Iowa firm wraps up PacifiCorp purchase

Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. said Tuesday it has completed the $9.2 billion purchase of Utah Power parent company PacifiCorp from Scottish Power.

And the new corporate parent will bring some new operations to Utah.

As part of its announcement, MidAmerican said PacifiCorp would be organized into three business units, with headquarters of two of the units — PacifiCorp Energy and Rocky Mountain Power — in Salt Lake City.

The Rocky Mountain Power unit will be responsible for delivering electricity to customers in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Richard Walje was named president of Rocky Mountain Power and will remain president of Utah Power.

The PacifiCorp Energy business unit will contain the electric generation, commercial and energy trading functions and the coal mining operations of the company. Bill Fehrman, recently hired as senior vice president for MidAmerican Energy Holdings, has been named president of PacifiCorp Energy.

The third new business unit, Pacific Power, will be responsible for delivering electricity to customers in Oregon, Washington and California. Stan Watters, currently senior vice president for PacifiCorp's commercial and trading group, has been named president of Pacific Power, which will be headquartered in Portland, Ore.

PacifiCorp, the corporate parent of PacifiCorp Energy, Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power, will be led by Greg Abel, who has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the company, the company said in a press release. Fehrman, Walje and Watters will report to Abel, who also will continue to serve as president of MidAmerican Energy Holdings.

PacifiCorp will remain headquartered in Portland. Abel will be based at MidAmerican's corporate headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, but will have offices in Portland and Salt Lake City.

"The new organization will further enhance the regional identity of our electric distribution businesses and provide a greater focus on the electric generation business," Abel said in a prepared statement. "The leaders of these business units bring a high level of knowledge and experience to their new positions with the common objective to deliver outstanding service to their customers."

Scottish Power executives said they were pleased to complete the sale of PacifiCorp ahead of schedule. The sale was announced on May 24, 2005.

"The completion of the PacifiCorp sale will allow the Group to concentrate on developing its continuing businesses," said Scottish Power Chief Executive Philip Bowman in a prepared statement.

PacifiCorp serves approximately 1.6 million customers in six Western states.

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Contributing: Bloomberg News