RE:large offering shortly before earnings....I'm thinking the deal with Abengoa was ready to go (all terms agreed upon), AQN's share price was at a nice level, and AQN had to do the financing this week in order to have it close before they reported Q3/17 earnings. No company wants to announce earnings when all of its big-bank covering analysts are restricted on the stock. And if they sat on the deal for another two weeks, who knows what the market (or AQN's share price) would do in the meantime.
They 100% know the quarterly results in detail at this stage, and where they stand versus the Street, so I'm inclined to believe it'll at least be an in-line Q.