FERC Approves MARA’s $1.5 Billion Ohio Gas Plant Acquisition

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved MARA Holdings’ acquisition of the Long Ridge natural gas plant in Ohio, clearing a major step in the Bitcoin miner’s $1.5 billion expansion into power generation.

MARA announced the acquisition in April. Under the deal, it would retain about $900 million in Long Ridge debt and pay about $610 million in cash. The transaction’s enterprise value is about $1.512 billion, or roughly 10.5 times about $144 million in annualized adjusted EBITDA.

MARA plans to apply a roughly $600 million Bitcoin-backed loan drawn in August toward the cash portion. Long Ridge has 505 megawatts of nameplate capacity, with 485 megawatts of output approved.

FERC also declined to require the plant to keep selling electricity into the PJM grid as a condition of approval. The case is listed under FERC docket EC26-92, and the deal’s outside closing deadline is Nov. 30.