American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) today filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking approval for changes necessary to complete a planned restructuring of the corporation’s regulated and unregulated holdings.
Today’s filing, which amends an SEC filing made in November 2000, requests authority to create subsidiaries and transfer assets into those subsidiaries. The filing also seeks authority to finance the new subsidiaries’ ongoing requirements. The SEC filing, required under the Public Utilities Holding Company Act (PUHCA), and AEP’s filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in July are consistent with the corporate separation plan outlined for the financial community last October.
“This corporate separation will enable investors to evaluate our performance better,” said E. Linn Draper Jr., AEP’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “It will foster business unit accountability and provide us with options for the future. It will also enable us to comply with the Texas and Ohio restructuring legislation.
“Our goal is to complete this separation by the beginning of 2002,” Draper said.
AEP plans to form two wholly owned companies. One will hold AEP’s unregulated generation, trading and marketing operations and other unregulated activities. The second will hold AEP’s energy delivery or wires operations in deregulated states, the company’s generation and wires in regulated states, and foreign utility subsidiaries subject to rates or tariffs regulations.
AEP’s SEC filing is available on the company’s web site by clicking on the “News” tab at http://www.AEP.com and selecting “Corporate Separation Documents.”
American Electric Power is a multinational energy company based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP owns and operates more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity, making it America’s largest generator of electricity. The company is also a leading wholesale energy marketer and trader, ranking second in the U.S. in electricity volume with a growing presence in natural gas. AEP provides retail electricity to more than 7 million customers worldwide and has holdings in the U.S. and select international markets. Wholly owned subsidiaries are involved in power engineering and construction services, energy management and telecommunications.
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The comments set forth above include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including (1) statements concerning the Company´s plans, objectives, expected performance and expenditures and (2) other statements that are other than statements of historical fact. These forward-looking statements reflect assumptions, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are electric load and customer growth, abnormal weather conditions, availability of generating capacity, the ability to recover net regulatory assets and other stranded costs in connection with deregulation of generation, the outcome of environmental regulation and litigation, the impact of fluctuation in commodity prices and interest rates, and other risks and unforeseen events over which the Company has no control. The reader is also directed to the Company´s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional factors that may impact the Company´s results of operations and financial condition. Furthermore, historical results may not be indicative of the Company´s future performance.