A blank-cheque venture has taken aboard MidOcean Marine partners Volckert van Reesema and Pace Ralli to help it find a merger candidate in the energy transition sector.
Van Reesema is principal of shipowner MidOcean, founded by his father, Nickel van Reesema. Ralli is chief executive of Oaktree Capital Management-backed LNG bunkering venture Clean Marine Energy, as well as California hydrogen ferry project Switch Maritime, both affiliated with MidOcean.
The two are co-founders of MidOcean Wind, which aims to build wind farm vessels for the US-flag market.
They join a 14-member advisory board to help Clean Earth Acquisitions find a clean-energy funding candidate to bring to the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Clean Earth is targeting a $200m fund raise, or $230m with overallotments, and a Nasdaq stock listing. The goal of the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) is a decarbonisation-related tie-up with a combined enterprise value of $800m to $1.5bn.
Anchor investor Antara Capital plus management-related parties would own up to 7.7% of shares following a successful offering, and a sponsor entity controlled by chief financial officer Martha Ross would hold 22.5%.
Chief executive will be Aaron Ratner, who is president of Cross River Infrastructure Partners, which promotes ventures in carbon capture and other energy-transition areas. Executive chairman will be Nicholas Parker, chairman of Parker Venture Management, a private Canadian investment company in "clean and smart technologies", according to financial filings.
The company reserves the right to propose any target company to an investor vote, but intends to capitalise on the expertise of its management team, board and advisors in the clean and renewable energy industry, it told investors.
"Our goal is to identify and pursue businesses that participate in the global energy transition ecosystem that are facilitating the way that energy is produced, stored, transmitted, distributed and consumed, all while reducing or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions," the company said in its public registration documents.
Sustainable manufacturing
The papers named possible focus areas as "energy storage, distributed energy, zero-emission transportation, carbon utilisation, low or carbon-free industrial applications and sustainable manufacturing".
Van Reesema and Ralli told TradeWinds they are unable to comment for the time being, citing disclosure rules for public companies and their roles as advisory board members.
But many of their own current projects fall within the scope of the Spac's investment plans.
The bunkering venture Ralli heads, US-based Clean Marine Energy, is involved in the building and commercial management of three US-built LNG bunkering barges. Despite the similar name, the company is unrelated to Norwegian scrubber supplier Clean Marine.
Switch Maritime has announced plans to deploy the first US carbon-zero ferry.
MidOcean Marine's largest US-flag shipowning holding is one not closely related to energy transition. VanEnkevort Tug & Barge is one of the largest dry bulk fleets on the Great Lakes, with large self-unloading barges of up to 38,000 dwt.
MidOcean Wind, however, has announced plans to build Jones Act-compliant wind farm vessels for the US market in collaboration with Bernhard Schulte's Windea Offshore.
All the van Reesema and Ralli-linked companies are listed as affiliates of MidOcean Holdings on the company's website.
