MANNING, ALBERTA — (Marketwire) — 05/03/12 — At a special general meeting held on April 26, 2012 at the Ag Hall, members of the Manning Rural Electrification Association (REA) voted 93 per cent in favour of a motion to sell their electric system assets to ATCO Electric, pending approval by the Alberta Utilities Commission. As a result of the sale, each of the members will receive just over $18,000. The vote followed an earlier request to ATCO Electric from the REA Board of Directors to provide a purchase proposal.
“The Manning REA has been serving our members for almost 60 years; however, with the increasing complexity of the electric utility industry and costs required to continue to upgrade our system, the members felt it was appropriate for us to explore a sale option,” said Curt Fazikos, Chair of the Manning REA. “ATCO Electric has over 80 years of experience in the electric utility industry and is currently operating and maintaining our system, so we thought it made sense for us to discuss the option of sale with them. Despite efforts to remain competitive, our location and small size was a big obstacle in maintaining value for our membership.”
“We are pleased with the outcome of the vote and believe that it speaks to the confidence that the Manning REA membership has in ATCO Electric–s operations and customer service,” said Barry Goy, Vice President, Distribution Operations, ATCO Electric. “I would like to recognize the REA Board and members for all of their hard work and dedication, and would like to thank them for entrusting us with their legacy.”
A rural electrification association is a not-for-profit cooperative that owns an electric distribution system and supplies electric energy to members in a rural region of Alberta.
ATCO Electric provides safe, reliable delivery of electricity to nearly 213,000 customers in 245 communities across Alberta and is part of the ATCO Group of Companies. ATCO Group, with more than 8,800 employees and assets of approximately $13 billion, delivers service excellence and innovative business solutions worldwide with leading companies engaged in structures & logistics (manufacturing, logistics and noise abatement), utilities (pipelines, natural gas and electricity transmission and distribution), energy (power generation, natural gas gathering, processing, storage and liquids extraction) and technologies (business systems solutions). More information can be found at .
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Contacts:
ATCO Electric
Corporate Communications
780-288-7621 (24 hours)
Manning REA
Curt Fazikos
Chair
780-836-0055