Global Partner Acquisition Corp. II (GPAC) Transfers Sponsor Control
Global Partner Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:GPAC) announced in an 8-K this morning that it has transferred control of its sponsor to affiliates of New York-based private equity firm Antarctica Capital Partners.
Antarctica Capital’s new appointees will take the reins with a tighter budget and schedule than their predecessors, however. Because, Global Partner II also disclosed in the filing the results from its vote to extend its transaction deadline from January 14 to April 14.
About 86.9% of its shares were redeemed in connection with the vote, leaving the SPAC with about $39.9 million remaining in its trust. It contributed $450,000 to trust for this vote to extend the initial 3-months, and the new management team will be able to push the deadline further down the road in one-month increments up to nine times in return for $150,000 contributions.
Endurance Global Partner is funding the transfer by providing $3 million in cash in exchange for undisclosed equity interest. This cash is to be deposited in the trust account and up to $1.75 million of this amount may be converted into warrants of the company at $1.50 per warrant under terms identical to existing private placement warrants.
The SPAC will now be led by CEO and Chairman Chandra R. Patel, who has served as a managing partner at Antarctica Capital since 2010, raising its first real estate fund. He also has SPAC experience, chairing Endurance Acquisition Corp. through its combination with satellite company SatixFy.
Stepping in as president is Richard Davis who worked with Patel as Endurance’s CEO and brings a long line of experience in the space industry. New CTO Graeme Shaw also served in the same role with Endurance and has long consulted companies on satellite design alongside Davis.
New CFO Jarett Goldman is the only of the group without direct space industry ties, as the Antarctica director has focused on business development within the firms investment strategies around real assets.
The management changes give a pretty clear hint that the team will be looking skyward for a deal although he current market conditions have been generally unkind to space de-SPACs. But, several are experiencing a rebound thus far in 2023, such as Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) which is up 42.3% on the year.