White & Case is guiding NRG Energy’s $12bn acquisition of power generation assets from energy infrastructure investment firm LS Power, which is being repped by Milbank and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. 

The cash-and-stock deal comes as Houston, Texas-based NRG bets on surging demand for energy, particularly from data centres, driven by the explosion of AI. 

The White & Case team is led by M&A partner Thomas Christopher, and included M&A partners Keith Hallam and Morgan Hollins. The financing aspects are being led by debt finance partner Eliza McDougall and capital markets partner Daniel Nam. 

In 2022, Christopher also co-led the White & Case team that guided NRG’s $5.2bn acquisition of smart home platform company Vivint Smart Home alongside M&A partner Robert Chung, who joined Clifford Chance in New York last month. 

More recently, Christopher and Hollins headed teams that acted for NRG in the $500m sale of its heating and air conditioning unit to Gamut Capital Management and, earlier this year, its $560m acquisition of power generation facilities from Texas-based Rockland Capital. 

The LS Power deal will see NRG acquire 18 gas-fired facilities across the Northeastern US and Texas with a combined capacity of about 13 gigawatts – enough to power around 10.4 million homes according to Bloomberg and doubling its generation capacity to 25 gigawatts. It will also acquire CPower, a commercial and industrial virtual power plant platform, which integrates multiple resources to provide power to the grid. 

“We are in the early stages of a power demand supercycle,” said Larry Coben, NRG chief executive officer. “This acquisition transforms NRG’s generation fleet and broadens our customised product offerings, enhancing our ability to bring the future of energy to millions of customers across the US.” 

Milbank’s work for LS Power on the deal was led by project, energy and infrastructure finance partner Bill Bice with assistance from corporate and M&A partner Scott Golenbock, project, energy and infrastructure finance partner Jeff Leider and corporate finance and securities partner Jonathon Jackson. Last year Bice and Leider also co-led a Milbank team that guided LS Power’s acquisition of Algonquin Power & Utilities’ renewable energy business last year. 

Meanwhile, Willkie’s past work for LS Power includes guiding the formation of its $2.7bn fund last year for investments across renewables, conventional generation and distributed energy resources, with the team led by private funds chair Phillip Isom and asset management partner Giovanni Smedley. 

NRG will fund $6.4bn of the LS Power deal in cash and $2.8bn in stocks to LS Power. It will also assume $3.2bn of net debt at deal close and will receive around $400m in tax benefits from the deal, the company said in a statement. 

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. NRG expects the deal will be immediately accretive to earnings per share; the company is now targeting adjusted earnings per share growth of 14%, compounded annually, up from its previous target of 10%. 

Citi and Goldman Sachs & Co are serving as NRG’s lead M&A advisers. Scotiabank is also serving as M&A adviser to NRG. Citi and Goldman Sachs Bank USA are providing committed financing for the acquisition. 

Evercore is serving as lead financial advisor to LS Power. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Solomon Partners Securities are serving as financial advisors to LS Power.