Company Description
Aquila, Inc. was a publicly traded diversified electric and gas utility, headquartered in Kansas City, with operations (at the time of the sale of the Company) in Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

Situation Overview
Advised Aquila on the $2.8 billion sale of the stock of the Company to Great Plains Energy, Inc. and the simultaneous divestiture of its gas utility and Colorado electric operations to Black Hills Corporation for $940 million.

Transaction Summary
Aquila had previously undergone a financial and strategic repositioning, whereby the Company divested over $1 billion of assets and meaningfully deleveraged its balance sheet. Blackstone acted as advisor to Aquila in this effort. Given Aquila’s reduced scale, and in the face of shareholder activism, Aquila’s Board of Directors determined the value would be maximized through a sale of the Company. Blackstone’s advice to Aquila was that value was likely to be maximized in a multi-part sale to a consortium of acquirors.