Shares of Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. rallied 2.6% in premarket trading after the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) announced a merger agreement that will take Boston-based biology building company Ginkgo Bioworks Inc. public at a $15 billion pre-money equity valuation. The deal is expected to provide up to $2.5 billion in cash proceeds. After the deal closes, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2021, Soaring Eagle plans to change its name to Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc., and the stock will list under a new ticker symbol. “The magic of biology is that cells run on digital code similar to a computer, except that instead of 0s and 1s it’s As, Ts, Cs, and Gs,” Ginkgo Chief Executive said Jason Kelly. “Ginkgo’s platform makes it easier to program this code, and we are making this platform available to organizations working to solve our most pressing problems. From mRNA vaccines reaching people’s arms to combating climate change, the opportunity to work with programmed cells has never been more apparent.” Soaring Eagle’s stock, which went public on April 19, fell 1.2% on Monday to close at a fresh low of $9.94, on a day that the Renaissance IPO ETF declined 1.6% and the S&P 500 lost 1.0%.
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