What happened
Shares of clean energy producer and developer Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) rose just over 5% at one point on Wednesday. The partnership's sister entity Brookfield Renewable Corporation (BEPC -0.09%) also moved higher, just not quite as dramatically. The big story was an acquisition that was announced today.
So what
Normally when a company buys another one, the stock of the acquiring entity falls. That makes sense because the buyer has to come up with the money for the purchase. However, when Wall Street really likes a deal's long-term potential, it will buck that trend and send the buyer's shares up.
That's exactly what happened today with Brookfield Renewable Partners, which announced that it was buying clean-power developer Urban Grid.
Image source: Getty Images.
Brookfield Renewable Partners is paying $650 million for Urban Grid. The big attraction here appears to be the roughly 20,000 megawatts of power projects that Urban Grid has in its pipeline. That number includes 13,000 megawatts of solar power and 7,000 megawatts of storage capacity.
According to Brookfield Renewable Partners, this acquisition will roughly triple the size of its project pipeline. That gives material clarity to the partnership's growth prospects, and investors appeared to appreciate this fact.
Now what
Brookfield Renewable Partners is a unique renewable energy company, in that it is a pure play with a global footprint and diverse generating base that spans from hydroelectric to wind and solar. It's something of a one-stop shop for those seeking a clean-energy play. This deal, meanwhile, looks like it helps solidify the partnership's growth prospects, which is notable given the stated goal of increasing the distribution between 5% and 9% a year.
With that backdrop, it's not at all surprising that the price of Brookfield Renewable Partners went up today even though the stocks of acquirers normally fall.
