A Fort Worth-based oil and gas mineral and royalty company announced it formed subsidiary Kimbell Tiger Acquisition Corporation, a new SPAC, to take an energy business public. The newly incorporated special purpose acquisition company will look to acquire or merge with an entity in the energy and natural resources industry, in line with its founders’ experience. The SPAC plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TGR.U.
Kimbell Royalty Partners, a publicly-traded company, owns mineral and royalty interests across 13 million acres in 28 states, including more than 97,000 wells — almost half of which are in the Permian Basin.
The proposed public offering hopes to raise $200 million through 20 million units at $10 per share. Per the filing, Kimbell Royalty Partners would own 20 percent of the SPAC’s issued and outstanding common stock, if the offering goes through. UBS Investment Bank is the sole bookrunner on the deal.
SPACs are an increasingly common strategy to bypass the traditional IPO process. A publicly traded entity can raise capital and then combine with a private company. More than a dozen blank check companies have filed registrations in North Texas this year, though filing a registration isn’t an assurance of a completed public offering.
The amount of SPACs filed this year is already 56% higher than all of 2020, according to research from SPACanalytics.
Earlier this year, Dallas-based oil and gas private equity firm Tailwater Capital sponsored Freestone Acquisition Corporation’s filing, as it looks to raise about $200 million. The blank check company, which filed to go public in May, is also targeting an acquisition in the energy and infrastructure space, but focused on environmental impact and sustainable sources of energy, per its filing.
Kimbell Tiger Acquisition Corporation lists seven directors in its filing, including four leaders of sponsor Kimbell Royalty Partners and three other professionals with experience in the oil and gas sector. The SPAC’s CEO, Zachary Lunn, most recently served at Wichita Falls-based Cobra Oil and Gas. Kimbell Royalty Partners CEO Robert Ravnaas is currently chairman of the SPAC.
Kimbell Royalty Partners, which went public in 2017, has been active in the acquisition space, completing six deals since its IPO. The company said in a summer investor presentation that it was also positioned for future acquisitions.
