zTrip via Spree Acquisition

Some deals are being announced without an investor presentation. It may reflect some haste in making combinations before deadlines pass. Eventually, we should see an 8K filing with a deck, and we'll post it here as soon as it comes out.

I've seen zTrip at the Louisville Kentucky airport and wondered what it was. It seems to be a fleet-based taxi company that expands by acquisition and offers an alternative to Lyft $LYFT, Uber $UBER, and traditional taxi services.

It's similar to the model in some other countries where taxis are most often arranged by phone and dispatched rather than "hailed" as they are in many US cities.

Spree $SHAP has $200M in the trust account, and no PIPE or other financing is mentioned in the filing. There is a minimum cash condition of $50M.

zTrip is a technology-enhanced taxi fleet operator. They did $68M in revenue in 2021 with a positive EBITDA of $16M. They are in 26 cities today and believe they can expand to 4-5x their current size by entering other markets.

In their model, they provide the vehicle and sign up corporate accounts and regular clients. The founder/CEO is Bill George, a taxicab operating executive since 1985.

Their model is to buy operations to expand. They layer in their software, and away they go. They've completed 28 acquisitions of local operators, and there will probably be more in the next six months.

Although a PIPE wasn't part of the announcement, I expect they are working on having some additional financing to accelerate their expansion plan and ensure they meet the minimum cash condition to close.

The "pre-money" valuation is $251M and is expected to close in the first half of 2023.

The sellers have agreed to a 180-day lockup, and Bill George has 1.5M extra earnout warrants that come in at $14, $18, and $22 over the four years following close.

zTrip would trade as $ZTRP should they make it through the de-SPAC process.