U.S. nuclear power giant Exelon announced on April 28 that it would buy rival power generator Constellation Energy in a $7.9 billion stock-swap deal, the latest in a spate of energy sector mergers.
The deal would create a giant power generator and distributor serving 38 of the country's 50 states, as well as two Canadian provinces, with more than half of its 34,000 megawatts capacity coming from nuclear power.
"This merger creates the number-one competitive energy provider with one of the industrys cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets and one of the largest commercial, industrial and residential customer bases in the United States," said Exelon chief executive John Row.
The stock-for-stock deal would reward Constellation shareholders with a roughly 18% premium on their company's average share price over the past month.
Current Exelon shareholders would control 78% and Constellation shareholders, 22%, of the combined company, which would have a market value of $34 billion.
The new company will be called Exelon and be based in Exelon's current Chicago headquarters.
The deal comes on the tail of two other major energy sector acquisitions in recent months: Duke Energy's $13.7 billion takeover of Progress Energy, and AES's $3.5 billion acquisition of DPL, which controls Dayton Power & Light.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
