National Grid is acquisitive -- Newsday.com

National Grid, the London-based business interested in acquiring KeySpan Corp., is an international company primarily involved in delivering electricity and gas.

A product of 1990s deregulation and restructuring in Great Britain, National Grid has aggressively pursued U.S. utilities, industry experts said.

Its large U.S. subsidiary was formed in 2000 when the company completed its acquisition of New England Electric System.

In 2002, National Grid bought its Syracuse-based subsidiary, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.

And just this month, the company announced an agreement to acquire the Rhode Island natural gas business and assets of New England Gas Co. from Southern Union Co.

"They are looking to expand, and they have significant resources," said Matthew Cordero, director of the Center for Management Analysis and associate dean for the College of Management at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

In the United States, the company employs 8,500 people and has five electricity distribution companies that bring electricity to 3.3 million customers in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

In addition, the company delivers natural gas to 565,000 customers in central and eastern New York.

Internationally, National Grid owns the high-voltage electricity transmission system in England and Wales. It also owns and operates a high-pressure gas transmission system in Britain, delivering gas to about 11 million customers there.

The company's 2005 revenue totaled $15.9 billion worldwide and $7.1 billion in the United States.

National Grid is involved in developing wireless network infrastructures for broadcast and mobile phones, metering and interconnectors.

One project to connect the electricity network on the island state of Tasmania to the state of Victoria in Australia is scheduled to be finished this spring.

Ashok Gupta, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Air and Energy Program, described National Grid as a well-run company with good senior management, like Consolidated Edison Inc., which is also rumored to be interested in KeySpan.

"I think the big difference is that ... [National Grid] is an international, multistate company that has been growing through mergers," he said. "And Con Ed, if anything, it has shrunk rather than grown."

Con Ed, though, may have a slight advantage because it is rooted in New York, he added.


Subscribe to Newsday home delivery | Article licensing and reprint options