July 31, 2020 • EPE Related News
El Paso Electric's pending $4.3 billion sale is expected to become final Wednesday
El Paso Electric's pending $4.3 billion sale is expected to become final Wednesday
The electric utility and the buyer, the JPMorgan Chase-tied Infrastructure Investments Fund, or IIF, announced Monday that they plan to close the sale July 29.
The announcement of the sale closing date was expected after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order July 22 giving its final approval for the sale.
The FERC order was the final regulatory approval needed to complete the transaction, El Paso Electric and IIF officials said in a news release issued Monday.
IIF in June 2019 agreed to buy El Paso Electric, and it's taken more than a year for the proposed sale to get approved by federal, Texas and New Mexico regulatory agencies, and the El Paso City Council.
It's unclear if some last-minute questions from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission about possible foreign ownership in companies tied to the acquisition delayed the final closing date.
El Paso Electric and IIF sent a response Sunday to the questions, which were posed in a July 17 letter from the NRC, and those are being reviewed, Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman, said in an email.
The NRC in March approved transferring El Paso Electric's NRC license for the utility's part ownership in the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona to an IIF company. That transfer is to occur with the closing of the sale.
The license transfer approval remains, but the agency is reviewing responses from El Paso Electric and IIF "to determine whether any further regulatory action is needed for the transferred license," Burnell said.
The NRC staff wants answers about the possible foreign ownership ties because federal law and NRC regulations have provisions "focused on ensuring U.S. citizens and/or (U.S.) companies make safety-related decisions at U.S. nuclear plants," Burnell said.
The NRC staff recently discovered the possible foreign ownership ties to IIF companies tied to the utility acquisition in filings IIF made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, according to the NRC letter.
When asked about the NRC questions Friday, El Paso Electric and IIF provided a statement to the El Paso Times.
“We remain confident that our transaction meets the requirements for regulatory approval, including from the NRC, and we look forward to closing the transaction," the statement read.
El Paso Electric and IIF officials did not immediately respond to an El Paso Times question Monday about whether the NRC questions delayed setting the date for the sale closing.
El Paso Electric's stock will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange after the sale is closed to the privately held IIF and its affiliated companies.
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