial equipment maker Powermers Smart Industries (PSI) has agreed to go public in the U.S. through a merger with a blank-check firm in a deal valued at about $2 billion, the companies said on Friday.
The deal with OCA Acquisition Corp includes a committed investment of up to $8 million into PSI and an additional private investment in public equity (PIPE) of $2 million.
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), also called blank-check firms, use proceeds from their initial public offerings (IPO) to merge with private firms. Such mergers allow the private firms to sidestep a lengthy IPO process to list their shares on bourses.
Blank check mergers have, however, become less popular after coming under scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after a frenzy of deals in 2020 and early 2021 sparked concerns that some investors are getting a raw deal.
The New York-based firm’s intellectual property portfolio includes patents around the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries and other energy storage devices.
The deal is expected to close in 2024, following which the combined company will operate as ‘Powermers Smart Industries’ and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “PSII”.
