$250 million SPAC eyes e-commerce, transportation

Logistics industry veteran Dick Metzler behind latest transportation special purpose acquisition company

$250 million SPAC sets sights on transportation and logistics industry (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

E-commerce- and transportation-focused special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Ocelot Acquisition Corp. I filed its registration statement Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The blank check company is seeking to raise $250 million through an initial public offering.

The company’s sponsor is listed as an affiliate of Ocelot Capital Management LLC, an Austin, Texas-based family office investment firm. Ocelot has prior experience in the transportation industry.

In 2020, Ocelot invested in Lone Star Overnight, a parcel delivery company with service in the Southwest and in 2019 it made an investment in last-mile provider Scoobeez (OTC: SCBZ). Lone Star Overnight was sold to another Ocelot-owned company, WeDo Logistics, in November. WeDo is also listed as the holding company for Scoobeez, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Scoobeez is still operating today.

The filing says the new entity eyes acquisitions in the “e-commerce, transportation and logistics and logistics technology industries” and notes its management team’s experience in the space as a plus.

Ocelot Acquisition CEO Dick Metzler has 25 years of experience in the logistics industry, including senior roles with FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and DHL (DPW.D.DX). He was the CEO of APL Logistics and the chief commercial officer at Greatwide Logistics. He has been running Lone Star Overnight most recently.

Some of the company’s directors and officers were behind the May IPO of blank check company Collective Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: CGRO), which recently entered a merger agreement with Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli startup that develops software for autonomous vehicles. The $1.4 billion company will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker INVZ.

The Ocelot Acquisition offering consists of 25 million units priced at $10 per with an expected market value of $313 million. Each unit includes one share of common stock and one-half of a warrant with an exercise price of $11.50. The company will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker OACAU.

The SEC filing lists the “most attractive opportunities” as freight brokerage, third-party logistics, transportation management, final mile, cold chain logistics and warehousing.

BMO Capital Markets (NYSE: BMO) and Stifel Financial (NYSE: SF) are listed as joint bookrunners on the deal.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden.

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Todd Maiden

Based in Richmond, VA, Todd is the finance editor at FreightWaves. Prior to joining FreightWaves, he covered the TLs, LTLs, railroads and brokers for RBC Capital Markets and BB&T Capital Markets. Todd began his career in banking and finance before moving over to transportation equity research where he provided stock recommendations for publicly traded transportation companies.