SPAC One Step Closer to First Acquisition (GGA, GS)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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GCA Acquisition (AMEX:GGA) has received anti-trust clearance related to its proposed $1.3 billion purchase of merchant power generator Complete Energy. Complete Energy owns two natural-gas-fired combined-cycle power plants:

  • the 1,022-megawatt La Paloma plant near Bakersfield, California,
  • and the 837-megawatt Batesville, Mississippi plant.

All of Batesville’s capacity is committed under long-term contracts with J Aron & Company, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and a Mississippi utility company. The Bakersfield plant has two tolling agreements for about half its capacity, with the remaining capacity sold on the California merchant power market.

Following completion of the merger, investment funds managed by The TCW Group will own about 19% of Complete Energy; existing GCA shareholders will own about 42%; and the current owners of Complete Energy will own 10%. This is a very good deal for every stakeholder, promising dependable, if not massive, returns, increased access to financing for Complete Energy, and experienced management to run the show.

It appears that shareholder approval is still an outstanding issue, although with this being energy it seems that the approval would be more likely than some other SPAC conversions.

Paul Ausick
June 4, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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