Verdant Earth Technologies abandons blank-check merger

Australian biomass technologies firm Verdant Earth Technologies Limited and the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) it had agreed to merge with to go public in London have mutually decided to end discussions on the contemplated tie-up.

The negative outcome is due to the current market conditions, the size of the potential transaction and uncertainty over project approval timing, blank-check company Alteration Earth PLC (LON:ALTE) noted in a statement released on Monday.

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Verdant and ALTE announced the signing of a non-binding agreement on a potential GBP-125-million (USD 158.2m/EUR 147.5m) all-stock deal a year ago.

Founded in 2018, Verdant is a renewable energy asset owner, operator and developer targeting bioenergy, battery energy storage, hydrogen and hydropower, among other technologies. It launched its first project in 2018 with the acquisition of the cooal-fired Redbank Power Station which will be converted to run on renewable biomass.

Moving forward, ALTE said it will seek an alternative transaction with a company active in a different industry, with non-binding agreements already being negotiated.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.266/EUR 1.180)