Carlyle eyes $300 mln SPAC for international energy opportunities

Carlyle Group plans to raise $300 million through a new publicly traded vehicle for investments in international oil and gas assets, according to documents filed with the SEC.

The special purpose acquisition company, Regalwood Global Energy Ltd, will target investment opportunities outside North America. The vehicle will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RWGE.U.

“The focus of many investors on unconventional energy projects in North America has led to a dearth of capital for energy projects in the rest of the world, which will lead to attractive risk-adjusted return opportunities internationally,” the filing says.

The special-purpose vehicle will pursue deals larger than those targeted by Carlyle’s existing European energy fund, Carlyle International Energy Partners, which held a final close on $2.5 billion in 2015. That said, the latter fund may be able to invest alongside Regalwood, whose filing indicates the CIEP team “has seen a significant number of larger target opportunities recently.”

The Regalwood SPAC is led by Marcel van Poecke and Brooke Coburn, both of whom are also members of the CIEP team.

SPACs function as blank-check vehicles to make acquisitions. A number of firms, including Apollo Global Management, Gores Group and Avenue Capital, have deployed the vehicles in recent years.

In 2015, TPG created PACE Group for the specific purpose of sponsoring SPACs and other long-term-capital vehicles.

Vantage Energy, a portfolio company belonging to Carlyle’s domestic energy platform Natural Gas Partners, formed a $400 million SPAC earlier this year.

Action Item: To read Regalwood’s S-1, visit http://bit.ly/2yGBzgG

Marcel van Poecke (left) and Brooke Coburn, who lead the Regalwood Global Energy SPAC. Photos courtesy of Carlyle Group.