Ropes & Gray Represents Aquarion Company and Eversource Energy in Acquisition of New England Service Company

Ropes & Gray represented Eversource Energy and its subsidiary Aquarion Company in acquiring New England Service Company (NESC). Through the acquisition, NESC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aquarion. The acquisition adds nearly 10,000 former NESC customers to Aquarion’s base of 216,000 customers with all NESC employees being retained. The transaction was completed on December 1.

Aquarion is a water supply company and holding company based in Bridgeport, Connecticut providing regulated water service to customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.  NESC is a holding company based in Plainville, Connecticut providing regulated water service to customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. 

The acquisition was executed through a stock-for-stock transaction structured to be a tax-free reorganization. Through the acquisition, NESC stockholders received 0.51208 shares of the common shares of Aquarion’s parent, Eversource Energy, in exchange for each share of NESC common stock. In connection with the exchange, Eversource Energy issued approximately 463,000 shares of Eversource Common Stock at closing. 

The Ropes & Gray team that represented Eversource and Aquarion was led by mergers & acquisitions partner Marko Zatylny, tax partner Pamela Glazier, tax counsel Michael Mendelevich and mergers & acquisitions associates Joseph Markel and Taylor Gorman (all of Boston).