CenterPoint Energy completes $2.62 billion Ohio gas unit sale to National Fuel Gas
The deal, first announced in October 2025, closed with $1.42 billion in cash and a $1.20 billion note due September 2027
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Chart: CNP, one-minute prices, three sessions
CenterPoint Energy has completed the sale of Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio, its Ohio natural gas distribution business, to National Fuel Gas Company for $2.62 billion, effective October 1, 2026.
The purchase price consists of $1.42 billion in cash paid at closing and a $1.20 billion promissory note from National Fuel Gas carrying 6.50% interest and maturing September 30, 2027. Chair and CEO Jason Wells said the proceeds will help fund CenterPoint's $66.7 billion, 10-year capital plan.
CenterPoint first announced the deal on October 21, 2025, at roughly the same $2.62 billion price, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That filing valued the transaction at about 1.9 times the 2024 rate base of the Ohio unit. The Ohio Public Utilities Commission accepted the transaction in a June 24, 2026 order that became final after no rehearing requests were filed, CenterPoint has said in a separate filing.
The Ohio business came to CenterPoint through its roughly $6 billion acquisition of Vectren in 2018, according to WYSO. National Fuel Gas has said the purchase will double the size of its gas utility ratepayer base and extend its operations into Ohio, and its chief executive, David Bauer, has said it fits the company's aim of growing its regulated operations in a favorable regulatory jurisdiction. National Fuel Gas has said it will finance the deal with a mix of debt, equity and operating cash flow and expects it to add to earnings per share.
The sale narrows CenterPoint's footprint to its core electric and gas utilities in Texas, Indiana and Minnesota, a shift the company has tied to funding its capital plan rather than to a cybersecurity disclosure made in September, which CenterPoint has separately said it does not expect to be material. Only $1.42 billion of the $2.62 billion price arrives as cash now; the remaining $1.20 billion is a note from National Fuel Gas that does not mature until September 2027, which delays by nearly a year how much of the proceeds CenterPoint can use against the financing needs of its capital program.