American Water Works → Essential Utilities
An all-stock merger, agreed in October 2025 at a combined enterprise value of about $63bn, between American Water, the largest regulated US water and wastewater utility, and Essential Utilities, owner of Aqua and Peoples Natural Gas — still before state utility commissions as of 29 September 2026.
An all-stock merger of the two largest listed US water utilities, quoted at a combined enterprise value rather than a cash price.
- Value
- $63B
- Announced
- October 2025
- Completed
- Pending
- Sector
- Utilities
- Deal type
- merger
- Acquirer
- American Water Works (United States)
- Target
- Essential Utilities (United States)
Why it mattered
Regulated water utilities grow their earnings by growing the rate base, the invested capital on which state commissions allow a return, and both companies had done so by renewing ageing networks and buying smaller systems; Aqua America, Essential's predecessor, completed 300 acquisitions between 1993 and 2013. American Water, based in Camden, New Jersey, served more than 14 million people in 14 states. Essential, based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, served about 5.5 million people in nine states and, through Peoples, bought for $4.27bn in a deal announced in 2018, supplied gas to about 746,000 customers in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
The terms, announced on 27 October 2025, gave Essential holders 0.305 of an American Water share for each share, a premium of about 10% on 60-day average prices, and left American Water's shareholders with about 69% of a group worth about $40bn in the market, with 4.7 million water and wastewater connections in 17 states and a water and wastewater rate base of about $29.3bn. No debt was to be issued and, the companies said, customer rates would not change because of the merger. The group would keep the American Water name and John Griffith as chief executive, and review options for its businesses outside water and wastewater.
What it left behind
Both companies' shareholders approved the deal on 10 February 2026. Kentucky approved it on 21 April, Ohio in May and Virginia on 22 June, and the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expired on 14 August. Pennsylvania, Essential's home state, was still open: on 15 September the companies filed a settlement with the state's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, Office of Consumer Advocate and Office of Small Business Advocate, which at least one party did not join and which needs the Public Utility Commission's approval. Settlements in Texas and North Carolina also awaited approval, and as of 29 September 2026 the companies still expected to close by the end of March 2027. In regulated utilities the federal antitrust clock is rarely the binding constraint; the timetable belongs to state commissions and to the consumer advocates whose settlements they weigh.