Trump-linked SPAC surges as fraud settlement lifts hopes for deal completion

(Reuters) – Shares of Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) surged 20% in premarket trading on Friday as a settlement with U.S. securities regulator over fraud charges cleared some of the uncertainty over the blank-check firm’s merger with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s media and tech company.

The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which in October 2021 agreed to take Truth Social-parent Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) public, agreed to pay $18 million in fine to settle charges that it had made “material misrepresentations” to investors if it closes the merger.

“It was weighing on shares and this gives investors hope that a deal could be completed,” said Dennis Dick, a trader and equity market structure analyst at Triple D Trading.

If the deal consummates, TMTG will have more than $1 billion of cash in its reach from the SPAC’s institutional investors.

The move comes after a regulatory filing earlier this month showed that DWAC had reached a non-binding agreement with SEC staff over a probe into its deal to take TMTG public.

Earlier, the SPAC had extended the deadline to acquire TMTG by three months to Sept. 8 and named interim boss Eric Swider as its chief executive officer.

Trump founded Truth Social months after he was permanently suspended on Twitter and Meta Platforms’ Facebook (NASDAQ:) and has since amassed more than 5.5 million followers on his conservative social media platform.