Company: HVIIR
Filing Date: 2025-01-15
Form Type: S-1/A
Source: 0001493152-25-002259
Chunk: 21

Company: Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII
Filing Date: 2025-01-15
Form: S-1/A
Chunk 21
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 acquisition targets.

Investment Strategy

Our investment strategy is directed at industrial technology and energy transition targets of $500 million or greater in expected aggregate enterprise value and is informed and validated by our research and analysis and complemented by what we believe are favorable market conditions for the SPAC asset class.

The competitive landscape for the SPAC asset class has improved meaningfully in recent years given the overall decline in the number of active SPACs from nearly 600 in 2021 to less than 100 today with expected further contraction to fewer than 50 estimated active SPACs in 2025, according to Santander. In addition, according to Dealogic, the number of companies seeking a public listing currently stands at approximately 250 while the number of companies that have filed an S-1 confidentially are estimated by knowledgeable market participants to be two or three times that number. This backlog presents a compelling universe of potential target opportunities for us. We know from experience that several acquisition targets of prior Hennessy Capital SPACs opted to pursue a business combination with a SPAC to achieve a public listing after encountering significant delays and challenges in a traditional underwritten IPO process. Bolstering this target universe is significant “pent-up” demand generated by portfolio companies of private equity and venture capital firms, as such firms have experienced record “holding period” levels in recent years and are under considerable pressure to return capital to their limited partners and investors via sales or other liquidity events (such as IPOs) of their portfolio companies. Our team has successfully partnered with private equity firms twice previously with Blue Bird (Hennessy I) and NRC Group (Hennessy III) to unlock value and accelerate liquidity for the private equity owners of these two companies.

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Source: Santander

| (1) | Represents                                                                                                
 cash in trust from SPACs with greater than $100 million initial public offerings, per latest SEC filings. |
| (2) | Santander                                                                                                 
 estimate.                                                                                                 |

Source: Pitchbook

| (1) | Median                                                                                                                            
 hold times for active US-based venture capital-backed private companies with greater than $1.0 billion valuation as of the end of 
 each period. Hold times are calculated from the first venture capital round.                                                      |

| 9 |

We believe there are highly favorable catalysts at work in the United States that are supportive of our industrial technology and energy transition investment themes. First, the COVID-19 pandemic created well-publicized and long-lasting disruptions to supply chains across