Avangrid shareholders approve the acquisition of the company by Iberdrola

1. Avangrid, a leading grid and renewables company
2. The operation, key to accelerating growth in the United States
3. The terms of the transaction

At its Annual General Meeting, Avangrid’s shareholders approved Iberdrola’s acquisition of 18.4% of Avangrid’s share capital through a merger transaction. The transaction has received massive support from the company’s shareholders:

• The transaction has been backed by more than 99% of the votes cast, compared to less than 1% of votes cast against.
• The percentage of support among shareholders, excluding the votes of Iberdrola and QIA (which is a reference shareholder of the Spanish utility), reached approximately 93%.

The acquisition, which began in March, will result in Avangrid’s delisting from the US stock exchange. For this, the company chaired by Ignacio Galán will pay 2,550 million dollars (around 2,300 million euros). The transaction, which has already received approvals from the federal (FERC) and Maine regulators (the latter pending publication), is expected to close before the end of the year, once authorisation is received from the New York regulator.

Avangrid, a leading grid and renewables company

The transaction will allow Iberdrola to continue to grow strongly in the United States after more than 20 years of presence in the country. Nearly a decade ago, Iberdrola merged its North American subsidiary with the listed UIL Holdings to create Avangrid, which has been listed on the American stock exchange ever since.

Thanks to the company’s growth over the past decade, Avangrid now has assets of $46 billion. The company distributes electricity to a population of 7 million people in the states of New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts and has an installed capacity of 8,700 MW of renewable power in 24 states.  It also has 8,000 employees.

The operation, key to accelerating growth in the United States

Avangrid faces growth opportunities until the end of the decade estimated at 30 billion dollars in transmission and distribution networks (in New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts), offshore wind (following the recent award of the New England 1 wind farm), solar photovoltaic and onshore wind (especially in repowering).

The approved transaction will allow Avangrid to more quickly access additional financial resources to undertake these investments.

Iberdrola’s Chairman, Ignacio Galán, said that ‘the transaction is fully aligned with our strategy of investing in grids in countries with high credit ratings, such as the United States. Avangrid will have all the resources it needs to continue growing in transmission and distribution, and also in renewable technologies such as offshore wind’.

The terms of the transaction

Shareholders of Iberdrola’s US subsidiary will receive 35.75 euros per share, a 15.2% premium to the average share price in the 30 days prior to the announcement.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}