SPAC shareholders approve go-public merger with Lightning eMotors

LOVELAND — Lighting eMotors Inc. is one step closer to becoming a publicly listed company after shareholders in a special purpose acquisition company approved a merger between the two companies.

Approximately 98% of GigCapital 3 Inc. (NYSE: GIIK) shareholders who participated in a special meeting on Wednesday voted to approve the SPAC merging with the Loveland-based maker of non-passenger class electric vehicles, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday morning. 

SPACs are shell companies that are listed on public exchanges and are later merged with companies looking to go public outside of the normal procedures of an initial public offering. That method of taking a private company onto an exchange soared in popularity last year, and Boulder’s SomaLogic Inc. is using the method to go public in a deal that values it as a billion-dollar company.

Once the deal is consummated, Lightning will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ZEV. At the time of the deal’s announcement last December, Lightning eMotors was valued at $823 million.

The company expects to add up to $270 million in cash to its books through the deal, which it plans to use to fuel an audacious growth strategy. The latest filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Lightning expects to go from generating about $9 million in revenue in 2020 to $63 million in 2021 and grow exponentially to $2 billion in sales and a gross margin of 26% by 2025.

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