AES shares jumped more than 15% to $15.15, trading at their highest level in around 11 months, on the news which was first reported by the Financial Times

International News via Reuters:

BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners is in advanced talks to buy utility group AES, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in a deal that could exceed $38 billion including debt.

AES shares jumped more than 15% to $15.15, trading at their highest level in around 11 months, on the news which was first reported by the Financial Times.

A transaction could be announced in the coming weeks, according to two of the sources, who cautioned there was no guarantee that an agreement will be reached and talks could still fall through.

The two sources, plus two further sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, confirmed that discussions have been ongoing between AES and GIP in recent months.

AES carries consolidated debt of around $29 billion and, as of last close, its market capitalization stood at $9.37 billion, implying an enterprise value of more than $38 billion.

AES declined comment. GIP did not respond to a request for comment.

Power companies are drawing investor interest as artificial intelligence and data centers drive a surge in power demand, spurring a wave of dealmaking across the sector.

AES, which surpassed Wall Street estimates for its second-quarter profit in July, has experienced significant growth in its renewables unit over the past year. This expansion has been fueled by a global push for cleaner sources of power generation, coinciding with projections that U.S. power consumption will reach record levels.

BlackRock last year acquired GIP for $12.5 billion as part of its move to expand its footprint in infrastructure and private markets.

GIP has a notable track record in the utility space, including teaming up with CPP Investments last year on a pending  $6.2 billion take-private acquisition of U.S. utility Allete.

Arlington, Virginia-based AES has power assets on four continents, generating more than 36,000 megawatts, according to its website.

Reporting by David French in New York and Gnaneshwar Rajan and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Ateev Bhandari and Arunima Kumar ; Editing by Alan Barona, Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Harikrishnan Nair, Krishna Chandra Eluri, Mark Porter and Nick Zieminski

Althoff will lead what Microsoft CEO Nadella called a new organization, which will combine sales, marketing and operations

International News via Reuters:

Microsoft Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff will take on an expanded role as CEO of commercial business, freeing up company chief Satya Nadella to focus more on the technical side of the business in the tech giant’s quest to dominate the AI race.

Althoff will lead what Microsoft CEO Nadella called a new organization, which will combine sales, marketing and operations.

Nadella said the reorganization would help him and other engineering leaders to be “laser focused on our highest ambition technical work – across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation,” in a blog post on Wednesday.

Althoff will also be the chief of a new commercial leadership team that includes leaders from engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance.

“We are in the midst of a tectonic AI platform shift, one that requires us to both manage and grow our at-scale commercial business today, while building the new frontier and executing flawlessly across both,” Nadella said.

In 2021, Microsoft brought together its global sales and marketing organization and worldwide commercial business into a single unified organization, helmed by Althoff, who joined the company in 2013 as president of Microsoft North America.

Microsoft last month said it is combining the separate marketplaces for its AI tools aimed at businesses into one offering called “Microsoft Marketplace.”

It previously offered tools for software developers, who use its Azure cloud computing service, on one marketplace, and applications and so-called “agents” — AI tools designed to carry out tasks on behalf of human users within applications — on another.

Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Sahal Muhammed

Money managers including Ninety One, Pictet Group, Railpen and Royal London Asset Management urged the EU to stay the course on rules requiring importers of oil and gas

International News via Reuters:

Investors representing more than 4.5 trillion euros ($5.3 trillion) of assets have urged the EU not to water-down its methane emissions law amid concerns the rules may be weakened to ease U.S. LNG imports, according to a letter seen by Reuters. 

Money managers including Ninety One, Pictet Group, Railpen and Royal London Asset Management urged the EU to stay the course on rules requiring importers of oil and gas to monitor and report the methane emissions of their suppliers.

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and scientists say it is responsible for about one-third of the warming experienced to date since pre-industrial times.  

Investors are concerned the European Union’s methane rules will be brought into the scope of the bloc’s simplification agenda after U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright said recently the current legislation would prevent the United States from exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe. 

“The goals are admirable, and we all want to reduce methane emissions, and we will reduce methane emissions. But having laws that will prevent American gas coming here would be completely unproductive from a social cost and environmental perspective. So yes, those laws absolutely need to be fixed,” Wright said in September. 

The first phase of the EU methane law is in force and does not appear to have affected U.S. gas exports to Europe – with importers of gas into Europe having to report details of their suppliers’ efforts to reduce methane emissions from May 2025.

A European Commission spokesperson said it was confident EU methane regulation would not pose any barriers to trade. 

The EU has pledged to hike its purchases of U.S. energy – including LNG, as well as oil and nuclear fuel – to $250 billion per year, as part of a trade deal struck earlier this year.

The investor group warned that reopening the regulation would introduce unpredictability and undermine companies and investors working towards complying with the rules, as well as slow down efforts to reduce the volume of highly damaging methane gas released into the atmosphere. 

“Watering down regulation that companies have already based investment decisions on is counterproductive and risks undermining globally agreed methane reduction efforts,” said Eric Pederson, head of responsible investments at Nordea Asset Management. 

Europe has massively increased its imports of U.S. LNG, as it seeks to replace Russian energy after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The U.S. supplied 57% of the EU’s LNG, or 49.2 billion cubic metres, in January-August this year, Commission data show. The U.S. supplied 28% of the EU’s LNG – or 18.9 bcm – in 2021, the year before Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine.

Industries say they are more concerned by a tougher phase of the EU methane law, which will apply from 2027.

($1 = 0.8508 euros)

Reporting by Virginia FurnessEditing by Mark Potter