First Reserve Sustainable Growth Corp. (FRSG) Terminates EO Charging Deal

First Reserve (NASDAQ:FRSG) announced this morning that it has mutually terminated its combination with EV-charging platform EO, citing “market conditions.”

Neither party appears to have been required to pay a break up fee, but they passed the deal’s extended outside date on March 11 without a completion at hand. EO CEO Charlie Jardine said in the press release that the SPAC route was “No longer in the best interests of the business.”

First Reserve’s management said that the market’s turn against “high-growth companies” made the environment particularly challenging. Yesterday’s news of federal rate hikes does not appear to have helped put the deal back on the path.

The SPAC still has plenty of time to complete a deal with First Reserve’s transaction deadline coming on March 8, 2023. It initially IPO’d on that date in 2021 with a focus on combining with an EV company, but the market environment of today may direct it to look further afield.