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Interstate Power and Light Company Files for Regulatory Approval of Transmission Asset Sale Agreement

Posted on: Friday, 30 March 2007, 18:00 CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, March 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation , filed a joint application today with ITC Midwest LLC (ITC Midwest), a subsidiary of ITC Holdings Corp. , seeking approval from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to sell the company's transmission assets to ITC Midwest.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020405/LNTLOGO )

Pending satisfactory regulatory approvals from the IUB, Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and antitrust review under the Hart-Scott- Rodino Act along with the satisfaction of other closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007.

As part of the sale agreement, signed by IPL and ITC Midwest on January 18, 2007, ITC Midwest agreed to purchase IPL's transmission assets, including transmission land rights and transmission line and substation facilities, for approximately $750 million, subject to various adjustments at closing.

IPL expects to use approximately $60 million of the net proceeds from the transaction for the benefit of customers by establishing an account to mitigate expected future electric base rate changes resulting from IPL's planned generation investments. IPL previously announced plans to construct a 600 megawatt baseload generating station, located in Marshalltown, Iowa, and an additional 100 megawatts of new wind generation in Iowa. These planned investments will result in over $1.2 billion of additional energy investment in Iowa over the next seven years.

In addition, to preserve IPL's creditworthiness and ability to attract capital, the company indicated its intent in the filing to use the net cash proceeds from the transaction, estimated at $576 million, to redeem $182 million of short-term debt and $394 million to pay a special dividend to its parent company.

The IUB is expected to establish a procedural schedule within the next month and has a maximum of six months from the date of filing to make a determination on the transaction.

"We believe the sale of our transmission assets to an independent transmission company is good for our customers and the State of Iowa," says Tom Aller, President-IPL. "We believe that an independent owner-operator of the transmission system will provide the future infrastructure necessary to facilitate the growth of Iowa's renewable energy and alternative fuels industries, which are important to Iowa's long-term economic growth.

"Our company is committed to working with state and federal regulators to address the various regulatory considerations associated with our sale agreement with ITC Midwest. We believe that our state and federal regulators will determine that this transaction is in the public interest."

This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward- looking statements can be identified as such because the statements include words such as "expected,""anticipates,""believe" or other words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe future strategies or plans are also forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Actual results could be affected by such factors as: state or federal regulatory actions or local government actions which delay or prevent the transmission sale or new generation construction, including inability to obtain all necessary approvals and permits; economic conditions in IPL's service territory; the inability of the purchaser of the transmission assets to finance purchase price; changes to IPL's access to capital markets; political conditions in IPL's service territories; current or future litigation, regulatory investigations, proceedings or inquiries that could impede the implementation of the IPL's plans. These factors should be considered when evaluating the forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The forward-looking statements included herein are made as of the date hereof and Alliant Energy and IPL undertake no obligation to update publicly such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Alliant Energy is an energy-services provider with subsidiaries serving approximately 1 million electric and over 420,000 natural gas customers. Providing its customers in the Midwest with regulated electric and natural gas service is the company's primary focus. Interstate Power and Light, the company's Iowa utility subsidiary, serves 538,000 electric and 239,000 natural gas customers. Alliant Energy, headquartered in Madison, Wis., is a Fortune 1000 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LNT. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.alliantenergy.com/ .

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020405/LNTLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Interstate Power and Light Company

CONTACT: Media, Ryan Stensland, +1-319-786-4171, or Investor Relations,Becky Johnson, +1-608-458-3267, both of Alliant Energy Corporation

Web site: http://www.alliantenergy.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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