FERC Approves Entergy-ITC Asset Transfer

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the $1.78 billion sale of Entergy Corp.’s interstate transmission system to ITC Holdings Corp. of Novi, Mich.

According to FERC’s statement, the transaction will transfer ownership of all 15,800 miles of Entergy’s transmission lines in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to ITC. ITC owns lines in Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas and Oklahoma. The transaction was announced in December 2011 and has been slowly crossing regulatory hurdles since then.

It is expected to close by the end of this year, but still must be approved by state regulators, some of whom who have questioned the benefits of the transaction. Arkansas is one of the states that is questioning the deal.

If completed, Entergy’s operating companies will separate their transmission assets into companies that will be owned by an intermediate holding company called Entergy Mid South. The common units of that company will be distributed to Entergy’s shareholders in a spinoff, then Entergy Mid South will merge with ITC’s intermediate holding company, ITC Midsouth.

After the transaction is complete, Entergy will still own distribution and generation assets.

The transmission assets will be operated by the Midcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator Inc., or MISO, when Entergy finishes that transaction — which has been in the works since the 1990s — at the end of this year.