IPO FILING: American Water Works, Back in the USA

AMERICAN WATER WORKS COMPANY, INC. has filed to come back as a listed company in the US, and for filing purposes the water giant has indicated a sale of up to $1.5 Billion in securities.  It will also be taking the AWK stock ticker on the NYSE.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citi, and Merrill Lynch & Co. will act as joint book-running managers of the proposed offering.  All of the shares in the offering will be sold by the selling stockholder, a subsidiary of RWE AG. RWE AG intends to fully divest its shares in American Water in one or more offerings.

This was originally founded in 1886 and reorganized in 1947.  American Water was acquired in 2003 by RWE in Germany.  American Water is the largest investor-owned United States water and wastewater utility company, as measured both by operating revenue and population served. It has 6,900 employees that serve approximately 16.2 million people with drinking water, wastewater and other water-related services in 32 states and Ontario, Canada.

In 2006, American Water generated $2.09 Billion in operating revenue, representing approximately four times the operating revenue of the next largest investor-owned company in the United States water and wastewater business, and $252.5 million in operating income, which includes $221.7 million of impairment charges relating to continuing operations.

Thankfully, this one is coming back to being under US-investor control.  That weak US Dollar probably didn’t make this the greatest water return for RWE in Germany.

Jon C. Ogg
August 27, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.