Warm weather and Southern Co.’s recently completed $8 billion acquisition of natural gas utility AGL Resources helped boost the Atlanta utility’s net income by more than 20 percent in the third quarter, to almost $1.2 billion.
Likewise, revenue at the parent company of Georgia Power jumped almost 16 percent compared to a year earlier, to more than $6.2 billion.
Southern’s takeover of Atlanta-based AGL Resources, since renamed Southern Company Gas, accounted for more than half of Southern’s higher sales over the previous period. The third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, was the first time in which the gas company’s results were included in Southern’s quarterly results.
However, even without the effects of the acquisition, Southern's bottom line got a healthy boost during this year's unusually hot summer, which kept air conditioners running at full tilt.
According to NOAA, this summer was one of the five hottest summers in the Lower 48 states in official weather records dating back 122 years.
Excluding the effects of the merger and other items, Southern reported a 14 percent increase in net income in the third quarter, to more than $1.2 billion.
Among the items to hit Southern’s bottom line in the third quarter was $63 million in losses related to its troubled Kemper “clean coal” plant in Mississippi. The year-earlier loss on the plant was $150 million.
Earlier this year, Southern disclosed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how the company handled disclosures of its cost overruns at the Kemper plant.
About the Author
