Partnership is announced at Emerald Asset Management's Groundhog Day
Investment Forum
BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Today, Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE: WTR) Chairman and CEO Nicholas
DeBenedictis announced that its unregulated subsidiary, Aqua Resources,
has entered into a two-year management agreement with the City of
Chicago Heights in Cook County, Ill., to manage its public water and
wastewater systems. The announcement was made during the Emerald Asset
Management, Inc. Groundhog
Day Investment Forum in Philadelphia.
Under the terms of the two-year agreement, Chicago Heights will retain
ownership of its water and wastewater systems, which Aqua Resources will
manage. Over the next two years, Aqua Resources will review, make
recommendations and implement improvements across all functional areas
of the system, including operation audits, capital improvements, leak
detection programs, customer service programs, billing, supplies and
supply contracts, and personnel and staffing levels.
"We look forward to this new partnership with the City of Chicago
Heights," said DeBenedictis. "Our non-regulated subsidiary can offer
entities like the City of Chicago Heights the same extensive operations,
engineering and technical expertise as our regulated operations bring to
entities that prefer to sell their assets. We are glad to be in the
position to offer solutions that involve a public-private partnership as
well as an outright transfer of assets. Aqua Resources has the
experience and technical capacity to assess and implement important
improvements across the Chicago Heights water and wastewater system."
The systems serve about 30,000 people in Cook County. Aqua's regulated
utility in Illinois already provides water and wastewater service to
more than 191,000 people across the state in Boone, Champaign, Cook,
Dekalb, Kane, Kankakee, Knox, Lake, Vermilion, Will and Winnebago
counties.
Earlier this week, Aqua Resources began providing operations and
maintenance services to the Borough of Wyalusing water and wastewater
systems in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, which serve approximately
1,000 people, as part of a new operations and maintenance agreement.
About Emerald Asset Management, Inc. Groundhog Day Investment Forum
Over the past 20 years, the Emerald Annual Groundhog Day Investment
Forum has become the largest and most successful investment event in
Philadelphia. The focus of the Emerald Groundhog Day Investment Forum is
to provide companies the opportunity to speak publicly about their
accomplishments and continued plans for growth.
About Aqua America
Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based, publicly traded water
utilities and serves nearly 3 million people in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana and Virginia. Aqua
America is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol
WTR. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information, or follow Aqua on
Facebook at facebook.com/MyAquaAmerica and on Twitter at @MyAquaAmerica.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements are made based upon Aqua America's current
expectations and assumptions with respect to, among other things, its
ability to successfully continue its growth-through-acquisition strategy
and other growth initiatives. There are important factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements, including its ability to
successfully integrate the system into its existing operations, its
ability to effectively manage the agreement, its access to capital
funds, and other key factors that we have indicated that could adversely
affect our business and financial performance and that are discussed in
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2012, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For
more information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Aqua
America's business, please refer to Aqua America's annual, quarterly and
other SEC filings. Aqua America is not under any obligation — and
expressly disclaims any such obligation — to update or alter its
forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise.
WTRF
Aqua America, Inc.
Brian Dingerdissen
Director, Investor
Relations
610-645-1061
BJDingerdissen@AquaAmerica.com
or
Donna
Alston
Manager, Communications
610-645-1095
DPAlston@AquaAmerica.com
Source: Aqua America, Inc.
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