Novo Tellus Spac makes trading debut at $5, unchanged from IPO price

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Novo Tellus Alpha Acquisition (NTAA) made its trading debut at $5 on the Singapore Exchange's mainboard on Thursday (Jan 27), unchanged from its initial public offering (IPO) price.

At 9.13am, the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) was trading six cents, or 1.2 per cent, lower at $4.94, with about 380,000 units changing hands.

The Spac announced on Wednesday that its public tranche of 500,000 units was 7.6 times subscribed while its international placement tranche of 9.5 million units was 3.1 times subscribed. Overall, the offering was 3.4 times subscribed.

About 13 cornerstone investors had also subscribed to 16 million units. The two largest cornerstone investors, Affin Hwang Asset Management and Temasek-owned Venezio Investments, had subscribed for a total of 4.3 million units.

Each of the initial public offering (IPO) units consists of one Class A share of NTAA, and half a public warrant. A whole public warrant entitles the holder to subscribe for one Class A share at the price of $5.75 apiece. Holders of these Class A shares will be able to redeem their shares for a pro-rata portion of the Spac's account in escrow at the business combination vote.

The gross proceeds of $150 million (excluding the over-allotment option) will primarily be used for the consummation of the initial business combination, the payment of deferred underwriting commissions, and payment to independent shareholders who have properly elected to redeem their Class A shares.

NTAA's listing comes on the heels of two other Spacs. Units of Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation opened at $5.25 on Jan 20 while Pegasus Asia made its debut at $5.01 on its first day of trading.

Correction note: An earlier version of this story stated that 380 million shares changed hands at 9.13 am. This has been corrected.