Eversource’s Aquarion to buy Plainville water utility parent
Bridgeport-based Aquarion Co. said it has agreed to purchase Plainville’s New England Service Co., which operates four water utilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The all-stock deal, which still needs regulatory and shareholder approvals, would add approximately 10,000 customers to Aquarion’s customer base of 216,000, and comes about three years after New England utility giant Eversource paid $1.7 billion to acquire Aquarion.
Shareholders of NESC, which trades on the OTC Pink Sheets, would receive 0.51208 shares of Eversource common stock for each NESC share they hold. Aquarion said the value of the transaction is $40.6 million plus approximately $10 million in assumed debt.
Based on the April 6 closing share price of Eversource and NESC, the deal implies a value of $44.90 per NESC share, a 95% premium over its April 6 closing price of $23 per share, the parties said.
The NESC-owned Valley Water Systems, which has over 6,800 customers in Plainville, Southington, and Farmington, is the largest of NESC’s regulated holdings. The others include Colonial Water Co. and Mountain Water Systems in Massachusetts, and Abenaki Water Co. in New Hampshire.
Aquarion, which has acquired more than 70 water systems over the past decade, said it would retain all of NESC’s employees and that the merger “will create long-term benefits for customers, employees, and the communities we serve.”
"We will make investments in these water systems focused on reliability and water quality and deliver a superior customer experience,” Aquarion President Donald Morrissey said in a statement.
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