Baker Hughes announced a definitive agreement to acquire Chart Industries at $210 per share, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $10.3 billion including debt. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Chart reported record third-quarter orders totaling $1.68 billion, driving a backlog of $6.05 billion at quarter end. Paradice Investment Management fully exited its Chart position in the fourth quarter, selling 58,813 shares for proceeds of $11.77 million. Post-announcement, Chart stock trades primarily as a merger-arbitrage opportunity, reflecting compressed upside potential and execution risk ahead of deal closing.

At the 2026 Baker Hughes Annual Meeting in Florence, the company deepened its partnership with Hydrostor, a leading long-duration energy storage developer. Under the expanded technology solutions and equity agreement, Baker Hughes will supply up to 1.4 gigawatts of compression, expander, motor and generator equipment for Hydrostor’s advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) flagship projects in the United States and Australia. Baker Hughes, an investor in Hydrostor since 2019, expects this collaboration to accelerate construction schedules and broaden the project pipeline to support growing grid reliability needs and AI data center load expansions.

Baker Hughes delivered a record adjusted EBITDA of $4.83 billion for the full year, bolstered by a strong fourth-quarter performance that exceeded guidance with $1.34 billion in adjusted EBITDA. The company generated a record annual free cash flow of $2.7 billion, including $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter alone. Order momentum remained robust, with a year-end backlog of $32.4 billion and a book-to-bill ratio above 1. The Power Systems segment saw orders of $2.5 billion in 2025—$1.0 billion of which was tied to data center applications—while the Industrial and Energy Technology segment recorded a record $14.9 billion in full-year orders. These results underpin a positive outlook as Barclays recently maintained an overweight recommendation on the company.