Hunter Maritime Acquisition

The SPAC's mandate, defined in its 2016 SEC filings, was to acquire one or more businesses involved in the ownership, operation, or management of ocean-going vessels. The focus was explicitly on the maritime sector, and the management team was prohibited from pursuing targets outside of this industry without shareholder approval.

Hunter Maritime required shareholder approval in late 2018 to extend its deadline, indicating it had not identified a suitable target within the initial two-year window. The SPAC structure imposes fixed timelines, and matching a liquid trust account with a suitable privately held shipping asset — an industry where deal cycles are long and valuations asset-heavy — proved unworkable within the allotted period.

Hudson Dryden served as Chairman of the board. Dryden brought experience from the shipping finance sector. The rest of the team was small, typical of a blank-check company with no operating assets, drawing from financial services and maritime backgrounds.

Hunter Maritime raised $150 million in its November 2016 initial public offering on the Nasdaq. The proceeds were placed in a trust account, to be released only upon completion of a qualifying acquisition, or returned to public shareholders upon the trust's liquidation.

Because no business combination was completed by the final extended deadline in 2019, the trust was liquidated. Public shareholders received their pro-rata share of the trust account, approximately $10.00 per share, and the SPAC's securities were delisted and ceased trading.