M&A · Energy · Water Supply
American Water Works Company, Inc. to acquire Essential Utilities, Inc.
Announced Oct 27, 2025 · Pending Dec 31, 2025
Deal value—
Premium—To unaffected price
EV / Adj. EBITDA—
ConsiderationAll stock
Transaction
- Acquirer
- American Water Works Company, Inc. (AWK)
- Target
- Essential Utilities, Inc. (WTRG)
- Buyer type
- Strategic
- Offer price per share
- —
- Enterprise value
- —
- Status
- Pending Dec 31, 2025
Deal protections
- Break fee (target pays)
- $370M
- Reverse fee (buyer pays)
- $835M
- Go-shop
- No-shop
- Financing
- No financing condition
Advisors
- To the acquirer
- BofA Securities
- To the target
- Moelis
- BofA Securities fee
- $45.0M
- Moelis fee
- $4.0M
Sector context · Energy
- Comparable deals
- 38 in the prior 24 months
- Premium
- Sector median 18.9%
- EV / Adj. EBITDA
- Sector median 8.5x
- Break fee
- Sector median 3.0%
Timeline
- AnnouncedOct 27, 2025
- Proxy filedDec 31, 2025
- Definitive proxyDec 31, 2025
- Shareholder votePending
- ClosedPending
Valuation · fairness opinions
Trading comparablesBofA Securities$40.95$46.25
Trading comparablesBofA Securities$40.10$45.35
Trading comparablesBofA Securities$40.20$48.60
Precedent transactionsBofA Securities$38.00$62.60
Discounted cash flowBofA Securities$42.15$55.85
Discounted cash flowMoelis$9,731.00$14,835.00
Discounted cash flowMoelis$34.29$52.21
Discounted cash flowMoelis$24,675.00$30,767.00
Discounted cash flowMoelis$126.12$157.26
Trading comparablesMoelis$9,697.00$12,845.00
Implied value per Essential Utilities, Inc. share by analysis, from BofA Securities and Moelis · DCF discount rate 6.25%–7.25%.