Ashurst advises AGL on strategic partnership and 20% equity interest acquisition in Kaluza

Global law firm Ashurst has advised AGL Energy Limited on its end-to-end contractual suite for the customisation of Kaluza Ltd's energy billing platform, the migration of AGL's customer base to the Kaluza platform, as well as the acquisition of a 20% equity interest in Kaluza. The cash consideration to be paid by AGL for the equity investment is ~AUD$150m, valuing Kaluza at ~AUD$750m.

AGL will implement and roll out Kaluza over the next three years across AGL's 4 million consumer electricity and gas customer services as part of its retail transformation program. The strategic investment and arrangement represent a significant milestone in AGL's transformation journey to connect more customers to a sustainable future and support customers as they decarbonise whilst also reducing operating costs for AGL's customer business in the future.

The estimated implementation costs for the retail transformation program's residential and small business customer solution component will be ~A$300 million over four financial years. 

AGL operates Australia's largest private electricity generation portfolio within the National Electricity Market and supplies around 4.3 million energy and telecommunications customer services. 

Kaluza is a technology platform that digitises and simplifies energy billing, reduces service costs and enables faster product innovation to facilitate the energy transition. Kaluza currently services more than 6 million meters at OVO Energy in the UK.

Partner Geoff McGrath said: 

"Ashurst is pleased to support AGL with the next stage of its transformational journey through the 20% equity interest acquisition and strategic partnership with Kaluza. This transaction was an excellent example of Ashurst's global platform assisting a priority client to execute a significant business initiative across multiple jurisdictions."

Partner Chris Grey added:

"Congratulations to the AGL team and our global Corporate Transactions and Digital Economy teams based in Sydney and London for co-leading this historic deal."

The Ashurst team was co-led by partners Geoff McGrath and Emma Butler (Digital Economy Transactions) and partners Phil Breden (Sydney) and Chris Grey (London) (Corporate Transactions), who were assisted by: partners Rebecca Cope and Clare Doneley, counsel Caroline Hogan and senior associate David Baldi (Digital Economy Transactions, Australia); partner Sunny Kumar and senior associate Aaron Cole (Digital Economy Transactions, London); senior associate Aimi Gold (Digital Economy Transactions, Glasgow); partners Sanjay Wavde and Elke Bremner, counsel Paul Glover, and senior associate Daniel Richards (Tax); partners Phil Breden and Anita Choi and senior associate Will Mason (Corporate Transactions); senior associates Liam Stoneley and Tom McCann (Corporate Transactions, London); partner Camilla Clemente and senior associate Jesse Dwyer (RSSG); partner Alyssa Phillips and senior associate Matthew Harper (Competition); partner Ruth Buchanan (Employment, London); and partner Tim Rennie (Global Loans, London).