Eversource 1999 Annual Report Download - page 4

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1999 was a year of progress and significant accomplishment for NU as we reached
closure on a number of issues that have been outstanding for several years. And
that progress was rewarded. NU shares rose by 28.5 percent in 1999 while the
Standard & Poor’s Utility Average was down 12.5 percent. This was the second con-
secutive year NU was one of the country’s best performing electric utility stocks,
something NU employees are rightfully proud of.
To arrive at this point, we needed to put a lot of uncertainty behind us, resolve our
Millstone issues, achieve a clear path to restructuring in our three-state territory, get our unregulated
businesses up and growing, and grow ourselves.
I’m pleased to say we’ve done what we had to do. Not all of it worked as well as
we would have liked (agreeing to a $225 million write-off in New Hampshire, which is subject
to approval) and some of it was painful (settling environmental and nuclear issues from the
early 1990’s at a cost of $10 million), but we learned from our past and took giant strides into
the future.
The strength, commitment and integrity of all our employees made it possible.
We settled a number of outstanding legal issues, we settled restructuring issues (subject to
regulatory approvals) after three years of negotiation with the state of New Hampshire and
we settled other potential nuclear and environmental litigation. Wall Street dislikes uncertainty,
and putting these issues behind us helped to move our stock significantly upward.
We divested most of our Connecticut and Massachusetts fossil fuel generating plants at
prices well above book value, and filed a plan with Connecticut regulators to auction our nuclear
plants in accordance with state restructuring law.
We restored your dividend, which had been suspended in 1997, and saw retail sales increase
over last year. We entered the millennium safely – with all the lights on!
We took a major step in achieving our vision of becoming the leading provider of energy
products and services in the Northeast with our purchase of Yankee Energy System Inc., the
parent company of the largest natural gas distributor in Connecticut. Most significant of all, I
believe we achieved that vision to grow your company with the announcement of our merger
with Consolidated Edison, Inc. The combined company will be among the largest electric and nat-
ural gas distribution companies in the United States (as measured by number of customers).
FINANCIAL
NU earned $34.2 million in 1999, compared with a loss of $146.8 million in 1998. Total revenues
were $4.47 billion, up 18.7 percent from 1998, due primarily to increased wholesale and retail
electric sales by Select Energy, our unregulated subsidiary, and a 3.8 percent increase in retail sales
by our regulated businesses, due in part to economic expansion and a hotter than normal summer.
This is the first time NU exceeded $4 billion in revenues.
TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS
Michael G. Morris, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Northeast Utilities