Spark Energy, Inc. Announces Buyout of Verde Earnout Obligations

Spark Energy, Inc. ("Spark" or the "Company") announced today that the company and Verde Energy USA Holdings, LLC ("Verde") have agreed to terminate the earnout provisions of the purchase and sale transaction in which Spark acquired Verde’s operating subsidiaries in July 2017.

Pursuant to the Membership Interest and Stock Purchase Agreement (MIPA) entered into between the Company, its subsidiary, and Verde on May 5, 2017, the Company was obligated to pay 100% of the Adjusted EBITDA earned by the Verde Companies for the 18 months following closing that exceeds certain thresholds, subject to the Verde Companies’ ability to achieve defined customer count criteria. In connection with such obligations, Verde’s existing management continued to operate the business as a separate entity during the earnout period. The buyout transaction provides for a lump sum payment of approximately $6.0 million in June 2019 in substitution of the existing earnout obligations. With the buyout of the earnout provision, Spark management will assume complete control over Verde’s operations, effective immediately.

"The early buyout of the Verde earnout gives us the opportunity to begin immediate improvement in our bottom line results," said Nathan Kroeker, Spark Energy’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "As I mentioned on our last earnings call, one of our near-term strategic priorities is to maximize process efficiencies and synergies through the integration of recent acquisitions. By ending the Verde earnout almost a year early, we are able to accelerate and realize synergies of the acquisition that should increase our Adjusted EBITDA performance in future periods."