What happened
As a merger vote approaches, shares of Forum Merger II (FMCI), the company that hopes to take meatless packaged-foods producer Tattooed Chef public in a reverse-merger IPO, are taking off themselves. In early afternoon trading on Monday, shares of Forum Merger II are up a strong 16.6% as of 12:15 p.m. EDT.
Image source: The Tattooed Chef.
So what
The rally began last week. On Thursday, Sept. 24, Forum Merger postponed the deadline for shareholder voting on its merger with Tattooed Chef. With the clock ticking down on its goal of collecting a 65% supermajority, Forum noted that although 99% of votes counted so far were in the affirmative, only 61% of all votes that are going to be cast had yet come in "aye." Accordingly, the company decided to give stragglers some time to catch up and get the merger finalized, and that ignited a 13% stock rally on Friday, which is nearly as big as the one Forum is enjoying today.
Now what
Forum is now permitting shareholders to keep on voting up through a special meeting to be held on Wednesday. Assuming that's enough time to get past the 65% threshold, Forum will proceed with its acquisition on the new planned date, Oct. 30.
Given that this delay has the expressed purpose of ensuring the merger goes through (and helping Forum shareholders lock in their 120% gain), investors are interpreting this as good news, and bidding up the stock accordingly.
