DJ ESS Shares Jump on Debut After SPAC Combination Closes
By Robb M. Stewart
ESS Inc.'s shares rallied on their first day of trading in the wake of the combination of the U.S. maker of batteries and utility-scale energy storage applications and listed special-purpose acquisition company ACON S2 Acquisition Corp.
In morning trading Tuesday, the stock was 60% higher at $16.68.
Over the weekend, the companies said they had closed their deal to create a New York Stock Exchange-listed storage company. The combination provided $308 million in cash for the new company, including a private investment led by Fidelity Management & Research Co., Koch Industries, Tortoise Capital Advisors, SB Energy Global Holdings Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, and others.
Pangaea Ventures Ltd. led ESS's series A financing round in 2015 with a valuation of less than $10 million, and followed with support for several subsequent rounds of financing along with investors.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 12, 2021 10:24 ET (14:24 GMT)
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