Archaea Energy, which combined with Rice Acquisition Corp. in September 2021, announced that it has agreed to be acquired by BP (NYSE:BP) for $26 per share.
The price is a 38% premium to Archaea’s 30-day VWAP and represents a major victory for a de-SPAC at time when the market has been rather short on good SPAC news. Rice initially struck its combination with Archaea at an enterprise value of $1.15 billion in April 2021 and now 18 months after the announcement, Archaea has more than tripled this valuation to $4.1 billion in the sale.
The original business combination was also somewhat unique in that it was a three-way merger between Aria Energy and Archaea, the former of which was larger, and the latter was a portfolio company of Rice’s sponsor, Rice Investment Group.
Archaea produces renewable natural gas captured from waste emissions out of farms and landfills, and, as such, in some ways cuts the profile of a new technology player at a time when the market has scrutinized such companies. But, it was also fully commercialized and profitable before launching its SPAC deal.
It generated $76.1 million in EBITDA in 2021 and has further benefitted from world events that have accelerated momentum towards energy resources that are renewable and not coming from Russia.
From BP’s point of view, Archaea will add more clean energy resources to its portfolio and by the same token reduce the weight of the dirtier sides of its operations. That could potentially be a strategy that other strategic players could employ with several renewable energy de-SPACs seemingly undervalued by market conditions.
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