Shareholders Approve Merger Between Major Italian Utilities Iride and Enia

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--During a meeting on April 30, Iride SpA (BIT:IRD) (Turin, Italy) shareholders approved the company's merger with Enia SpA (BIT:EN) (Parma, Italy), a process that began in October 2008. Enia shareholders approved the plan on April 28.

According to the merger plans, Iride will absorb Enia and form a multiutility. A name has not yet been decided. The exchange rate between shares will be 4.2 Iride shares per Enia share, and corporate governance will consist of an administrative council of 13 members.

The new company will serve more than 1.7 million customers in the energy market and 2.4 million customers in the water and environmental services markets. With estimated consolidated earnings of 3.8 billion euros and estimated consolidated profits of 151 million euros in 2008, the company will be one of the top three largest utility companies in Italy.

Iride was created in 2006 by the merging of municipal utilities AEM (Turin) and AMGA (Genova). It operates 17 power stations -- 12 hydro, one photovoltaic and four thermoelectric with cogeneration -- with an installed capacity of 1,055 megawatts (MW) of electricity and 1,060 MW of thermal energy for district heating. It also provides gas distribution and water services.

Enia was created in 2006 from the municipal utilities AGAC (Reggio Emilia), AMPS (Parma) and Tesa (Piacenza). This multiutility distributes and sells gas, electricity and heating, and provides services in integrated water systems and waste treatment. For more information, view related April 2, 2009, news article - Merger Between Italian Utilities Iride and Enia Merger Moves Forward.

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