MidAmerican originally inked the deal to purchase the company in May of last year from former owner ScottishPower. The last of the required federal approvals for the acquisition were received last week.
Under the new ownership, PacifiCorp will be divided into three individual business units, MidAmerican said, which will include power generation, commercial/energy trading and coal mining operations under the heading of PacifiCorp Energy.
Additionally, Rocky Mountain Power will concentrate on delivery of power to Wyoming and Idaho customers under the name Rocky Mountain Power, and under the name Utah Power in Utah. The company’s Pacific Power unit will manage electricity for Oregon, Washington and California customers.
The company will continue to conduct business from its headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
“This is an exciting day in the history of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company and PacifiCorp,” said MidAmerican chief David Sokol. “We look forward to supporting PacifiCorp as it builds upon its record of outstanding service to customers in Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and California.”
Management changes were also announced Wednesday, including the transition of current commercial and training vice-president Stan Watters to president of Pacific Power. Also, the company named Richard Walje president of Rocky Mountain Power, which will be headquartered in Salt Lake City; he will remain president of Utah Power, which will also keep its head office there.
Lastly, Greg Abel will lead PacifiCorp, the parent organisation of PacifiCorp Energy, Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power, as chairman and CEO, and continue his service as president of MidAmerican Energy.
“The new organisation will further enhance the regional identity of our electric distribution businesses and provide a greater focus on the electric generation business,” said Abel. “The leaders of these business units bring a high level of knowledge and experience to their new positions with the common objective to deliver outstanding service to their customers.”
Glasgow, Scotland-based ScottishPower chief Philip Bowman expressed his satisfaction with the deal in a written statement: “I am pleased that we have been able to complete the sale of PacifiCorp to MEHC on favourable terms and considerably ahead of the timetable originally envisaged when the deal was announced in May 2005.
“The completion of the PacifiCorp sale will allow the group [ScottishPower] to concentrate on developing its continuing businesses.”
MidAmerican gained 1.6 million customers in six states throughout the West as well as a number of power plants in the acquisition deal. It will also add some $US10 billion in revenue annually and boost generating capacity to more than 16,000MW.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings is under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella, which is owned by finance mogul Warren Buffet.
