Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) said on Wednesday, that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Aypa Power, an Austin-based utility-scale energy storage provider in a $7 billion deal, from Blackstone (BX).
Aypa is the largest standalone battery storage developer in North America, with about 6.5 gigawatts of operating, under-construction and contracted battery storage capacity, supported by a development pipeline exceeding 20 GW across the US and Canada.
The transaction, which values Aypa at an equity value of $3 billion, includes its operating, under-construction and contracted battery storage assets, its development platform, and its roughly 200-person workforce.
The deal is aimed at providing Brookfield a dominant position in the North American battery energy storage systems market.
In its press release, Brookfield noted that Aypa's portfolio was 95% contracted, with long-term agreements with investment-grade customers, resulting in predictable cash flows for the company.
Besides this, the investment management giant plans to leverage its own operating and development experience to accelerate Aypa's pipeline.
Jehangir Vevaina, the Chief Investment Officer at Brookfield Energy, said battery storage has become "increasingly critical" to the "reliability and resilience" of modern power systems, while noting that the two companies together could deliver integrated energy solutions to large-scale power customers.