China's Bestpath to go public in US via $1.2 billion SPAC deal

(Reuters) - Chinese tech firm Bestpath said on Monday it had agreed to go public in the United States through a merger with a blank-check vehicle in a deal with an equity value of about $1.2 billion.

Founded in 2019, Bestpath is a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle company and has a Shanghai-based R&D facility to advance growth of these vehicles.

The current shareholders of Bestpath will retain a majority of the outstanding shares of the combined entity, and proceeds from the deal are expected to be utilized for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), once Wall Street's hottest trend when they peaked during 2020 and early 2021, currently find themselves facing regulatory hurdles and investor distrust amid volatile capital markets and poor share performance of popular firms.

After the deal closes, the combined company, 'Bestpath Group Limited' expects to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Shailesh Kuber)