Customer growth continues to rebound from housing slowdown
BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Aqua America (NYSE: WTR) announced today that its Ohio and North
Carolina subsidiaries completed acquisitions of water system assets in
both states at year-end. Earlier in 2014, Aqua America's other regulated
subsidiaries completed acquisitions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Illinois, Texas, and Virginia, bringing the total number of acquisitions
to 16 for this year. These acquisitions were complemented by the
continued rebound in the housing market since the post-recession lows,
allowing the company to meet its overall customer growth goals.
Aqua Ohio purchased the assets of the Lake Mohawk and Lake Tomahawk
water utilities that serve approximately 3,100 people in Northeastern
Ohio for $1.76 million.
The Lake Mohawk development will be operated by current Aqua Ohio
personnel out of existing operations centers. Each of the communities is
within 30 minutes of existing Aqua operations, allowing the utility to
take advantage of economies of scale with respect to operating the
systems.
"We welcome residents of these two lake communities into the Aqua family
of customers," said Aqua Ohio President Ed Kolodziej. "We look forward
to providing them with a high level of service and reliability, and
quality water."
Aqua America Chairman Nicholas DeBenedictis said, "Our purchase of the
former Ohio American Water properties in May 2012 added more than
150,000 people to Aqua's service territory, making us the largest
private water system in the state. Having successfully integrated those
operations into our Aqua Ohio company, we are now fulfilling our goal to
continue to grow the company in Ohio, our second largest state
operation."
Aqua North Carolina acquired the water system assets of the Honeycutt
Water systems for $75,000. The systems serve about 260 people in the
Glennburn, Knollwood and Wimbledon developments in Gaston County.
Aqua will operate the systems from its western regional office in
Denver, North Carolina. Aqua North Carolina serves more than 250,000
people in 51 counties statewide.
Additionally, during 2014, the company's non-regulated subsidiary, Aqua
Resources, completed the acquisition of two water and wastewater service
companies, which are expected to have combined annual revenues of $12.5
million in 2015. These companies provide infrastructure rehabilitation
and water and wastewater services to municipal and private companies.
Aqua Resources also was awarded five operations and maintenance
contracts throughout the year for water and wastewater systems in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly traded water
utilities and serves nearly 3 million people in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana and Virginia. Aqua
America is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol
WTR. Visit AquaAmerica.com
for more information.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. There are
important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed or implied including the projected combined annual
sales of the operations acquired by Aqua Resources by such
forward-looking statements including: general economic business
conditions; housing and customer growth trends; the success of growth
initiatives; the successful integration of the acquisitions into the
Company, the success of the company's unregulated acquisitions, and
other factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is on
file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information
regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Aqua America's
business, please refer to Aqua America's annual, quarterly and other SEC
filings. Aqua America is not under any obligation — and expressly
disclaims any such obligation — to update or alter its forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
WTRF
Aqua America, Inc.
Donna Alston
O: 610-645-1095
M:
484-368-4720
DPAlston@AquaAmerica.com
or
Brian
Dingerdissen
O: 610-645-1191
BJDingerdissen@AquaAmerica.com
Source: Aqua America, Inc.
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