HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Archaea Energy Inc. (NYSE: LFG), an industry-leading renewable natural gas company, today announced that it has agreed to be acquired by bp (NYSE: BP) for approximately $26 per Archaea Class A and Class B share in cash, or a total enterprise value of approximately $4.1 billion, including approximately $800 million of net debt. The cash consideration represents an approximately 38 percent premium to Archaea’s volume weighted average share price for the 30 days ending October 14, 2022.
Nick Stork, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Archaea, said, “Archaea was founded with a mission to build the world’s leading RNG development company to reduce global emissions and make multi-generational sustainability impacts. In a very short period of time, we have rapidly become a leading RNG platform in the U.S., and today’s announcement will further enable this business to realize its full potential. bp is a world-class partner and a strong fit for Archaea, with a strategic focus on bioenergy and an operational history in the RNG value chain that is fully aligned with ours and our partners’. We are excited to join them in our mission to increase the role of RNG in helping customers reach their long-term climate goals, and I look forward to our hard-working team joining the bp organization to help achieve their bioenergy objectives. I am incredibly proud of our employees at Archaea who have driven this tremendous value creation and will continue to push forward Archaea’s drive to foster clean energy growth and promote domestic energy reliance.”
Daniel Rice, Chairman of Archaea’s Board, said, “After a thorough review, our Board determined that combining Archaea’s RNG assets and our strong development backlog with bp’s existing bioenergy business and deep operational and financial resources is the best way to create a stronger platform to achieve Archaea’s full potential, while maximizing value for our shareholders. Today’s news would not be possible without the entire Archaea organization, our best-in-class employees and our industry partners.”
Strategic Benefits for Archaea and its stakeholders
- bp provides Archaea access to unmatched, world-class platforms, capabilities, and capital resources for acceleration of its growth plans.
- Archaea’s business will be able to access bp’s trading capabilities and broad customer base, further helping many of bp’s customers achieve their decarbonization goals.
- Archaea will be integral to bp’s existing bioenergy business, which has established key positions in the segment and is one of bp’s key transition growth engines, which is anticipated to further Archaea’s growth into international markets.
Additional Transaction Details
Subject to regulatory approvals and Archaea shareholder approval, the parties are targeting closing the acquisition by the end of 2022. Certain existing Archaea shareholders, who collectively own approximately 27% of Archaea’s outstanding shares, have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction. Closing is not subject to any financing condition.
Upon completion of the transaction, Archaea will operate as a subsidiary within bp and become part of the larger global organization.
Advisors
BofA Securities acted as financial advisor to Archaea and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as Archaea’s legal advisor.
About Archaea Energy
Archaea Energy Inc. is one of the largest RNG producers in the U.S., with an industry-leading platform and expertise in developing, constructing, and operating RNG facilities to capture waste emissions and convert them into low carbon fuel. Archaea’s innovative, technology-driven approach is backed by significant gas processing expertise, enabling Archaea to deliver RNG projects that are expected to have higher uptime and efficiency, faster project timelines, and lower development costs. Archaea partners with landfill and farm owners to help them transform potential sources of emissions into RNG, transforming their facilities into renewable energy centers. Archaea’s differentiated commercial strategy is focused on long-term contracts that provide commercial partners a reliable, non-intermittent, sustainable decarbonizing solution to displace fossil fuels.
Additional information is available at www.archaeaenergy.com.
About bp
bp’s ambition is to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. bp has a larger economic footprint in the United States than anywhere else in the world, investing more than $130 billion in the economy since 2005 and supporting about 245,000 jobs. For more information on bp in the US, visit www.bp.com/us.
