Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. said it has paid off the remaining $105 million of borrowings used to acquire five utilities (four natural gas and one electric) from Aquila last year. It was part of a $383 million bridge acquisition facility loan originally obtained to acquire the Colorado electric and gas utilities and three other gas utilities in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska in a deal that closed July 14, 2008. Last December Black Hills extended the bridge facility to a Dec. 29 maturity date this year from one that originally was set for last Feb. 5. This allowed the utility holding company more time to line up long-term debt financing. In April Black Hills used $30.2 million from the sale of a 25% ownership interest in its Wygen III power plant to pay down a portion of the facility, and then in May the company completed a $250 million public long-term bond offering, the proceeds of which were used to pay off the final $105 million. Black Hills now has about $300 million of liquidity to support its businesses and it plans “to obtain additional long-term debt financing by year-end to support our growth initiatives,” said CEO David Emery.

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