Osprey Energy Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: OSPRU), a new blank-check acquisition company, launched its IPO July 26, with stocks prices drifting slightly above a $10 offering price.

Osprey, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is led by CEO Jonathan Z. Cohen, the co-founder of Atlas Pipeline Partners LP and Atlas Energy Inc. Several SPACs have launched this year led by all-star oil and gas veterans in an effort to grab investors’ attention and dollars.

In a twist, Cohen and two other Osprey executives received an early, if unintentional, endorsement from activist investors Jana Partners LLC, which wants to halt EQT Corp.’s (NYSE: EQT) $8.2 billion acquisition of Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE: RICE).

Jana Partners owns 5.8% of EQT and has argued the deal gives away $1 billion in EQT shareholder value. In July 5 letter to EQT, Jana Partners named the trio as suggested additions to EQT’s board.

Barry Rosenstein, Jana’s managing partner, said the Osprey executives led the “Atlas Energy complex of companies to create billions of dollars of shareholder value through transactions.” Cohen holds about 75,000 shares of EQT stock, according to July 5 regulatory filings.

On July 21, Osprey priced 25 million units at $10 per unit, aiming for gross proceeds of $250 million.

Osprey is offering units but as is the case with SPACs, their eventual acquisition target is unknown. The company said it may enter a “merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.”

Like many SPACs, Osprey is relying on the strength of its executives’ resumes. Osprey’s management team includes upstream and midstream veterans with $23 billion of A&D transactions under their belt and six energy company IPOs in the past 17 years.

Successive IPOs have debuted since Mark Papa former CEO of EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) led Silver Run Acquisition Corp.’s $450 million IPO in February 2016.

Stephen Chazen, former CEO at Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), and James T. Hackett, former board chairman and CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), both initiated SPACs this year.

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Cohen is known for his role in developing and selling Atlas Pipeline Partners to Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP) in 2015 for $7.5 billion. He sold Atlas Energy Inc., an Appalachia E&P, to Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) in 2011 for $4.3 billion.

He also serves as chairman and co-founded Lightfoot Capital, the general partner of Arc Logistics Partners LP (NYSE: ARCX) and a number of other companies.

In addition to his oil and gas businesses, Cohen also served as the CEO of a $21 billion real estate asset manager, Resource America Inc. until its sale for about $207 million.

Daniel C. Herz, Osprey’s president, also served as president of Atlas Energy Group LLC since April 2015. Herz served as Titan Energy LLC’s CEO since September 2016 and its predecessor, Atlas Resource Partners LP. Edward E. Cohen, Osprey’s executive chairman, also previously served with Atlas and Titan related companies. He served as CEO of Atlas Energy at the time of its sale to Chevron.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is serving as the sole book-running manager and I-Bankers Securities, Inc. is serving as co-manager for the offering.

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.

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