Kingswood (NASDAQ:KWAC) announced this morning that it has entered into a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to combine with broker dealer service platform Wentworth ahead of an extension vote.
Wentworth describes itself as a “special purpose vehicle to acquire and hold interests in broker dealers” with a long-hold strategy meant to capture economies of scale to serve financial institutions and advisors. It currently has about 1,500 advisors on its network with $20 billion in assets under management.
Their approach is to allow smaller broker dealer shops options for exiting or recapitalizing their businesses while bringing them into Wentworth’s wider enterprise software network. This, in turn gives smaller firms access to retail capital markets and alternative investment products not normally available to wire-house advisors.
Little else is disclosed about Wentworth either in the parties’ press release or Wentworth’s website, and the two sides could walk away with nothing further being signed. In fact, because Kingswood has an extension vote set for five days from now on May 18, this news is a “teaser” in the classic sense. Additionally, because this deal is not at the “definitive agreement” stage, just a non-binding LOI, we at SPACInsider, do not considered this deal “announced”. As such, it will remain in the “Searching” category.
Nonetheless, the press release notes that the parties aim to sign a definitive agreement before the end of the quarter with a closing expected in the third quarter of 2022.
Kingswood likely hopes that the prospect of a specific deal will keep a few more shareholders around at it’s vote to at least see and hear more. The SPAC does not intend to make an additional contribution to its trust so news such as this is usually dropped to create interest in an environment of high redemptions.
Overall, SPACs that are searching or working on a still-pending business combination have seen an average of 47.4% of shares redeemed at extension votes since the start of the year. For now, Kingswood is trading even with its pro-rata trust value of $10.25.
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