Boise-Based Intermountain Gas Looks to Sell

By Kovsky, Eddie

Intermountain Gas is looking for a buyer, but any change in ownership is unlikely to impact customers.

Customers would only be impacted if a new owner changed rates or sold assets that had been paid for by customer fees, in which case the Public Utilities Commission would get involved in regulating the sale, commission spokesman Gene Fadness said.

“From what we’ve heard, and we have not seen anything, the commission would not be that involved,” he said. “It may just be a stock sale. It’s pure speculation at this point.”

Intermountain Gas President Bill Glynn has confirmed publicly that the privately owned utility is looking for a buyer. The Boise Weekly broke the story April 2.

Glynn said Intermountain Industries, which owns Intermountain Gas, would be selling the utility’s common stock to the new owner.

Representatives from Intermountain Gas have met with commissioners individually, Fadness said.

“We want them to be fully knowledgeable of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” Glynn said. “They were the first people, along with our employees, to know about the board’s decision.”

Even though a lot of the details – like finding a buyer – haven’t been worked out, Intermountain wanted to make the announcement early.

“A lot of times these announcements aren’t made until we’re far along in the process,” Glynn said. “We didn’t want customers and the PUC to find this out in rumor mill. As a consequence it will probably be at least 60 days before a buyer starts to solidify.”

Intermountain Gas is owned by Intermountain Industries, which also owns III Exploration Company and Petroglyph Energy, which explore for natural gas and oil deposits, and InterWest Capital, the company’s venture investment division.

There are two natural gas companies doing business in Idaho – Intermountain Gas in the southern part of the state, and Avista in the north.

Questar Gas, based in Salt Lake City, also has a small number of customers in the Malad area, Fadness said.

Glynn said the decision to sell Intermountain is just a response to the consolidation occurring in the energy industry.

“We are now one of the smaller companies in that segment of the industry – natural gas distribution,” he said. “We see the consolidation trend continuing, and want to be sure we can mange the outcome of that consolidation. We want to be sure that whoever we sell it to will have the same culture we’ve had for the last twenty years of ownership.”

Credit: Eddie Kovsky

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires)

(c) 2008 Idaho Business Review, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.