Yahoo Finance Altman-Backed SPAC That’s Targeting Nuclear Firm Has Surged 22%
(Bloomberg) -- Investors have piled into the blank-check firm backed by Sam Altman and Michael Klein that’s taking a developer of advanced nuclear systems public, making it the top performing SPAC on the market.
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The 22% rally over the past two weeks has pushed AltC Acquisition Corp. to trade at the largest premium to its underlying value of special-purpose acquisition companies with deals lined up, SPAC Research data compiled by Bloomberg show. The blank-check firm is working to take Oklo Inc. public in a deal that values the company at about $850 million.
AltC shares were trading as high as $13.70 each on Thursday, marking a record. AltC’s gains have accelerated in recent days after the SPAC filed updated statements with US regulators, and Oklo executives have been promoting the company on a podcast and at conferences including South By Southwest in Austin.
At current levels, the stock is valued at a 27% premium to the $10.39 investors would get if they redeemed ahead of a July deadline to complete the merger. Most blank check firms trade near their redemption value as investors are increasingly opting to cash in their stakes to pull money from lackluster deals.
High-Profile Figures
Altman and Klein are both high-profile figures in the SPAC world and beyond. In addition to his role as chief executive officer of AltC, Altman is an investor and board member of Oklo, and has recused himself from both entities’ boards on decisions related to the merger, the filings show. He’s best known as co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI. Klein is a former Citigroup Inc. banker and a SPAC veteran who has taken several companies public including electric vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc.
The SPAC had a little more than 40% of its 50 million shares redeemed for cash back in October when investors approved a deadline extension that would give the sponsors more time to complete the deal.
AltC has updated its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission several times, most recently on April 2 when it disclosed Oklo’s pact with data center real estate investment trust Equinix Inc. The pair signed a letter of intent that gives Equinix the option to purchase power produced by Oklo, with Equinix already making a $25 million prepayment.
Diamondback Energy Inc., the largest independent producer headquartered in Texas’s Permian Basin, has signed a nonbinding letter of intent with Oklo to deploy small reactors for some of its future power needs, according to the US oil company’s CEO.
Oklo is developing next-generation fission reactors to produce clean energy at a global scale, according to its website. Altman invested in Oklo in 2015 and became chairman, believing it is “the best positioned player to pursue commercialization of advanced fission energy solutions,” according to a July press release.
SPACs have mostly fallen out of favor after a boom in 2020 and 2021 went bust, with dozens of companies filing for bankruptcy as others were acquired at fire-sale prices. More than one-fifth of the nearly 500 SPAC deals that have closed since 2019 are trading below $1 each, a greater than 90% plunge.
Read More: SEC Imposes New Rules on Blank-Check Deals as SPACs Fizzle
--With assistance from Gillian Tan.
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