Exelon gives up on NRG takeover
21 July 2009
Exelon announced that it is terminating its pending offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of NRG Energy after NRG's shareholders voted today against the offer.
NRG's board has always maintained that the offer Exelon submitted first on the financial crisis in October last year significantly undervalues the company, and has fought against Exelon's moves to gain approval by adding five people of its choosing to the NRG board.
Earlier this month Exelon recently improved its offer by 12.4%, saying that it would buy all of the outstanding shares at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.545 of a share of Exelon common stock for each share of NRG common stock. However, the company last week said that it would ultimately listen to the vote of the NRG shareholders in today's poll on board changes.
John Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon, commented: "The NRG shareholders have spoken, and Exelon will move on. We wish NRG and its owners well."
He added, "Now we can redouble our focus on Exelon's stand-alone growth opportunities. We have the nation's largest low-carbon nuclear fleet, and our plan to expand our nuclear output through uprates provides even greater upside from carbon legislation. We believe our long-term growth proposition remains the best in the industry."
A takeover would have resulted in the largest power firm in the USA with 47,000 MWe of generation capacity, including 18,000 MWe from nuclear power plants.