Taiwan E-Scooter Firm Gogoro Speeding Ahead With $2.35bn SPAC deal

Taiwan electric scooter maker Gogoro revealed on Thursday that it will go public through a merger with a blank-cheque company in a deal that sets its enterprise value at $2.35 billion.

Gogoro, which is partly backed by Singapore state investor Temasek and has been pushing to expand overseas, will merge with Poema Global Holdings Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and list on Nasdaq.

“The Nasdaq will validate further and give the publicity and stage that Gogoro needs in order to perform and also to be recognised as a global company with global resources,” founder and CEO Horace Luke said. “It’s going to be a really amazing ride for Gogoro.”

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The Taipei-based company, which is known for its battery distribution network for riders, has in recent years launched scooter-sharing services in Europe and battery sharing infrastructure in Japan.

It also unveiled plans this year to enter the Indian and Chinese markets via tie-ups with Hero MotoCorp, Dachangjiang Group, and Yadea Group Holdings.

In June, Gogoro formed a strategic partnership with Taiwan’s Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, to work together in areas from batteries to manufacturing.

While Gogoro is the fastest-growing and largest electric scooter maker in Taiwan, it continues to trail major players such as Kymco and Sanyang Motor in the market, which is dominated by lower-priced petrol scooters despite government subsidies for electric vehicles, industry data shows.

COMBINED COMPANY

As part of the SPAC deal, Gogoro’s shareholders, including Temasek and Japan’s Sumitomo, will convert all their holdings and own a majority of the outstanding shares of the combined company, chief financial officer Bruce Aitken said.

The deal is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, he added.

SPACs such as Poema Global raise money through their IPOs to buy private companies and take them public. Poema Global raised $345 million in its IPO in January.