AES Corp. announced Monday that it has agreed to be acquired by a consortium that includes a BlackRock unit, Swedish investor EQT Group, CalPERS and the Qatar Investment Authority for $15 a share cash. The companies said the offer represents a 40 percent premium to AES Corp.’s 30-day average stock price prior to July 8 when the deal was first announced.
Kirkland & Ellis advised the consortium with a team led by Dallas Partner Melissa Kalka. (In October, Kalka led the Kirkland team that advised another consortium — Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership — in its $40 billion acquisition of Plano-based Aligned Data Centers. And in July, she led the team that worked with investment giant Blackstone in its partnership with PPL, a Pennsylvania utility, to provide $25 billion for the buildout of energy and data center infrastructure across the Keystone State.)
In the past 12 months Kirkland says it has led data center M&A transactions and joint ventures valued at $164 billion, along with $67 billion in financings for data center acquisition and construction.
AES said Monday’s deal has a total equity value of $10.7 billion and an enterprise value of about $33.4 billion, including debt. The Arlington, Va.-based power generation, utility and LNG infrastructure company supplies clean energy to corporations with 11.8 gigawatts of signed agreements to major technology firms.
AES Chairman Jay Morse said the company “has a significant need for capital to support growth beyond 2027,” due to new investment in its domestic generation and utilities businesses.
“In the absence of a transaction with the consortium, the company would likely require a plan that includes reduction or elimination of the dividend and/or substantial new equity issuances,” Morse said.
AES said the deal better positions it to “drive long-term growth across its business units, including regulated electric utilities and competitive clean energy in the U.S. and critical energy infrastructure assets in Latin America.”
The company doesn’t expect the deal to impact customers’ rates in its regulated utilities that will continue to be regulated following the close of this transaction, which is expected late this year or early 2027. The AES electricity providers in Indiana and Ohio will remain locally operated and managed regulated utilities.
AES canceled the conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2025 results that was set for Tuesday, though the company did plan to file its 2025 Form 10-K on Monday.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom provided counsel to AES, and Davis Polk & Wardwell advised AES on certain debt matters.
The Skadden team includes Washington, D.C. partners Pankaj Sinha and Kady Ashley, counsel Erik Elsea and associates Ally Ramella and Isabel Dewhurst.
JPMorgan Securities and Wells Fargo Securities are AES Corp.’s financial advisors. Goldman Sachs is as financial advisor to GIP, CalPERS and QIA, while Citi is acting as advisor to EQT.
Kirkland & Ellis is the outside legal counsel to the entire consortium and legal advisor to BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners unit. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as legal advisor to EQT.
Kirkland’s team includes Houston Partners Zach Savrick, Andy Calder, Jimmy Chalk, Adam Larson, Mary Kogut, Julian Seiguer and Rob Fowler; Dallas Partners Nick Lewis, Alex Robertson, Chad Davis and David Wheat; Austin Partners Ieuan List and Steve Butler; and associates Andrew Watson, Alexa Grealis and Kersten Kober in Dallas with Samantha Siegler from Houston. Kirkland New York Partners Tatiana Monastyrskaya, Alisa Tschorke and Joseph Tootle also advised.