Concluding a four-month process, AGL Resources reported that ithas entered into an agreement with Alliance Data Systems (ADS) tosell Utilipro, Inc. — a customer care and billing serviceprovider for energy marketers in a number of states. The sale comesjust five months after the billing provider was sued for $50million by bankrupt Georgia marketer Peachtree Natural Gas.

“This is all about fitting in with our corporate strategy andcore competencies, which is gas distribution, construction andinfrastructure,” said Nick Gold, spokesman for AGL Resources. “Abilling services company just does not fit with our corporatestrategy right now.”

Peachtree filed the suit in September 2000 alleging its customer’sbills were often mis-calculated, sent to the wrong address, or werenever sent in the first place, while Utilipro provided accuratebilling and other collection-related services for customers of AGLResources’ affiliate Georgia Natural Gas (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19, 2000).

Gold said the Peachtree lawsuit is still in the discovery phase,but emphasized that the liability will not transfer to AllianceData, the suit will remain AGL’s responsibility. “We are going todefend ourselves vigorously in this case, but beyond that, it’sstill working its way through the court system,” the spokesmansaid.

Gold also assured that Georgia Natural Gas’ overbilling of140,000 gas customers by some 15% two weeks ago was not the faultof Utilipro. “The president of Georgia Natural Gas at the time, Mr.[Stephen] Gunther, has made it very clear that it was not Utiliprothat made the mistake, it clearly came from Georgia Natural,” Goldsaid.

Utilipro also ran into trouble in April 2000. The company — whichserves electric and gas suppliers in California, Georgia, New Jersey,Nevada, and Pennsylvania — said it was forced to cut staff membersand reorganize the company due to deregulation taking hold too slowly(see Daily GPI, April 7, 2000). In orderto accommodate the slower pace, the management at Utilipro decided toreduce the workforce by 10%.

The companies said they expect to close the deal sometime duringthe first quarter 2001. AGL said proceeds from the sale will beused for general corporate purposes. Neither company disclosed thevalue of the deal.

Dallas-based ADS — a provider of transaction, credit andmarketing services — manages 72 million consumer accounts andprocesses 2.5 billion transactions annually.

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