NextEra Energy Nears Deal to Buy ECP-Backed Symmetry
(Bloomberg) -- NextEra Energy Inc. is in advanced talks to acquire closely held Symmetry Energy Solutions for about $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal for Symmetry, backed by Energy Capital Partners, could be announced within weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
Symmetry would build out the natural gas capabilities of NextEra, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of wind and solar power. Energy Capital Partners invested in Symmetry, an unregulated gas retail platform, in 2020, according to its website.
Deliberations are ongoing, and the timing of any deal could change, the people said. Representatives for NextEra and Energy Capital declined to comment. Representatives for Symmetry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
NextEra rose 1.7% at 2:45 p.m. in New York trading Friday, giving the Juno Beach, Florida-based company a market value of about $174 billion.
A sale of Symmetry would mean ECP has made a 6x return on its initial equity investment in the business, people familiar with the matter said. ECP, which bought Symmetry in 2020, was itself acquired by private equity firm Bridgepoint Group Plc last year.
Based in Houston, Symmetry supplies more than 5,500 commercial and industrial consumers in 34 states, according to the company’s website. It has hundreds of agreements that allow it store and move gas across a web of pipelines crisscrossing the US.
This ability to move gas easily is becoming even more critical as the AI boom takes off. Gas has emerged as the No. 1 fuel to produce power thanks to the shale boom that turned the US into the biggest producer and exporter of the fuel.
After two decades of stagnation, electricity use is set to expand at an unprecedented clip into 2030. Data center developers are snapping up all the gas turbines they can from the most efficient ones that can produce more than 600 megawatts down to mini engines yielding a few megawatts.
(Adds detail on ECP returns in sixth paragraph.)
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