Three New York law firms now say they are considering class action lawsuits against the shell company that Rocket Lab will merge with to complete its US$4.5 billion listing on United States Nasdaq exchange.
Rocket Lab spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said the litigation threats, which do not target Rocket Lab itself, were “par for the course” in the US and would not delay its initial public offering (IPO) which is set to turn more than 100 of the company’s mostly young employees into millionaires on paper.
Law firms Monteverde & Associates and Rigrodsky Law last week joined Halper Sadeh in saying they were looking into whether shell company Vector Acquisition Corporation might have breached its “fiduciary duties” in regard to its plan to merge with Rocket Lab.
The three law firms, all of which specialise in such corporate class action lawsuits, have invited investors who held shares in Vector Acquisition to register their interest in being represented by them on a “no win, no fee” basis.
Monteverde indicated its concern was over whether the transaction was “properly valued”.
Morgan said the activity was “very standard” in the US for all such special purpose share market transactions and would not delay Rocket Lab’s listing, which remained on track to be completed by the end of September.
Assuming there are no hiccups, the IPO will see Peter Beck retain at least a 12.2 per cent stake in Rocket Lab, worth about US$545 million (NZ$771m) based on its expected market capitalisation.
The deal ascribes an enterprise value – excluding cash and debt – of US$4.1b to Rocket Lab, which will raise US$467m by issuing new shares to investors at US$10 each.
Morgan said almost 400 of the company’s staff, which numbered at 592 at the end of March, stood to benefit from having participated in its staff share plan.
That could potentially turn just over 100 of them into millionaires, she said.
Some of them look set to do better.
Rocket Lab is reserving 59,875,000 shares worth about US$599m for its equity incentive programme, which averages out at about US$1m per employee.
