eCombustible Terminates Deal with Benessere (BENE)

Benessere (NYSE:BENE) announced in an 8-K this morning that its merger target eCombustible has terminated the pair’s combination agreement.

This comes as Benessere has just a few weeks until its November 7, 2022 transaction deadline and it has seen 39.8% of shares redeemed through two previous extensions. According to the filing, Benessere was informed eCombustible was terminating the agreement on October 8, which was both nine days ago and one day past the deal’s outside date.

It originally announced the combination with hydrogen fuel producer eCombustible on November 24, but the SPAC’s team has also been busy with its other deal as Chairman and CEO Patrick Orlando serves in the same role for Digital World (NASDAQ:DWAC). Digital World has a pending combination with Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which has seen a great deal of complications and is itself in the midst of a limbo over its extension deadline.

Orlando’s first SPAC, Yunhong International, became the first SPAC to liquidate in 2021 despite having secured an extension soon before it did so. But, this also occurred after Digital World’s announcement with TMTG, which was trading hot and likely requiring a great deal of bandwidth with PIPE negotiations ongoing.

As it happens, those PIPE talks are continuing to this day and with them a variety of other distractions. Benessere noted in the same filing that Board member Joseph Porello would also resign but that this “was not the result of any disagreement with Benessere’s operations, policies or practices.”

Porello, who runs a legal practice in Florida aimed at serving physicians and high-net-worth individuals, was appointed to the SPAC’s Board in November 2021 to replace one of two directors that resigned at that time.