Ares, Oaktree File Fraud Suit Over MasTec’s $1 Billion IEA Deal

Ares Management Corp. and Oaktree Capital Management LP affiliates sued MasTec Inc., claiming it used fraudulent promises to dupe them into approving its $1.1 billion acquisition of Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court, accuses the infrastructure companies of reaching a voting agreement with the private equity firms—major IEA stockholders whose consent was essential to the transaction—by pledging that the merger would trigger their anti-dilution rights.

Ares and Oaktree, a Brookfield Asset Management Inc. affiliate, were allegedly told their participation in the transaction would obligate IEA to issue them hundreds of thousands of stock ...