Philadelphia Suburban Corporation (PSC) has announced that it completed a major acquisition of one of the largest remaining U.S. water companies. It has purchased the investor-owned water and wastewater systems of AquaSource for an estimated $195 million in cash.
The final purchase price could vary as purchase price adjustments are applied post-closing. These adjustments are based on the achievement of specific performance measures, including revenue, rate base and customer connections, as well as working capital.
The acquisition expands PSC's customer base by more than 20% and expands its operations to a total of 15 states. The AquaSource operations being purchased by PSC account for approximately 130,000 customer accounts.
However, PSC announced in May 2003 that it had reached an agreement of sale with Birmingham Utilities, Inc. and Birmingham H2O Services, Inc., wholly-owned subsidiaries of BIW Limited — an investor-owned water utility based in Ansonia, Conn.— to sell the regulated (2,100 customers) and non-regulated Connecticut operations and the regulated New York operations (1,100 customers) of AquaSource, Inc. to Birmingham for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $5.0 million.
"We are looking forward to integrating the AquaSource operations into our company and are particularly excited about the growth opportunities that exist in some of the faster-growing states like Texas, Indiana, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina. The acquisition will also give PSC greater geographic and regulatory diversity and provide new service areas in the southern, mid-Atlantic and mid-western United States," said Nicholas DeBenedictis, PSC Chairman.
The acquisition of AquaSource is the second in number of customers only to PSC's acquisition by merger of the former Consumers Water Company in 1999, which yielded PSC an additional 230,000 customers at that time.
PSC is the largest U.S.-based, investor-owned water utility in the U.S. and provides water and wastewater services to approximately 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Source: Business Wire
