Start-up costs and rapid Georgia customer acquisitions by itsSouthStar Energy Services partnership with Dynegy and AGLResources, cost Piedmont Natural Gas about $0.06/share during itsthird quarter, which ended July 31, the company reported this week.It experienced a net loss of $8.2 million (-$0.26/share) during thequarter, compared with a net loss of $6.3 million (1$0.20/share)during the same period a year earlier. As of Oct. 1, SouthStar willbe serving more than 450,000 new gas customers in Georgia. Theearnings per share impact of this venture for the first nine monthsof the year was -$0.10/share. Piedmont also noted that weather inits territory was 57% of the thirty-year normal heating degreedays. The company’s margin (revenues less cost of gas) was $44.4million compared with $45.5 million for the comparable year-agoperiod. For the nine-month period, basic earnings per share were$2.17, compared with $2.32 for the year-ago period, and margin was$279.8 million compared with $282.6 million for the prior yearperiod.

Plug Power Inc. announced that it has filed a registrationstatement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for aproposed initial public offering of its common stock. All shareswill be sold by Plug Power. Goldman, Sachs & Co. will act aslead managing underwriter for the offering and Hambrecht &Quist, Merrill Lynch & Co. and FAC/Equities will act asco-managing underwriters. Net proceeds from the offering areexpected to be used for general corporate purposes, includingresearch and product development, manufacturing and marketdevelopment, capital expenditures and potential acquisitions. Basedin Latham, NY, Plug Power is a designer and developer of on-siteelectricity generation systems utilizing fuel cells for residentialapplications.

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