The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the US$6bn merger between the US utilities CenterPoint Energy and Vectren Corporation. The closing of the transaction is currently expected for the first quarter of 2019 and the combined company will be named CenterPoint Energy. The merger was announced in April 2018 and the newly formed company is expected to have electric and natural gas operations spread in eight US states, serving over 7 million customers, with assets totalling US$29bn and an enterprise value of US$27bn.
CenterPoint Energy currently operates gas utilities in several US states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas) with more than 3.4 million customers and delivers electricity to 2.4 million customers in the Houston area (Texas). The deal would diversify its customer base and grant access to Vectren's core markets of Indiana and Ohio, adding around 1.45 million customers to CenterPoint Energy's customer base.