Fortis Inc. bought UNS Energy: Continuous consolidation in Energy Sector

Canada based international diversified electric utility holding company, Fortis Inc. has announced the acquisition of UNS Energy (fka Unisource Energy Corporation) , parent company of Tucson Electric Power and Unisource Energy Services.

Fortis Inc. was formed in 1987 after spun-off from transmission and distribution utility Newfoundland Light and Power Co. With in past couple of years company has announced two big shot acquisitions, namely Central Vermont Public Service in May 2011 worth $700 million and CH Energy group in February 2012 worth $1.5 billion.

Tuscon Electric Power is an electric utility company serving Southern Arizona in United States.  The acquisition  will not impact the operations of the two mentioned subsidiaries of the parent company UNS Energy.  UNS has consolidated assets of $4 billion and its both mentioned subsidiaries serves 412,000 and 242,000 customers respectively across the state.   

Fortis inc is supposed to inject $200 million in the company to improve its balance sheet.  It will also help in the future planned purchase of Unit 3 at natural gas fired Gila river power plant. UNS is slowly moving away from coal power utilities to gas power and has investment plans in same field.

 As per the deal Fortis has acquired UNS for $4.3 billion.  The deal will let Fortis acquire debt of $1.8 billion all outstanding common stock for $60.25 per share.  The common equity price mentioned for acquisition is 31% premium to the closing price of day prior to acquisition.  After the deal UNS Energy stock price rose to $58.91 i.e. 29% rise, biggest gain in past 20 years.  While on other side Fortis share price fell by 3.4%.

Thomson's insight into Russian Energy - Acquisition of Kortes

Thomson Reuters, leading media and information analytic multinational, on November 14, 2013 announced the acquisition of Kortes, a leading Russian energy and commodity information provider for an disclosed amount.  This combination will  solidify Thomson's coverage of Energy and commodity market in Russian Federation and Commonwealth of Independent States.

Russia is often coined as "Energy Superpower".  Country has the world's largest natural gas reserves, eighth largest oil reserves, second largest coal reserves.  Russia is world's leading natural gas exporter and second largest producer, apart from being largest oil producer and exporter.  In Energy front, Russia is third largest electricity producer and fifth largest renewable energy producer.

Kortes was established in 1991 to provide insights in Russian oil market.  Over the years it has established itself as most reliable and comprehensive information and analytics provider for oil, gas and energey market.  Company provides price monotoring, company profiling, statistics, market studies of whole energy and oil market of concerned region.  Kortes has over 400 subscribers which includes news agencies, state organizations apart from oil and energy companies from over the globe.

With this acquisition Thomson Reuters has expanded its wings in Russian commodity and energy sector.  This will be incorporate in company's financial market desktop Eikon.  This will give Eikon a further move on, which already provides real time insights to over 20,000 financial professionals.