Duke Energy announced Wednesday that the effective date for its acquisition of Westcoast Energy Inc. will be today, subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions. The transaction includes the acquisition of all outstanding common shares of Westcoast in exchange for a combination of cash, Duke common shares and exchangeable shares of a Canadian subsidiary of Duke that are substantially equivalent to and exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for Duke common shares. Under the terms of the agreement and based on an expected effective date of March 14, an exchange ratio of 0.7711 will be used to calculate the number of Duke common shares and exchangeable shares to be issued in exchange for Westcoast common shares. As a result of the anticipated closing of the acquisition, it was expected that Westcoast common shares would cease trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange at the close of trading on Wednesday, and the exchangeable shares will begin regular trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today under the symbol “DX.” First announced in late September 2001, the transaction is valued at $8.5 billion, including $4 billion in debt assumption (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21, 2001). The move is expected to greatly expand Duke’s North American natural gas pipeline holdings and position it for a strong role in future gas infrastructure expansions.

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