Duke Exits Latin American Power Sector to Focus on U.S. Regulated Business

In a push to focus on regulated markets in the U.S., Duke Energy has completed its exit of international business in deals valued at $2.4 billion.

The company announced on October 10 that it reached an agreement to sell all businesses in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina to investment firm I Squared Capital for approximately $1.2 billion. The businesses include hydroelectric and natural gas generation plants, transmission infrastructure, and natural gas processing facilities, totaling 2,300 MW, Duke Energy said in a statement.

The company also announced that on October 10, China Three Gorges Corp. had agreed to acquire Duke Energy's 2,090-MW power portfolio in Brazil for $1.2 billion.

The acquisitions effectively end Duke Energy's investments in Latin America, which Houston-headquartered Duke Energy International (DEI) began in 1998. The majority of DEI's 4,400 MW generating capacity was either contracted or receiving a system capacity payment.

The company continues to retain a 25% equity investment in National Methanol Co., a Saudi Arabian regional producer of methanol and methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive.

CEO and Chairman of Duke Energy Lynn Good said that the sale of its businesses in Central and South America is part of a "strategic transformation" that will allow Duke Energy to focus of its "domestic regulated core businesses," which POWER wrote about in the June 2016 issue.

Good noted that on October 3, Duke Energy completed its acquisition of Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered Piedmont Natural Gas, a company with about a million residential and business customers, which owns 2,900 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines.

-Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)

The post Duke Exits Latin American Power Sector to Focus on U.S. Regulated Business appeared first on POWER Magazine.