Fintech Ecosystem Development Corp. (FEXD) Terminates Combination with Rana Financial

Fintech Ecosystem (NASDAQ:FEXD) announced in an 8-K this morning that it has terminated its business combination with financial services provider Rana.

The filing noted that the deal was terminated well before its September 12 outside date because Rana failed to provide audited financial statements to the other parties in a timely manner.

The parties’ original deal was to combine Rana with peer fintech Afinoz, and today’s filing does not clarify whether the Afinoz portion of the transaction is also to be canceled. The deal was originally structured so that Rana and Afinoz would each individually combine with Fintech Ecosystem, so the SPAC could in theory move ahead with a deal for the latter.

Afinoz represented the slightly larger target in terms of aggregate value as it was set to receive $5 million in cash consideration and 11,500,000 in shares. Rana, meanwhile, was to receive $7.8 million in cash 7,020,000 in shares, or about 35% less value at $10 per share.

A pivot now could also make sense for Fintech Ecosystem’s new road ahead. The SPAC has already used up its two automatic three-month extensions, but in April it secured the ability to further extend this up to 12 months in one-month increments in exchange for contributions of the lesser of $110,000 or $0.055 per share per month.

Gaining this flexibility through an extension vote resulted in 65% redemptions, however, leaving Fintech Ecosystem with about $41.6 million remaining in its trust. That is still plenty to meet the compensation requirements for its combination with Afinoz.

But, if it is interested in switching out Rana for different peer to tack on, adjust to a new Afinoz-only strategy or come up with a different deal altogether, now would be the time while it still has time on its clock.