Texas-based Vistra Energy has agreed to acquire rival energy retail company Crius Energy Trust for about $328m in an all-cash deal.
Image: Vistra Energy to acquire Crius Energy Trust. Photo: courtesy of Charles Toepfer/Freeimages.com.
As per the terms, the Connecticut-based Crius Energy will be paid $5.69 per share by Vistra Energy. As part of the transaction, the company will also assume Crius Energy’ net debt of about $108m.
Vistra Energy claims that the transaction will help it become one of the top residential electricity providers in the US with operations in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
It further expects the acquisition to help in accelerating the company’s Midwest and Northeast growth strategy through Crius Energy’s footprint.
Crius Energy, currently, sells electricity and also natural gas products in the regions, mainly to high value residential and small business customers. It serves about a million residential customer equivalents.
The company’s assets are anticipated to complement Vistra Energy’s generation fleet while adding about 11.6 TWhs of load to the latter’s portfolio.
The assets of Crius Energy are also said to complement the Texan company’s municipal aggregation and large commercial and industrial portfolio acquired from Dynegy in last April.
Vistra Energy president and CEO Curt Morgan said: “We are excited to announce this transaction, which will accelerate Vistra’s retail growth expansion plans via the acquisition of a high-quality electricity and gas retailer serving primarily residential and small business customers.
“The Crius Energy portfolio has a high degree of overlap with Vistra’s generation fleet and complements Vistra’s existing municipal aggregation and large commercial and industrial portfolio in the Midwest and Northeast markets.”
Vistra Energy’s retail and generation businesses include TXU Energy, Homefield Energy, Dynegy, and Luminant. The company has operations in 12 states with its retail brands serving nearly 2.9 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
The company’s generation fleet totals about 41GW of generation capacity coming from a mix of natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar and battery storage facilities.
Crius Energy board of directors chairman Brian Burden said: “This transaction is the result of an exhaustive review of strategic alternatives undertaken by our Board of Directors, with the assistance of outside advisors, to maximize unitholder value and unlock the company’s intrinsic value, while eliminating execution risk.
“We are confident that this transaction represents the best outcome for our unitholders and other stakeholders and look forward to completing the transaction.”
The acquisition, which will be subject to receipt of all required approvals and satisfaction of all customary closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.