Gregg Hymowitz-controlled fund manager EnTrust Global is mounting a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) that has shipping among its potential targets.
Filings for newly registered blank-check vehicle EG Acquisition features shipping names Svein Engh and Julian Proctor among its roster of directors and managers.
Also listed in a leading role is former Glencore trader Gary Fegel, a financier with a commodities history.
The new blank-cheque vehicle, which is aiming for a New York Stock Exchange listing, is headed by Hymowitz as chief executive.
It is chaired by Fegel, the former Glencore head of aluminium who is now head of private equity player GMF Capital, the filings with the US Securities and Exchange commission show. GMF Global is not related to EnTrust or the acquisition vehicle.
Hymowitz will sell down the initial 100% shareholding he holds through EnTrust to 20% through the listing.
Transport leads the list of eligible sectors in which the Spac could seek a merger or takeover candidate, and targets that are close to the organisers are not out of bounds.
Engh, Proctor and a number of nominees from outside shipping are among proposed independent board members who also "may serve in an executive or operating capacity once we select the target for our business combination", according to a financial filing.
Engh is senior managing director of EnTrust's Blue Ocean maritime alternative finance platform and former head of maritime lending and leasing at CIT.
Proctor joined EnTrust in January 2020 after leaving Hong Kong and Tokyo-based Tiger Group. He heads EnTrust's green leasing vehicle Purus Marine, where Engh is also a board member.
A number of other sectors are possible targets as well and EG Acquisition says it will be flexible about a candidate.
"[There] are certain sectors that we believe are particularly complemented by EnTrust Global and/or GMF Capital’s expertise and relationships," wrote the sponsors in the recent registration filed with the US regulators.
"These include transportation and real assets, financial services, financial services technology, healthcare, real estate and sustainability-focused businesses."
The Spac seeks to raise $250m. That is the same figure EnTrust targeted in an abortive 2018 flirtation with public equity in shipping, when it called off a London listing. Last August, Engh told TradeWinds a repeat of the bid for an initial public offering was not on the cards.
EnTrust's Blue Ocean Funds has managed to raise and use cash for dozens of shipping deals without accessing public markets until now.
TradeWinds reported in December that it had finished a fresh raise of some $2.1bn for shipping loans. That was at the end of a year that had seen it do over 13 ship finance deals for clients including Globus Maritime and Danaos Corp, using funds from a previous $1.5m raise.
Purus, the leasing venture Proctor heads, was also set up last year to fund environmentally sustainable projects within shipping.
Hymowitz started EnTrust in 1997 and as of the end of 2020 it had over $19m in assets.
Last August, the Goldman Sachs veteran consolidated his control over EnTrust when Legg Mason sold a stake said to date from the early days of the company.
