Matthew Proud's SPAC terminates deal to take delivery firm UniUni public

TORONTO — Matthew Proud's special purpose acquisition company has terminated its agreement to merge with last-mile delivery firm UniUni, citing a breach of financial terms.

MAK Acquisition Corp., a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed SPAC, delivered a formal notice of termination to UniUni, also known as Uni Express Inc., on Tuesday.

MAK had warned last month it could pull out of the deal, stating UniUni failed to operate "within certain specific parameters," including limiting its pretax loss to a defined maximum cumulative amount.

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"UniUni remains focused on serving our customers," the Richmond, B.C.-based company said in an emailed statement Tuesday, adding it is "moving forward with the funding round from within our existing shareholder base to pursue our growth opportunities, and we value the continued confidence in our future."

The company said last month it had entered a non-binding term sheet for a new private funding round led by an existing investor to support its continued growth.

MAK said it will renew its search for a new acquisition target, seeking "niche-market businesses providing critical solutions, with strong revenue retention and diversified customer bases."

Matthew Proud, chief executive officer of MAK, is the former CEO of Dye & Durham Ltd. and has separately led successful activist campaigns against publicly traded Canadian technology companies Calian Group Ltd., Information Services Corp., and his former employer.

The proposed deal, announced five months ago, would have valued the combined entity at more than US$1 billion through a reverse takeover by UniUni.

UniUni, led by CEO Peter Lu, operates a low-cost, last-mile delivery service that focuses on high-volume, low-margin Asian e-commerce merchants Shein, Temu and TikTok.

According to a prospectus filed in June, UniUni generated US$679.4 million of revenue in 2025, up from US$294.5 million in 2024.

Revenue in the first quarter of 2026 was US$191.5 million, up 74 percent year-over-year, and the company said it expected to generate US$1.1 billion in revenue in 2026.

That makes UniUni one of Canada's largest technology or technology-enabled private companies by revenue.

It ranked as the fifth-fastest growing tech company in Canada in last year's Deloitte Fast 50 list.

However, the company is also deeply unprofitable, losing US$74.7 million in 2024, US$118 million in 2025 and another US$98.8 million in the first quarter of 2026.

In materials circulated to investors earlier this year, UniUni stated that it expected to become profitable this year and generate US$125 million in pretax profits in 2027.

The company said this is because of a growing share of its business coming from higher-margin North American shippers, plus gains from cost efficiencies and higher volumes.

The company delivered 265 million parcels in the 12 months ended March 31.

MAK went public last year, raising $100 million in its initial public offering.

MAK investors that don't want to support whatever deal it consummates can redeem their units, and all will be fully refunded if the company can't consummate a combination with another company by April, 2027.

The cash raised by MAK has been held in trust and whatever isn't redeemed would go to the coffers of the combined company if a deal were to proceed.

Alongside the merger, the parties had also conditionally raised US$100 million in an offering known as a private investment in public equity, which would only have proceeded if the deal closed.

With files from The Globe and Mail