BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE: WTR) announced today that its growth efforts have provided the opportunity to serve approximately 25,000 more people with safe and reliable water and wastewater service. This equates to 6,558 more water and wastewater connections, which resulted from 19 acquisitions in 2016. Two of nine completed in the fourth quarter were Pennsylvania municipal systems.
The company’s fourth quarter growth activity included the following transactions:
- Aqua Pennsylvania purchased the assets of two municipal systems— the Emlenton Area Municipal Authority's wastewater system, which serves customers in Venango and Clarion counties and the East Cameron Township water system in Northumberland County—as well as the investor-owned Honeycroft Village wastewater system in Londonberry, Chester County.
- Aqua New Jersey acquired the water assets of Cliffside Park Associates, Inc., which serves portions of Mansfield Township, Warren County and Washington Township, Morris County. Aqua New Jersey also purchased the assets of Oakwood Village Sewerage Associates, which provides sewer service to Oakwood Village apartments and the Millbrook Estates at Flanders Housing Development in Mt. Olive Township, Morris County. While Oakwood Village is only counted as 35 connections above, this includes one connection that serves more than 1,200 apartment units.
- Aqua Texas acquired the assets of the Brushy Bend Park water system, which serves a subdivision of the same name in Williamson County, Texas.
- Aqua Indiana completed the acquisitions of the wastewater assets of Southeastern Utilities, Inc., which serves customers in Marion County and SaniTech, Inc., which serves customers in Morgan County.
- Aqua Ohio completed the acquisition of the Mentor Ridge Farms in Mentor, Lake County, Ohio.
“We are pleased to report that 2016 acquisitions, plus organic growth, added 1.6 percent to our customer base,” said Christopher Franklin, Aqua America’s president and CEO. “While we are pleased to meet the overall customer growth expectations we set for 2016, we anticipate acquiring larger systems going forward. Our focus today is on municipal water and wastewater systems with 2,500 to 25,000 customers. We look forward to opportunities where we can apply our operations, technical and service expertise to benefit more customers and communities.”
Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly traded water utilities and serves nearly 3 million people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana and Virginia. Aqua America is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WTR. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among others: the Company’s ability to grow its customer base by acquiring larger systems. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including the factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Aqua America’s business, please refer to Aqua America’s annual, quarterly and other SEC filings. Aqua America is not under any obligation — and expressly disclaims any such obligation — to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
WTRF
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