Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE: WTR) announced today that the company
completed a $50 million private placement of unsecured senior notes at
an annual interest rate of 4.72 percent over 10 years. Proceeds from the
financing will be used to refinance a $20 million, 9.12 percent note
that matures in January 2010 and in support of the company’s significant
capital budget.
Aqua America also announced that, on December 2, the company’s largest
subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., renewed its $70 million revolving
credit line at 125 basis points over the one-month LIBOR rate. Aqua
Pennsylvania is rated A+ by Standard and Poor’s. At today’s one-month
LIBOR rate of 0.23 percent, the total interest rate would be 1.48
percent.
These financing activities, along with other low-cost borrowing
completed in 2009, have allowed Aqua America to lower its imbedded cost
of debt for the tenth consecutive year in 2009, which benefits both
customers and shareholders. These financings will allow the company to
continue to invest in infrastructure improvements to enhance reliability
and service to customers in a cost-effective manner given the
low-interest-rate debt Aqua has been able to access. Over the next five
years, Aqua America expects that its operating subsidiaries will spend
roughly $1.5 billion on infrastructure improvements, most of which will
be funded by internally generated cash.
Aqua America Chairman and CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis said, "Our
management team continues to work diligently to lower the company’s cost
of debt, which allows Aqua to continue to maintain its growth business
model and finance infrastructure projects that will improve water
quality and reliability and benefit the local economy. Aqua remains
positioned to make needed capital investments to improve the nation’s
water and wastewater infrastructure and provide affordable service for
future generations. Aqua’s strong financial position has enabled the
company to access the capital markets at favorable rates and thereby
pass those savings along to customers.”
Aqua America, Inc. is a publicly traded water and wastewater utility
with operating subsidiaries serving approximately three million people
in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas,
Florida, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Maine, Missouri, South Carolina
and Georgia. Aqua America is listed on the New York Exchange under the
ticker symbol WTR.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among
others, the effect of the company’s financial position on the company’s
financing, access to the capital markets and capital investment program,
the effect of the company’s efforts to lower its cost of debt, the
expected use of the proceeds from the financings and the company’s
projected capital spending levels. There are important factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements including: general economic
business conditions, unfavorable weather conditions, the success of
certain cost containment initiatives, changes in regulations or
regulatory treatment, availability and the cost of capital, disruption
in the credit markets, the success of growth initiatives, and other
factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended December 31, 2008, which is on file with the SEC. We undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.
WTRF
