Everest Consolidator Acquisition Corp., the wealth management–focused special purpose acquisition company launched by Adam Dooley in 2021, has passed its Feb. 28 deadline to strike a deal. The SPAC’s board of directors has approved a three-month extension to get a deal done to May 28, 2023, the first of two three-month extensions it may be allowed.
The company’s sponsor, Everest Consolidator Sponsor, deposited an aggregate of $1.725 million into its trust account to enable the extension. The company also issued 1.15 million private placement warrants, at a rate of $1.50 each, to the sponsor with the same terms as those issued in connection with the closing of the IPO.
The SPAC’s shareholders will not be allowed to vote on or redeem their shares in connection with the extension.
Everest Consolidator Acquisition started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2021 under the ticker symbol MNTN.U, and closed its initial public offering at a price of $10 per unit, raising a total of $172.5 million.
Dooley, the founder and CEO of private equity firm Belay International and former head of wealth management at MetLife Europe, is leading the SPAC, with the goal of investing in independent financial advisory firms and wealthtech companies.
Adam Dooley
At the time of the IPO, Dooley said he was not looking for companies with owners looking to cash out and leave the business; on the contrary, he’s targeting owners and managers who want financing to grow an existing business.
“Even though acquisition is in the name, this is very much a platform and a tool for the CEOs and founders of these leading-edge businesses to accelerate their growth,” Dooley said in a November 2021 interview with WealthManagement.com. “It's not a private equity takeover. Our intention is to leverage the team we assembled to take a board seat and help these CEOs and founders scale their companies and develop these new business models.”
Overall, the SPAC market had a rough 2022, with many deals simply collapsing. But some SPACs are succeeding in the wealth management space.
After a series of delays, New York–based RIA Tiedemann Group and London-based wealth management and investment firm Alvarium Investments merged via Cartesian Growth Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, earlier this year.
In January, Kingswood Acquisition Corp. (KWAC), the SPAC sponsored by the major shareholders in British wealth management firm Kingswood Group and a sister company to Kingswood U.S., filed its S-4 with the SEC, giving investors a glimpse at the firm's revenue and profit and an indication that the deal is close. That would allow broker/dealer aggregator Wentworth Management Services, which owns four independent b/ds, to go public. It's expected to close sometime between now and mid-May 2023.
