Orlando, FL 2/21/12 (StreetBeat) -- The Canadian utility Fortis (TSX: FTS) agreed on Tuesday to buy the CH Energy Group (NYSE: CHG) in an all-cash deal valued at $1 billion as part of its expansion into the United States.Fortis said it was offering CH Energy’s shareholders $65 for each of their shares, 10.5 percent above the company’s closing share price on Friday. Fortis will also assume $500 million of CH Energy’s outstanding debt upon completion of the acquisition, according to a company statement.
The deal, which is expected to close by early next year, will give Fortis control over a regulated energy transmission and distribution business with 375,000 customers in eight counties of New York State’s Mid-Hudson River Valley, the company added. It would also allow the utility to enter the regulated electric and natural gas distribution markets in the United States, which set maximum prices that companies can charge customers.
“CH Energy Group’s regulated utility operations in New York State are similar to our regulated utility operations in Canada,” the Fortis chief executive, H. Stanley Marshall, said in a statement. “CH Energy Group will be able to avail itself of the operational, regulatory and financial expertise existent throughout Fortis.”
No layoffs are expected from the acquisition, which must still be approved by CH Energy’s shareholders, the New York State Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Fortis, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, said the transaction would immediately bolster earnings, excluding one-time expenses.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the law firm White & Case advised Fortis on the deal. The investment adviser Lazard and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised CH Energy.
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