Sio Silica To Merge With Pyrophyte Acquisition
Sio Silica Corporation, a Canadian high-purity quartz silica producer, and Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp. (PYHT), a special purpose acquisition company, announced on Monday that they have signed a merger deal thereby forming a listed company, Sio Silica Inc.
Feisal Somji, CEO of Sio, said: “The combination of being fully funded and fully permitted is expected to fuel the next phase of our expansion in high-purity quartz silica extraction and processing. We believe that our combination with Pyrophyte will allow us to scale our production to meet strong customer demand and expand our high-purity quartz silica products to a wide range of applications.”
The combined firm reflects an implied enterprise value of $708 million and equity value of $758 million, around 80 percent discount to the net present value described above and includes approximately $150 million of gross capital including equity, debt, royalties and Sio’s cash on hand, and additional $10 million expected flow-through equity from a variety of institutional and individual accredited investors.
Post transaction, such proceeds are expected to be used to fully fund the construction of the first phase of Sio’s extraction and processing facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Upon the closing, the combined company, Sio Silica Incorporated, and its common shares and warrants are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the tickers “SIOS” and “SIOS WS,” respectively.
Sio has around 15.2 billion tons of in situ high-purity silica including an estimated approximately 146 million tons of measured and indicated resource, and an estimated around 345 million tons of inferred resource.
High-purity quartz silica currently represents a $30 billion total addressable market by 2030 for photovoltaics, solar panels, semiconductors, and batteries.
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