Herbert Smith Freehills is advising AGL on its A$1.505 billion acquisition of the assets of Macquarie Generation, including the 2,640MW Bayswater Power Station, the 2,000MW Liddell Power Station, the 50MW Hunter Valley Gas Turbine and the Liddell Solar Farm (MacGen Assets), and associated A$1.2 billion capital raising and A$350 million debt funding.
The MacGen Assets give AGL, one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies that operates retail and merchant energy businesses, power generation assets and an upstream gas portfolio, ownership of the lowest cost, large-scale baseload generators in NSW and increase AGL’s registered generation capacity in the National Electricity Market by approximately 82 percent to more than 10,400 MW.
The A$1.2 billion 1 for 5 accelerated pro-rata entitlement offer proceeds will be used to fund part of the A$1.505 billion purchase price for the of the MacGen Assets. The balance of the consideration will be funded by bank debt.
The Herbert Smith Freehills acquisition team was led by partners Robert Merrick, Philippa Stone and newly appointed partner Natalie Bryce, with support from solicitor Charlotte Cameron and a specialist team of partners and lawyers including Gerard Pike and Ged Cochrane (electricity trading), Melissa Swain (coal supply), Sam Brown (Property), Kirstie Richards (Environment) and Toby Anderson and Kris Percy (operations and maintenance contracts).
The Herbert Smith Freehills capital markets team was led by partners Philippa Stone and Philip Hart, assisted by senior associate Lucy Hall and solicitor Charlotte Cameron.
The Herbert Smith Freehills debt finance team was led by partner John Angus, assisted by senior associate Brad Turner.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team worked closely with AGL’s General Counsel John Fitzgerald and Corporate Lawyer Natasha Vyrnwy-Jones.