Barclays

Market Manipulation: The Business Questions

Ten points to remember for compliance and employee training.

Without a clear definition of market manipulation, or a detailed description for prohibited conduct, market participants are often left with more questions than answers.

Transactions (April 2015)

Chesapeake Utilities agreed to acquire Gatherco for $59.2 million, merging it into wholly-owned subsidiary Aspire Energy of Ohio; Canadian Solar agreed with Sharp Corp. to acquire Recurrent Energy for $265 million; Iberdrola USA agreed to acquire UIL Holdings and create a newly listed U.S. publicly-traded company with a rate base of approximately $8.3 billion; Plus debt offerings from Williams Partners and Cheniere Energy.

Transactions (March 2015)

TerraForm acquired 21 U.S. distributed generation solar power plants from SunEdison; Emera closed the sale of its 49 percent interest in Northeast Wind Partners II to First Wind Holdings; Alterra Power completed its sale of its Fallon, Nevada geothermal facility to an affiliate of Cyrq Energy; Accenture agreed to acquire Structure, a provider of consulting, system integration and customized solutions and services to energy and utility clients; and others.

Transactions (November 2014)

PPL Montana sold its hydroelectric facilities to NorthWestern Energy for $900 million; Chesapeake Utilities sold BravePoint; Echelon completed the sale of its grid operations to S&T AG; Plus a debt redemption from Virginia Electric & Power, a private placement offering from DPL, and an IPO for Dominion Midstream Partners.

The Fortnightly 40 Best Energy Companies

The industry’s transformation has begun. Should the F40 transform too?

(September 2014) Our annual ranking of shareholder performance tracks the long-term returns of leading utilities. But can it predict success in a transformed energy market?

Transactions (July 2014)

First Solar sold the 50-MW Macho Springs Solar Power Plant to a Southern Company subsidiary. DTE Energy purchased one of the Pheasant Run wind parks. Dominion acquired two stand-alone solar energy developments in southwest Tennessee. With asset sales by Suzlon Group, NextEra Energy Resources, and Strata Solar, and debt offerings by ITC Holdings and SunEdison.

Transactions (August 2013)

During the month of June, MidAmerican issued $1 billion in bonds for solar projects in California; PG&E sold $750 million in two tranches; ITC floated bonds totaling $550 million; plus debt issues from Duke, TransCanada, Entergy, and others totaling $4.35 billion.

Transactions (June 2013)

Atlantic Power sells 800 MW of generating capacity in Florida and Texas; Goldman Sachs buys Imperial Valley project from FirstSolar; Duke acquires two solar plants in California; Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy buy Campo Verde project; plus other deals and issues totaling more than $2 billion.

Transactions (November 2012)

Southern Company and Turner purchase SunEdison 30-MW PV plant; PSEG acquires 15-MW PV project from Juwi Solar; Duke issues $650 million in 30-year notes; PSE&G floats $350 million; Sempra and SoCal Gas each issue $350 million in bonds; plus bond issues from ONEOK, Regency Energy, ComEd, Tampa Electric, DTE, and Tucson Electric, totaling $4.8 billion.