Rice Acquisition Corp. II (RONI) Adds $275M PIPE to NET Power Deal

Rice Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: RONI) today announced an additional $275 million of PIPE commitments to its deal with clean natural gas producer NET Power, bringing the total committed capital to $510 million.

Rice II originally brought about $335 million into the deal from its current trust and supplemented this with a $100 million investment by the Rice family and affiliates and $135 million coming from OXY Investment and others all at $10 per share.

Occidental (NYSE: OXY) today increased its commitment by $250 million, bringing its total investment to $350 million, while the Rice family committed an additional $25 million to the PIPE, bringing their total investment to $125 million.

Following these new commitments, Rice II now expects the business combination to provide NET Power with $845 million in gross proceeds. Of those proceeds, $200 million will be dedicated to funding corporate operations through the commercialization of the Occidental-hosted Serial Number 1 (“SN1”) project, which is expected to be operational in 2026. The net proceeds above $200 million are expected to support SN1 capital needs and future commercial origination efforts.

Assuming no redemptions, Occidental’s ownership stake will increase to approximately 39% and the combined company is expected to have a market capitalization in excess of $2 billion.

Rice II announced its $1.5 billion business combination with NET Power in December 2022. Durham, North Carolina-based NET Power has developed technology to create natural gas-fired plants that capture nearly 100% of their potential CO2 emissions. Since the deal announcement, NET Power has continued to make progress towards commercialization of its utility-scale power plant.