Zanite Acquisition Corp. confirmed that it's in talks to possibly merge with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer's Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions in a $2 billion deal.
Cleveland-based Zanite (Nasdaq: ZNTEU) was formed last year and raised more than $200 million as a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that's targeting buying companies in the aviation, aerospace and defense industries.
Thursday night, it confirmed that it's in talks to merge with Eve Urban Air Mobility, which makes flying taxis, but added in a statement that "there can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be entered into or that the proposed transaction will be consummated."
Bloomberg reported about the possible $2 billion deal, adding that Zanite co-founder Kenneth Ricci's Halo Aviation, which he purchased last month, made a deal last week to buy 200 of Eve’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Ricci's Directional Aviation, OneSky Flight, and Flexjet are all based at Cuyahoga County Airport outside of Cleveland.
Steven Rosen, co-founder and co-CEO of Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Beachwood, is the other co-founder of Zanite.
Eve said it is an independent company formed by Embraer S.A. to accelerate urban air mobility development around the world.
