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Epcor Utilities Inc. is buying the natural gas distribution assets of Ontario’s Natural Resource Gas Ltd. (NRG), the city-owned company announced Wednesday.

NRG distributes gas to more than 8,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the rural southwestern Ontario counties of Elgin, Middlesex, Oxford and Norfolk, said Stephen Stanley, Epcor’s senior vice-president of commercial services.

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The purchase price is not being released at the request of privately owned NRG. The transaction is expected to close in about six months foll0wing Ontario Energy Board approval.

It will add $10 million to Epcor’s approximately $2 billion annual revenue and give the company a foothold in Ontario, where it has applied to develop a municipal franchise agreement to distribute natural gas in an area north of London, Stanley said.

“We see growth opportunities. It’s consistent with our focus on regulated utilities. It’s consistent with our other assets in terms of regulated power and water assets.”

The company, which has made two other acquisitions this year in the United States, is boosting the annual dividend it pays the city by $5 million, to $146 million, starting next year as the result of strong earnings and cash flow.

Epcor operates electrical transmission and distribution networks, water and waste water treatment facilities, infrastructure and natural gas services in Canada and the United States.

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