What Does the Deal Between Ameren Corp. (AEE) and Dynegy Inc. (DYN) Mean for Them

Recently, Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) agreed to buy the merchant generation business Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Energy Resources (AER), from the power company Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) for around $900 million, including around $180 million in tax benefits. Interestingly, the deal does not involve any cash or stock issuance, as Dynegy will undertake around $825 million in debt with the acquisition of Genco, AER’s subsidiary. Is the deal better off for both Dynegy and Ameren? Let’s find out.

Dynegy and Ameren

Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) is involved in the business of production and sale of electric energy, capacity, and ancillary services to RTOs and ISOs, integrated utilities, electric cooperatives, and industrial customers, from twelve operating power plants in six U.S. states with a total capacity of 9,800 MW. The company has two main segments: the Coal segment and the Gas segment. The majority of its fleet capacity, 6,771 MW or 69.4% of total fleet capacity, was from the Gas segment, while the Coal segment has a capacity of around 2,980 MW.

Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) is a public utility holding company operating in three business segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois and Merchant Generation. The majority of its 2012 revenue, $3.25 billion or 47.6% of total revenue, was generated from the Ameren Missouri segment, while the Merchant Generation segment contributed more than $1 billion in revenue in 2012.

The Merchant Generation segment is the only loss-making segment among the three, with more than $1.5 billion in 2012 net loss, while the Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) Missouri and the Ameren Illinois segments generated profits of $416 million and $141 million, respectively. In 2012, the Merchant Generation had more than $1 billion in income tax benefit.

Dynegy’s benefits

Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) believes that the acquisition of AER would deliver significant shareholder benefits in the most capital efficient manner. By combining AER, its annual adjusted EBITDA would increase from $150 million to $332 million, or from $1.50 per share to $3.32 per share, a growth of 121%. In order to achieve that growth alone, Dynegy would have had to commit more than $1 billion of capital to repurchase around 55 million shares. Dynegy commented that the deal would be much better off for the company in terms of operational, commercial, and financial perspective.