US company poised to hook up with Chinese-backed special purpose acquisition company CITIC Capital Acquisition Corp as it looks to go public
Quanergy Systems Inc, a supplier of self-driving car technology, is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with a Chinese blank-cheque acquisition firm.
Quanergy would be the latest company developing LiDAR technology – which uses laser beams to help generate a three-dimensional map of the road – to turn to a so-called special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) – CITIC Capital Acquisition Corp – to go public.
Others that have done so include Peter Thiel-backed Luminar Technologies Inc and AEye.
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The SPAC deal would value Quanergy at $1.1 billion and could be announced as early as this week, the sources said.
CCAC raised around $240 million in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2020. It is sponsored by CITIC Capital Holdings Limited, which is backed by CITIC Group, China’s largest investment conglomerate.
The company was preparing to file for clearance of the deal with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security panel that scrutinises foreign investment, according to one of the sources.
Quanergy expects CFIUS would greenlight the deal because CITIC would keep its stake in the company below 10%, and Quanergy was not engaged in the recording of any personal driver data, the source added.
OPERATIONAL GROWTH
No Quanergy shareholder would sell shares in the deal. Net cash proceeds held by the combined company were estimated to be about $278 million, according to the sources. They would be used to fund its operational growth and for general corporate purposes.
Quanergy shareholders would own about 72% of the combined company, while SPAC shareholders would own around 20%, with most of the remainder going to outside investors.
Founded in 2012, Quanergy is based in Sunnyvale, California. The company has said it is the only major LiDAR provider to use Optical Phased Array technology, which reduces movable parts and therefore is better for the requirements of the automotive industry.
- Reporting by Reuters
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