NRG Energy, the owner of a coal-fired generation plant in Sussex County and a generator in Dover is selling renewable energy and other businesses as it works to strengthen its balance sheet.
The company has been under pressure from a billionaire shareholder to sell off assets.
“Today’s announcement represents a significant milestone in simplifying our value proposition, optimizing our portfolio, and strengthening our balance sheet to create significant shareholder value,” said Mauricio Gutierrez, CEO. “These sale processes were rigorous and highly competitive. I am pleased with the outcome and confident in our ability to work with our counterparties to bring these transactions to a swift close.”
NRG Energy, Inc. and Global Infrastructure Partners entered into a Purchase Agreement for GIP to purchase NRG’s ownership in NRG Yield and NRG’s Renewables Platform for $1.375 billion, subject to certain adjustments.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year and is subject to various customary closing conditions.
NRG and NRG Yield also entered into purchase and sale agreements for NRG Yield to purchase NRG’s interest in the Carlsbad Energy Center in California and Buckthorn Solar for $407 million, subject to certain adjustments. The plants are slated to go into operation.
The Carlsbad Energy Center and Buckthorn Solar are expected to close before year-end and are subject to both projects achieving commercial operations status.
NRG and Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC (Cleco) entered into a Purchase and Sale Agreement for Cleco to purchase NRG’s South Central business for a total purchase price and cash proceeds of $1.0 billion, subject to certain adjustments.
The South Central business on the Gulf Coast owns and operates the 225 MW Bayou Cove, 430 MW Big Cajun-I, 1,461 MW Big Cajun-II, 1,263 MW Cottonwood and 176 MW Sterlington generating plants and serves a customer base of cooperatives, municipalities and regional utilities under contracts.
NRG entered into a sale leaseback agreement for its 1,263 MW Cottonwood plant, a natural gas-fired combined cycle plant in East Texas through May 2025.
The announcement brings NRG’s asset sales to $2.9 billion in anticipated cash proceeds, including approximately $150 million of asset monetization closed in the second half of 2017. NRG expects to announce additional asset sales over the course of 2018 and is revising its total asset sales cash proceeds target to about $3.2 billion.
