Moving another step closer to becoming a privately-held company,MidAmerican Energy announced yesterday that its shareholdersoverwhelmingly approved the company’s proposed sale to BerkshireHathaway Inc. The company anticipates receiving all requiredapprovals in the first quarter of this year.

The transaction is still subject to clearance by the IowaUtilities Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and receipt ofsatisfactory evidence that the investor group members andaffiliates will not be subject to regulation as a registered publicutility holding company under Public Utility Holdings Company Actof 1935. MidAmerican previously announced approvals of the mergerFERC and the Illinois Commerce Commission and the early terminationof the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period granted by the FTC.

Upon closing of the acquisition, MidAmerican shareholders (otherthan members of the investor group) will be entitled to receive$35.05 in cash for each share of MidAmerican common stock they ownat the close of the merger. Of the MidAmerican shareholder votescast, over 90% were in favor of the merger.

The sale and purchase agreement was first announced last October(see Daily GPI, Oct. 26). The move wouldgive Berkshire, a holding company primarily involved in the propertyand casualty insurance businesses, its first ownership of an energycompany. MidAmerican Energy Holdings is the corporate parent ofMidAmerican Energy Co., a utility with 653,000 electric customers and622,000 gas customers in Iowa and Illinois.

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