Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to sell its MountainWest Pipelines business to Williams Cos. for $1.5 billion in cash. The company has also decided to spin off its Centuri unit to form a new independent publicly traded utility infrastructure services company. The moves are part of a strategy of simplifying Southwest Gas’ corporate structure, the company said in a statement. The sale is expected to close in 2023. “After carefully evaluating all available alternatives, we are confident that simplifying our corporate structure and creating two focused industry leaders is the right outcome of our strategic review,” Chair E. Renae Conley said in a statement. The move will return Southwest Gas to its core as a fully regulated, natural gas utility, and give it great financial flexibility by shoring up its balance sheet. MountainWest operates more than 2,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline systems mostly in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, with about 8,031 million dekatherms per day of transmission capacity. The business also holds about 56 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. Centuri is expected to generate strong cash flows as a standalone company. Southwest Gas stock was not yet active premarket but has gained 1.8% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has fallen 16%.
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