Manufacturing-focused SPAC Navigation Capital Acquisition VIII withdraws $150 million IPO

Navigation Capital Acquisition VIII, a blank check company formed by Navigation Capital targeting niche manufacturing, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Thursday. It had filed in June 2021 to raise $150 million by offering 15 million units at a price of $10, with each unit containing one share of common stock and one-third of a warrant.

The company was set to be led by CEO and Director Lonnie Johnson, President of Johnson Research and Development and CEO of Johnson Battery Technology, CFO Matthew Phelan, a VP at Navigation Capital, and Chairman Robert Willis, co-founder and Managing Partner of Navigation Capital. The company had planned to target niche manufacturing businesses that provide a platform for add-on acquisitions.

Three other Navigation Capital-backed SPACs filed in June (NCAU.RC, NCAUB.RC, and NCAUD.RC), two of which also withdrew their IPO plans on Thursday. The firm has sponsored multiple blank check companies, including Pensare Acquisition, which completed its acquisition of Computex Technology Solutions in April 2020 to form American Virtual Cloud Technologies (Nasdaq: AVCT).

The Atlanta, GA-based company was founded in 2021 and planned to list on the NYSE, although it never selected a ticker (RC ticker: NCAUC.RC). Wells Fargo Securities and Mizuho Investors were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.