National Grid sells New Hampshire firms

9th Dec 2010 07:44

National Grid has sold Granite State Electric and EnergyNorth businesses in New Hampshire, USA, for $285m (£178m) plus a bit more related to working capital.Today's deal, signed with a subsidiary of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp, represents a multiple of 11.9x earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for year ended 31 March 2010. The UK power and gas grid operator will use the cash from the sale will be used within the group to fund the continuing investment programme.It first talked about exiting its gas and electricity distribution businesses in New Hampshire in May, which promoted a number of approaches, it confirmed Thursday."We are pleased with the outcome of this transaction and the sale is in line with our strategy of improving returns in the US and selling assets from our portfolio if others see more value in them than we can in the longer term," boss Steve Holliday said.The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2011, subject to regulatory approval.