Item 1. Business.
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated on May 5, 2017 as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (“Business Combination”). We have reviewed, and continue to review, a number of opportunities to enter into a Business Combination with an operating business, but we are not able to determine at this time whether we will complete a Business Combination with any of the target businesses that we have reviewed or with any other target business. We also have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the Company is a “shell company” as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.
Our Public Offering closed on September 18, 2017. Prior to our Public Offering, on May 10, 2017, we entered into a Securities Subscription Agreement with our Sponsor, pursuant to which our Sponsor subscribed for an aggregate of 14,375,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On May 18, 2017, the Sponsor surrendered 2,875,000 Class B ordinary shares for no value, and on August 23, 2017 and September 13, 2017, we approved share capitalizations resulting in an aggregate of 17,250,000 Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding and held by our Sponsor (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion thereof, the “Founder Shares”).
On the Close Date, we consummated our Public Offering of 69,000,000 units (which included the purchase of 9,000,000 units subject to the underwriters’ 9,000,000 unit over-allotment option) at a price of $10.00 per unit generating gross proceeds of $690,000,000 before underwriting discounts and expenses. Each unit (“Unit”) consists of one Class A ordinary share, par value $0.0001 per share, and one-third of one warrant of the Company (“Warrant”). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share for $11.50 per share. Simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, we completed the private sale of an aggregate of 8,000,000 warrants to our Sponsor (the “Private Placement Warrants”), each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share for $11.50 per share at a price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant.
We received gross proceeds from the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants of $690,000,000 and $12,000,000, respectively, for an aggregate of $702,000,000, of which $690,000,000 of the gross proceeds were deposited in a trust account maintained by Continental Stock Transfer and Trust Company (“Trustee”) acting as trustee (the “Trust Account”). We incurred $34,295,163 in Public Offering related costs, including $10,000,000 of underwriting fees, $24,150,000 of deferred underwriting fees and $145,163 of other costs.
The balance of the funds held outside of the trust account are intended to be used primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a Business Combination. In the future, a portion of interest income on the funds held in the Trust Account may be released to us to pay tax obligations. At December 31, 2017, funds held in the Trust Account consisted solely of cash and U.S. Treasury Bills.
On September 25, 2017, we announced that, commencing September 29, 2017, holders of the Units sold in our Public Offering may elect to separately trade the Class A ordinary shares and Warrants included in the Units. Those Units not separated will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “IPOA.U,” and the Class A ordinary shares and Warrants that are separated will trade on the NYSE under the symbols “IPOA” and “IPOW,” respectively. We will not issue fractional warrants upon separation of the Units and only whole Warrants will trade.
We are a partnership between the investment firms of Social Capital and Hedosophia. Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings unites technologists, entrepreneurs and technology-oriented investors around a shared vision of identifying and investing in innovative and agile technology companies. We believe that our management team’s relationships with leading technology company founders, executives of private and public companies, venture capitalists and growth equity fund managers, in addition to the extensive industry and geographical reach of Social Capital and Hedosophia’s networks will give us a competitive advantage in pursuing a broad range of opportunities. Our management team believes that its ability to identify and implement value creation initiatives will remain central to its differentiated acquisition strategy.
Business Strategy
We intend to focus our target sourcing efforts on assessing companies that we believe would benefit significantly from being publicly-traded. Further, we believe that we are providing an interesting alternative investment opportunity that capitalizes on key trends impacting the capital markets for technology companies.
We believe the future success of the capital markets for technology companies is dependent on new company formation, the sustainability of robust private market funding and an increased willingness of private technology companies to become publicly-traded and therefore become available to a broader universe of investors who can benefit from their disruption and growth. Our mission is to create an alternative path to a traditional IPO for disruptive and agile technology companies to achieve their long-term objectives and overcome key deterrents to becoming public. By leveraging our extensive operational experience and network, we believe we can provide a number of significant benefits to potential targets and public market investors that can potentially lead to attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns in the public markets. These benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:
·Operational excellence: Our management team has significant hands-on experience helping technology companies optimize their existing and new growth initiatives by exploiting insights from rich data assets that already exist within most technology companies. Further, we intend to share best practices and key learnings, gathered from Social Capital’s and Hedosophia’s operating and investment experience, as well as strong relationships in the technology sector, to help shape corporate strategies in an increasingly complex technology ecosystem.
·Broad, global reach: Having operated and invested in leading global technology companies across their corporate life cycles, our management team has developed deep relationships with key large multi-national organizations and investors. These relationships and know-how present a significant opportunity to help drive strategic dialogue, access new customer relationships and achieve global ambitions.
·Efficiency: We believe that a more streamlined and transparent path to the public market will encourage private companies, in the technology industry in particular, to go public while allowing them to remain operationally focused on long-term value creation. As a result, public market investors can gain more near-term, direct investment exposure to long-term technology themes.
Acquisition Criteria
We intend to leverage what we believe is a competitive advantage in sourcing potential targets that will materially benefit from our unique expertise and where we are best situated to augment the value of the business following the completion of the initial Business Combination.
We believe our management team is well positioned to identify unique opportunities across the technology private company landscape. Our selection process will leverage our relationships with leading technology company founders, executives of private and public companies, venture capitalists and growth equity funds, in addition to the extensive industry and geographical reach of Social Capital and Hedosophia’s platforms, which we believe should provide us with a key competitive advantage in sourcing potential Business Combination targets. Given our profile and thematic approach, we anticipate that target business candidates may be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, in particular founders of, and investors in, other private and public technology companies in our networks.
We also believe that Social Capital and Hedosophia’s reputation, experience and track record of making investments in the technology industry will make us a preferred partner for these potential targets.
Consistent with this strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We intend to use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our Business Combination with a target business that does not meet any of these criteria and guidelines.
We intend to seek to acquire companies that we believe meet certain of the following criteria:
•are in the technology industry and can benefit from the extensive networks and insights we have built. In addition, we expect to evaluate targets in related industries that can use technology to drive meaningful operational improvements and efficiency gains, or enhance their strategic positions by using technology solutions to differentiate offerings;
•are ready to operate in the scrutiny of public markets, with strong management, corporate governance and reporting policies in place;
•will likely be well received by public investors and are expected to have good access to the public capital markets;
•are at an inflection point, such as those requiring additional management expertise, innovation to develop new products or services, improvement of financial performance or growth through a Business Combination;
•have significant embedded and/or underexploited expansion opportunities;
•exhibit unrecognized value or other characteristics that we believe have been misevaluated by the market based on our company-specific analysis and due diligence review. For a potential target company, this process will include, among other things, a review and analysis of the company’s capital structure, quality of earnings, potential for operational improvements, corporate governance, customers, material contracts, and industry background and trends; and
•will offer attractive risk-adjusted equity returns for our shareholders. Financial returns will be evaluated based on (1) the potential for organic growth in cash flows, (2) the ability to accelerate growth, including through the opportunity for follow-on acquisitions and (3) the prospects for creating value through other value creation initiatives. Potential upside from growth in the target business’ earnings and an improved capital structure will be weighed against any identified downside risks.
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular Business Combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines, as well as other considerations, factors and criteria deemed relevant by our management in effecting our Business Combination consistent with our business objectives. In the event that we decide to enter into our Business Combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our shareholder communications related to our Business Combination, which, would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
Our Acquisition Process
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review which will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us. We will also utilize our operational and capital planning experience.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a Business Combination to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a Business Combination opportunity that is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor these obligations to present such Business Combination opportunity to such entity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties to us under Cayman Islands law. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our Business Combination.
Sourcing of Potential Business Combination Targets
We believe our management team’s significant operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential Business Combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring, financing and exiting investments and properties, our management team’s relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.
This network provides our management team with a robust and consistent flow of acquisition opportunities which were proprietary or where a limited group of investors were invited to participate in the sale process. We believe that the network of contacts and relationships of our management team will provide us with important sources of acquisition opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment market participants, private equity funds and large business enterprises seeking to divest non-core assets or divisions.
We are not prohibited from pursuing a Business Combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors or making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete a Business Combination with a target that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm, that such a Business Combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
As more fully discussed in “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance,” if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a Business Combination opportunity that falls within the line of business of any entity to which he or she has pre-existing fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may be required to present such Business Combination opportunity to such entity prior to presenting such Business Combination opportunity to us. Our officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations to various entities that may present a conflict of interest. As a result of these duties and obligations, situations may arise in which business opportunities may be given to one or more of these other entities prior to being presented to us.
Status as a Public Company
We believe our structure will make us an attractive Business Combination partner to target businesses. As an existing public company, we offer a target business an alternative to the traditional initial public offering through a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or other Business Combination. In this situation, the owners of the target business would exchange their shares of stock in the target business for our shares or for a combination of our shares and cash, allowing us to tailor the consideration to the specific needs of the sellers. Although there are various costs and obligations associated with being a public company, we believe target businesses will find this method a more certain and cost effective method to becoming a public company than the typical initial public offering. In a typical initial public offering, there are additional expenses incurred for marketing, road show and public reporting efforts that may not be present to the same extent in connection with a Business Combination with us.
Furthermore, once a proposed Business Combination is completed, the target business will effectively become public, whereas an initial public offering is always subject to the underwriters’ ability to complete the offering, as well as general market conditions, which could delay or prevent the offering from occurring. Once public, we believe the target business would then have greater access to capital and an additional means of providing management incentives consistent with shareholders’ interests. Our structure may offer further benefits by augmenting a company’s profile among potential new customers and vendors and aid in attracting talented employees.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the Close Date, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our ordinary shares that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th; and (ii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
Financial Position
With funds available for a Business Combination of $665,850,000 assuming no redemptions and after payment of $24,150,000 of deferred underwriting discount, we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our Business Combination using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the target business to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third-party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Effecting Our Business Combination
We are not presently engaged in, and we will not engage in, any operations until a Business Combination. We intend to effectuate our Business Combination using cash from the proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our shares, debt or a combination of these as the consideration to be paid in our Business Combination. We may seek to complete our Business Combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.
If our Business Combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the Trust Account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our Business Combination or used for redemptions of purchases of our Class A ordinary shares, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the Trust Account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our Business Combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We may seek to raise additional funds through a private offering of debt or equity securities in connection with the completion of our Business Combination, and we may effectuate our Business Combination using the proceeds of such offering rather than utilizing the funds held in the Trust Account.
In the case of a Business Combination funded with assets other than the Trust Account assets, our tender offer documents or proxy materials disclosing the Business Combination would disclose the terms of the financing and, only if required by law, we would seek shareholder approval of such financing. There are no prohibitions on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our Business Combination. At this time, we are not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities or otherwise.
Selection of a Target Business and Structuring of Our Business Combination
The rules of the NYSE require that our Business Combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the net assets held in the Trust Account (net of amounts disbursed to management for the payment of taxes and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount held in trust). The fair market value of the target or targets will be determined by our board of directors based upon one or more standards generally accepted by the financial community, such as discounted cash flow valuation or value of comparable businesses. If our board is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. We do not intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our Business Combination. Subject to this requirement, our management has virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting one or more prospective target businesses, although we will not be permitted to effectuate our Business Combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.
In any case, we will only complete a Business Combination in which we own or acquire 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquire a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. If we own or acquire less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses, the portion of such business or businesses that are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% of net assets test. There is no basis for public shareholders to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any target business with which we may ultimately complete our Business Combination.
To the extent we effect our Business Combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.
In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review which will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us.
The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our Business Combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our Business Combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another Business Combination.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our Business Combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our Business Combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:
•subject us to negative economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact on the particular industry in which we operate after our Business Combination, and
•cause us to depend on the marketing and sale of a single product or limited number of products or services.
Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our Business Combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our Business Combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our Business Combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our Business Combination.
Following a Business Combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, we will seek shareholder approval if it is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we may decide to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
Under the rules of the NYSE, shareholder approval would be required for our Business Combination if, for example:
•we issue (other than in a public offering for cash) ordinary shares that will either (a) be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of Class A ordinary shares then outstanding or (b) have voting power equal to or in excess of 20% of the voting power then outstanding;
•any of our directors, officers or substantial security holders (as defined by the rules of the NYSE) has a 5% or greater interest, directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired and if the number of ordinary shares to be issued, or if the number of ordinary shares into which the securities may be convertible or exercisable, exceeds either (a) 1% of the number of ordinary shares or 1% of the voting power outstanding before the issuance in the case of any of our directors and officers or (b) 5% of the number of ordinary shares or 5% of the voting power outstanding before the issuance in the case of any substantial security holders; or
•the issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares will result in our undergoing a change of control.
The Companies Law and Cayman Islands law do not currently require, and we are not aware of any other applicable law that will require, shareholder approval of our Business Combination.
Permitted purchases of our securities
In the event we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our Business Combination. There is no limit on the number of shares such persons may purchase. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. In the event our Initial Shareholders, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates determine to make any such purchases at the time of a shareholder vote relating to our Business Combination, such purchases could have the effect of influencing the vote necessary to approve such transaction. None of the funds in the Trust Account will be used to purchase shares in such transactions. They will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such shareholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. We cannot currently determine whether our insiders will make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan, as it will be dependent upon several factors, including but not limited to, the timing and size of such purchases. Depending on such circumstances, our insiders may either make such purchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan or determine that such a plan is not necessary.
In the event that our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.
The purpose of such purchases would be to: (i) vote such shares in favor of the Business Combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of our Business Combination; or (ii) to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our Business Combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. This may result in the completion of our Business Combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our ordinary shares may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange. Our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors and/or any of their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the shareholders with whom our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated purchases by either the shareholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by shareholders following our mailing of proxy materials in connection with our Business Combination. To the extent that our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates enter into a private purchase, they would identify and contact only potential selling shareholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our Business Combination. Such persons would select the shareholders from whom to acquire shares based on the number of shares available, the negotiated price per share and such other factors as any such person may deem relevant at the time of purchase. The price per share paid in any such transaction may be different than the amount per share a public shareholder would receive if it elected to redeem its shares in connection with our initial Business Combination. Our Sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates will only purchase shares if such purchases comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws.
Any purchases by our Sponsor, officers, directors and/or any of their affiliates who are affiliated purchasers under Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act will be made only to the extent such purchases are able to be made in compliance with Rule 10b-18, which is a safe harbor from liability for manipulation under Section 9(a)(2) and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. Rule 10b-18 has certain technical requirements that must be complied with in order for the safe harbor to be available to the purchaser. Our Sponsor, officers, directors and/or any of their affiliates will not make purchases of ordinary shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders Upon Completion of Our Business Combination
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their ordinary shares (collectively, the “Public Shares”) upon the completion of our Business Combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account as of two business days prior to the consummation of the Business Combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding Public Shares, subject to the limitations described herein. At completion of the Business Combination, we will be required to purchase any ordinary shares properly delivered for redemption and not withdrawn. The amount in the Trust Account is $10.03 per Public Share. The per-share amount we will distribute to shareholders who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. Our Initial Shareholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and any Public Shares they may hold in connection with the completion of our Business Combination. Our directors and officers have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Public Shares upon the completion of our Business Combination either (i) in connection with a shareholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while direct mergers with our Company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares or seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association would require shareholder approval. We intend to conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC unless shareholder approval is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or we choose to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
If a shareholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
•conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers, and
•file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our Business Combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the Business Combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
Upon the public announcement of our Business Combination, we and our Sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase our Class A ordinary shares in the open market if we elect to redeem our Public Shares through a tender offer, to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our Business Combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public shareholders not tendering more than a specified number of Public Shares which are not purchased by our Sponsor, which number will be based on the requirement that we may not redeem Public Shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our Business Combination. If public shareholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the Business Combination.
If, however, shareholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association:
•conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules, and
•file proxy materials with the SEC.
In the event that we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public shareholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the Business Combination.
If we seek shareholder approval, we will complete our Business Combination only if a majority of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. In such case, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, our Initial Shareholders have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree) to vote their founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our Business Combination. Our directors and officers also have agreed to vote in favor of our Business Combination with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any.
We expect that at the time of any shareholder vote relating to our Business Combination, our Initial Shareholders and their permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares entitled to vote thereon. Each public shareholder may elect to redeem their Public Shares without voting and, if they do vote, irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. In addition, our Initial Shareholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and any Public Shares held by them in connection with the completion of a Business Combination. Our directors and officers have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that in no event will we redeem our Public Shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). Redemptions of our Public Shares may also be subject to a higher net tangible asset test or cash requirement pursuant to an agreement relating to our Business Combination. For example, the proposed Business Combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed Business Combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all Public Shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed Business Combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the Business Combination or redeem any Public Shares, and all Public Shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of Our Business Combination if We Seek Shareholder Approval
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to Public Shares held in excess of 15% of the total Public Shares issued as part of the Units in our Public Offering (“Excess Shares”). We believe this restriction will discourage public shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed Business Combination as a means to force us or our Sponsor or its affiliates to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the Public Shares could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us or our Sponsor or its affiliates at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting a shareholder’s ability to redeem no more than 15% of the Public Shares, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our Business Combination, particularly in connection with a Business Combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. However, we have not restricted our public shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares, including Excess Shares, for or against our Business Combination.
Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights
We may require our public shareholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve our Business Combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, rather than simply voting against the Business Combination. The tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our Public Shares in connection with our Business Combination will indicate whether we are requiring public shareholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. Accordingly, a public shareholder would have from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, or up to two days prior to the vote on the Business Combination if we distribute proxy materials, as applicable, to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Pursuant to the tender offer rules, the tender offer period will be not less than 20 business days and, in the case of a shareholder vote, a final proxy statement would be mailed to public shareholders at least 10 days prior to the shareholder vote. However, we expect that a draft proxy statement would be made available to such shareholders well in advance of such time, providing additional notice of redemption if we conduct redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for shareholders to use electronic delivery of their Public Shares.
There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.
The foregoing is different from the procedures used by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the shareholders’ vote on a business combination, and a holder could simply vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights. After the business combination was approved, the company would contact such shareholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the shareholder then had an “option window” after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the company’s shares in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her shares to the company for cancellation. As a result, the redemption rights, to which shareholders were aware they needed to commit before the shareholder meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completion of the business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming holder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.
Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the tender offer materials or the date of the shareholder meeting set forth in our proxy materials, as applicable. Furthermore, if a holder of a Public Share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our Public Shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our Business Combination.
If our Business Combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public shareholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the Trust Account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.
If our initial proposed Business Combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a Business Combination with a different target until 24 months from the Close Date.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if No Business Combination
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we have only 24 months from the Close Date to complete our Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination within such 24-month period, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the Public Shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable, and less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our Business Combination within the 24 month time period.
Our Initial Shareholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to their Founder Shares if we fail to complete our Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date. However, if our Initial Shareholders own Public Shares, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if we fail to complete our Business Combination within the allotted 24-month time period.
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our Public Shares if we do not complete our Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date, unless we provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Public Shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding Public Shares. However, we may not redeem our Public Shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules).
We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts held outside the Trust Account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the Trust Account not required to pay taxes, we may request the Trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the Trust Account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the Trust Account, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the Trust Account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public shareholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by shareholders will not be substantially less than $10.00. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account for the benefit of our public shareholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the Trust Account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the Trust Account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the Trust Account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver only if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason. Upon redemption of our Public Shares, if we are unable to complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our Business Combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. In order to protect the amounts held in the Trust Account, our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent auditors) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below (i) $10.00 per Public Share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the Trust Account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, then our Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor's only assets are securities of our Company and, therefore, our Sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. None of our directors or officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
In the event that the proceeds in the Trust Account are reduced below (i) $10.00 per Public Share or (ii) such lesser amount per Public Share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, and our Sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption price will not be substantially less than $10.00 per share.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our Sponsor will have to indemnify the Trust Account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the Trust Account. Our Sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. At December 31, 2017, we had access to up to $696,382 from the proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000).
If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the Trust Account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public shareholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our board may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our Company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the Trust Account only in the event of the redemption of our Public Shares if we do not complete our Business Combination within 24 months from the Close Date or if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the Business Combination. In no other circumstances will a shareholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the Trust Account. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our Business Combination, a shareholder’s voting in connection with the Business Combination alone will not result in a shareholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the Trust Account. Such shareholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above.
Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain certain requirements and restrictions that apply to us until the consummation of our Business Combination. If we seek to amend any provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-Business Combination activity, we will provide public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem their Public Shares in connection with any such vote. Our Initial Shareholders have agreed to waive any redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and any Public Shares held in connection with the completion of our Business Combination. Specifically, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide, among other things, that:
•prior to the consummation of our Business Combination, we shall either (1) seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination at a meeting called for such purpose at which shareholders may seek to redeem their shares, regardless of whether they vote for or against the proposed Business Combination, into their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), or (2) provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to tender their shares to us by means of a tender offer (and thereby avoid the need for a shareholder vote) for an amount equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), in each case subject to the limitations described herein;
•we will consummate our Business Combination only if we have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation and, solely if we seek shareholder approval, a majority of the outstanding ordinary shares voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination;
•if our Business Combination is not consummated within 24 months after the Close Date, then our existence will terminate and we will distribute all amounts in the Trust Account; and
•prior to our Business Combination, we may not issue additional ordinary shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the Trust Account or (ii) vote on any Business Combination.
These provisions cannot be amended without the approval of holders of at least two thirds of our ordinary shares. In the event we seek shareholder approval in connection with our Business Combination, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that we may consummate our Business Combination only if approved by a majority of the ordinary shares voted by our shareholders at a duly held shareholders meeting.
Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our Business Combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies and operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public shareholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our Business Combination and our outstanding Warrants, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a Business Combination.
Conflicts of Interest
All of our executive officers and certain of our directors have fiduciary and contractual duties to either Social Capital or Hedosophia and to certain companies in which either of them has invested. These entities may compete with us for acquisition opportunities. If these entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing such opportunities. However, we do not expect these duties to present a significant conflict of interest with our search for a Business Combination. Social Capital and Hedosophia’s traditional activities typically involve investing in private companies, investing in those entities several years prior to an initial public offering, not at the time of such offering. None of the members of our management team who are also employed by our Sponsor or its affiliates have any obligation to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they become aware. Our management team, in their capacities as directors, officers or employees of our Sponsor or its affiliates or in their other endeavors, may choose to present potential business combinations to the related entities described above, current or future entities affiliated with or managed by our Sponsor, or third parties, before they present such opportunities to us, subject to applicable fiduciary duties.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to one or more other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor these obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our Business Combination.
Indemnity
Our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent auditors) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below: (i) $10.00 per Public Share; or (ii) such lesser amount per Public Share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case, net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the Trust Account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our Company and, therefore, our Sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for its indemnification obligations.
Employees
We currently have five officers and do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our Business Combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our Business Combination and the current stage of the Business Combination process.
Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
Our Units, Class A ordinary shares and Warrants are registered under the Exchange Act and as a result we have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public auditors. The public may read and copy any material we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at: http://www.sec.gov.
We previously filed a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we will be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our Business Combination. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We expect to provide shareholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials sent to shareholders to assist them in assessing the target business. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”), or International Financing Reporting Standards, as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the United States Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”). These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame. While this may limit the pool of potential acquisition candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such target business to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the Close Date, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our ordinary shares that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Item 1A.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making a decision to invest in our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
We are a recently incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a recently incorporated company established under the laws of the Cayman Islands with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our Business Combination with one or more target businesses. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a Business Combination and may be unable to complete our Business Combination. If we fail to complete our Business Combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Our public shareholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed Business Combination, which means we may complete our Business Combination even though a majority of our public shareholders do not support such a combination.
We may not hold a shareholder vote to approve our Business Combination unless the Business Combination would require shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange rules or if we decide to hold a shareholder vote for business or other reasons. For instance, the rules of the NYSE currently allow us to engage in a tender offer in lieu of a shareholder meeting, but would still require us to obtain shareholder approval if we were seeking to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares to a target business as consideration in any Business Combination. Therefore, if we were structuring a Business Combination that required us to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares, we would seek shareholder approval of such Business Combination. However, except as required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, the decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed Business Combination or will allow shareholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek shareholder approval. Accordingly, we may consummate our Business Combination even if holders of a majority of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares do not approve of the Business Combination we consummate. Please refer to "Item 1. Business - Shareholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Business Combination" for additional information.
If we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination, our Initial Shareholders, officers and directors have agreed to vote in favor of such Business Combination, regardless of how our public shareholders vote.
Unlike many other blank check companies in which the Initial Shareholders agree to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by the public shareholders in connection with Business Combination, our Initial Shareholders have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their founder shares and any Public Shares held by them in favor of our Business Combination. As a result, in addition to our Initial Shareholders’ Founder Shares, we would need 25,875,001, or 37.5%, of the 69,000,000 issued and outstanding Public Shares to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all issued and outstanding ordinary shares are voted) in order to have such Business Combination approved. Our directors and officers have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any. We expect that our Initial Shareholders and their permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares at the time of any such shareholder vote. Accordingly, if we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination, it is more likely that the necessary shareholder approval will be received than would be the case if such persons agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public shareholders.
Your only opportunity to effect the investment decision regarding a potential Business Combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek shareholder approval of such Business Combination.
Since our Board of Directors may complete a Business Combination without seeking shareholder approval, public shareholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the Business Combination, unless we seek such shareholder approval. Accordingly, if we do not seek shareholder approval, your only opportunity to effect the investment decision regarding a potential Business Combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public shareholders in which we describe our Business Combination.
The ability of our public shareholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential Business Combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a Business Combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public shareholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the Business Combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our Public Shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules), or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our Business Combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related Business Combination and may instead search for an alternate Business Combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a Business Combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable Business Combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our Business Combination, we will not know how many shareholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our Business Combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the Trust Account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the Trust Account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third-party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public shareholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our Business Combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our Business Combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the Trust Account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our Business Combination would be unsuccessful increases. If our Business Combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the Trust Account until we liquidate the Trust Account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the Trust Account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a Business Combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential Business Combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our Business Combination on terms that would produce value for our shareholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a Business Combination will be aware that we must complete our Business Combination within 24 months from the Close Date. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a Business Combination, knowing that if we do not complete our Business Combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our Business Combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the end of the 24-month period. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our Business Combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
We may not be able to complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our Public Shares and liquidate, in which case our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we must complete our Business Combination within 24 months from the Close Date. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our Business Combination within such time period. Our ability to complete our Business Combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein.
If we have not completed our Business Combination within such time period, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding Public Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our Board of Directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Cayman Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public shareholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than $10.00 per share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
If we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may elect to purchase shares from public shareholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed Business Combination and reduce the public “float” of our ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our Business Combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such shareholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that our Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public shareholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling shareholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The price per share paid in any such transaction may be different than the amount per share a public shareholder would receive if it elected to redeem its shares in connection with our Business Combination. The purpose of such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of our Business Combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining shareholder approval of our Business Combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our Business Combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. This may result in the completion of our Business Combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our ordinary shares and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
If a shareholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our Public Shares in connection with our Business Combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our Business Combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a shareholder fails to receive our tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such shareholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our Public Shares in connection with our Business Combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem Public Shares. In the event that a shareholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the Trust Account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your Public Shares or Warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public shareholders will be entitled to receive funds from the Trust Account only upon the earlier to occur of: (1) the completion of our Business Combination; (2) the redemption of any Public Shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our Public Shares if we do not complete our Business Combination within 24 months from the Close Date; and (3) the redemption of all of our Public Shares if we are unable to complete our Business Combination within 24 months from the Close Date, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public shareholder have any right or interest of any kind in the Trust Account. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your Public Shares or Warrants, potentially at a loss.
The NYSE may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
We cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on the NYSE in the future or prior to our Business Combination. In order to continue listing our securities on the NYSE prior to our Business Combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities. Additionally, in connection with our Business Combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the NYSE’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the NYSE’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4 per share. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If the NYSE delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•reduced liquidity for our securities;
•a determination that our Class A ordinary shares are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A ordinary shares to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
•a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our Units, Class A ordinary shares and Warrants are listed on the NYSE, our Units, Class A ordinary shares and Warrants will qualify as covered securities under such statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on the NYSE, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Because we have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and timely filed a Current Report on Form 8-K after the Close Date, including an audited balance sheet of the Company demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our Business Combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if we were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the Trust Account to us unless and until the funds in the Trust Account were released to us in connection with our completion of a Business Combination.
If we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of shareholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A ordinary shares.
If we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the Public Offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our Business Combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our Business Combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our Business Combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for Business Combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on our redemption of their shares, and our Warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and we are obligated to pay cash for our Class A ordinary shares, it will potentially reduce the resources available to us for our Business Combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless. See "-If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share" and other risk factors herein.
If the funds not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months after the Close Date, we may be unable to complete our Business Combination.
The funds available to us outside of the Trust Account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months after the Close Date, assuming that our Business Combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. However, our affiliates are not obligated to make loans to us in the future, and we may not be able to raise additional financing from unaffiliated parties necessary to fund our expenses. Any such event in the future may negatively impact the analysis regarding our ability to continue as a going concern at such time.
We believe that, as of December 31, 2017, the funds available to us outside of the Trust Account, will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months after the Close Date; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed Business Combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless. See "-If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share" and other risk factors herein.
If the funds not being held in the Trust Account are insufficient, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our Business Combination and we will depend on loans from our Sponsor or management team to fund our search, to pay our taxes and to complete our Business Combination.
Of the net proceeds of the Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, only $696,382 is available to us as of December 31, 2017 outside the Trust Account to fund our working capital requirements. In the event that such amount is insufficient to fund our search for a target business and to consummate a Business Combination we may seek additional capital. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our Sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. None of our Sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates is under any obligation to loan funds to us in such circumstances. Any such loans would be repaid only from funds held outside the Trust Account or from funds released to us upon completion of our Business Combination. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our Sponsor, an affiliate of our Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors, if any, as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our Trust Account. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Account. Consequently, our public shareholders may only receive $10.00 per share, or possibly less than $10.00 per share, on our redemption of our Public Shares and our Warrants will expire worthless. See "-If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share" and other risk factors herein.
Subsequent to our completion of our Business Combination, we may be required to subsequently take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write down or write off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any shareholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a shareholder or warrant holder following our Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by shareholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
Our placing of funds in the Trust Account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account for the benefit of our public shareholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the Trust Account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the Trust Account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the Trust Account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver only if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the Trust Account for any reason. Upon redemption of our Public Shares, if we are unable to complete our Business Combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our Business Combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public shareholders could be less than the $10.00 per share initially held in the Trust Account, due to claims of such creditors.
Our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent auditors) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per public share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the Trust Account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Our Sponsor may not have sufficient funds available to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our Sponsor to reserve for such obligations, and therefore, no funds are currently set aside to cover any such obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our Business Combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our Business Combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our Sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the Trust Account are reduced below the lesser of (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, and our Sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the Trust Account available for distribution to our public shareholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our shareholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the Trust Account to our public shareholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our shareholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the Trust Account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our shareholders in connection with our liquidation would be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
•restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
•restrictions on the issuance of securities;
each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
•registration as an investment company with the SEC;
•adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
•reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. The proceeds held in the Trust Account may be invested by the trustee only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 180 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. Treasuries and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act. Because the investment of the proceeds will be restricted to these instruments, we believe we will meet the requirements for the exemption provided in Rule 3a-1 promulgated under the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our Business Combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
If we are unable to consummate our Business Combination within 24 months of the Close Date, our public shareholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our Trust Account.
If we are unable to consummate our Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date, we will distribute the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), pro rata to our public shareholders by way of redemption and cease all operations except for the purposes of winding up of our affairs, as further described herein. Any redemption of public shareholders from the Trust Account shall be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to windup, liquidate the Trust Account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public shareholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the Companies Law. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the initial 24 months before the redemption proceeds of our Trust Account become available to them and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our Trust Account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless we consummate our Business Combination prior thereto and then only in cases where investors have sought to redeem their ordinary shares. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public shareholders be entitled to distributions if we are unable to complete our Business Combination.
Our shareholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
If we are forced to enter into an insolvent liquidation, any distributions received by shareholders could be viewed as an unlawful payment if it was proved that immediately following the date on which the distribution was made, we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our shareholders. Furthermore, our directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to us or our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing themselves and our company to claims, by paying public shareholders from the Trust Account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. We and our directors and officers who knowingly and willfully authorized or permitted any distribution to be paid out of our share premium account while we were unable to pay our debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business would be guilty of an offence and may be liable to a fine of up to approximately $18,300 and to imprisonment for five years in the Cayman Islands.
We may not hold an annual meeting of shareholders until after the consummation of our Business Combination. Our public shareholders will not have the right to elect directors prior to the consummation of our Business Combination.
In accordance with the NYSE corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE. There is no requirement under the Companies Law for us to hold annual or general meetings to elect directors. Until we hold an annual meeting of shareholders, public shareholders may not be afforded the opportunity to discuss company affairs with management. In addition, as holders of our Class A ordinary shares, our public shareholders will not have the right to vote on the election of directors prior to consummation of our Business Combination.
We have not registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise Warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its Warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such Warrants to expire worthless.
We have not registered the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the Warrant agreement, we have agreed, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of our Business Combination, to use our best efforts to file a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the issuance of such shares and maintain a current prospectus relating to the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants, until the expiration of the Warrants in accordance with the provisions of the Warrant agreement. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their Warrants on a cashless basis. However, no Warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their Warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration is available. Notwithstanding the above, if our Class A ordinary shares are at the time of any exercise of a Warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public Warrants who exercise their Warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the Warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the Warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the Warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such Warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such Warrant and such Warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their Warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A ordinary shares included in the units. If and when the Warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying Class A ordinary shares for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
The grant of registration rights to our Initial Shareholders and their permitted transferees may make it more difficult to complete our Business Combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A ordinary shares.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into at the Close Date, our Initial Shareholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of their founder shares after those shares convert to our Class A ordinary shares at the time of our Business Combination. In addition, our Sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of the Private Placement Warrants and the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants, and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register the resale of such warrants or the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of such warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our Business Combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the shareholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares that is expected when the ordinary shares owned by our Initial Shareholders or their permitted transferees, our private placement warrants or warrants issued in connection working capital loans are registered for resale.
Because we are not limited to a particular industry or any specific target businesses with which to pursue our Business Combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
Although we expect to focus our search for a target business in the technology industry, we may seek to complete a Business Combination with an operating company in any industry or sector. However, we will not, under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, be permitted to effectuate our Business Combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. To the extent we complete our Business Combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any shareholder who chooses to remain a shareholder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Past performance by our management team and their affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the Company.
Information regarding performance by our management team and their affiliates, including Social Capital and Hedosophia, is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team and their affiliates, including Social Capital and Hedosophia, is not a guarantee either (1) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (2) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team or their affiliates, including Social Capital and Hedosophia, or any related investment’s performance as indicative of our future performance of an investment in the company or the returns the company will, or is likely to, generate going forward.
We may seek acquisition opportunities outside the technology industries, which may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider a Business Combination outside the technology industries, which may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise, if a Business Combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our company. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this Annual Report regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors relevant to such acquisition. Accordingly, any shareholder who chooses to remain a shareholder following our Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our Business Combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our Business Combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our Business Combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our Business Combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these criteria and guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective Business Combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of shareholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if shareholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain shareholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain shareholder approval of our Business Combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek acquisition opportunities with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings.
To the extent we complete our Business Combination with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include investing in a business without a proven business model and with limited historical financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our Business Combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, that the price we are paying is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our shareholders will be relying on the judgment of our Board of Directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our Business Combination.
We may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or preferred shares to complete our Business Combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our Business Combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon the conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our Business Combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will authorize the issuance of up to 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and 5,000,000 undesignated preferred shares, par value $0.0001 per share. At December 31, 2017, there were 400,000,000 and 32,750,000 authorized but unissued Class A and Class B ordinary shares available, respectively, for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants but not upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares. Class B ordinary shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein. At December 31, 2017, there were no preferred shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional ordinary shares, and may issue preferred shares, in order to complete our Business Combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our Business Combination. We may also issue Class A ordinary shares upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our Business Combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. However, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide, among other things, that prior to our Business Combination, we may not issue additional ordinary shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the trust account or (2) vote on any Business Combination. The issuance of additional ordinary shares or preferred shares:
•may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering;
•may subordinate the rights of holders of ordinary shares if preferred shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our ordinary shares;
•could cause a change in control if a substantial number of ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and
•may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, ordinary shares and/or warrants.
We may be a passive foreign investment company, or “PFIC,” which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year (or portion thereof) that is included in the holding period of a beneficial owner of our Class A ordinary shares or Warrants who or that is for U.S. federal income tax purposes (i) an individual who is a citizen or resident of the United States, (ii) a corporation (or other entity taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes) organized in or under the laws of the United States, any state thereof or the District of Columbia or (iii) an estate or trust the income of which is includible in gross income for U.S. federal income tax purposes regardless of its source or (iv) a trust if (A) a court within the United States is able to exercise primary supervision over the administration of the trust and one or more U.S. persons have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (B) it has in effect a valid election to be treated as a U.S. person (a “U.S. holder”), such U.S. holder may be subject to certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. Our PFIC status for our current and subsequent taxable years may depend on whether we qualify for the PFIC start-up exception, depending on the particular circumstances, the application of the start-up exception may be subject to uncertainty, and there can be no assurance that we will qualify for the start-up exception. Accordingly, there can be no assurance with respect to our status as a PFIC for our current taxable year or any subsequent taxable year. Our actual PFIC status for any taxable year, however, will not be determinable until after the end of such taxable year. Moreover, if we determine we are a PFIC for any taxable year, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. holder such information as the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) may require, including a PFIC annual information statement, in order to enable the U.S. holder to make and maintain a “qualified electing fund” election, but there can be no assurance that we will timely provide such required information, and such election would likely be unavailable with respect to our Warrants in all cases. We urge U.S. holders to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules to holders of our ordinary shares and Warrants.
We may reincorporate in another jurisdiction in connection with our Business Combination and such reincorporation may result in taxes imposed on shareholders.
We may, in connection with our Business Combination and subject to requisite shareholder approval under the Companies Law, reincorporate in the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located or in another jurisdiction. The transaction may require a shareholder to recognize taxable income in the jurisdiction in which the shareholder is a tax resident or in which its members are resident if it is a tax transparent entity. We do not intend to make any cash distributions to shareholders to pay such taxes. Shareholders may be subject to withholding taxes or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after the reincorporation.
Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific Business Combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our Business Combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account and our Warrants will expire worthless.
We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their departure could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and in particular, Chamath Palihapitiya, Chairman of our board of directors and our Chief Executive Officer, and Ian Osbourne, our President and one of our directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our Business Combination. In addition, our officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential Business Combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. Moreover, certain of our officers and directors have time and attention requirements for investment funds of which affiliates of our Sponsor are the investment managers. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our ability to successfully effect our Business Combination and to be successful thereafter will be totally dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our Business Combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our Business Combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our Business Combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our Business Combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular Business Combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our Business Combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular Business Combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with the Company after the completion of our Business Combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the Business Combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the Business Combination. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our Business Combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential Business Combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our Business Combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our Business Combination.
We may have limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our Business Combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, shareholders who choose to remain shareholders following our Business Combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such shareholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our Business Combination. The departure of a Business Combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our Business Combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our Business Combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our Business Combination.
Our officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a Business Combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our Business Combination. Each of our officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. In particular, all of our executive officers and certain of our directors have fiduciary and contractual duties to either Social Capital or Hedosophia and to certain companies in which either of them has invested, including companies in industries we may target for our Business Combination. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs, which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our Business Combination.
Certain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our Business Combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our Sponsor and officers and directors are, or may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business, and they are not prohibited from sponsoring, or otherwise becoming involved with, other blank check companies prior to us completing our Business Combination. Moreover, certain of our officers and directors have time and attention requirements for investment funds of which affiliates of our Sponsor are the investment managers.
Our officers and directors also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to other entities prior to its presentation to us, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law.
For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance,” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.”
Our officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our Sponsor, our directors or officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.
In particular, affiliates of our Sponsor have invested in industries as diverse as healthcare, education, financial services, artificial intelligence and social media. As a result, there may be substantial overlap between companies that would be a suitable Business Combination for us and companies that would make an attractive target for such other affiliates.
We may engage in a Business Combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our Sponsor, officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, officers and directors. Our officers and directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described at “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.” Such entities may compete with us for Business Combination opportunities. Our Sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our Business Combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no preliminary discussions concerning a Business Combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a Business Combination and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a Business Combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the Business Combination may not be as advantageous to our public shareholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
Since our Initial Shareholders will lose their entire investment in us if our Business Combination is not completed, a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular Business Combination target is appropriate for our Business Combination.
In May 2017, our Sponsor subscribed for an aggregate of 14,375,000 Founder Shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.002 per share (after giving effect to a surrender of shares by our Sponsor for no value on May 18, 2017 and a subsequent share capitalization on August 23, 2017). On September 13, 2017, we effected a pro rata share capitalization resulting in an increase in the total number of Founder Shares outstanding from 14,375,000 to 17,250,000 in order to maintain the ownership of our Initial Shareholders at 20% of our issued and outstanding shares. In addition, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable for one Class A ordinary share, for a purchase price of $12,000,000 in the aggregate or $1.50 per warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a Business Combination. Each Private Placement Warrant may be exercised for one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein.
The Founder Shares are identical to the ordinary shares included in the Units except that: (1) holders of the Founder Shares have the right to vote on the election of directors prior to our Business Combination; (2) the Founder Shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions; (3) our Initial Shareholders have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (A) to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and any Public Shares held by them in connection with the completion of our Business Combination and (B) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to their Founder Shares if we fail to complete our Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date, although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any Public Shares they hold if we fail to complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame; (4) the Founder Shares are automatically convertible into our Class A ordinary shares at the time of our Business Combination, or earlier at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described herein; and (5) the Founder Shares are entitled to registration rights. In addition, our officers and directors have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to any public shares acquired by them, if any.
The personal and financial interests of our Sponsor, officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target Business Combination, completing a Business Combination and influencing the operation of the business following the Business Combination. This risk may become more acute as the 24-month anniversary of the Close Date nears, which is the deadline for the completion of our Business Combination.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a Business Combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our shareholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our Business Combination. We have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the Trust Account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per-share amount available for redemption from the Trust Account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
•default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after a Business Combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
•acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
•our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand;
•our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;
•our inability to pay dividends on our ordinary shares;
•using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
•limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
•increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
•limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
We may be able to complete only one Business Combination with the proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
We may effectuate our Business Combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our Business Combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our Business Combination with only a single entity our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
•solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
•dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our Business Combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete Business Combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our Business Combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our Business Combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our Business Combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a Business Combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our Business Combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential Business Combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a Business Combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our Business Combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our Business Combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will complete such a Business Combination only if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to our Business Combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post Business Combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the Business Combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new ordinary shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new ordinary shares, our shareholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority shareholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s stock than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain our control of the target business.
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete a business combination with which a substantial majority of our shareholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, to be less than $5,000,001 (such that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules), or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our Business Combination. As a result, we may be able to complete our Business Combination even though a substantial majority of our public shareholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek shareholder approval of our Business Combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our Sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all ordinary shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the Business Combination or redeem any shares, all ordinary shares submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate Business Combination.
The exercise price for the Warrants is higher than in many similar blank check company offerings in the past, and, accordingly, the warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
The exercise price of the Warrants is higher than is typical in many similar blank check companies in the past. Historically, the exercise price of a warrant was generally a fraction of the purchase price of the units in the Public Offering. The exercise price for our Warrants is $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. As a result, the Warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
In order to effectuate a Business Combination, blank check companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our Business Combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a Business Combination, blank check companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of Business Combination, increased redemption thresholds and changed industry focus. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or governing instruments in order to effectuate our Business Combination, though amending our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will require at least a special resolution of our shareholders as a matter of Cayman Islands law.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that relate to our pre-Business Combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote in a general meeting, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the trust agreement to facilitate the completion of a Business Combination that some of our shareholders may not support.
Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to a company’s pre-business combination activity, without approval by holders of a certain percentage of the company’s shares. In those companies, amendment of these provisions typically requires approval by holders holding between 90% and 100% of the company’s public shares. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that any of its provisions (other than amendments relating to the appointment of directors, which require the approval of a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting), including those related to pre-Business Combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our Public Offering and the Private Placement Warrants into the Trust Account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances), may be amended if approved by holders of at least two-thirds of our ordinary shares who attend and vote in a general meeting, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our ordinary shares. Our Initial Shareholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our ordinary shares, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association which govern our pre-Business Combination behavior more easily than some other blank check companies, and this may increase our ability to complete our Business Combination with which you do not agree. In certain circumstances, our shareholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our Business Combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular Business Combination.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be sufficient to allow us to complete our Business Combination, we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our Business Combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from shareholders who elect redemption in connection with our Business Combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our Business Combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed Business Combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our Business Combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular Business Combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our Business Combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or shareholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our Business Combination, our public shareholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our Trust Account, and our Warrants will expire worthless.
Our Initial Shareholders will control the election of our board of directors until consummation of our Business Combination and will hold a substantial interest in us. As a result, they will elect all of our directors and may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Upon the closing of our Public Offering, our Initial Shareholders owned 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. In addition, the Founder Shares, all of which are held by our Initial Shareholders, will entitle the holders to elect all of our directors prior to our Business Combination. Holders of our Public Shares will have no right to vote on the election of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. As a result, you will not have any influence over the election of directors prior to our Business Combination.
Neither our Initial Shareholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Annual Report. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, as a result of their substantial ownership in our company, our Initial Shareholders may exert a substantial influence on other actions requiring a shareholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of major corporate transactions. If our Initial Shareholders purchase any additional ordinary shares in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their influence over these actions. Accordingly, our Initial Shareholders will exert significant influence over actions requiring a shareholder vote at least until the completion of our Business Combination.
We may amend the terms of the Warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public Warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding Warrant included in the Public Units.
Our Warrants were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the Warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding Warrant included in the Public Units to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public Warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the Public Warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding Warrant included in the Public Units approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the Warrants with the consent of at least 65% of the then outstanding Warrants included in the Public Units is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the Warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of ordinary shares purchasable upon exercise of a Warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired Warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your Warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding Warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant; provided that the last reported sales price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date we send the notice of redemption to the Warrant holders. If and when the Warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding Warrants could force you to: (1) exercise your Warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so; (2) sell your Warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your Warrants; or (3) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding Warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your Warrants. None of the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees.
Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and make it more difficult to effectuate our Business Combination.
In connection with our Public Offering, we issued Warrants to purchase 23,000,000 Class A ordinary shares and an aggregate of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. Our Initial Shareholders currently hold 17,250,000 Founder Shares. The Founder Shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment as set forth herein. In addition, if our Sponsor, an affiliate of our Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors make any working capital loans, up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. To the extent we issue Class A ordinary shares to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional Class A ordinary shares upon exercise of these warrants or conversion rights could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares and reduce the value of the Class A ordinary shares issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our Warrants and Founder Shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a Business Combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Warrants sold as part of the Units in our Public Offering except that, so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by us; (2) they (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our Sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our Business Combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) they (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights.
Because each unit contains one-third of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.
Each unit contains one-third of one Warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the Units, and only whole Units will trade. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one Class A ordinary share and one whole warrant to purchase one share. We have established the components of the Units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the Warrants upon completion of a Business Combination since the Warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate for a third of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole Warrant to purchase one share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our Units to be worth less than if they included a Warrant to purchase one whole share.
Because we must furnish our shareholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous Business Combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a Business Combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP, or international financing reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame.
We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of any second quarter of a fiscal year, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the end of such fiscal year. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accountant standards used.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our Business Combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2018. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our Business Combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
Because we are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, you may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. Federal courts may be limited.
We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or officers.
Our corporate affairs will be governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law (as the same may be supplemented or amended from time to time) and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are different from what they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a different body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and certain states, such as Delaware, may have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholders derivative action in a Federal court of the United States.
We have been advised by our Cayman Islands legal counsel that the courts of the Cayman Islands are unlikely (1) to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state; and (2) in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, to impose liabilities against us predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or any state, so far as the liabilities imposed by those provisions are penal in nature. In those circumstances, although there is no statutory enforcement in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, the courts of the Cayman Islands will recognize and enforce a foreign money judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits based on the principle that a judgment of a competent foreign court imposes upon the judgment debtor an obligation to pay the sum for which judgment has been given provided certain conditions are met. For a foreign judgment to be enforced in the Cayman Islands, such judgment must be final and conclusive and for a liquidated sum, and must not be in respect of taxes or a fine or penalty, inconsistent with a Cayman Islands judgment in respect of the same matter, impeachable on the grounds of fraud or obtained in a manner, or be of a kind the enforcement of which is, contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands (awards of punitive or multiple damages may well be held to be contrary to public policy). A Cayman Islands Court may stay enforcement proceedings if concurrent proceedings are being brought elsewhere.
As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a United States company.
Provisions in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A ordinary shares and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that shareholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include two-year director terms and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
After our Business Combination, it is possible that a majority of our directors and officers will live outside the United States and all of our assets will be located outside the United States; therefore investors may not be able to enforce federal securities laws or their other legal rights.
It is possible that after our Business Combination, a majority of our directors and officers will reside outside of the United States and all of our assets will be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights, to effect service of process upon all of our directors or officers or to enforce judgments of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors and officers under United States laws.
If we effect our Business Combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If we effect our Business Combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
•costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations and complying with commercial and legal requirements of overseas markets;
•rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
•complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;
•laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
•tariffs and trade barriers;
•regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
•longer payment cycles;
•tax issues, such as tax law changes, including termination or reduction of tax and other incentives that the applicable government provides to domestic companies, and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
•currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
•rates of inflation;
•challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
•cultural and language differences;
•employment regulations;
•crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars;
•deterioration of political relations with the United States;
•obligatory military service by personnel; and
•government appropriation of assets.
We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, our operations might suffer, which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
If our management following our Business Combination is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our Business Combination, any or all of our management could resign from their positions as officers of the Company, and the management of the target business at the time of the Business Combination could remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with U.S. securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
After our Business Combination, substantially all of our assets may be located in a foreign country and substantially all of our revenue will be derived from our operations in such country. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects will be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political, social and government policies, developments and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our Business Combination and if we effect our Business Combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
Exchange rate fluctuations and currency policies may cause a target business’s ability to succeed in the international markets to be diminished.
In the event we acquire a non-U.S. target, all revenues and income would likely be received in a foreign currency, and the dollar equivalent of our net assets and distributions, if any, could be adversely affected by reductions in the value of the local currency. The value of the currencies in our target regions fluctuate and are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. Any change in the relative value of such currency against our reporting currency may affect the attractiveness of any target business or, following consummation of our Business Combination, our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, if a currency appreciates in value against the dollar prior to the consummation of our Business Combination, the cost of a target business as measured in dollars will increase, which may make it less likely that we are able to consummate such transaction.
We may face risks related to companies in the technology industries.
Business combinations with companies in the technology industries entail special considerations and risks. If we are successful in completing a Business Combination with such a target business, we may be subject to, and possibly adversely affected by, the following risks:
•an inability to compete effectively in a highly competitive environment with many incumbents having substantially greater resources;
•an inability to manage rapid change, increasing consumer expectations and growth;
•an inability to build strong brand identity and improve subscriber or customer satisfaction and loyalty;
•a reliance on proprietary technology to provide services and to manage our operations, and the failure of this technology to operate effectively, or our failure to use such technology effectively;
•an inability to deal with our subscribers’ or customers’ privacy concerns;
•an inability to attract and retain subscribers or customers;
•an inability to license or enforce intellectual property rights on which our business may depend;
•any significant disruption in our computer systems or those of third parties that we would utilize in our operations;
•an inability by us, or a refusal by third parties, to license content to us upon acceptable terms;
•potential liability for negligence, copyright, or trademark infringement or other claims based on the nature and content of materials that we may distribute;
•competition for advertising revenue;
•competition for the leisure and entertainment time and discretionary spending of subscribers or customers, which may intensify in part due to advances in technology and changes in consumer expectations and behavior;
•disruption or failure of our networks, systems or technology as a result of computer viruses, “cyber-attacks,” misappropriation of data or other malfeasance, as well as outages, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, accidental releases of information or similar events;
•an inability to obtain necessary hardware, software and operational support; and
•reliance on third-party vendors or service providers.
Any of the foregoing could have an adverse impact on our operations following a Business Combination. However, our efforts in identifying prospective target businesses will not be limited to the technology industries. Accordingly, if we acquire a target business in another industry, these risks we will be subject to risks attendant with the specific industry in which we operate or target business which we acquire, which may or may not be different than those risks listed above.
Item 1B.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
Item 2.
Item 2. Properties.
We currently maintain our offices at 120 Hawthorn Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301. The cost for this space is included in the $10,000 per month fee that we pay an affiliate of our Sponsor for office space, administrative and support services. We consider our current office space, adequate for our current operations.
Item 3.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending or to our knowledge, threatened against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such.
Item 4.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
None.
PART II
Item 5.
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
(a) Market Information
Our Units began trading on NYSE under the symbol “IPOA.U” on September 14, 2017. On September 25, 2017, we announced that holders of our Units could elect to separately trade the Class A ordinary shares and Warrants included in the Units. On September 29, 2017, our Class A ordinary shares and Warrants became available for separate trading on NYSE under the symbols “IPOA” and “IPOA.WS” respectively. Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in our final prospectus dated September 13, 2017 which was filed with the SEC on September 15, 2017. Warrants may only be exercised for a whole number of Class A ordinary shares and will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our Business Combination or 12 months after the Close Date. Our Warrants expire five years after the completion of our Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation as described in “Item 1. Business.”
The following table sets forth, for the calendar quarter indicated, the high and low sales prices per Unit as reported on the NYSE for the period from September 14, 2017 (the first day on which our Units began trading) through December 31, 2017, and our Class A ordinary shares and Warrants for the period from September 29, 2017 (the first day on which our Class A ordinary shares and Warrants were traded separately) through December 31, 2017.
(1) Beginning on September 29, 2017 with respect to IPOA and IPOA.WS.
(b) Holders
At February 13, 2018, there was one holder of record of our Units, one holder of record of our separately traded Class A ordinary shares, one holder of record of our Class B ordinary shares, and two holders of record of our separately traded Warrants.
(c) Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our Class A ordinary shares to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our Business Combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of our Business Combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our Business Combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring stock dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our Business Combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
(d) Performance Graph
The graph below compares the cumulative total return for our Units from September 29, 2017 (the first day on which our Class A ordinary shares began trading) through December 31, 2017 with the comparable cumulative return of three indices: the S&P 500 Index (“S&P 500”), the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (“DJIA”) and the NYSE. The graph assumes $100 invested on September 14, 2017 in each of our Units and the three indices presented, assuming the reinvestment of any dividends.
(e) Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
Unregistered Sales
On May 10, 2017, our Sponsor subscribed for an aggregate of 14,375,000 founder shares, for an aggregate offering price of $25,000 at an average purchase price of approximately $0.002 per share. On May 18, 2017, our Sponsor surrendered 2,875,000 founder shares for no value, and on August 23, 2017 and September 13, 2017, we effected a share capitalization resulting in an increase in the total number of founder shares issued and outstanding by 5,750,000 (from 11,500,000 to 17,250,000). The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that the founder shares would represent 20% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares upon completion of the Public Offering. Such securities were issued in connection with our incorporation pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. Our Sponsor is an accredited investor for purposes of Rule 501 of Regulation D.
Simultaneously with the consummation of the Public Offering on September 18, 2017, we consummated a private placement of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant to our Sponsor, generating total proceeds of $12,000,000. The Private Placement Warrants are the same as the warrants sold in the Public Offering, except that the Private Placement Warrants (i) are not redeemable by the Company, (ii) may be exercised for cash or on a cashless basis, so long as they are held by the Sponsor or any of its permitted transferees, and (iii) are entitled to registration rights (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants). In addition, the Private Placement Warrants and their underlying securities will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the consummation of the Business Combination. Such securities were issued pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. Our Sponsor, as purchaser, is an accredited investor for purposes of Rule 501 of Regulation D.
Use of Proceeds
On September 18, 2017, we consummated our Public Offering of 69,000,000 units (inclusive of 9,000,000 units sold pursuant to the underwriters’ exercising their over-allotment option), with each unit consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one warrant, each whole warrant entitling the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50. No fractional shares will be issued upon exercise of the warrants. Each warrant will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our Business Combination or 12 months from the closing of the Public Offering. However, if we do not complete a Business Combination within the period allotted to complete the Business Combination, the warrants will expire at the end of such period. If we are unable to deliver registered Class A ordinary shares to the holder upon exercise of warrants issued in connection with the 69,000,000 units during the exercise period, there will be no net cash settlement of these warrants and the warrants will expire worthless, unless they may be exercised on a cashless basis in the circumstances described in the warrant agreement. The warrants will expire five years after the completion of our initial Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. Once the warrants issued in connection with the Public Offering become exercisable, we may redeem those outstanding warrants in whole and not in part at a price of $0.01 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption, but if, and only if, the last sale price of our Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.
The units in the Public Offering were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating total gross proceeds of $690,000,000. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as the sole manager. The securities sold in the Public Offering were registered under the Securities Act on registration statements on Form S-1 (No. 333-220130 and 333-220453). The SEC declared the registration statements effective on September 13, 2017.
We paid a total of $10,000,000 in underwriting discounts, and commissions and $145,163 for other costs and expenses related to the Public Offering. The underwriters agreed to defer an additional $24,150,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions, payable upon consummation of the Business Combination. After deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions (excluding the deferred portion of $24,150,000 in underwriting discounts and commissions, which will be released from the Trust Account upon consummation of the Business Combination, if consummated) and the estimated offering expenses, the total net proceeds from our Public Offering and the Private Placement was $691,854,837, of which $690,000,000 (or $10.00 per unit sold in the Public Offering) was placed in the Trust Account.
Item 6.
Item 6. Selected Financial Data.
The following table summarizes selected historical financial data and should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and the notes related thereto which are included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Item 7.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K including, without limitation, statements under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding the Company’s financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this Form 10-K, words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or the Company’s management, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company’s management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this Report. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on May 5, 2017 as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar Business Combination with one or more businesses. We intend to effectuate our Business Combination using cash from the proceeds of the Public Offering, the sale of warrants in a private placement that occurred simultaneously with the consummation of the Public Offering, our shares, debt or a combination of cash, shares and debt as the consideration to be paid in our initial Business Combination.
The issuance of additional shares in a Business Combination:
●may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B ordinary shares resulted in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B ordinary shares;
●may subordinate the rights of holders of ordinary shares if preferred shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our ordinary shares;
●could cause a change of control if a substantial number of our ordinary shares are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;
●may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and
●may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Class A ordinary shares and/or warrants.
Similarly, if we issue debt securities or otherwise incur significant indebtedness, it could result in:
●default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial Business Combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
●acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
●our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
●our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;
●our inability to pay dividends on our ordinary shares;
●using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our ordinary shares if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
●limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
●increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
●limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
We expect to continue to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our acquisition plans. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete a Business Combination will be successful.
Results of Operations
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities from May 5, 2017 (inception) to December 31, 2017 were organizational activities and those necessary to consummate the Public Offering, described below, and identifying a target company for a Business Combination. Following the Public Offering, we do not expect to generate any operating revenues until after the completion of our Business Combination. We expect to generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and marketable securities held after the Public Offering. We expect to incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses.
For the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, we had net income of $1,330,720, which consists of interest income on marketable securities held in the Trust Account $2,082,636, offset by operating costs of $610,631 and an unrealized loss on marketable securities held in our Trust Account $141,285.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
On September 18, 2017, we consummated the Public Offering of 69,000,000 Units, which includes the full exercise by the underwriters’ of their over-allotment option in the amount of 9,000,000 Units, at a price of $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $690,000,000. Simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering, we consummated the sale of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants to our Sponsor at a price of $1.50 per warrant, generating gross proceeds of $12,000,000.
In connection with the Public Offering and the Private Placement, a total of $690,000,000 was placed in the Trust Account. We incurred $34,295,163 in Public Offering related costs, including $10,000,000 of underwriting fees, $24,150,000 of deferred underwriting fees and $145,163 of other costs.
For the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, cash used in operating activities was $652,695, consisting primarily of net income of $1,330,720 and an unrealized loss on marketable securities held in our Trust Account of $141,285, offset by interest earned on cash and marketable securities held in the Trust Account of $2,082,636. Changes in operating assets and liabilities used $42,064 of cash from operating activities.
As of December 31, 2017, we had cash and marketable securities held in the Trust Account of $691,941,351 (including approximately $2,083,000 of interest income, less approximately $141,000 of unrealized losses) consisting of U.S. treasury bills with a maturity of 180 days or less. Interest income on the balance in the Trust Account may be used by us to pay taxes. Through December 31, 2017, we did not withdraw any funds from the interest earned on the Trust Account.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the Trust Account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the Trust Account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and excluding deferred underwriting commissions) to complete our initial Business Combination. To the extent that our ordinary shares or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial Business Combination, the remaining proceeds held in the Trust Account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
As of December 31, 2017, we had cash of $696,382 held outside of the Trust Account. We intend to use the funds held outside the Trust Account primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a Business Combination.
We may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our Business Combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of our Business Combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such Business Combination.
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. In the event that our initial Business Combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our Trust Account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants issued to our Sponsor. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our Trust Account.
If we are unable to complete our Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Account. In addition, following our Business Combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
Off-Balance Sheet Financing Arrangements
We have no obligations, assets or liabilities which would be considered off-balance sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2017. We do not participate in transactions that create relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, often referred to as variable interest entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements. We have not entered into any off-balance sheet financing arrangements, established any special purpose entities, guaranteed any debt or commitments of other entities, or purchased any non-financial assets.
Contractual Obligations
We do not have any long-term debt, capital lease obligations, operating lease obligations or long-term liabilities, other than an agreement to pay an affiliate of our Sponsor a monthly fee of $10,000 for office space, and administrative and support services provided to the Company. We began incurring these fees on September 18, 2017 and will continue to incur these fees monthly until the earlier of the completion of the Business Combination and the Company’s liquidation.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results could materially differ from those estimates. The Company has not identified any critical accounting policies.
Recent accounting pronouncements
Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s condensed financial statements.
Item 7A.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
To date, our efforts have been limited to organizational activities and activities relating to the Public Offering and the identification and evaluation of prospective acquisition targets for a Business Combination. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues. At December 31, 2017, the net proceeds from our Public Offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants held in the Trust Account were comprised entirely of money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest solely in United States Treasuries. Due to the short-term nature of the money market fund’s investments, we do not believe that there will be an associated material exposure to interest rate risk.
At December 31, 2017, $691,941,351 (including accrued interest) was held in the Trust Account for the purposes of consummating a Business Combination. If we complete a Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date, funds in the Trust Account will be used to pay for the Business Combination, redemptions of Class A ordinary shares, if any, deferred underwriting compensation of $24,150,000 and accrued expenses related to the Business Combination. Any funds remaining will be made available to us to provide working capital to finance our operations.
We have not engaged in any hedging activities since our Inception. We do not expect to engage in any hedging activities with respect to the market risk to which we are exposed.
Item 8.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors
of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2017, the related statement of operations, shareholders’ equity and cash flows for the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2017, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audit we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Marcum llp
/s/ Marcum LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2017.
New York, NY
February 13, 2018
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
BALANCE SHEET
DECEMBER 31, 2017
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MAY 5, 2017 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2017
(1)Excludes an aggregate of up to 66,219,742 shares subject to redemption at December 31, 2017.
(2)Net loss per common share - basic and diluted excludes interest income attributable to common stock subject to redemption of $1,863,155 for the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017.
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MAY 5, 2017 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2017
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE PERIOD FROM MAY 5, 2017 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2017
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the financial statements.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
NOTE 1. ORGANIZATION AND PLAN OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. (the “Company”) is a recently incorporated blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (a “Business Combination”).
All activity from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017 related to the Company’s formation, the offering described below and identifying a target company for a Business Combination.
The registration statements for the Company’s initial public offering were declared effective on September 13, 2017. The Company consummated a public offering of 69,000,000 units on September 18, 2017 (the “Public Offering”), including 9,000,000 units subject to the underwriters’ over-allotment option, generating gross proceeds of $690,000,000 and net proceeds of $679,854,837 after deducting $10,145,163 of transaction costs ($24,150,000 of deferred underwriting expenses may be paid upon the completion of a Business Combination), which is discussed in Note 3. The units (“Units”) sold pursuant to the Offering were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, and one-third of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to certain adjustments. In addition, the Company generated proceeds of $12,000,000 from the private placement (the “Private Placement”) of 8,000,000 warrants (“Private Placement Warrants”) at a price of $1.50 per warrant to SCH Sponsor Corp. (the “Sponsor”).
In connection with the closing of the Offering and the Private Placement on September 18, 2017 (the “Closing Date”), an amount of $690,000,000 (or $10.00 per Class A ordinary share sold to the public in the Offering included in the Units (“Public Shares”)) from the sale of the Units and Private Placement Warrants was placed in a trust account (the “Trust Account”). Funds held in the Trust Account are invested only in U.S. “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), having a maturity of 180 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations until the earlier of (i) the consummation of the Company’s initial Business Combination and (ii) the redemption of any Public Shares properly tendered in connection with a shareholder vote to amend the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to redeem 100% of its Public Shares if it does not complete a Business Combination within 24 months from the Closing Date; and (iii) the Company’s failure to consummate a Business Combination within the prescribed time. The remaining net proceeds (not held in the Trust Account) may be used to pay for business, legal and accounting due diligence on prospective acquisitions and continuing general and administrative expenses. Additionally, the interest earned on the Trust Account balance may be released to the Company to pay the Company’s tax obligations. Placing funds in the Trust Account may not protect those funds from third party claims against the Company. Although the Company will seek to have all vendors, service providers, prospective target businesses or other entities it engages, execute agreements with the Company waiving any claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the Trust Account, there is no guarantee that such persons will execute such agreements. The Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to the Company under certain circumstances if and to the extent any claims by such persons reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account below (1) $10.00 per Public Share or (2) such lesser amount per Public Share held in the Trust Account as of the date of the liquidation of the Trust Account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes and less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the Trust Account and except as to any claims under the indemnity of the underwriters of the Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”). The Company has not independently verified whether the Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believes that the Sponsor’s only assets are securities of the Company. Therefore, the Sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations should they arise.
The Company’s management has broad discretion with respect to the specific application of the net proceeds of the Public Offering and Private Placement, although substantially all of the net proceeds are intended to be generally applied toward consummating a Business Combination. The Company’s Units, warrants and Class A ordinary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). Pursuant to the NYSE listing rules, the Company’s initial Business Combination must be with a target business or businesses whose collective fair market value is at least equal to 80% of the balance in the Trust Account (excluding deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the Trust Account) at the time of the execution of a definitive agreement for such Business Combination, although this may entail simultaneous acquisitions of several target businesses. There is no assurance that the Company will be able to effect a Business Combination successfully.
In connection with any proposed initial Business Combination, the Company will either (1) seek shareholder approval of such initial Business Combination at a meeting called for such purpose or (2) provide shareholders with the opportunity to sell their Public Shares to the Company by means of a tender offer, in each case where shareholders may seek to redeem their Public Shares into their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account, less any taxes then due but not yet paid. If the Company seeks shareholder approval of a Business Combination and it does not conduct redemptions in connection with a Business Combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association provides that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its Public Shares with respect to an aggregate of more than 15% of the Public Shares sold in the Public Offering.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
The Company will proceed with a Business Combination only if it has net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon consummation of the Business Combination and, in the case of a shareholder vote, a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company voted are voted in favor of the Business Combination. In connection with any shareholder vote required to approve any Business Combination, the Sponsor has agreed (i) to vote any of its respective ordinary shares in favor of the initial Business Combination and (ii) not to redeem any of its respective ordinary shares in connection therewith.
Holders of warrants sold as part of the Units will not be entitled to vote on the proposed Business Combination and will have no conversion or liquidation rights with respect to their ordinary shares underlying such warrants.
Pursuant to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association, if the Company is unable to complete its initial Business Combination within 24 months from the Closing Date, the Company will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem 100% of the outstanding Public Shares and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of the remaining holders of ordinary shares and the Company’s board of directors, dissolve and liquidate. If the Company is unable to consummate an initial Business Combination within 24 months from the Closing Date and is forced to redeem 100% of the outstanding Public Shares for a pro rata portion of the funds held in the Trust Account, each holder will receive a full pro rata portion of the amount then in the Trust Account, plus any pro rata interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and not released to the Company to pay any of its taxes payable and less up to $100,000 of interest that may be released to the Company to pay dissolution expenses. The Sponsor has entered into a letter agreement with the Company, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to their Founder Shares (as defined in Note 7) if the Company fails to complete a Business Combination within 24 months after the Closing Date. However, if the Sponsor acquires Public Shares after the Public Offering, it will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if the Company fails to complete the Business Combination within 24 months after the Closing Date.
If the Company is unable to complete its initial Business Combination within 24 months from the Closing Date and expends all of the net proceeds of the Public Offering not deposited in the Trust Account, without taking into account any interest earned on the Trust Account, the Company expects that the per-share redemption price for Class A ordinary shares will be $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the Trust Account could, however, become subject to claims of the Company’s creditors that are in preference to the claims of the Company’s shareholders. In addition, if the Company is forced to file a bankruptcy case or an involuntary bankruptcy case is filed against it that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the Trust Account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in its bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of the Company’s shareholders. Therefore, the actual per-share redemption price may be less than $10.00.
NOTE 2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying financial statements are presented in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Emerging Growth Company
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”), as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Company’s financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period.
Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company did not have any cash equivalents as of December 31, 2017.
Cash and Marketable Securities Held in Trust Account
At December 31, 2017, the assets held in the Trust Account were held in cash and U.S. Treasury Bills.
Ordinary Shares Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its ordinary shares subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480 “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Ordinary shares subject to mandatory redemption (if any) are classified as a liability instrument and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable ordinary shares (including ordinary shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, ordinary shares are classified as shareholders’ equity. The Company’s ordinary shares feature certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, at December 31, 2017, ordinary shares subject to possible redemption are presented as temporary equity, outside of the shareholders’ equity section of the Company’s balance sheet.
Offering Costs
Offering costs consist of legal, accounting, underwriting fees and other costs incurred through the balance sheet date that are directly related to the Public Offering. Offering costs amounting to $34,295,163 were charged to shareholders’ equity upon the completion of the Public Offering.
Income Taxes
The Company complies with the accounting and reporting requirements of ASC Topic 740, “Income Taxes,” which requires an asset and liability approach to financial accounting and reporting for income taxes. Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are computed for differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities that will result in future taxable or deductible amounts, based on enacted tax laws and rates applicable to the periods in which the differences are expected to affect taxable income. Valuation allowances are established, when necessary, to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized.
ASC Topic 740 prescribes a recognition threshold and a measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. The Company’s management determined that the Cayman Islands is the Company’s only major tax jurisdiction. The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. As of December 31, 2017, there were no unrecognized tax benefits and no amounts accrued for interest and penalties. The Company is currently not aware of any issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviation from its position over the next twelve months.
The Company may be subject to potential examination by U.S. federal, U.S. states or foreign taxing authorities in the areas of income taxes. These potential examinations may include questioning the timing and amount of deductions, the nexus of income among various tax jurisdictions and compliance with U.S. federal, U.S. state and foreign tax laws. The Company’s management does not expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next twelve months.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
The Company’s tax provision is zero because the Company is organized in the Cayman Islands with no connection to any other taxable jurisdiction. As such, the Company has no deferred tax assets. The Company is considered to be an exempted Cayman Islands company and is presently not subject to income taxes or income tax filing requirements in the Cayman Islands or the United States.
Net Loss per Ordinary Share
The Company complies with accounting and disclosure requirements ASC Topic 260, “Earnings Per Share.” Net loss per ordinary share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding for the period. The Company applies the two-class method in calculating earnings per share. Ordinary shares subject to possible redemption at December 31, 2017, which are not currently redeemable and are not redeemable at fair value, have been excluded from the calculation of basic loss per share since such shares, if redeemed, only participate in their pro rata share of the Trust Account earnings. The Company has not considered the effect of warrants sold in the Public Offering and Private Placement to purchase 31,000,000 Class A ordinary shares in the calculation of diluted loss per share, since the exercise of the warrants is contingent upon the occurrence of future events. As a result, diluted loss per ordinary share is the same as basic loss per ordinary share for the periods.
Reconciliation of Net Loss per Ordinary Share
The Company’s net income is adjusted for the portion of income that is attributable to ordinary shares subject to redemption, as these shares only participate in the income of the Trust Account and not the losses of the Company. Accordingly, basic and diluted loss per ordinary share is calculated as follows:
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentration of credit risk consist of a cash account in a financial institution which, at times may exceed the Federal depository insurance coverage of $250,000. At December 31, 2017, the Company had not experienced losses on this account and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risks on such account.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities, which qualify as financial instruments under ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures” (“ASC 820”), approximates the carrying amounts represented in the accompanying balance sheet, primarily due to their short-term nature.
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
NOTE 3. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING
In its Public Offering, the Company sold 69,000,000 Units at a price of $10.00 per Unit in the Public Offering. Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one warrant (each whole warrant, a “Warrant”). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share. Each Warrant will become exercisable commencing on the later of 30 days after the Company’s completion of an initial Business Combination or 12 months from the Closing Date and expire five years from the completion of a Business Combination. The Company may redeem the outstanding Warrants at a price of $0.01 per Warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption, and only in the event that the last sale price of the Class A ordinary shares is at least $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third day prior to the date on which notice of redemption is given. If the Company redeems the Warrants as described above, it will have the option to require all holders that wish to exercise their Warrants to do so on a “cashless basis.” In accordance with the warrant agreement relating to the Warrants sold in the Public Offering, the Company is required to use its best efforts to file a registration statement covering the issuance of the shares underlying the Warrants within 15 business days after the closing of the Business Combination and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement. No Warrants will be exercisable for cash unless the Company has an effective registration statement covering the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants and a current prospectus relating to such shares. If the issuance of the shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants is not registered under the Securities Act, holders will be permitted to exercise their Warrants on a cashless basis. If the Company is unable to consummate a Business Combination within 24 months from the Closing Date, the Company will redeem 100% of the Public Shares using the funds in the Trust Account as described in Note 1. In such event, the Warrants will expire worthless.
NOTE 4. PRIVATE PLACEMENT
Simultaneously with the Public Offering, the Company’s Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants at $1.50 per warrant (for an aggregate purchase price of $12,000,000) from the Company. All of the proceeds received from these purchases were placed in the Trust Account.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Warrants included in the Units sold in the Public Offering except that the Private Placement Warrants: (i) are not redeemable by the Company, (ii) may be exercised for cash or on a cashless basis, so long as they are held by the Sponsor or any of its permitted transferees and (iii) are entitled to registration rights (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants). Additionally, the purchasers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Private Placement Warrants, including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants (except to certain permitted transferees), until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial Business Combination.
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial Business Combination, the Company’s Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required. In the event that the initial Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from the Trust Account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants.
NOTE 5. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
Promissory Note - Related Party and Advance from Related Party
The Company issued a $300,000 principal amount unsecured promissory note to the Sponsor on May 10, 2017. The note was non-interest bearing and payable on the earlier of (i) December 31, 2017 and (ii) the consummation of the Public Offering. As of December 31, 2017, the Company has repaid the entire note.
A related party advanced an aggregate of $126,378 for costs associated with the formation of the Company and offering costs. The advances are non-interest bearing, unsecured and due on demand. As of December 31, 2017, $126,378 in advances were still outstanding.
Administrative Services Agreement
The Company entered into an agreement whereby, commencing on September 18, 2017 through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or the Company’s liquidation, the Company will pay an affiliate of the Sponsor a monthly fee of $10,000 for office space, administrative and support services. For the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, the Company incurred $35,000 in fees for these services, which is included in accounts payable and accrued expenses in the accompanying balance sheet.
NOTE 6. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
The underwriters were paid a cash underwriting discount of $10,000,000 of the gross proceeds of the Public Offering. In addition, the underwriters are entitled to a deferred fee of three and one-half percent (3.5%) of the gross proceeds of the Public Offering, or $24,150,000, payable upon the closing of a Business Combination from the amounts held in the Trust Account, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement. The underwriters have agreed to waive their right to the deferred underwriting commission held in the Trust Account in the event the Company does not complete a Business Combination.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
The underwriters agreed to reimburse the Company for an amount equal to 10% of the discount paid to the underwriters for financial advisory services provided by Connaught (UK) Limited in connection with the Public Offering, of which $1,000,000 was paid at the closing of the Public Offering and up to $2,415,000 will be payable at the time of the closing of the initial Business Combination.
The underwriters also agreed to reimburse the Company for certain offering expenses. As of December 31, 2017, the amount to be reimbursed from the underwriters amounted to $657,138 and has been recorded as a receivable in the accompanying balance sheet, with a corresponding credit to additional paid in capital.
The Sponsor, the holders of the Private Placement Warrants (or underlying Class A ordinary shares) and the holders of any warrants (or underlying Class A ordinary shares) issued upon conversion of working capital loans made by the Company’s Sponsor, officers, directors or their affiliates, if any such loans are issued, will be entitled to registration rights with respect to their securities pursuant to an agreement dated as of September 13, 2017. The holders of 30% of the registrable securities are entitled to demand that the Company register these securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights on registration statements filed after the Company’s consummation of a Business Combination. However, the registration rights agreement will provide that the Company will not permit any registration statement to become effective until termination of applicable lock-up periods with respect to such securities.
NOTE 7. SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Preferred Shares
The Company is authorized to issue 5,000,000 preferred shares with a par value of $0.0001 per share with such designation, rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by the Company’s board of directors. As of December 31, 2017, there are no preferred shares issued or outstanding.
Ordinary Shares
The Company is authorized to issue 500,000,000 Class A ordinary shares and 50,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, both with a par value of $0.0001 per share.
The Company had entered into a Securities Subscription Agreement, dated as of May 10, 2017 (the “Founder’s Purchase Agreement”), with the Sponsor pursuant to which the Sponsor subscribed for an aggregate of 14,375,000 Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share of the Company, for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On May 18, 2017, the Sponsor surrendered 2,875,000 Class B ordinary shares for no value, and on August 23, 2017 and September 13, 2017, the Company approved share capitalizations resulting in an aggregate of 17,250,000 Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding and held by the Sponsor (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion thereof, the “Founder Shares”), of which 2,250,000 were subject to forfeiture. As a result of the underwriters’ election to fully exercise their over-allotment option on September 14, 2017, no Founder Shares are subject to forfeiture.
Holders of the Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote for each Class A ordinary share; provided that only holders of the Class B ordinary shares have the right to vote on the election of directors prior to the initial Business Combination. At December 31, 2017, there were 2,780,258 Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding (excluding 66,219,742 Class A ordinary shares subject to possible redemption).
The Class B ordinary shares will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares at the time of the initial Business Combination, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional Class A ordinary shares, or equity-linked securities, are issued or deemed issued in excess of the amounts sold in the Public Offering and related to the closing of the initial Business Combination, the ratio at which the Class B ordinary shares shall convert into Class A ordinary shares will be adjusted (unless the holders of a majority of the outstanding Class B ordinary shares agree to waive such anti-dilution adjustment with respect to any such issuance or deemed issuance) so that the number of Class A ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of all Class B ordinary shares will equal, in the aggregate, 20% of the sum of all ordinary shares outstanding upon completion of the Public Offering plus all Class A ordinary shares and equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with the initial Business Combination, excluding any Class A ordinary shares or equity-linked securities issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial Business Combination. Holders of Founder Shares may also elect to convert their Class B ordinary shares into an equal number of Class A ordinary shares. At December 31, 2017, 17,250,000 Class B ordinary shares were issued and outstanding.
SOCIAL CAPITAL HEDOSOPHIA HOLDINGS CORP.
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2017
The holders of the Class B ordinary shares agreed not to transfer such shares until one year after the date of the consummation of an initial Business Combination or earlier if, subsequent to an initial Business Combination, (i) the last reported sales price of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions reorganizations recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the initial Business Combination or (ii) the Company consummates a subsequent liquidation, merger, share exchange or other similar transaction which results in all of the Company’s shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property.
NOTE 8. FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS
The Company follows the guidance in ASC 820 for its financial assets and liabilities that are re-measured and reported at fair value at each reporting period and non-financial assets and liabilities that are re-measured and reported at fair value at least annually.
The fair value of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities reflects management’s estimate of amounts that the Company would have received in connection with the sale of the assets or paid in connection with the transfer of the liabilities in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. In connection with measuring the fair value of its assets and liabilities, the Company seeks to maximize the use of observable inputs (market data obtained from independent sources) and to minimize the use of unobservable inputs (internal assumptions about how market participants would price assets and liabilities). The following fair value hierarchy is used to classify assets and liabilities based on the observable inputs and unobservable inputs used in order to value the assets and liabilities:
Level 1: Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. An active market for an asset or liability is a market in which transactions for the asset or liability occur with sufficient frequency and volume to provide pricing information on an ongoing basis.
Level 2: Observable inputs other than Level 1 inputs. Examples of Level 2 inputs include quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities and quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in markets that are not active.
Level 3: Unobservable inputs based on our assessment of the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability.
The following table presents information about the Company’s assets that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis at December 31, 2017, and indicates the fair value hierarchy of the valuation inputs the Company utilized to determine such fair value:
NOTE 9. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
The Company evaluates subsequent events and transactions that occur after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Based upon this review, the Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
Item 9.
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.
Item 9A.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in company reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
As of December 31, 2017, as required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures. Based upon their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) were effective.
Internal Control over Financial Reporting
This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
During the most recently completed fiscal quarter, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)] under the Exchange Act that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Item 9B.
Item 9B. Other Information.
None.
PART III
Item 10.
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
Our current directors and executive officers are as follows:
Our directors and executive officers are as follows:
Chamath Palihapitiya has been our Chief Executive Officer and the Chairman of our board of directors since May 2017. Mr. Palihapitiya is the founder and current Managing Partner of Social Capital. Prior to founding Social Capital in 2011, Mr. Palihapitiya served as Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, and is recognized as having been a major force in its launch and growth. Mr. Palihapitiya was responsible for overseeing Monetization Products and Facebook Platform, both of which were key factors driving the increase in Facebook’s user base to more than 750 million individuals worldwide. Prior to working for Facebook, Mr. Palihapitiya was a principal at the Mayfield Fund, one of the United States’ oldest venture firms, before which he headed the instant messaging division at AOL. Mr. Palihapitiya graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada with a degree in electrical engineering.
Ian Osborne has been our President and a director since May 2017. Mr. Osborne is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hedosophia, a venture growth firm, which has invested in leading Internet and technology companies since 2012, and has co-invested with the preeminent growth equity and venture capital firms with respect to the firm’s portfolio companies. Mr. Osborne has advised leading Internet and technology companies, their founders and CEOs, since 2009. Mr. Osborne is also the founder and Chairman of Osborne & Partners, a strategic advisory firm, and founder, indirect controlling shareholder and a director of Connaught, a financial advisory firm. Mr. Osborne also served as a Partner and Managing Director at DST Global, a family of funds investing in internet companies, that was established in 2009 and with high profile successes including Alibaba, Airbnb, Facebook, Spotify and Twitter. Mr. Osborne was educated at St Paul’s School, King’s College London, and the London School of Economics.
Philip Deutch has been our Chief Operating Officer since May 2017. Mr. Deutch is Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Social Capital. Social Capital invests in and starts breakthrough companies in areas including healthcare, education, financial services and enterprise. Mr. Deutch is Founder and Managing Partner of NGP Energy Technology Partners (“NGP ETP”), which has been investing in the energy technology sector since 1997. Prior to NGP ETP, Mr. Deutch was Managing Director at Perseus, L.L.C., where he led or co-led the firm’s energy investing activities and was a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to working at Perseus, Mr. Deutch worked at Williams & Connolly and the M&A department at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Deutch is a board member of TPI Composites, Inc., Catapult Energy Services, Oilfield Water Logistics and a number of other private companies. Mr. Deutch holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a BA in Economics from Amherst College, where he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sachin Sood has been our Chief Financial Officer since May 2017. Mr. Sood has been Social Capital’s Chief Compliance Officer since October 2016 and its Vice President of Finance since 2014, where he is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of Social Capital’s investment entities, its affiliated management company and related entities. Prior to joining Social Capital, Mr. Sood was Vice President of Finance at e.ventures from 2012 to October 2014, where he managed the day-to-day operations of all the US entities and certain international entities. Preceding e.ventures, Mr. Sood began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in its Venture Capital practice working with some of the Bay Area’s largest venture capital and private equity funds. Mr. Sood holds a BA in Economics with a minor in Business Management from the University of California, Irvine, and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of California.
Simon Williams has been our General Counsel and Secretary since May 2017. Mr. Williams is Hedosophia’s General Counsel and Chief Administration Officer. Prior to Hedosophia, Mr. Williams was legal counsel at Balderton Capital, the largest Europe focused venture fund. Prior to working at Balderton Capital, Mr. Williams was an associate in the London offices of each of Covington & Burling LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP. Mr. Williams is a solicitor, qualified in England & Wales, having attended Nottingham Law School. Mr. Williams holds an MA and BA from the University of Nottingham.
Anthony Bates has been the Vice Chairman of our board of directors since May 2017. Mr. Bates is a Partner at Social Capital. From June 2014 until December 2016, Mr. Bates served as President of GoPro, Inc., a maker of video and photo capture devices. From June 2013 until March 2014, Mr. Bates was the Executive Vice President, Business Development and Evangelism of Microsoft Corporation, a software company. Mr. Bates was the Chief Executive Officer of Skype Inc., a provider of software applications and related Internet communications products, from October 2010 until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2011, subsequent to which Mr. Bates served as the President of Microsoft’s Skype Division until June 2013. From 1996 to October 2010, Mr. Bates served in various roles at Cisco Systems, Inc., a networking equipment provider, most recently as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business. Mr. Bates currently serves on the board of directors of GoPro, Inc., VMware, Inc. and Ebay, Inc.
Adam Bain has served as our director as of September 2017. Mr. Bain was the Chief Operating Officer of Twitter from September 2015 until November 2016, and President, Global Revenue & Partnerships from 2010 to 2015, where he was responsible for the business lines at the public company, building one of the fastest revenue ramps past $2 billion in history. Mr. Bain oversaw 2,500 employees in 20 countries ranging from Product teams, Business Operations, Business Development and Media Partnerships, Developer Relations, Twitter’s International business, and all of the go-to-market Sales teams for the advertising and data businesses. Previously, Mr. Bain was the President of the Fox Audience Network at Newscorp, responsible for monetizing all of Fox’s digital assets. He started his career running product and engineering teams at Fox Sports and the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Bain earned his BA in English Journalism from Miami University, in Ohio.
Andrea Wong has served as our director as of September 2017. Ms. Wong has served as President, International Production for Sony Pictures Television Inc. and President, International for Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. since September 2011. She previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC from 2007 to April 2010. Ms. Wong also served as Executive Vice President with ABC, Inc., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, from 2003 to 2007. Ms. Wong has served as a director of Liberty Media Corporation since April 2010, as a director of Liberty Interactive Corporation since April 2010, as a director of Hudson's Bay Company since September 2014 and as a director of Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. since August 2017. Ms. Wong holds a BS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jacqueline Reses has served as Square Capital Lead and People Lead of Square, Inc. since October 2015 and February 2016, respectively. From September 2012 to October 2015, Ms. Reses, served as Chief Development Officer of Yahoo! Inc. In this role, she focused on developing partnerships, acquisitions and investments, significant corporate and tax transactions, as well as recruiting, operations and people leadership. Prior to joining Yahoo, Ms. Reses led the U.S. media group as a Partner at Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, a global private equity firm, which she joined in 2001. Ms. Reses previously served on the board of directors of Alibaba Group Holding Limited and is currently on the board of National Public Radio and the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Ms. Reses holds a BS in Economics with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
James Ryans has been a professor of accounting at London Business School since 2016. From July 2012 until May 2016, Dr. Ryans was an accounting instructor at the University of California Berkeley while he undertook doctoral studies. From June 2003 to June 2011, Dr. Ryans served in various senior management roles at Chelsea Rhone LLC and its affiliate HealthCap RRG, a mutual insurer providing commercial liability insurance to the long-term care industry, most recently as Director of Investments. From August 1999 until June 2001, Dr. Ryans was a Consultant and Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche. Dr. Ryans currently serves on the board of Groundspeed Analytics, Inc., an insurance data analytics provider. Dr. Ryans is a CFA charterholder and holds a Ph.D. in business administration (accounting) from the University of California Berkeley, an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, and a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of seven members. Holders of our Founder Shares have the right to elect all of our directors prior to consummation of our Business Combination and holders of our Public Shares will not have the right to vote on the election of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association may only be amended by a special resolution passed by a majority of at least 90% of our ordinary shares voting in a general meeting. The term of office for our directors is two years. Subject to any other special rights applicable to the shareholders, any vacancies on our board of directors may be filled by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present and voting at the meeting of our board or by a majority of the holders of our founder shares.
Our officers are elected by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint persons to the offices set forth in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association as it deems appropriate. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that our officers may consist of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, a President, a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, Vice Presidents, a Secretary, Assistant Secretaries, a Treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has three standing committees: an audit committee; a compensation committee; and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Our audit committee and our compensation committee are composed solely of independent directors.
Audit Committee
Our board has established an audit committee of the board of directors. Audit committee members include Messrs. Bain and Ryans and Ms. Wong. Mr. Ryans serves as chairman of the audit committee.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Mr. Bates qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
•assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent auditor's qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent auditors;
•the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent auditors and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us;
•pre-approving all audit and non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures;
•reviewing and discussing with the independent auditors all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence;
•setting clear hiring policies for employees or former employees of the independent auditors;
•setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
•obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent auditors describing (1) the independent auditor’s internal quality-control procedures and (2) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities, within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues;
•meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent auditor, including reviewing our specific disclosures under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”;
•reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and
•reviewing with management, the independent auditors, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
Compensation Committee
We have established a compensation committee of the board of directors. Compensation committee members include Mr. Bain and Ms. Wong. Mr. Bain serves as chairman of the compensation committee.
We have adopted a compensation committee charter which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
•reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation;
•reviewing and making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive-compensation and equity-based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers;
•reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans;
•implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans;
•assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements;
•approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees;
•producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and
•reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors.
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by NYSE and the SEC.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
We have established a nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. Nominating and corporate governance committee members include Messrs. Bain and Ryans and Ms. Wong. Mr. Bain serves as chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee.
We have adopted a nominating and corporate governance committee charter, which details the purpose and responsibilities of the nominating and corporate governance committee, including:
•identifying, screening and reviewing individuals qualified to serve as directors, consistent with criteria approved by the board, and recommending to the board of directors candidates for nomination for election at the annual meeting of shareholders or to fill vacancies on the board of directors;
•developing and recommending to the board of directors and overseeing implementation of our corporate governance guidelines;
•coordinating and overseeing the annual self-evaluation of the board of directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the company; and
•reviewing on a regular basis our overall corporate governance and recommending improvements as and when necessary.
The charter also provides that the nominating and corporate governance committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of, and terminate, any search firm to be used to identify director candidates, and will be directly responsible for approving the search firm’s fees and other retention terms.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, the board of directors considers educational background, diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our shareholders. Prior to our initial business combination, holders of our public shares will not have the right to recommend director candidates for nomination to our board of directors.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the board of directors or compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.
Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance
Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, requires our officers, directors and persons who beneficially own more than ten percent of our ordinary shares to file reports of ownership and changes in ownership with the SEC. These reporting persons are also required to furnish us with copies of all Section 16(a) forms they file. Based solely upon a review of such Forms, we believe that during the year ended December 31, 2017 there were no delinquent filers.
Code of Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. The Code of Ethics codifies the business and ethical principles that govern all aspects of our business. We have previously filed copies of our form of Code of Ethics, our form of Audit Committee Charter, our form of Compensation Committee Charter and our form of Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Charter as exhibits to our registration statement in connection with our Public Offering. You may review these documents by accessing our public filings at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request to us in writing at 120 Hawthorne Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301 or by telephone at (650) 521-9007.
Conflicts of Interest
Under Cayman Islands law, directors and officers owe the following fiduciary duties:
•duty to act in good faith in what the director or officer believes to be the best interests of the company as a whole;
•duty to exercise powers for the purposes for which those powers were conferred and not for a collateral purpose;
•directors should not improperly fetter the exercise of future discretion;
•duty to exercise powers fairly as between different sections of shareholders;
•duty not to put themselves in a position in which there is a conflict between their duty to the company and their personal interests; and
•duty to exercise independent judgment.
In addition to the above, directors also owe a duty of care which is not fiduciary in nature. This duty has been defined as a requirement to act as a reasonably diligent person having both the general knowledge, skill and experience that may reasonably be expected of a person carrying out the same functions as are carried out by that director in relation to the company and the general knowledge skill and experience which that director has.
As set out above, directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position of conflict and this includes a duty not to engage in self-dealing, or to otherwise benefit as a result of their position. However, in some instances what would otherwise be a breach of this duty can be forgiven and/or authorized in advance by the shareholders provided that there is full disclosure by the directors. This can be done by way of permission granted in the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association or alternatively by shareholder approval at general meetings.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers and directors will materially affect our ability to complete our Business Combination.
Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
•None of our officers or directors is required to commit his or her full time to our affairs and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating his or her time among various business activities
•In the course of their other business activities, our officers and directors may become aware of investment and business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as the other entities with which they are affiliated. Our management may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
•Our Initial Shareholders have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and any Public Shares in connection with the consummation of our Business Combination. Our other directors and officers have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to Public Shares acquired by them (if any) following the Public Offering. Additionally, our Initial Shareholders have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to their Founder Shares if we fail to consummate our Business Combination within 24 months after the closing of the Public Offering. However, if our Initial Shareholders or any of our officers, directors or affiliates acquire Public Shares in or after the Public Offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to such Public Shares if we fail to consummate our Business Combination within the prescribed time frame If we do not complete our Business Combination within such applicable time period, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. With certain limited exceptions, the Founder Shares will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our Initial Shareholders until the earlier of: (i) one year after the completion of our Business Combination; and (ii) the date on which we consummate a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization, or other similar transaction after our Business Combination that results in all of our shareholders having the right to exchange their ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our Business Combination, the Founder Shares will be released from the lock-up. With certain limited exceptions, the Private Placement Warrants and the ordinary shares underlying such warrants, will not be transferable, assignable or salable by our Sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our Business Combination. Due to the affiliation of our officers and certain of our directors with our Sponsor and since our Sponsor directly or indirectly owns approximately 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares and all of the Private Placement Warrants, our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our Business Combination.
•Our officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular Business Combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our Business Combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether to proceed with a particular Business Combination.
•Our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular Business Combination if the retention or resignation of any such key personnel was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our Business Combination.
The conflicts described above may not be resolved in our favor.
Accordingly, as a result of multiple business affiliations, our officers and directors have similar legal obligations relating to presenting business opportunities meeting the above-listed criteria to multiple entities. Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may present a conflict of interest:
Individual
Entity
Entity’s Business
Affiliation
Chamath Palihapitiya
Social Capital (1)
Investment Firm
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ian Osborne
Hedosophia Group Limited (2)
Venture Growth Firm
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Philip Deutch
Social Capital (1)
Investment Firm
Partner and Chief Operating Officer
NGP Energy Technology Partners
Investment Firm
Founder and Managing Partner
Simon Williams
Hedosophia Group Limited (3)
Venture Growth Firm
General Counsel and Chief Administration Officer
Sachin Sood
Social Capital (1)
Investment Firm
Chief Compliance Officer and Vice President of Finance
Anthony Bates
Social Capital (1)
Investment Firm
Partner
GoPro, Inc.
Mountable and Wearable Cameras, Drones and Accessories
Director
VMware, Inc.
Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure
Director
Ebay, Inc.
Commerce
Director
Andrea Wong
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Entertainment
President, International Production for Sony Pictures Television and President, International
Liberty Media Corporation
Owner of Media, Communications and Entertainment Companies
Director
Liberty Interactive Corporation
Owner of Video, Online Commerce and Cable Companies
Director
Hudson's Bay Company
Retail
Director
Hudson Pacific Properties
Real Estate
Director
Jacqueline Reses
Square, Inc.
Commerce
Square Capital Lead and People Lead
James Ryans
London Business School
Education
Professor
(1)Includes The Social+Capital Partnership III, L.P. and certain of its affiliates including affiliated portfolio companies.
(2)Includes certain other affiliates of Hedosophia Group Limited, including Osborne & Partners and Connaught.
(3)Includes certain other affiliates of Hedosophia Group Limited, other than Osborne & Partners and Connaught.
Accordingly, if any of the above executive officers or directors become aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for any of the above entities to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, and only present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Cayman Islands law. We do not believe, however, that any of the foregoing fiduciary duties or contractual obligations will materially affect our ability to complete our Business Combination.
We are not prohibited from pursuing a Business Combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our Business Combination with such a company, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA, or from an independent accounting firm, that such a Business Combination is fair to our Company from a financial point of view.
In addition, our Sponsor or any of its affiliates may make additional investments in the company in connection with the initial business combination, although our Sponsor and its affiliates have no obligation or current intention to do so. If our Sponsor or any of its affiliates elects to make additional investments, such proposed investments could influence our Sponsor’s motivation to complete a Business Combination.
In the event that we submit our Business Combination to our public shareholders for a vote, our Initial Shareholders have agreed, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their Founder Shares (and their permitted transferees will agree) and any Public Shares held by them in favor of our Business Combination. Our directors and officers have entered into letter agreements similar to the one signed by our Initial Shareholders with respect to Public Shares acquired by them, if any.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Cayman Islands law does not limit the extent to which a company’s memorandum and articles of association may provide for indemnification of officers and directors, except to the extent any such provision may be held by the Cayman Islands courts to be contrary to public policy, such as to provide indemnification against willful default, fraud or the consequences of committing a crime. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide for indemnification of our officers and directors to the maximum extent permitted by law, including for any liability incurred in their capacities as such, except through their own actual fraud, willful default or willful neglect.
We have entered into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association. We have purchased a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors.
We believe that these provisions, the insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers or persons controlling us pursuant to the foregoing provisions, we have been informed that in the opinion of the SEC such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is therefore unenforceable.
Item 11.
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
None of our executive officers or directors have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on September 14, 2017 through the earlier of the consummation of our Business Combination and our liquidation, we pay an affiliate of our Sponsor a total of $10,000 per month for office space, administrative and support services. Our Sponsor, officers, directors, or any of their respective affiliates are reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our Sponsor, officers, directors or our or any of their respective affiliates.
After the completion of our Business Combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other compensation from the combined company. All of this compensation will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed Business Combination. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers after the completion of our Business Combination will be determined by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors.
We are not party to any agreements with our executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business and we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our Business Combination should be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any Combination.
Item 12.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.
The following table sets forth information available to us as at February 13, 2018 with respect to our ordinary shares held by:
•each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our outstanding ordinary shares;
•each of our officers and directors that beneficially own ordinary shares; and
•all our officers and directors as a group.
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all ordinary shares beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the Private Placement Warrants as these are not exercisable within 60 days of February 13, 2018
* Less than one percent.
(1) Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following entities or individuals is c/o Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp., 120 Hawthorne Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301.
(2) Interests shown consist solely of founder shares, classified as Class B ordinary shares. Such ordinary shares will convert into Class A ordinary shares on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment, as described in the section entitled “Description of Securities.”
(3) Class A ordinary shareholders and Class B ordinary shareholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by shareholders and vote together as a single class, except as required by law; provided, that holders of our Class B ordinary shares will have the right to elect all of our directors prior to our initial business combination and holders of our Class A ordinary shares will not be entitled to vote on the election of directors during such time.
(4) Messrs. Palihapitiya and Osborne may be deemed to beneficially own shares held by our sponsor by virtue of their shared control over our sponsor. Each of Messrs. Palihapitiya and Osborne disclaims beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares held by our sponsor.
(5) According to the Schedule 13G filed on September 25, 2017, Darsana Capital Partners, LP, Darsana Capital Partners GP LLC, Darsana Master Fund LP, Darsana Capital GP LLC and Anand Desai share voting and dispositive power over the 3,500,000 Class A ordinary shares reported. The business address for each of these shareholders is 40 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, New your 10019.
(6) According to the Schedule 13G filed on September 20, 2017, OZ Management LP, Och-Ziff Holding Corporation, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, Daniel S. Och and OZ Master Fund, Ltd. share voting and dispositive power the 3,500,000 Class A ordinary shares reported. The business address for OZ Management LP, Och-Ziff Holding Corporation, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC and Daniel S. Och is 9 West 57th Street, 39th Floor, New York, New York 10019. The business address of OZ Master Fund, Ltd. is c/o State Street (Cayman) Trust, Limited, P.O. Box 896, Suite 3307, Gardenia Court, 45 Market Street, Camana Bay, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KYI-1103
Our Initial Shareholders beneficially own 20.0% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. In addition, because of its ownership block, our Sponsor may be able to effectively influence the outcome of all other matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including, amendments to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and approval of significant corporate transactions.
Our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant ($12,000,000) in a private placement that occurred simultaneously with the closing of the Public Offering. Each Private Placement Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to certain adjustments as described herein. The purchase price of the Private Placement Warrants was added to the proceeds from the Public Offering and is held in the Trust Account pending our completion of our Business Combination. If we do not complete our Business Combination within 24 months after the Close Date, the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants are subject to the transfer restrictions described below. The Private Placement Warrants will not be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our Sponsor or its permitted transferees. If the Private Placement Warrants are held by holders other than our Sponsor or its permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the Warrants included in the Units. Otherwise, the Private Placement Warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the Warrants being sold as part of the units in this offering, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.
Our Sponsor, officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoter” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Item 13.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
Founder Shares
In May 2017, our sponsor purchased 14,375,000 Founder Shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.002 per share (after giving effect to a surrender of shares by our sponsor for no value on May 18, 2017 and a subsequent share capitalization on August 23, 2017). Our Initial Shareholders will have the right to elect all of our directors prior to our initial business combination. On September 13, 2017, we effected a pro rata share capitalization resulting in an increase in the total number of founder shares outstanding from 14,375,000 to 17,250,000 in order to maintain the ownership of Founder Shares by our Initial Shareholders at 20% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares upon consummation of the Public Offering.
Private Placement Warrants
Simultaneously with the consummation of the Public Offering, the Sponsor purchased 8,000,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $12,000,000 in the aggregate, in a private placement. Each Private Placement Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share for $11.50 per share. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants was placed in the Trust Account. The Private Placement Warrants may not be redeemed by the Company so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees. If the Private Placement Warrants are held by holders other than our Sponsor or its permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold as part of the Public Offering. Our Sponsor, or its permitted transferees, has the option to exercise the private placement warrants on a cashless basis.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Warrants included in the Units sold in the Public Offering except that the Private Placement Warrants: (i) are not redeemable by the Company, (ii) may be exercised for cash or on a cashless basis, so long as they are held by the Sponsor or any of its permitted transferees and (iii) are entitled to registration rights (including the ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants). Additionally, the purchasers have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of the Private Placement Warrants, including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants (except to certain permitted transferees), until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial Business Combination.
Registration Rights
The holders of the Founder Shares, Private Placement Warrants, and Warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans (and any Class A ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants or warrants issued upon conversion of the working capital loans and upon conversion of the Founder Shares) are entitled to registration rights pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on the Close Date requiring us to register such securities for resale (in the case of the Founder Shares, only after conversion to our Class A ordinary shares). The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the completion of our initial business combination and rights to require us to register for resale such securities pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act.
However, the registration rights agreement provides that we will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until termination of the applicable lock-up period, which occurs: (i) in the case of the Founder Shares, on the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our Business Combination or (B) subsequent to our Business Combination, (x) the last reported sale price of the Class A ordinary shares equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our Business Combination, or (y) the date following the completion of our Business Combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, share exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public shareholders having the right to exchange their Class A ordinary shares for cash, securities or other property; and (ii) in the case of the Private Placement Warrants and the respective Class A ordinary shares underlying such warrants, 30 days after the completion of our Business Combination. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Related Party Note and Advances
The Company issued a $300,000 principal amount unsecured promissory note to the Sponsor on May 10, 2017. The note was non-interest bearing and payable on the earlier of (i) December 31, 2017 and (ii) the consummation of the Public Offering. As of December 31, 2017, the Company repaid the outstanding $100,000 loan.
A related party advanced an aggregate of $126,378 for costs associated with the formation of the Company and offering costs. The advances are non-interest bearing, unsecured and due on demand. As of December 31, 2017, $126,378 in advances were still outstanding.
Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our Sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates and will determine which expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on the reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by such persons in connection with activities on our behalf, although no such reimbursements will be made from the proceeds of the Public Offering held in the Trust Account prior to the completion of the Business Combination.
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. In the event that our initial Business Combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our Trust Account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants issued to our Sponsor. We do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our Trust Account.
We are not prohibited from pursuing a Business Combination with a company that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors or making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete a Business Combination with a target that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm, that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
After our Business Combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other compensation from the combined company. All of this compensation will be fully disclosed to shareholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials furnished to our shareholders in connection with a proposed business combination. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers after the completion of our initial business combination will be determined by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors.
Administrative Services Agreement
The Company entered into an agreement whereby, commencing on September 18, 2017 through the earlier of the consummation of a Business Combination or the Company’s liquidation, the Company will pay an affiliate of the Sponsor a monthly fee of $10,000 for office space, administrative and support services. For the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017, the Company incurred $35,000 in fees for these services, which is included in accounts payable and accrued expenses in the accompanying balance sheet.
Director Independence
The rules of the NYSE require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person that, in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, has no material relationship with the listed company (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the company). Our Board of Directors has determined that each of Mr. Bain, Dr. Ryans, Ms. Reses and Ms. Wong is an “independent director” under applicable SEC and NYSE rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Item 14.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
Fees for professional services provided by our independent registered public accounting firm since inception include:
(1)Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings.
(2)Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our year-end financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards.
(3)Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice.
(4)All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services.
Policy on Board Pre-Approval of Audit and Permissible Non-Audit Services of the Independent Auditors
The audit committee is responsible for appointing, setting compensation and overseeing the work of the independent auditors. In recognition of this responsibility, the audit committee shall review and, in its sole discretion, pre-approve all audit and permitted non-audit services to be provided by the independent auditors as provided under the audit committee charter.
PART IV
Item 15.
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
(a) The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K:
Financial Statements: See “Index to Financial Statements” at “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” herein.
(b) Exhibits: The exhibits listed in the accompanying index to exhibits are filed or incorporated by reference as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
No.
Description of Exhibit
3.1 (1)
Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company.
4.4 (1)
Warrant Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent.
10.1 (1)
Letter Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, among the Company, the Sponsor, the Company’s officers and directors and the other individuals party thereto.
10.2 (1)
Investment Management Trust Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as trustee.
10.3 (1)
Registration Rights Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, among the Company, the Sponsor and certain other security holders named therein.
10.4 (1)
Administrative Services Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and The Social+Capital Partnership, LLC.
10.5 (1)
Sponsor Warrants Purchase Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and the Sponsor.
10.6 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Chamath Palihapitiya.
10.7 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Ian Osborne.
10.8 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Philip Deutch.
10.9 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017 between the Company and Sachin Sood.
10.10 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Simon Williams.
10.11 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Anthony Bates.
10.12 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Adam Bain.
10.13 (1)
Indemnity Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, between the Company and Andrea Wong.
10.14*
Indemnity Agreement, dated February 5, 2018, between the Company and Jacqueline Reses.
10.15*
Indemnity Agreement, dated February 5, 2018, between the Company and James Ryans.
31.1*
Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
31.2*
Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
32.1**
Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
32.2**
Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
101.INS*
XBRL Instance Document
101.CAL*
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
101.SCH*
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
101.DEF*
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
101.LAB*
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document
101.PRE*
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
(1)Incorporated by reference to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 18, 2017.
*Filed herewith.
**Furnished herewith.
ITEM 16. Form 10K Summary
None
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp.
Date: February 13, 2018
/s/ Chamath Palihapitiya
Name: Chamath Palihapitiya
Title: Chief Executive Officer
(Principal Executive Officer)
Date: February 13, 2018
/s/ Sachin Sood
Name: Sachin Sood
Title: Chief Financial Officer
(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)
POWER OF ATTORNEY
KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Chamath Palihapitiya and Sachin Sood and each or any one of them, his true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, with full power of substitution and resubstitution, for him and in his name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as he might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact and agents, or any of them, or their or his substitutes or substitute, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Name
Title
Date
/s/ Chamath Palihapitiya
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors
February 13, 2018
Chamath Palihapitiya
/s/ Anthony Bates
Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
February 13, 2018
Anthony Bates
/s/ Ian Osborne
President and Director
February 13, 2018
Ian Osborne
(Principal Executive Officer)
/s/ Philip Deutch
Chief Operating Officer
February 13, 2018
Philip Deutch
(Principal Financial Officer)
/s/ Sachin Sood
Chief Financial Officer
February 13, 2018
Sachin Sood
(Principal Accounting Officer)
/s/ Adam Bain
Director
February 13, 2018
Adam Bain
/s/ Andrea Wong
Director
February 13, 2018
Andrea Wong
/s/ Jacqueline Reses
Director
February 13, 2018
Jacqueline Reses
/s/ James Ryans
Director
February 13, 2018
James Ryans