PALOMA ACQUISITION CORP I

As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 30, 2026.

Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM****S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

535 Fifth Avenue, 4th** Floor**

New York, New York 10017

Tel.: (929) 828-7221

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Anna Nahajski-Staples

535 Fifth Avenue, 4th** Floor**

New York, New York 10017

Tel.: (929) 828-7221

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.☐

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED January 30, 2026

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

$150,000,000

15,000,000 Units

Paloma Acquisition Corp I is a newly organized blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, amalgamation, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target. While we may pursue an initial business combination in any business or industry, we expect to focus on a target in industries that complement our management team’s background, and to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify and acquire a business, focusing on opportunities and companies in the minerals sector with a focus on gold and silver in the United States, but also including critical minerals in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one Class A ordinary share, par value $0.0001 and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Accordingly, unless you purchase two public units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, terms and limitations as described herein. The warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, and will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation of the company, as described in this prospectus. Subject to the terms and conditions described in this prospectus, we may redeem the warrants for cash once the warrants become exercisable. The underwriters have a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 2,250,000 additional public units to cover over-allotments, if any.

We will provide our public shareholders with theopportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A ordinary shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in our trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (net of amounts withdrawn or eligible to be withdrawn to pay for our taxes (which shall exclude the Excise Tax (as defined below) if any is imposed on us)), divided by the number of then-issued and outstanding public shares, subject to applicable law and limitations and on the conditions described herein. As further described in this prospectus, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association will provide that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), will be restricted from redeeming its public shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the public shares sold in this offering, without our prior consent. If we do not consummate an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or our board of directors approves an earlier liquidation, we will redeem 100% of the public shares for cash, subject to applicable law and certain conditions as described herein. We may seek shareholder approval to amend our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association to extend the date by which we must consummate our initial business combination. If we seek shareholder approval for an extension, and the related amendments are approved by the shareholders, holders of our public shares will be offered an opportunity to redeem their shares upon the implementation by the directors of any such amendment. Redemption rights may also be available to shareholders in certain other circumstances as described herein and in our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.

Our sponsor, Paloma Capital Group LLC, has agreed to purchase an aggregate of 350,000 private placement units (or up to 372,500 private placement units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), at a price of $10.00 per unit, for an aggregate purchase price of $3,500,000 (or up to $3,725,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full) and the underwriters have agreed to purchase an aggregate of 150,000 private placement units (or up to 172,500 private placement units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), at a price of $10.00 per unit, for an aggregate purchase price of $1,500,000 (or up to $1,725,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full), in each case in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering. We refer to these units throughout this prospectus as the private placement units. Each private placement warrant, upon aggregation of the fractional private placement warrants contained in each private placement unit, is exercisable to purchase one whole Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, terms and limitations as described herein. The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold in this offering, subject to certain limited exceptions, as described in this prospectus. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us. Each private placement share included in each private placement unit will not have any redemption rights or be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account if we fail to consummate an initial business combination. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the private placement units will be placed in the trust account described below. The private placement units purchased by the underwriters are deemed underwriters’ compensation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) pursuant to Rules 5110(e)(1) and (e)(2) of the FINRA Manual.

Further, our sponsor currently owns 3,725,000 of our Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (up to 562,500 of which are subject to forfeiture), which will automatically convert into Class A ordinary shares concurrently with or immediately following the consummation of our initial business combination or earlier at the option of the holder on a one-for-one basis (such Class A ordinary share delivered upon conversion will not have any redemption rights or be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account if we fail to consummate an initial business combination), subject to adjustment as described herein. Prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B ordinary shares (i) will be entitled to vote on the appointment and removal of directors or (ii) will be entitled to vote to transfer the Company by way of continuation to a jurisdiction outside the Cayman Islands (including any special resolution required to amend the constitutional documents of the Company or to adopt new constitutional documents of the Company, in each case, as a result of the Company approving a transfer by way of continuation in a jurisdiction outside the Cayman Islands). The founder shares held by our sponsor were purchased for $25,000 or approximately $0.006 per share, which, as further described in this prospectus, may result in material dilution to public holders when converted into Class A ordinary shares or if the anti-dilution provision of the founder shares results in the issuance of Class A ordinary shares on a greater than one-to-one basis (for more information on dilution, also see the section entitled “Dilution*”*in this prospectus). As further described under “Offering — Other Considerations and Conflicts of Interest — Compensation of Sponsor, Sponsor’s Affiliates and Directors and Officers,” we expect to make certain payments and reimbursements, or pay certain fees, to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, including but not limited to the payment of $10,000 per month to our sponsor for office space, secretarial and administrative services. Our sponsor may also, but is not obligated to, enter into certain arrangements with us to finance transaction costs in connection with an initial business combination, including up to $1,500,000 of loans convertible into private placement units at a price of $10.00 per private placement unit at the option of the lender. Our sponsor may also receive approximately $10,000 per month pursuant to a revenue share agreement with Efficiency, pursuant to which Efficiency has agreed to remit to our sponsor, rather than retain, any fees, commissions or other compensation that Efficiency may receive from the asset manager of the trust account, or such asset manager’s affiliates, in connection with Efficiency’s referral of such asset manager to provide services to us. No funds held in our trust account will be remitted to our sponsor pursuant to the revenue share agreement.

As more fully discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled “Management — Conflicts of Interest,” our officers and directors currently have certain relevant fiduciary duties or contractual obligations that may take priority over their duties to us and there may be a conflict of interest in our director’s and officer’s determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs and to which entity a particular business opportunity is presented. We may also decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor or our officers or directors, or our directors, officers, sponsor and their affiliates may sponsor or become affiliated with entities that have a similar activity than ours. Further, our officers and directors have indirect economic interests in us and/or our sponsor and a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination since our sponsor, officers and directors may lose their entire investment in us if an initial business combination is not completed. As a result, there may be actual or potential material conflicts of interest between our sponsor and its affiliates on the one hand, and purchasers in this offering on the other hand. For more information, also see “Summary — Other Considerations and Conflicts of Interest,” “Risk Factors — Risks Relating to our Sponsor and Management Team” and**“**Principal Shareholders.”

The following table illustrates the difference between the public offering price per unit and our net tangible book value per share (“NTBV”), as adjusted to give effect to this offering and assuming the redemption of our public shares included in the public units offered hereby at varying levels in the scenarios in which the over-allotment option is not exercised and exercised in full. See section entitled “Dilution*”* for more information.

Currently, there is no public market for our units, Class A ordinary shares or warrants. We intend to apply to have our units listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “PALOU.” We expect that the Class A ordinary shares and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on Nasdaq under the symbols “PALO” and “PALOW,” respectively, on the 52 nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such date is not a business day, the following business day) unless the representative of the underwriters permit earlier separate trading and we have satisfied certain conditions.

We are an “emerging growth company” and “smaller reporting company” under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 49 for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities. Investors will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings.

Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

No offer or invitation, whether directly or indirectly, may be made to the public in the Cayman Islands to subscribe for our securities.

Of the proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement units described in this prospectus, $150,000,000, or $172,500,000 if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.00 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a trust account located in the United States with Lucky Lucko, Inc. d/b/a Efficiency acting as trustee.

The underwriters are offering the units for sale on a firm commitment basis. The underwriters expect to deliver the units to the purchasers on or about [●], 2026.

Sole Book-Running Manager

Jefferies

, 2026