UIL Terminates Agreement To Purchase Philadelphia Gas Works Assets

(RTTNews) - UIL Holdings Corp. (UIL) said that it terminated its Asset Purchase Agreement with the City of Philadelphia to acquire the operating assets and certain liabilities of the Philadelphia Gas Works or PGW.

UIL signed an agreement in March of this year and has had the contractual right to terminate the agreement at any time since July 16, 2014. The company decided to continue its pursuit after the initial July deadline in an effort to allow time for the Philadelphia City Council to study the proposal and then pass an ordinance approving the sale.

With no action by the Philadelphia City Council to introduce an ordinance so far and none in the foreseeable future, UIL said it has decided to terminate the agreement.

"We are extremely disappointed that no ordinance was introduced to approve the acquisition and we're equally disappointed that we were not afforded a hearing to present the facts regarding our bid proposal. Philadelphia and the City's gas customers would have benefitted from our accelerating the pace of pipe replacement and from our management of the PGW assets," said James P. Torgerson, UIL's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Without today's action, the asset purchase agreement would have automatically terminated in accordance with its terms on December 31.