Norwegian industrial group Aker Horizons has laid bare plans to combine Mainstream Renewable Power and Aker Offshore Wind (AOW) via a merger to create a “financially stronger” developer.
Aker Horizons is proposing an all-stock merger that will reposition AOW as its privately held subsidiary to facilitate the plan.
It already holds a 51.02% indirect shareholding in AOW.
AOW’s other shareholders would be offered 0.1304 of merger consideration shares in Aker Horizons for each share they own in the business.
The offer implies a share price of NOK 3.01 per share in AOW, representing a 6.9% premium on the closing price on 29 March.
A vote will be held on the merger at AOW’s annual general meeting on 4 May.
Once completed, Aker Horizons will then go about merging Mainstream and AOW to bring increased scale and improved access to financing for the latter’s projects.
Both Mainstream and AOW already hold a 50% joint ownership stake in a 800MW Progression Energy floating wind project in Japan.
The developers are also active on different wind projects in Asia, with AOW part of a consortium developing a 1.2GW floater off Ulsan in South Korea and Mainstream on the 1.4GW Phu Cuong Soc Trang project in Vietnam.
Aker Horizons acquired a 75% stake in Mainstream at the beginning of 2021 and will require agreement of its remaining minority shareholders to see the plan through.
Elsewhere, Aker Horizons is also planning a similar merger with Aker Clean Hydrogen (ACH) which will position the latter as its privately held subsidiary.
Aker Horizons already indirectly holds a 77.25% stake in ACH and its other shareholders will receive 0.2381 merger consideration shares in Aker Horizons if the transaction goes ahead.
The offer implies a share price of NOK 5.49 per share in ACH, representing a 16.7% premium to the closing price on 29 March.
Assuming both AOW and ACH mergers are completed, shareholders in these subsidiaries will receive 13.22% of Aker Horizons’ total outstanding shares.