WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, March 9, 2026, 09:14 EDT
Aureus Greenway Holdings said on Monday it agreed to buy Autonomous Power, which does business as Powerus, in an all-stock deal designed to take the drone maker public. The combined company will be renamed Powerus Corp, while the Nasdaq-listed golf-course operator has also arranged about $9 million of fresh financing to support the deal.
The timing matters. Drones have become a Pentagon buying priority and are widely used in Ukraine, and the transaction extends Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s growing investments in the sector.
Powerus said South Korea’s KCGI had committed to buy $50 million of its common stock by April 6. Aureus separately said it expected about $9.03 million of gross proceeds from a private placement – a share sale to a small group of investors – that includes Unusual Machines and the Agostinelli Group.
The combined company expects to list on Nasdaq as PUSA after closing, although AGH will remain the ticker until then. The companies are targeting a summer 2026 close, but Aureus said the deal still needs SEC clearance of the share-issuance filing, shareholder votes, Nasdaq approval for the new stock and completion of the financing. Fox is set to become chief executive and chairman, and Powerus will choose all five directors of the post-merger board, the filing showed.
The businesses are very different. Powerus was formed in 2025 and makes heavy-lift drones and autonomous vessel systems, while Aureus owns two Florida golf clubs and posted $3.3 million of revenue in 2024, according to LSEG data.
Brett Velicovich, a Powerus co-founder and former U.S. Army special operations veteran, said the company knew “what works” because its team had operated in combat environments. MarketScreener
Matthew J. Saker, Aureus’s interim chief executive, called autonomous systems “front page news” because of developments in the Middle East. He said Powerus brought managers with experience building public companies and a platform aimed at large-scale demand. MarketScreener
AGH was indicated up 12.8% at $5.505 in premarket trading at 8:46 a.m. EDT. Unusual Machines was up 7.6% ahead of the bell, while larger listed peers AeroVironment and Kratos were also higher, up 4.2% and 1.7%, respectively.
But the structure carries risks. Aureus said former Powerus holders could receive a performance-linked earn-out – extra shares if targets are met – of 42.5 million shares, rising to 50 million if another financing closes before the merger, a setup that could swell dilution. Either side can walk away if the deal is not completed by Dec. 31, 2026, the filing showed.
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