Iberdrola Closes in on Energy East Acquisition

Spanish power utility Iberdrola has decided to go ahead with the acquisition of Energy East, which distributes and markets electricity and gas in the US.

The decision came following analysis of the conditions stipulated by the New York State Public Services Commission (NYPSC) in voting to approve the transaction and in the order granting approval issued on September 9, 2008. Iberdola considered this to be consistent with the financial and value creation criteria it has set for corporate transactions.

In particular, the NYPSC authorization, containing conditions customary to this kind of transaction, involves no limitation on Iberdrola’s ability to develop wind power activities in the state of New York. Regulatory approval had been previously obtained from all other federal and state authorities.

With the acquisition of Energy East, Iberdrola increases its volume of distributed energy by 25% and its customer base to more than 27 million customers with generating capacity standing at around 42,000MW. With the acquisition, Iberdrola assets in the US amount to $20 billion.