January 31, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Agrinam Acquisition Corporation (Agrinam) will be seeking out prospective qualified acquisitions after filing a preliminary prospectus on January 21, 2022 with the securities regulatory authorities in every province in Canada (except Quebec) for a $150 million IPO. However, if the greenshoe option (an over allotment option) is fully exercised, proceeds could total as much as $172.5 million.

Agrinam Investments – a limited liability company formed by Mexico-based Demeter Capital and Maquia Capital – is the sponsor of the newly organized SPAC incorporated in the Province of British Columbia.

Both Maquia and Demeter are founded by agribusiness entrepreneurs, investment bankers, consultants, and investors with the common goal of strengthening North America’s agribusiness sector. Maquia Capital’s advisory unit is the largest corporate governance advisory firm in Mexico, having advised more than 100 agribusiness companies, including 65 of the top 100 such companies in the country. Also based in Mexico, Demeter Capital is a growth equity fund that has invested more than $300 million across more than 40 agribusiness projects throughout the country via several funds. 

Agrinam has been formed with the purpose of either directly or indirectly acquiring one or more business assets through a merger, amalgamation, arrangement, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination.

To accomplish this, Agrinam intends to leverage its robust network to identify attractive opportunities, ideally found within one or more companies operating in the North American agribusiness sphere. Prime candidates would be functioning in the primary sector with a focus on Superfoods or speciality products grown in greenhouses, or the value-added sector with a focus on wines and spirits produced in new regions that offer a differentiation to traditionally produced rivals.

No matter the company, Agrinam intends to target companies that integrate ESG practices and technologies into their production methods for the efficient use of resources and stewardship of the environment. These initiatives would include recycling of resources through circular economy concepts to reuse inputs and reduce or avoid pollution and environmental degradation.

Tied to these goals, the strategy is to capitalize upon the entrepreneurial expertise, strong finance and advisory abilities, and industry and investment backgrounds of the directors and officers of the corporation, led by Agrinam CEO Agustin Tristan Aldave, to both identify a qualified acquisition and execute the processes involved with its onboarding. 

It seemed as if 2021 was “The Year of the SPAC”.  One such successful deal featured by GAI News in the wine sector occurred in April 2021 when Wasatch invested $100 million in Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp (BCAC), a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) that went on to acquire Vintage Wine Estates (VWE) – one of the fastest growing U.S. wine producers with wineries throughout Napa, Sonoma, California’s Central Coast, Oregon, and the State of Washington, and which recently expanded eastward through an acquisition in Ohio. 

At the time, VWE stated that the capital gained through this investment would support its acquisition strategy. Having already successfully acquired 20 wineries over the past 10 years, VWE believes that the conditions present in the  U.S. wine industry make it an increasingly positive opportunity for synergistic acquisitions.

Additional high-profile SPAC mergers highlighted recently include one announced in November 2020 by Massachusetts-based natural Order Acquisition, which filed paperwork outlining its intention to raise $287.5 million for the purpose of acquiring a plant-based food or alternative protein company. And in February 2021, AppHarvest merged with Novus Capital at a combined valuation of $1 billion.

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com. 

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.