Firm acquiring, combining two energy companies
Rice Acquisition Corp. lived up to its name last Wednesday by acquiring two renewable natural gas companies.
The Carnegie-based firm announced that it had entered an agreement to acquire and combine Aria Energy LLC and Archaea Energy LLC, the latter headquartered at Southpointe. The combined company will be Archaea Energy.
Rice Acquisition, formed a year ago, describes itself as “a special purpose acquisition company focused on the energy transition sector.” It expects the deal to close in the third quarter, and the combined company to be listed under as “LFG” on the New York Stock Exchange.
Daniel J. Rice IV is the CEO and Kyle Derham president, CFO and director. Both were top executives with Southpointe-based Rice Energy, which was acquired in 2017 by another local natural gas production company, EQT Corp. of Pittsburgh. Daniel Rice was CEO and Derham, CFO at Rice Energy.
RAC described Novi, Mich.-based Aria as “a portfolio company of funds” that is being acquired for $680 million, and has “a deep inventory of greenfield LFG-to-RNG projects and electric-to-RNG conversion opportunities.”
Rice Acquisition said it is acquiring Archaea for $347 million, and that the company “brings leading RNG technology.”
RAC said the combined firm has an estimated 2021 EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) of $65 million, and anticipates the EBITDA to rise to $327 million in 2024.