A US$1 billion SPAC or special acquisition company deal involving car giants Volkswagen Group (XETRA:VOW) (VW) and Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA, EPA:STLA) and miner Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) has collapsed after an agreement could not be reached over a revision of the terms
ACG, a SPAC set up by the trio to buy two nickel and copper mines in Brazil from Appian Capital, said in a statement that despite its best efforts revisions to the acquisition agreement have not been agreed and the deal terminated.
Glencore was to invest US$100 million into the SPAC, with Stellantis and mining investment fund La Mancha Resource Capital providing an equal amount.
VW subsidiary PowerCo was expected to make a US$100 million nickel prepayment as part of the deal.
Under the planned structure, the group would own 51% of the business but, according to the reports, there was no appetite for the additional equity raise planned to fund the remainder of the consideration following a 37% slide in the price of nickel this year.
One of the cornerstone investors also wanted to negotiate the price, said Reuters, but Appian Capital stuck to what was agreed originally.
ACG would have been the first mining SPAC listing in London.