Artius Acquisition in an 8-K filing today said it has entered into a backstop agreement with affiliates of Apollo Capital Management, which will purchase up to 3 million Artius shares at $10 each. The closing of the share purchase under the agreement is expected to occur with the closing of Artius’s merger with carbon-negative alternative plastics manufacturer Origin Materials.
A shareholder vote on the merger is set for June 23.
Terms call for Origin to receive $925 million in cash and stock. The transaction consists of Artius’ $725 million of cash held in trust, assuming no redemptions, and an oversubscribed $200 million fully committed PIPE at $10 per share, including investments from Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical and AECI, as well as certain funds and accounts managed by Sylebra Capital, Senator Investment Group, Electron Capital Partners, BNP Paribas AM Energy Transition Fund and affiliates of Apollo.
The transaction is subject to a minimum cash balance of $525 million in Artius at closing after any redemptions.
Origin extracts chemicals from plants to manufacture an environmentally friendly material used as an alternative to plastic.
Pending shareholder approval, the company would have an estimated equity value of approximately $1.8 billion and list on the Nasdaq under ORGN. Read more.
