NextEra Reaches Pact With Lenders on Funding Oncor Buy

NextEra Energy Inc.. has reached agreement with financial institutions on its bid to buy Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s Oncor Electric Delivery Co. utility in Texas.

As part of the transaction, NextEra plans to fund $9.5 billion, primarily for the repayment of about all of the Energy Future Intermediate Holding Company debt, NextEra said in a statement Monday.

NextEra has proposed to take over the biggest transmission operator in a state where regulators have already proven they can drive a tough bargain. An investor group led by Dallas-based Hunt Consolidated Inc. tried and failed in May to buy Oncor. At stake is a transaction that’s key to Energy Future’s emergence from one of the biggest bankruptcies of all time, involving the restructuring of about $50 billion in debt.

NextEra has previously agreed to buy all of the equity of reorganized Energy Future Holdings and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries, including Energy Future Holdings’ approximately 80 percent indirect interest in Oncor.

The transaction is subject to bankruptcy court approval of the merger agreement and Energy Future’s reorganization plan as well as the Public Utility Commission of Texas. NextEra expects the transaction, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both NextEra and Energy Future Holdings, to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.

Credit Suisse Group AG, and Bank of America Corp. are lead lenders in a group that includes Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Group AG, Wells Fargo & Co., BNP Paribas SA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Credit Agricole SA, KeyCorp., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Bank of Nova Scotia, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., The Toronto-Dominion Bank Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and U.S. National Bank Holdings Corp., according to the statement.