Why Is Vistra Stock Trading Higher On Friday?

Vistra Corp. VST shares are trading higher premarket on Friday after the company disclosed that it had executed a definitive agreement to acquire seven modern natural gas generation facilities for $1.9 billion, or roughly $743 per kilowatt on Thursday.

The facilities totaled around 2,600 MW of capacity from Lotus Infrastructure Partners.

The acquisition includes five combined cycle gas turbine facilities and two combustion turbine facilities located across PJM, New England, New York, and California, further geographically diversifying Vistra’s natural gas fleet.

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The acquisition is projected to immediately benefit Vistra shareholders through accretion to Ongoing Operations AFCFbG1 per share.

Vistra intends to finance the transaction by assuming an existing term loan from Lotus and using available cash.

While the exact amount of the assumed term loan may vary, it is currently anticipated to be about 50% of the purchase price at closing.

The purchase price represents a multiple of approximately 7x the estimated 2026 Adjusted EBITDA before considering any potential synergies.

Upon receiving certain regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in late 2025 or early 2026.

Vistra President and CEO Jim Burke said, “We believe natural gas-fired generation will continue to play an ever-increasing role in the reliability, affordability, and flexibility of U.S. power grids for years to come.”

”The addition of this attractive portfolio of combined cycle and peaking assets allows Vistra to serve growing power demand while exceeding our mid-teens levered return target.”

The company reaffirmed its previously outlined capital allocation strategy, which includes an anticipated return of capital to shareholders through planned annual dividends of $300 million and a minimum of $1 billion in share repurchases each year.

As of March 31, 2025, Vistra had a total available liquidity of around $3.90 billion. 

Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Virtus Reaves Utilities ETF UTES and TCW Transform Systems ETF PWRD.

Price Action: VST shares are up 4.79% to $159.35 premarket at the last check on Friday.

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