Sempra Energy indicated Monday it should gain about $407 million from its sale of 15 million new shares of common stock. The sale will be completed Tuesday, according to a San Diego-based spokesperson for the utility and merchant energy holding company.

Shares sold at $28, and Sempra stock closed at $28.80 last Friday after hitting a 52-week high of $30.90 earlier in the month. Proceeds from the sale, which the company said would reduce the earnings estimated range for 2004, will be used for general corporate purposes and to reduce debt.

With the stock sale, Sempra said its estimates for third quarter earnings that will be announced early next month are 90-95 cents/share, after figuring in several major one-time pluses and minuses to earnings. The two biggest hits to third quarter results are a $50 million in after-tax income reduction to reflect the lowered accounting value of Sempra’s start-up utility, Frontier Energy, in North Carolina, and a $37 million write-down for general litigation costs and reduction in value of its ownership share of its Southern California Gas Co. utility headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Among several one-time gains, Sempra expects a large boost to third-quarter earnings from incentive ratemaking awards the company’s two major California utilities received earlier this year from the state regulatory commission. They will offset a large part of the negative one-time charges.

Sempra is maintaining an earnings estimate for this year in the range of $2.70-2.90/share. After the full dilution from the added shares, it reduced the earnings range estimate for 2004 to $2.60-2.90/share.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.