Ares Acquisition Corporation (AAC) Adds Funding to X-Energy Deal At Lower Valuation

Ares Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:AAC) announced in an 8-K this morning that it has added up to $60 million in new commitments to its combination with nuclear technology firm X-Energy while further dropping the target’s valuation.

The new money comes in the form of a $30 million increase to the preferred PIPE, which boosts the SPAC’s sponsor total equity investment in the transaction to $80 million, and a commitment to invest up to $30 million from X-Energy founder Kam Ghaffarian.

Together with the other existing funding mechanisms, this deal is now expect to provide up to $534 million in gross proceeds to the target, assuming no redemptions. This would also represent more than half of the company’s equity, under the re-struck terms.

Along with the announcement of the new funding, Ares noted that it has slashed X-Energy’s valuation a second time to $1.05 billion from $1.8 billion under a previous amendment and $2.1 billion at announcement.

The parties initially announced the deal in December 2022 and its post-close enterprise value is now expected to be $1.18 billion according to a refreshed presentation.

Rockville, Maryland-based X-energy has developed small modular nuclear reactor technology designed to provide nuclear plants for projects ranging from individual industrial sites to regional utilities.