Ailing NUI Corp. warned last Tuesday that it has delayed posting its financial results because of an ongoing internal investigation into its energy trading division, NUI Energy Brokers.

The company anticipates posting a fiscal first quarter 2004 (quarter ending Dec. 31, 2003) loss of about $7.2 million, or 45 cents per share. NUI said the loss is primarily due to one-time charges of $14.9 million related to debt refinancing and severance costs. Its bank lenders have given the company until March 1 to deliver the 10-K and 10-Q financial filings.

NUI put itself on the auction block last year because of credit rating downgrades, heavy debt and a negative turn in the energy trading business (see NGI, Sept. 29, 2003). It said it could not predict the outcome of a regulatory settlement being negotiated with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) regarding an audit of the corporation, NUI Utilities and subsidiary Elizabethtown Gas. Among other things regulators are examining allegations that the utility may have passed through to utility ratepayers the costs of non-utility investments.

“The company currently believes any such settlement ultimately will be reflected as an adjustment to the company’s fiscal 2003 financial results, previously reported on November 12, 2003,” NUI said.

NUI decided to cut its quarterly dividend rate by 47% starting in March 2004 to strengthen its balance sheet. It already signed an agreement to sell its telecommunications operations.

In September, NUI said a sale of its entire integrated natural gas business would be in the best interests of all stakeholders going forward. The company hopes to find buyers for its gas businesses by the end of the first quarter.

In January, the board of directors of NUI brought in former KeySpan executive Craig G. Matthews as NUI’s new president and CEO to lead the sale of the company (see NGI, Feb. 2). Any sale of its gas businesses will take about nine-12 months to complete.

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