Shareholders of St. Joseph Light & Power Co. of Missouriapproved a merger with UtiliCorp United Inc. of Kansas City. Of theshares voted, 93.6% were in favor of the merger, while only 2.1%voted against. The approval vote represents 68.5% of all St. Josephshares outstanding. St. Joseph Light & Power share owners willreceive $23 of UtiliCorp common stock for each share of theircommon stock at the deal’s completion. St. Joseph’s stock closed at$20.6875 and UtiliCorp’s stock closed at $24.8125 Tuesday. The$190.6 million deal to create Missouri’s fourth largest gasdistributor and third largest electricity distributor was announcedin early March (See Daily GPI March 8, 1999). The companies nowseek regulatory approval, including the completion of a marketpower study required by both the Missouri Public Service Commissionand FERC, which should be finished in about 60 days. Steinbeckersaid. Light & Power serves 66,000 electric and gas customers inall or part of 10 northwest Missouri counties. UtiliCorp has morethan three million customers in eight states and in Canada,Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Altra Energy Technologies said swap trading on Altrade, itselectronic system hit a single-day record of 10 Bcf earlier thismonth. “We’re now getting ;major players to transact swap trades onour system,” said David Hanson, Altra’s vice president of naturalgas marketing. “We’ve created a liquid foundation and now comes thegrowth phase. Although the volume is still relatively small, itrepresents a major breakthrough in acceptance of electronicbrokering by industry financial traders.”

Energy Management Inc. said this week it wants to sell itsindependent power production business, including five new powerplants with 840 MW of generation capacity in Maine, Massachusettsand Rhode Island and the 155 MMcf/d of gas under contract to supplythe plants. The North Dartmouth, MA-based energy firm hopes to takeadvantage of recent high prices paid for other electricitygeneration plants, and CEO Jim Gordon said it already has receivedsome offers. The power plants have a book value of about $400million. EMI owns a 50% stake in the 68 MW Dartmouth, MA, and 68 MWPawtucket, RI, plants and the other 50% owner, GE Capital alsointends to sell its stake in those facilities. EMI has fullownership in the 170 MW Dighton, MA, facility. EMI is developingnew 265 MW plants in Tiverton, RI, and Rumford, ME, with CalpineCorp.

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