By Stan Stelter
Bismarck, ND – The head of MDU Resources Group says he doesn't expect the increasingly diversified company will get out of the utility business in the foreseeable future.
The Bismarck-based corporation has gone into more businesses in the past 20 years. So today, besides its electric and natural gas utilities and related companies, MDU has ventured into construction materials, mining and other services. Most recently it acquired an electrical contracting and communications firm in St. Louis that has $40 million in annual revenue and 250 employees.
CEO Martin White came from a subsidiary of Montana Power Company, which had gotten rid of its generation following electric restructuring legislation passed in Montana in 1997. White says he doesn't expect M-D-U to shed its utility business while he's there.
"Philosophically I believe that the customers of our utility are served best by a vertically integrated utility. I believe that because the opportunities for efficient and savings are better really if you're vertically integrated. Now I have to tell you that there is quite a bit of controversy about that. You know, you can go back to the investment bankers or even some of the folks in business schools will tell you that's not true. Bit if you go and look at those companies who have sold off their generation, their transmission and their distribution -- separated those. Most of them have not had a good experience."
White says MDU also has talked about merging with at least14 different companies. But White says the company has to be careful not to pay too much and not to harm its ratepayers in any deal. Still, White says he hopes that within 10 years MDU would be merging with another utility in the region.
"I hope we merge with one of the utilities around here. I think the four-state service area we're in could be better served if all the utilities in those four states were one."