LanzaTech shares tumble on US listing debut

Auckland-founded cleantech firm LanzaTech has had a rocky start to public life with its shares tumbling following its merger with AMCI Acquisition Corp.

The stock listed on Friday (US time), opened at US$7.99 and reached an early high of US$8.75 before falling to close its first day at US$7.30, down 24 per cent on the pre-merger close of US$9.94. At one stage the stock reached a low of US$6.85.

LanzaTech listed on the Nasdaq after closing its merger deal with AMCI, a special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that valued LanzaTech at an estimated US$1.8 billion. The Illinois-based firm provides carbon capture and transformation technology that helps businesses convert waste carbon into products such as sustainable fuels, fabrics and packaging. The company spun out its sustainable aviation fuel unit, LanzaJet, in 2020.

LanzaTech’s investors include early backer Sir Stephen Tindall who retains a stake through his K1W1 fund, Rocket Lab investor Khosla Ventures and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

LanzaTech founder Dr Sean Simpson. Photo / File

The latter has a 12 per cent stake which it bought for US$87 million (the bulk of it via the fund’s participation in a 2014 capital raise, with a small top-up in 2020).

LanzaTech began in New Zealand in 2005 and uses microbial technology that converts industrial pollution into fuel.

After a successful trial creating ethanol at New Zealand’s Glenbrook steel mill in 2008, LanzaTech demonstrated the technology using live emissions from a steel mill in China in 2008.

The Auckland startup received more than $14m in grants from various Crown agencies before American venture capital company Khosla took majority control in early 2014 and it decamped to the US state of Illinois - where the local government was dangling tax credits.

Last October, LanzaTech announced that Brookfield Renewable, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, had agreed to invest US$500m in the development of commercial-scale plants utilising LanzaTech’s technology.