Simpson Thacher is advising Stonepeak and a buyer consortium with Bernhard Capital Partners in connection with an agreement to acquire Cleco Group LLC (“Cleco”) from a consortium comprised of Macquarie Asset Management, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Manulife Investment Management.
Cleco is a regulated electric utility headquartered in Pineville, Louisiana, with 1,200 dedicated employees serving approximately 298,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 24 Louisiana parishes. Cleco conducts its business operations through Cleco Power LLC, a regulated electric utility company that owns eight generating units with a rated capacity of 2,676 MWs. The transaction will bring investors with deep access to capital, industry expertise and a local presence to support Cleco, and further its position as a critical energy service provider and economic development engine across its service territory and the state of Louisiana. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. Upon close, Stonepeak will hold the majority interest in Cleco.
The Simpson Thacher team includes Eli Hunt, Brian Chisling, Kyle Smit, Surya Banerjee, Tushar Parashar, Matthew Anderson, and Tyler Leblanc (M&A); Ryan Bekkerus, Brian Gluck, Fern Han, Patrick Wolff, Mateo Garnica, and Shuhan Zhang (Finance); Niels Jensen, Nick de Bres, and Sandra Cho (Securitization); Krista McManus (Real Estate); Peter Guryan, Kelly Karapetyan, and Richard Jamgochian (Antitrust); Steven DeLott (Insurance); Ron Ben-Yehuda and Sara Liu (IP); Jonathan Goldstein, George Rhein, and Jacob Chefitz (Tax); Chelsey Schroeter and Sarah Watling (Energy).