Southwest harvests another US$307m of Centuri stock
Southwest Gas sold another US$323m of its Centuri holdings late on Thursday through an overnight stock sale, repeating a trade it has already executed twice this year.
After firming up support through an earlier wall-cross, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Moelis priced 15m shares at US$19.50 for US$292.5m, the lower end of the US$19.25–$20.25 range and an 8% discount to the previous closing price of US$21.20.
This was already the third time the natural gas utility and former parent has sold its former engineering and construction unit stock since taking the business public in early 2024.
The influence of Icahn Enterprises, an owner in both entities, has been evident throughout, pushing Southwest to spin off Centuri and participating in each subsequent selldown to avoid diluting its stake.
Icahn Enterprises, the investment conglomerate controlled by billionaire Carl Icahn, purchased another 1.57m shares from Southwest in a concurrent private placement alongside the public offering to preserve its current 7.2%.
It did the same thing on the Centuri IPO, which was priced at US$21, a secondary selldown by Southwest in May at US$17.50, and again on a secondary selldown at US$20.75 in June.
Including the shares sold to Icahn, Southwest is cutting its stake in Centuri to 33.4% from 52.1%. Southwest can sell again in 30 days.
Now that Centuri will no longer be a controlled company following this last stock sale, it will have one year to replace Southwest appointees with an entirely independent board of directors.