FirstEnergy sells off contractor, to refocus business in the Northeast; PSEG rids itself of 12 mechanical contracting firms; Encompass has two offers on the table to buy back companies
Utilities and consolidators that snatched up mechanical contracting firms in the '90s are now unloading them to "concentrate on their core businesses." Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. recently sold two of its mechanical firms -- Colonial Mechanical Corp. of Richmond, Va., and Webb Technologies of Norfolk, Va . -- to the original owners. The deal closed on Jan. 16, but terms were not disclosed.
"We asked to buy back the companies after we understood that FirstEnergy had decided, because of the slowing of deregulation, that in all probability its strategy needed to change and its focus should be in the Northeast than here in the Southeast," Howard Webb Jr., chairman of the combined businesses, told PM.