New York regulators OK sale of KeySpan

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The New York state Public Service Commission voted unanimously yesterday to authorize National Grid PLC's $7.3 billion stock acquisition of KeySpan Corp.

The deal, which will be subject to the commission's conditions, calls for some revenue requirement determinations for KeySpan in New York and Long Island. The commission did not authorize any rate changes yesterday.

National Grid officials declined to comment. If National Grid accepts the conditions, the company will move swiftly toward completing the transaction.

KeySpan, based in Brooklyn, is the fifth-largest gas distribution company in the United States and the largest in the Northeast, with utilities in New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire serving 2.6 million customers. National Grid, the operator of Britain's electricity network, has 3.4 million electricity customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island and more than 800,000 natural gas customers in New York, and Rhode Island.

KeySpan officials did not immediately return calls for comment.

The merger will bring under one corporate moniker utilities serving 1.3 million Massachusetts electric customers, from the former Massachusetts Electric Co. and KeySpan, which owns the former Boston Gas Co. and Colonial and Essex Gas utilities.

In a Boston Globe interview early this month, National Grid chief executive Steve Holliday said the utilities will move quickly to combine systems to realize hundreds of millions in cost savings.