Ares SPAC Is Merging With Nuclear Energy Firm X-Energy

A blank-check company backed by private equity firm Ares Management is merging with X Energy Reactor, a nuclear power technology firm.

Ares Acquisition Corp. and the developer of small nuclear reactors will have a combined valuation of about $2 billion, according to a statement on Tuesday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report.

The transaction includes a $120 million financing package from Ares Management, Ontario Power Generation Inc. and energy-focused hedge fund Segra Capital Management. Earlier investors include Dow and Curtiss-Wright Corp.

X-energy’s agreement with the special purpose acquisition company comes as SPAC transactions have continued to cool. On Monday, two such transactions with a combined value of $10.6 billion were pulled.

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Serial SPAC sponsor Alec Gores said his Gores Holdings VIII Inc. wouldn’t be merging with materials science tech company Footprint, while Concord Acquisition Corp. pulled the plug on its tie-up with a stablecoin issuer.

Based in Rockville, Maryland, X-energy is developing a small modular nuclear reactor that is intended for commercial deployment, according to the company’s website.

Kam Ghaffarian, a space entrepreneur who also founded Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines, started X-energy in 2009. The company is now led by Chief Executive Officer Clay Sell, who served as deputy secretary of energy in the George W. Bush administration.

X-energy has received funding from the US Department of Energy and also has operations in Canada and the UK.

Ares Acquisition, which counts Ares Management’s co-founder David Kaplan as CEO, raised $1 billion in an initial public offering in February 2021. It had held talks with New York-based boutique fitness chain Equinox for a merger before discussions fell apart, Bloomberg News reported in October.

Source: BNN Bloomberg

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