Taipei, Sept. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's electric smart scooter maker Gogoro Inc. plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the United States in the first quarter of 2022 through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Poema Global Holdings Corp., Gogoro founder and chief executive Horace Luke announced Thursday.
Luke said the two companies have reached a merger deal which values Gogoro at US$2.35 billion (NT$65 billion) and the combined company will trade under the ticker symbol GGR.
The Poema-Gogoro merger is expected to add US$550 million to Gogoro's proceeds, including an oversubscribed private investment in public equity (PIPE) of over US$250 million and US$345 million held in trust by Poema Global, Gogoro said in a statement.
The PIPE investors include strategic partners like Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn Technology Group, and GoTo Group, an Indonesian tech giant created through the merger of Gojek and Tokopedia; and new and existing investors like Generation Investment Management, Taiwan's National Development Fund, Temasek and Dr. Samuel Yin of Ruentex Group, Gogoro's founding investor, according to the statement.
The proceeds will be used to fund Gorgoro's expansion into international markets as well as for research and development into battery-swapping tech ecosystems.
Gogoro's smart scooter global sales reached an average of 63 million units per year and it has about 500 million smart scooter riders around the world. For its global expansion into new markets, the company chose to draw support from the equity market by launching an initial public offering (IPO) through a merger with the SPAC firm, according to Luke.
A SPAC, also known as a "blank check" company, is a company created specifically to raise money from the market through an IPO offering to buy other companies or assets within a limited period of time, usually 18-24 months.
Gogoro, founded in 2011, is a designer and manufacturer of smart electric scooters as well as battery swapping infrastructure.
In June 2021, the company announced a strategic partnership with iPhone supplier Foxconn Technology Group to accelerate the expansion of its smart scooter manufacturing and battery swapping network.
