Spire to Acquire Duke’s Tennessee Gas Business for $2.5 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Spire Inc. agreed to pay $2.5 billion to acquire Duke Energy Corp.’s Tennessee Piedmont Natural Gas unit to expand in the growing Nashville region. 

The deal will give Spire Tennessee’s largest investor-owned gas utility, with almost 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) of distribution and transmission pipelines and a liquefied natural gas facility, serving about 200,000 Nashville area customers. The price represents a multiple of 1.5 times Piedmont’s estimated 2026 rate base, according to a statement Tuesday. 

Spire is expanding in the middle Tennessee region, where Nashville is one of the fastest-growing US cities. The deal also reflects a long-term trend of utilities shedding non-core assets, especially gas companies, to focus on more stable, regulated operations. Duke said it would use about $800 million of the proceeds to offset debt at Piedmont to maintain its capital structure, with the balance going to its five-year capital plan. 

Spire, based in St. Louis, is one of the largest publicly traded natural gas companies in the country, serving Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri.

“This acquisition is a natural fit for Spire, allowing us to expand our core utility business and increase our utility customer base to nearly two million homes and businesses,” Scott Doyle, Spire’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.

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