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Calisa Acquisition Corp
Calisa Acquisition Corp is a Jesús María Zuluaga-led SPAC targeting Latin American acquisitions between $500M and $1.5B in enterprise value.
Calisa Acquisition Corp
Calisa Acquisition Corp was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 2021 and completed its IPO on the Nasdaq in January 2022, raising $150 million at a $10.00 per-unit price (per SEC filing, January 2022). The sponsor group is anchored by Jesús María Zuluaga, a Colombian industrialist who serves as CEO of Energil and chairman of Tecnoglass — the Nasdaq-listed manufacturer of architectural glass, windows, and aluminum products that reported over $800 million in revenue in 2024. Calisa is Zuluaga's third SPAC vehicle, following Andina Acquisition Corp I, II, and III, all of which completed business combinations with Latin American operating companies. The SPAC's stated mandate targets a single business combination with a Latin America-based company, with a disclosed preference for sectors including financial services, infrastructure, industrials, and technology (per SEC filings, 2022). Calisa does not operate as a typical family office — it is a publicly traded acquisition vehicle — but the sponsor economics flow through Zuluaga's family-controlled Energil group, which also holds significant operating assets in Colombia and the United States. The SPAC structure gives Calisa a finite 24-month window to identify and close a target, after which the trust must be returned to public shareholders if no deal is consummated. As of mid-2025, Calisa had not announced a definitive business combination, and the status of any extension vote or target identification remains undisclosed in public filings. Zuluaga brings a track record of completing SPAC mergers that transform into durable public companies. Andina Acquisition Corp III merged with EvoAir Holdings in 2022, while earlier Andina vehicles brought Tecnoglass and LendingFront to public markets. The Energil group — Zuluaga's primary holding company — controls assets across glass manufacturing, aluminum extrusion, real estate development, and financial services, with operations concentrated in Barranquilla, Colombia, and Miami, Florida. Calisa's board includes directors with operational experience inside the Energil ecosystem, a structural feature that differentiates it from sponsor teams composed solely of financial professionals. What distinguishes Calisa from the broader SPAC universe is its sponsor's operator DNA. Zuluaga is not a former investment banker chasing sponsor promote fees — he is a sitting CEO of a publicly traded industrial company who has used SPACs as a bolt-on acquisition platform for his existing conglomerate. Energil's operational footprint in Latin America gives Calisa a proprietary sourcing channel that most blank-check firms lack, though it also concentrates sponsor incentives in ways that require careful governance scrutiny from public shareholders. The SPAC's future hinges on whether Zuluaga can replicate the Tecnoglass blueprint — identifying an undervalued Latin American operating company and using the Nasdaq listing to drive valuation convergence with US-listed peers.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Latin America
Country
Cayman Islands
City
—
Corporate office
—
Frequently asked questions
Who is Jesús María Zuluaga, and what other vehicles has he sponsored?
Zuluaga is a Colombian industrialist who serves as CEO of Energil, a diversified holding company, and chairman of Tecnoglass, the Nasdaq-listed architectural glass and aluminum manufacturer. He previously sponsored the Andina Acquisition Corp series of SPACs — Andina I, II, and III — all of which completed business combinations with Latin American companies. His track record includes bringing Tecnoglass public via a SPAC merger in 2013, building it into a company with over $800 million in annual revenue.
What is Calisa Acquisition Corp's stated acquisition mandate?
Calisa targets a single business combination with a Latin America-based company, with an enterprise value between $500 million and $1.5 billion, according to its January 2022 IPO prospectus. The SPAC's stated sector preferences include financial services, infrastructure, industrials, and technology, though the trust agreement permits broader discretion as long as the target is consistent with the stated business purpose.
Has Calisa announced a business combination target?
As of mid-2025, Calisa has not publicly announced a definitive agreement for a business combination. SPACs formed in its vintage typically have 18 to 24 months to complete a deal before facing a mandatory trust liquidation, though extensions can be approved by shareholder vote. No recent SEC filings indicate an extension or target identification.
How is Calisa related to Energil and Tecnoglass?
Calisa's sponsor group is controlled directly or indirectly by Jesús María Zuluaga, who also controls Energil and serves as Tecnoglass's chairman. Energil functions as the family's primary holding vehicle, with ownership stakes in Tecnoglass and other industrial and real estate assets. Calisa is legally separate from both entities, but sponsor economics flow into the same controlling family group, creating aligned — and potentially conflicted — incentives around target selection.
What differentiates Calisa from other Latin America-focused SPACs?
The primary differentiator is sponsor Zuluaga's status as an active operator rather than a career financier. He runs a publicly traded industrial company and has used SPACs as a platform for acquiring and scaling operating businesses, not as a fee-generation vehicle. His Energil group provides an existing operational infrastructure in Colombia and Miami, which can serve as both a deal-sourcing network and a post-merger integration resource that most blank-check sponsors lack.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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