IPO UPDATE: American Water Works, Inc. (AWK)

Last night there was another amended filing for American Water Works, Inc. and its upcoming giant IPO.  The giant water utility will still trade with the "AWK" ticker on the NYSE, and this may end up at the end of the year being the second or third largest US IPO for 2008 (way behind Visa).

We have had numerous inquiries on the timing of this IPO.  So far, we have the roadshow indicated in mid-April for investor presentations.  That could signal an April-end IPO or early May actual listing on the NYSE.  But so far that is conjecture and we are waiting for word back from the lead underwriters  Now that we are closer to the IPO, her is the full list of underwriters:

• Goldman Sachs, Citi, Merrill Lynch all listed as lead underwriters;            
• Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and UBS;
• Edward Jones, Janney Montgomery Scott, Societe Generale, Wachovia Securities
• Boenning & Scattergood, Cabrera Capital Markets, HSBC, Stanford Group Company, and The Williams Capital Group are all listed as co-managers.

As a reminder, this used to trade in the U.S. before it was acquired by RWE in Germany.   We’ll be keeping close tabs on this via our open email distribution list as we get closer to this IPO.

In 2007, it posted $2.2142 Billion in total operating revenue, which it claims is approximately four times the operating revenue of the next largest investor-owned company in the United States water and wastewater business.  It also posted $15.1 million in operating income for 2007, but that number includes $509.3 million of impairment charges relating to continuing operations.  The net loss recorded was $342.8 million.  Regulated businesses account for some 89.9% of its operating revenues.

Here was our summary for the original filing last year and here was our last update on this one.

Jon C. Ogg
March 27, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.