-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: webmaster@www.sec.gov Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFgwCgYEVQgBAQICAf8DSgAwRwJAW2sNKK9AVtBzYZmr6aGjlWyK3XmZv3dTINen TWSM7vrzLADbmYQaionwg5sDW3P6oaM5D3tdezXMm7z1T+B+twIDAQAB MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, KN23lic9gBWJoTcy4n7A4MfNf5YaQjF8g8k6sXTOyW1BKZirJijIm7qI8qhqqmGe 4WEmYUjFTaHWbDQLk/GCdg== 0000899652-96-000121.txt : 19960618 0000899652-96-000121.hdr.sgml : 19960618 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0000899652-96-000121 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: U-1/A PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 1 FILED AS OF DATE: 19960617 SROS: NYSE FILER: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: CINERGY CORP CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000899652 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: ELECTRIC & OTHER SERVICES COMBINED [4931] IRS NUMBER: 311385023 STATE OF INCORPORATION: DE FISCAL YEAR END: 1231 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: U-1/A SEC ACT: 1935 Act SEC FILE NUMBER: 070-08867 FILM NUMBER: 96581841 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 139 E FOURTH ST CITY: CINCINNATI STATE: OH ZIP: 45202 BUSINESS PHONE: 5133812000 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 139 E FOURTH STREET CITY: CINCINATI STATE: OH ZIP: 45202 U-1/A 1 FORM U-1 AMENDMENT NO. 1 File No. 70-8867 UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 __________________________________________ AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO FORM U-1 APPLICATION UNDER THE PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1935 ____________________________________________ Cinergy Corp. 139 East Fourth Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (Name of company filing this statement and address of principal executive offices) Cinergy Corp. (Name of top registered holding company parent) William L. Sheafer Treasurer Cinergy Corp. (address above) (Name and address of agent of service) The Commission is requested to send copies of all notices, orders and communications in connection with this Application to: Cheryl M. Foley Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Cinergy Corp. (address above) 1. Item 1.A ("Description of Proposed Transactions /Requested Authorization") is hereby amended by adding a new sentence at the end thereof; as so amended Item 1.A reads in its entirety as follows: "Cinergy Corp. ("Cinergy"), a registered holding company under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 ("Act"), proposes to invest a total of $10 million from time to time through December 31, 2002 to acquire up to a 20% limited partnership interest in Nth Power Technologies Fund I, L.P. ("Fund" or "Partnership"), a California limited partnership formed to invest in energy technology companies. To fund its proposed investment in the Fund, Cinergy intends to borrow funds under an existing credit facility (see Rel. No. 35-26488, March 12, 1996)." 2. Item 1.B ("Description of Proposed Transactions /The Fund Investments in Energy Technology Companies") is amended in the following respects. a. The first paragraph thereunder is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "The goal of the Fund is both to create competitive advantages for its investing partners by identifying and investing in companies in the process of developing and commercializing energy technologies and to generate superior investment returns. The strategic benefits are anticipated to stem largely from the fact that Fund investors will have access to information about the portfolio companies and their products and exposure to their technologies before others. As competition takes root in the energy industry, and utility companies strive to retain existing and attract new customers, the ability not merely to provide low-cost service but also to master technologies to differentiate products and services from competitors will become increasingly important. Accordingly, Cinergy believes that both its shareholders and system utility customers will benefit from the proposed investment in the Fund." b. The third paragraph thereunder is amended by deleting the first sentence thereof and replacing that sentence with the following text: "The Fund will invest in companies (none of which will consist of any affiliate of Cinergy) engaged in developing and commercializing electric and gas energy technologies in one or more of the following categories." c. The heading thereunder captioned "Generation and Storage" is revised to read "Electricity Generation and Storage." d. The heading thereunder captioned "Power Quality" is revised to read "Electric Power Quality." e. The text under and including the heading "Communications, Control and Information Technologies" is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "3. Energy-Related Communications, Control and Information Technologies This category includes opportunities that will make practicable the delivery of advanced energy services and the realization of energy savings. For example, information technologies may be incorporated in a broad range of energy-efficient end-use products facilitating customer choices while optimizing the use of electricity and gas, such as integrated residential automation, energy security,/1/ and energy management hardware and software. Additional opportunities may arise in connection with sensors and control algorithms/2/ as well as in connection with electric and gas-related telecommunications and fiber optic services, such as remote meter reading, data gathering and utility customer services, and related specialized software./3/ Products of internal interest to electric and gas utilities may include artificial intelligence-based monitoring and control systems, automated billing systems, and sophisticated productivity tools (such as advanced energy network planning and optimization software tools that will improve reliability and lower costs of operation)." f. The text under and including the heading "End-Use Products" is deleted in its entirety and the following inserted in lieu thereof: "4. Energy-Savings End-Use Products This category consists of energy-savings versions of traditional products (such as lighting and HVAC) as well as new products intended to save energy. Opportunities in this category will be in companies that offer innovative energy-savings products (in such areas as advanced lighting systems and controls, mechanical drives, drying processes, industrial furnaces, materials processing, environmental controls, refrigeration, HVAC, advanced domestic appliances, and energy storage technologies and other component parts with respect to the development and commercialization of energy-efficient electric, hybrid and natural gas vehicles) that will compete with products from large established manufacturers. Portfolio companies in this category may develop and commercialize products involving an enhancement or retrofit of an existing larger product or system already commercially available, intended to render that product or system energy-efficient and to realize associated energy savings. On the other hand, portfolio companies in this category may also develop and commercialize (including by manufacture) products that are not enhancements or retrofits of an existing larger product or system, but rather are more appropriately characterized as stand-alone or replacement products or systems; in all these instances, the overriding purpose of the product would be to compete against existing generically similar products or systems on the basis of the product's superior energy-efficiency technologies and potential for realizing energy savings. A practical example of such an energy-savings driven, stand-alone end-use product - rather than an "enhancement" or "retrofit" of an existing larger end-use product or system - concerns ductwork for residential HVAC. At the present time, the large HVAC companies (Carrier, Trane, Lennox, etc.) produce air conditioning equipment, but do not produce ductwork. Ductwork components are traditionally made of sheet metal by regional manufacturers. These duct components tend to leak, generally accounting for over half of the energy inefficiencies in an HVAC system. The Fund may realize opportunities to invest in start-up and other private companies (see second paragraph under Item 1.B for basic parameters as to size and nature of potential Fund companies) that manufacture more efficient, significantly less leak-prone plastic ducting systems for residential HVAC - a revolutionary concept, analogous to the introduction of plastic pipes to the plumbing industry, that may yield very large energy savings." 3. Item 1.C ("Description of Proposed Transactions /Terms of Limited Partnership Agreement") is amended in the following respects. a. The first sentence thereunder is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "Pursuant to the terms of a limited partnership agreement to be executed by and among the Fund's general partner, Cinergy, and the other limited partners ("Agreement"), Cinergy proposes to acquire up to a 20% limited partner interest in the Fund by investing a total of $10 million from time to time through December 31, 2002." b. The fourth paragraph thereunder is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "Profits and losses with respect to investment securities of the Partnership will be allocated 80% to all limited partners on the basis of committed capital and 20% to the general partner, provided that any losses generally will not reduce the general partner's capital account to less than 1% of aggregate capital accounts (Article V). Distributions of cash representing net short-term investment income of the Partnership will be made within 90 days after the end of each calendar year during the term of the Partnership and allocated in proportion to committed capital (Section 7.6). Distributions in cash (other than cash representing net short-term investment income of the Partnership) or in securities of portfolio companies that are covered by an effective registration statement or traded on a national securities exchange or over-the-counter will be made at the discretion of the general partner. Any such cash distributions will be allocated 80% to the limited partners on the basis of committed capital and 20% to the general partner to the extent of net profits and, thereafter, 99% to the limited partners and 1% to the general partner. Any such distributions of securities of portfolio companies will be allocated 80% to the limited partners on the basis of committed capital and 20% to the general partner. (Sections 7.4, 7.5) Unless it obtains Commission approval to retain such securities, Cinergy will undertake to sell such securities as soon as practicable." 4. Item 3 ("Applicable Statutory Provisions") is amended in the following respects. a. The last sentence of the third paragraph thereunder is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "Finally, because its capital commitment to and corresponding limited partnership interest in the Fund will be relatively small, and actions of the Fund's limited partners require the assent of at least a majority in interest thereof (and often a supermajority vote of the limited partners), Cinergy will have no practical ability - assuming it were so disposed - unilaterally to direct or otherwise control the action of the Fund's limited partners with respect to those isolated matters over which the limited partners exercise voting rights." b. The last paragraph thereunder is restated in its entirety to read as follows: "In the alternative, if the Commission determines that the proposed transaction is not exempt from Section 9(a) by reason of Section 9(c)(3), Cinergy requests an order under Section 10 approving the proposed transaction. For the reasons stated above, Cinergy's proposed modest investment in the Fund - whose purpose is to invest exclusively in companies that develop energy-related technologies - is manifestly both "reasonably incidental, or economically necessary or appropriate" to Cinergy's core utility business and "necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors or consumers and not detrimental to the proper functioning" of Cinergy's utility business. The investment objectives of the Fund are similar to those of the EnviroTech Partnership with respect to which the Commission has issued a number of orders authorizing limited partnership investments by other registered holding companies (see Rel. Nos. 35-26240, Feb. 28, 1995 (Southern Company); 35-26230, February 8, 1995 (General Public Utilities Corporation); 35-26225, Feb. 1, 1995 (Allegheny Power System, Inc.); 35-26222, January 26, 1995 (American Electric Power Company, Inc.)). Both funds were or are being formed to invest in companies - wherever located, without regard to the service territory of the registered holding company system - devoted to commercializing energy-related technologies, with the EnviroTech fund having a particular focus on companies commercializing electrotechnologies and renewable energy technologies that promote environmental and economic responsibility." SIGNATURE Pursuant to the requirements of the Act, the undersigned company has duly caused this document to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized. Dated: June 17, 1996 Cinergy Corp. By: /s/ William L. Sheafer Treasurer ENDNOTES /1/ Security and safety products would include the incorporation into the utility communications network of energy-related safety monitoring features such as gas leak, carbon monoxide, smoke and fire detectors that automatically report to the utility's central monitoring system; the utility will then use the same security system to dispatch to emergency agencies, as well as to turn off gas and electricity at the affected location. /2/ Many products and processes waste energy because they are controlled in unsophisticated ways. Investment opportunities for the Fund may arise as microelectronic technologies are developed that bring increasing levels of sophistication to energy processes. For example, heating and air conditioning systems are traditionally controlled by means of simple thermostats, because thermostats have long been commercially available. However, great improvements will result when more sophisticated control devices become available, sensing such variables as humidity, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc. Combined with new control algorithms (i.e., software), these new devices will greatly improve the operation of air conditioning, resulting in greater levels of occupant comfort as well as considerable energy savings. /3/ Telecommunications technologies will become increasingly important as a utility's customers become increasingly geographically dispersed. In the past, the utility industry has been characterized by contiguous customers in discrete service territories, which served to mitigate or avoid entirely communications problems. However, utilities are now moving towards national and even global market strategies, and so economical and reliable communications is becoming increasingly important. For example, a utility may decide to offer a special energy savings rate plan to residential customers all over the Midwest, which might provide for lower rates if the customer would shift large appliance loads to the early morning or late evening, resulting in environmental benefits as well as economic benefits to the customer. However, such an energy savings rate plan necessarily assumes that the utility has the means to measure both the amount and time of energy consumption. A telecommunications-based technology that would facilitate these measuring and communications tasks would be of great benefit to the utility and its customers. -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----