Mainers may soon have one fewer name to remember when trying to think of who owns their electric utility.
Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, which is partially owned by the countries of Qatar and Norway, has offered to buy the remaining shares of Avangrid, the Connecticut-based parent company of CMP, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The deal would make Iberdrola CMP’s sole owner.
Iberdrola, which already owns a majority stake in Avangrid, offered about $2.5 billion for the remaining shares. Avangrid has $41 billion in assets and operates in 24 states with electric and natural gas utilities as well as a portfolio of renewable energy generation plants.
Avangrid’s board, on which Iberdrola’s executive chairman serves, said that its having received the proposal does not mean the offer has the board’s backing, according to the AP.
The foreign ownership of CMP was one of the major arguments of a citizen initiative that sought to buy out CMP and Versant Power and replace them with a single consumer-owned electric company, Pine Tree Power. Despite the unpopularity of the two electric utilities — each ranked dead last in its respective class in the 2022 J.D. Power customer satisfaction study — the referendum failed at the polls.
