East Stone Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:ESCC) announced this afternoon that it has once again secured another $200 million PIPE commitment for its business combination with EV-maker ICONIQ.
This marks ESCC’s fourth PIPE round. As a refresher, ESCC started off by bringing in an estimated $33.5 million into the deal through its current trust and originally supplemented this with a $200 million PIPE at $10.26 per share from an unnamed investor. Subsequently in June, a second investor subscribed for another $200 million on the same terms. Then, again in August, a third investor subscribed for an additional $200 million. Today’s $200 million commitment will follow the same terms as the previously announced PIPEs.
The SPAC, however, disclosed in today’s 8-K that it has mutually terminated two of those four PIPE subscriptions. East Stone and the PIPE investor mutually terminated the $200 million subscription from April that was disclosed at deal announcement. The parties stated that the termination was necessary due to timing considerations for regulatory approvals needed by the investor to satisfy its closing obligations.
The $200 million PIPE from August was also terminated as the investor is considering alternative forms of investment into the public company. The parties are continuing to discuss potential alternative forms of partnership.
Today’s additional capital brings East Stone’s total PIPE to $400 million, including the deduction of the two terminations. The purpose of the additional PIPE is to raise capital for use by the combined company following the closing of the business combination.
East Stone must have at least $5,000,001 in net tangible assets in order to close the deal.
The SPAC initially announced the $2.5 billion combination with ICONIQ on April 18. The Chinese ICONIQ electric car brand is now headquartered in Dubai, with four vehicle models under development.
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