Divestiture Transactions and Discontinued Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

DIVESTITURE TRANSACTIONS AND DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

NOTE 16 – DIVESTITURE TRANSACTIONS AND DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

On December 2, 2013, Ameren completed the divestiture of New AER to IPH in accordance with the transaction agreement between Ameren and IPH dated March 14, 2013, as amended by a letter agreement dated December 2, 2013. Pursuant to that agreement, in 2015, Ameren paid $25 million related to a previously-recorded liability and concluded its obligations to provide credit support to New AER with no resulting additional impact to its results of operations. The transaction agreement with IPH, as amended, provides that if the Elgin, Gibson City, and Grand Tower gas-fired energy centers are subsequently sold by Medina Valley and if Medina Valley receives additional proceeds from such sale, Medina Valley will pay Genco any proceeds from such sale, net of taxes and other expenses, in excess of the $137.5 million previously paid to Genco.

On January 31, 2014, Medina Valley completed the sale of the Elgin, Gibson City, and Grand Tower gas-fired energy centers to Rockland Capital for a total purchase price of $168 million. The agreement with Rockland Capital required a portion of the purchase price to be held in escrow until January 31, 2016, to fund certain indemnity obligations, if any, of Medina Valley. Medina Valley received the escrow balance from Rockland Capital and expects to pay Genco its portion of that escrow balance during the first quarter of 2016.

Discontinued Operations Presentation

All matters related to the final tax basis of New AER and the related tax benefit resulting from the divested merchant generation business have been resolved with the completion of the IRS audit for 2013. During 2015, based on the completion of the IRS audit, Ameren removed a reserve for unrecognized tax benefits recorded in 2013 and recognized a tax benefit from discontinued operations. See Note 13 – Income Taxes for additional information regarding the Ameren Companies’ uncertain tax positions.

The following table presents the components of discontinued operations in Ameren's consolidated statement of income (loss) for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013:

	Year ended
	2015		2014			2013
Operating revenues	$	—	$	1		$	1,037
Operating benefits (expenses)	1		(2		)	(1,207		)	(a)
Operating income (loss)	1		(1		)	(170		)
Other income (loss)	—		—			(1		)
Interest charges	—		—			(39		)
Income (loss) before income taxes	1		(1		)	(210		)
Income tax (expense) benefit	50		—			(13		)
Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes	$	51	$	(1	)	$	(223	)

(a) Includes a $201 million pretax loss on disposal relating to the New AER divestiture.

The following table presents the carrying amounts of the components of assets and liabilities of Ameren's discontinued operations, which consist primarily of AROs and related deferred income tax assets associated with the abandoned Meredosia and Hutsonville energy centers, at December 31, 2015 and 2014:

	December 31, 2015		December 31, 2014
Assets of discontinued operations
Accumulated deferred income taxes, net	$	14	$	15
Total assets of discontinued operations	$	14	$	15
Liabilities of discontinued operations
Accounts payable and other current obligations	$	1	$	1
Asset retirement obligations(a)	28		32
Total liabilities of discontinued operations	$	29	$	33

(a) Ameren is demolishing the Hutsonville energy center and expects to demolish the Meredosia energy center beginning in 2016.