The developer of the largest offshore wind farm in the US, Dominion Energy, has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with NextEra Energy in an all-stock transaction.

Dominion Energy shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.8138 shares of NextEra Energy for each share of Dominion Energy they own at the close of the transaction, resulting in NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy shareholders owning approximately 74.5% and 25.5% of the combined company, respectively.

The transaction is structured as a 100% stock-for-stock transaction and is expected to be tax-free to shareholders. The combined company will operate under the NextEra Energy name and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NEE. The combined business is valued at more than $400bn, including debt.

It will have dual headquarters in Juno Beach, Florida, and Richmond, Virginia, as well as Dominion Energy South Carolina’s existing operational headquarters in Cayce, South Carolina.

John Ketchum, chairman and CEO of NextEra, will serve as chairman and CEO of the combined company, and Robert Blue, the chair, president, and CEO of Dominion, will serve as president and CEO of regulated utilities and as a member of the board of directors.

The combined company’s board of directors will include 10 directors from NextEra Energy and four from Dominion Energy. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in 12 to 18 months.

According to the two companies, the combination will create the world’s largest regulated electric utility business. The combined company will be more than 80% regulated, serve approximately 10m utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and own 110GW of generation across a broad mix of energy sources.

Additionally, the combined company is proposing $2.25bn in bill credits for Dominion Energy’s customers in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, spread over two years post-close.

“We are bringing NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together because scale matters more than ever— not for the sake of size, but because scale translates into capital and operating efficiencies. It enables us to buy, build, finance and operate more efficiently, which translates into more affordable electricity for our customers in the long run,” Ketchum said.

Dominion Energy is developing the 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is set to become the largest offshore wind farm in the US. Offshore construction off Virginia Beach started in 2024 and is set to be completed in early 2027.

The CVOW project started producing power in March this year. When fully commissioned, the offshore wind farm will generate enough electricity to power over 900,000 homes.