Fuel cell-truck startup Hyzon Motors Inc. agreed to a merger with blank-check company Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the two combined at more than $2 billion.
The transaction will generate about $626 million of gross proceeds, including $400 million from participants in a private investment in public equity including BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Management & Research Co. and Wellington Management, according to a statement. It’s expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
“Our differentiators are the legacy technology we already have, and leveraging it for this application,” Hyzon CEO Craig Knight said in an interview. “Over the next two years we will demonstrate vehicle operations that can better diesel.”
Bloomberg News previously reported that Hyzon was in talks to merge with Decarbonization Plus, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that raised about $226 million in an initial public offering in October. It is backed by private equity firm Riverstone Holdings.
Decarbonization Plus shares closed Tuesday's trading down 9.7 percent to $16.04.
“It was very clear to us from the very first conversation this was a company that has differentiated technology and extremely advanced commercial relationships,” Decarbonization Plus Chairman Robert Tichio, who is also a partner at Riverstone, said in an interview.