Connecticut’s biggest public water utility is on its way to becoming New England’s largest with its pending $53.5 million purchase of one of Maine’s major water companies.
Clinton-based Connecticut Water Service Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to buy the Aqua Maine Inc. subsidiary of Aqua America Inc.
Aqua Maine owns 11 water systems in Maine and serves about 48,000 people in 17 communities statewide.
Maine utility regulators must approve the transaction due to close in early 2012, the companies said.
Post deal, Connecticut Water will serve approximately 106,000 customers, or a population of about 350,000 people, in Connecticut and Maine.
Connecticut Water will add about $33.7 million to its revenue rate base, along with another 16,000 customers to boost its overall customer base by about 18 percent, the company said.
“This acquisition will make Connecticut Water the largest U.S. based publicly-traded water utility company in New England and will give us a critical mass to continue expanding throughout the region and along the east coast,” Connecticut Water President and CEO Eric W. Thornburg.
Under the agreement, Connecticut Water will purchase all of the capital stock of Aqua Maine for about $35.8 million cash, plus the assumption of about $17.7 million in outstanding long-term debt.
Aqua America, based in Bryn Mawr, Pa., entered Maine in 1999 through the merger of predecessor Philadelphia Suburban Corp. and Consumers Water Co. of Portland, Maine, spokeswoman Donna Alston said.
Aqua America supplies drinking waters and wastewater services some 3 million residents in 13 states.
