SPAC-squared is Wall Street’s latest wheeze

JUST when you think you’ve seen it all in SPAC-land, along comes a money-losing company that only recently went public via a blank-cheque firm announcing a merger with a second special-purpose acquisition company to save its skin. SPAC-squared, if you like.

Wejo Group Ltd, a British connected-vehicle data company, became a public company in November 2021 after combining with Virtuoso Acquisition Corp, a SPAC. On Tuesday (Jan10), Wejo said it plans to merge with another blank-cheque firm, TKB Critical Technologies I, to secure up to US$100 million in cash.

While this isn’t the first time a SPAC has announced a deal with an already public company, such transactions are unusual. Typically, these listed cash shells are used to bring private companies onto the stock exchange, circumventing the regular initial public offering process.