SCANA Announces Sale of Two Subsidiaries

SCANA Corporation SCG announced today that it has signed agreements for the sale of Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation (CGT) and SCANA Communications, Inc. (SCI) to Dominion Resources, Inc. D and Spirit Communications (privately held by a group of independent telephone companies in South Carolina), respectively, in transactions valued at approximately $650 million in total. CGT is SCANA's FERC-regulated open access, transportation-only interstate pipeline company whose system consists of approximately 1,500 miles of pipe measuring up to 24 inches in diameter operating in South Carolina and southeastern Georgia. SCI owns and operates a 1,125 mile fiber optic telecommunications network and Ethernet network and provides tower site construction, management and rental services in South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Both of these transactions, which are subject to customary closing conditions, are expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. SCANA Corporation logo. "In recent years, we have focused our efforts on the delivery of energy-related products and services through the core retail businesses of our company," said Kevin Marsh, SCANA's Chief Executive Officer. "While CGT and SCI have been very successful members of the SCANA portfolio, they are principally wholesale operations and comprise approximately 2% of our total assets. These transactions will further confirm our commitment to serving our retail customers." Marsh added, "Once we decided to pursue divestiture, we made it central to our strategy to retain as many jobs as possible in the local market. We are very pleased that the employees of CGT will be retained by Dominion and most of SCI's will be offered jobs with Spirit. We also negotiated a three-year rate moratorium with Dominion so that CGT's transportation rates will not increase during this period." "We are very pleased with these transactions, as the results will yield significant value for our existing shareholders," said Jimmy Addison, SCANA's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "We expect aggregate proceeds, net of income taxes, to be in excess of $400 million. Once the net proceeds have been deployed to displace previously planned equity issuances, the transactions will be accretive to earnings." As a result of these sales, the $325 million in equity issuances which were expected to occur during 2015, including $100 million from SCANA's dividend reinvestment plan and its employee 401(k) plan, will be eliminated from the Company's financing plan. It is also anticipated that the equity financing previously planned for 2016 will be eliminated. Following the closing of these transactions, SCANA's dividend reinvestment program and its employee 401(k) plan will fulfill their requirements for SCANA common stock with open market purchases. As the Company's future equity needs dictate, the dividend reinvestment program and 401(k) plan will return to their practice of purchasing original issuance SCANA common shares. RBC Capital Markets LLC is serving as the exclusive financial advisor to SCANA on the sale of CGT and Stephens Inc. is serving as the exclusive financial advisor to SCANA on the sale of SCI.