Private Equity Investment Helps Establish International Transmission Company (ITC)
Judge: “By injecting capital and providing operational expertise, KKR was instrumental in helping ITC build a stronger company better able to provide affordable and reliable energy to its customers.”
Today, Private Equity at Work released a new video showcasing the rapid growth and continued success of International Transmission Company (ITC), now the largest independently owned and operated electricity transmission company in the U.S. ITC is just one of many examples of the norm for private equity investments: growing companies that are successful long after private equity firm’s investment has run its course.
As a result of its partnership with private equity firm KKR & CO. L.P., Michigan-based ITC was able to invest more than $400 million to rebuild and upgrade the transmission grid in southeast Michigan. ITC now serves customers in more than 2,000 communities in seven states across the Midwest. ITC is the sixth company to be showcased by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council as part of their campaign.
“ITC is an incredible story about the power of partnering with private equity,” said Steve Judge, president and CEO of the PEGCC. “By injecting capital and providing operational expertise, KKR was instrumental in helping ITC build a stronger company better able to provide affordable and reliable energy to its customers, while creating over a thousand new jobs.”
In 2002, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. acquired ITC from DTE Energy and worked with regulators to establish the company as an independent owner and operator of the transmission grid in Southeast Michigan. During their ownership, KKR injected more than $400 million of growth capital to rebuild and upgrade the transmission grid.
Ten years after KKR’s investment, ITC has now grown its workforce from 38 to more than 450 employees and nearly 1,000 skilled labor contractors.
“Private equity provided this company with a solid foundation in which we could make the initial needed investments back into the electric transmission grid for the benefit of customers, the benefit of our communities,” said Linda Blair, executive vice president and chief business officer at ITC in the video. “Private equity provides their knowledge, their know-how, their focus, quite frankly their experience across many different spectrums of business.”
Investment Highlights:
During KKR’s ownership, the Company invested over $400 million to rebuild and upgrade the transmission grid in southeast Michigan.
KKR exited this investment in 2007. Today, ITC is the largest independently owned and operated electricity transmission company in the U.S. and is the ninth largest electric transmission-owning company in the country based on total retail megawatt hours sales.
ITC’s and its operating subsidiaries now have more than 400 employees and nearly 1,000 skilled labor contractors.
