American Water Works Closer To IPO (AWK)

American Water Works may be closer to coming public.  The huge water utility has an amended IPO Filing with full fiscal details for 2007.  It lists that is intends to sell up to $1.5 Billion in securities and it will trade under the ticker "AWK" on the New York Stock Exchange.

The lead underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch.  Others in the syndicate are JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, Edward Jones, Janney Montgomery Scott, Societe Generale, Wachovia Securities, Boenning & Scattergood, Cabrera Capital Markets, HSBC, Stanford Group Company, Williams Capital Group.

The company has regulated subsidiaries subject to economic regulation by state public utility commissions in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.  It employs nearly 7,000 workers and serves drinking water, wastewater, and other water services to 15.6 million in 32 states and in Ontario, Canada.

In 2007, it generated $2.214 Billion in revenue and some $15.1 million in operating income, including $509.3 million in impairment charges.  Its regulated operations generated 89.8% of operating revenues in 2007.  We had previously noted that American Water Works generated $2.1 billion in total operating revenue in 2006, and pro forma for the nine months ended September 30, 2007 is $1.66 billion in operating revenues.

This is being sold back to the U.S. investor base as it is owned by RWE Aktiengesellschaft in Germany.  All IPO proceeds are going to RWE.  Here was the original filing summary if you care to compare the data.

Jon C. Ogg
March 6, 2008