Southwest Gas Sells Part of Contracting Unit Centuri in IPO
Two years after a nasty exchange between activist investor Carl C. Icahn and Las Vegas-based electrical and gas utility Southwest Gas Holdings, the latter has partly spun off 19% of common stock in its construction unit, Centuri Holdings Inc., the ninth-largest specialty contractor in the U.S. as ranked by ENR.
Icahn has recently invested heavily in energy-related companies and in a 2022 letter to other stockholders, he accused the board of not doing enough to maximize share value. Southwest Gas Holdings, in its reply, accused Icahn of falsehoods and distortions.
Such accusations are common when activist investors seek to enlarge their returns.
Concurrent with its initial public offering, Southwest Gas (NYSE: SWX) sold a significant stake in Centuri Holdings (NYSE: CTRI) to companies associated with a single investor: Carl Icahn.
So for now, corporate peace prevails—and Southwest Gas managers are bullish about Centuri Holding's prospects and their plan to sell off the rest of the specialty contractor over time so it is eventually a completely independent company.
According to ENR's most-recent Top 600 Specialty Contractors ranking, Centuri Holdings' ranked unit, Centuri Group Inc., reported total 2022 revenue of $2.7 billion. Most of the proceeds of the share sale and private placement—which cleared $329.3 million after expenses—will be used to pay down debt from the 2021 acquisition of Riggs Distler & Co.
Southwest Gas announced that the IPO sold 14.3 million shares at $21 per share. Icahn's company acquired 2.6 million Centuri shares at the same price.
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The acquisition added $347 million in 2020 revenue from utilities that Riggs Distler reported to ENR.
The addition of Riggs Distler "rounded out Centuri’s diversified suite of service offerings and solidified the company as a leading, pure-play utility infrastructure services business with scale to serve utilities across North America," said a company spokeswoman in an email.
Centuri's stable of companies also includes WSN Construction, National, NPL Canada, NPL Construction, Neuco Inc. Linetec Services and Canyon Pipeline. It operates both union and open-shop.
Southwest Gas CEO Karen Haller earlier this year noted to investors that the company had onboarded new Centuri leadership. William J. Fehrman took over as CEO in January, succeeding Paul Daily, who retired.
"Our plan to separate Centuri into an independent utility infrastructure services company remains on track as we seek to unlock value for Southwest Gas shareholders," she said.
