Exelon Corporation
(
EXC
) has sold three of its coal-fired power plants to Raven Power
Holdings LLC, a unit of Riverstone Holdings LLC, as per its
Constellation-merger condition. The total deal value was
approximately $400 million.
Per the agreement, Raven Power will keep the jobs with comparable
pay and benefits for the existing employees at the plants.
Earlier in March 2012, Exelon merged with Constellation in a
stock-for-stock transaction. The total transaction value was $7.9
billion. During the time of merger-filing with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission ("FERC"), both the organizations guaranteed
that this transaction will not cause competitive concerns in the
future. To keep up with the commitments, Exelon intended to sell
the concerned operations within 180 days after the closing of the
agreement.
The assets allocated for selling are jointly known as "Maryland
Clean Coal", which includes the Brandon Shores at Pasadena, the
C.P. Crane at Middle River and the H.A. Wagner at Pasadena.
This contract is expected to create a cash-tax benefit of $205
million in the future. Major portion of the net proceeds will
supposedly be utilized in 2012 and 2013. On account of
distinction between sale-price and carrying-value of those
plants, Exelon posted a pre-tax loss of nearly $278 million in
operating and maintenance expense in third-quarter 2012. This
divestment is expected to generate net after-tax cash sale
proceeds of roughly $500 million during 2013, and around $65
million in 2014 and subsequent years. Exelon is expected to
primarily utilize the gain from this contract for enhancement of
its core operations.
Exelon has already experienced positive impacts related to its
merger with Constellation in the third quarter of 2012. Riding on
Constellation's strong contribution, the company's quarterly
revenue increased 34.6% year over year to $7.02 billion. We
expect Exelon to realize further synergies going forward.
However, we expect Exelon's fourth-quarter and full-year 2012
performance to be negatively affected by the impact of Hurricane
Sandy.
Chicago, Illinois-based Exelon Corporation engages in generation,
transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to the
residential, commercial, industrial and wholesale customers.
With a market capitalization of $25.04 billion, the company has
19,267 full time employees. Both Exelon Corporation and one of
its peers
Ameren Corporation
(
AEE
) currently have a short-term Zacks #3 Rank (Hold rating).
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