Confirming rumors swirling around the industry Thursday, Duke Energy announced late in the afternoon that it is restructuring its Duke Energy North America (DENA) business, naming a new leadership team and consolidating the company’s trading and marketing operations in its Houston office.

As previously announced, the restructuring effort will be headed by new DENA CEO Robert T. Ladd. The CEO was most recently president and CEO of Duke Capital Partners. Before coming to Duke, Ladd spent 20 years in finance and banking, including corporate finance and global restructuring positions.

“The new Duke Energy North America will focus on customer service and efficient operations and will be committed to operate according to Duke Energy’s values, developed over nearly 100 years of service,” said Ladd. “Our efforts will maximize the value of our portfolio of assets while improving efficiencies, strengthening our culture and leveraging our core capabilities and expertise.”

DENA said that while regional marketing offices will be maintained in Houston, Salt Lake City and Calgary to provide customer support throughout North America, the company’s trading and marketing operations in Salt Lake City and Calgary will be restructured to “further improve management and controls and gain efficiencies through consolidation opportunities” with the DENA operation in Houston.

Ladd also announced the leadership team for the new business units:

“Our energy marketing function will be a key focus area for us going forward,” said Ladd. “This team will manage and coordinate sales activities around all our assets based on our knowledge of customer needs.”

As a result of the restructuring and consolidation, the workforce will be reduced by approximately 275 employees across DENA’s operations and locations, including reductions in support staff organizations and in addition to reductions announced in October. At the end of the restructuring period, the company said its workforce will total just over 1,000. DENA said severance and relocation costs to the company will be around $15 million with ongoing general and administrative cost savings being approximately $30 million annually. The company noted that all affected employees will have a separation date of Jan. 31, at the earliest, and will receive a severance package.

“We are moving quickly to position the organization for stability and certainty and look forward to a productive 2003 and beyond as we implement this business model,” added Ladd.

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