Entergy names spin-off firms

28 April 2008

In order to spin-off its non-utility nuclear business, Entergy has created and named two new firms. Enexus is to be a standalone owner of six of Entergy's current 11-reactor fleet. Equagen is to take operating responsibility for the Enexus' and Entergy's reactors.

 

Renaming SpinCo

 

Entergy said it employed a brand architect to come up with identities for Enexus and Equagen, picking the names from some 1500 initial ideas.

 

Enexus

 

Enexus is an outgrowth of the words 'energy' and 'nexus', Entergy said. Enexus describes nuclear power's role in the nexus between the world's growing energy demand and the USA's need for clean, environmentally friendly power. Its tag-line is 'Today's energy - tomorrow's solution'.

 

The logo of Enexus features a stylised 'x' that symbolises the nexus between 'energy' and 'us'.

 

Equagen

 

Equagen comes from 'equity' and 'generation'. Its tagline is 'Proven energy expertise'.

 

Equagen's logo is based on an equal sign conveying momentum and progress: "The sum of proven bottom-line safety, operations and cost results," Entergy said.

When announcing the spin-off plan in early November 2007, Entergy said its shareholders would hold 100% of the equity in Enexus (which was then dubbed SpinCo). The new firm will be an independent, publicly-traded company in ownership of the Pilgrim, James A FitzPatrick, Indian Point, Palisades and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants. Together, the plants host six reactors totalling almost 5000 MWe of Entergy's 22,000 MWe generation capacity portfolio.

 

Enexus will be the USA's first stand-alone publicly traded nuclear generation and marketing company.

 

The second new firm, Equagen, is to be a joint venture by Entergy and Enexus. It will be a nuclear services company with the principle initial role of operating the nuclear fleets of both companies. Entergy said this strategy would ensure that the core nuclear operations expertise in place at each of the plants remained after the spin-off.

 

Equagen would then be "uniquely positioned", Entergy said, to grow by offering its operational expertise as well as ancillary nuclear services "including decommissioning and relicensing." Entergy is already contracted to perform some work at the Cooper nuclear power plant, owned by Nebraska Public Power District.

 

The spin-off operation should be complete in the third quarter of 2008. Both companies will be headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi and would be ready to assume their full responsibilities from the start, Entergy said. They will both have their own board of directors and be publicly traded.

 

CEOs have been designated for the firms: Richard Smith for Enexus; and Michael Kansler for Equagen.