Exelon Corp., the largest U.S. producer of nuclear power, plans to sell $900 million of 10- and 31-year debt to fund its purchase of a Deere & Co. wind-power unit.
The bonds may be issued as soon as today through Exelon Generation Co. according to a person familiar with the transaction. John Deere Renewables will cost $860 million with an additional $40 million if Deere starts constructing three projects in Michigan, Exelon said today in a regulatory filing that didn’t specify the debt offering’s size or timing.
Exelon’s acquisition marks the Chicago-based company’s first foray into owning and operating wind projects, it said in an Aug. 31 statement. The 735 megawatts of wind capacity, enough to power as many as 220,000 homes in eight U.S. states, will add to 2012 profit and advances Exelon’s 2008 promise to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the statement.
“We took this deal to the rating agencies well in advance of doing it,” Bill Von Hoene, Exelon’s executive vice president for finance and legal, said at a conference on Sept. 15. “They concluded, as did we, that it was credit neutral.”
The notes may be rated A3 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB by Standard & Poor’s, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set.
The acquisition will make Exelon the 13th-biggest wind generator in the U.S., Von Hoene said in the call.
–With assistance from Jim Polson in New York. Editors: Pierre Paulden, Mitchell Martin
To contact the reporter on this story: Sapna Maheshwari in New York at sapnam@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net
DE us Equity CN EXC US Equity CN 28922Z US Equity CN 09-27-10 1241EDT
