NW Natural affiliate buys Sunriver water, sewer utilities
NW Natural Water Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Northwest Natural Holding Company, announced Monday that through a subsidiary it has signed an agreement with Sunriver Resort LP to acquire Sunriver Water, LLC and Sunriver Environmental, LLC.
Sunriver is located near Bend in Central Oregon and is one of the largest resort communities in the Pacific Northwest. The water and wastewater utilities serve a combined 9,400 connections and employ 21 people across both companies.
“This is an important acquisition and an exciting step in building our water business,” said David H. Anderson, NW Natural Holdings president and CEO. “We were attracted by these companies’ legacy of high-quality service, talented workforce and expertise in wastewater operations. We look forward to providing safe, reliable and affordable service to the Sunriver community, just like we do every day for our natural gas and water utility customers.”
A company spokeswoman said no immediate changes are anticipated in the companies’ workforce or operations.
Tom O’Shea, managing director of Sunriver Resort LP, said, “We’re pleased to partner with NW Natural Water in this transaction. They have an excellent reputation and commitment to the communities they serve, and will bring value in providing a vital public service to Sunriver.
“Meanwhile, this sale will allow us to focus long term on our core business of resort operations, club management, real estate and development,” he said,
The transaction is subject to certain conditions, including approval by the Oregon Public Utilities Commission for the water distribution acquisition, and is expected to close in the first half of 2019.
This marks NW Natural Water’s fifth announced acquisition within the past year, and its first in the wastewater sector. It recently completed its acquisition of Falls Water Company in Idaho, and has additional acquisitions pending in Oregon and Washington.
To date, these transactions represent approximately $67 million of cumulative investment in the water sector and total more than 16,700 connections. These aggregate acquisitions are projected to be accretive to NW Natural Holdings’ earnings per share in the first full year of operations.
ABOUT NW NATURAL HOLDINGS
Northwest Natural Holding Company, (NYSE: NWN) (NW Natural Holdings), is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and owns a 159-year-old regulated natural gas local distribution company, NW Natural Gas Company (NW Natural), NW Natural Water Company, and other business interests and activities.
NW Natural currently provides natural gas service to approximately two million people in more than 140 communities through 740,000 meters in Oregon and Southwest Washington with one of the most modern pipeline systems in the nation. NW Natural consistently leads the industry with high J.D. Power & Associates customer satisfaction scores.
NW Natural is currently constructing a 2.5 Bcf (billions of cubic feet) regulated gas storage expansion of its 16 Bcf facility in Oregon to support renewables. NW Natural Holdings’ subsidiaries own and operate 31 Bcf of underground gas storage capacity.
NW Natural Water currently provides water distribution service to more than 17,000 people through 5,300 meters. To date, NW Natural Water has acquired one water distribution system with four additional acquisitions pending. Cumulatively, the company has pending or closed acquisitions in the water and wastewater industry operating in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
