The ultimate guide to the ongoing consolidation of the utilities industry

​Roll-Up delves into the rich history of utilities consolidation--from the original, highly fragmented U.S. industry structure, through the development of industry views on consolidation and participation, to the drivers and events occurring in the cycles of the modern era, from 1995-2020.
Expert utilities consultant Tom Flaherty interviewed eleven current or former chief executive officers, investment bankers, attorneys, and ratings analysts who provided introspection and commentary on their experiences with consolidation in the modern era. These notable individuals made the tough decisions about whether to pursue a transaction, evaluated the logic of potential combinations, crafted merger agreements, designed the process for successful outcomes, and guided the execution of mergers through the strategy, financing, regulatory, and integration processes.
In Roll-Up, Flaherty has combined these interviews of experts in the utilities industry with detailed research and decades of experience to explore topics like
- the changing motivations for combinations,
- hands-on perspectives of successful transaction execution,
- the current nature of business simplification and portfolio rationalization,
- what could happen next for utility mergers and acquisitions.
Roll-Up covers the past and present of utilities consolidation and looks over the horizon at how future transactions might evolve beyond those historically conducted.
About the Author:

Thomas J. Flaherty, a retired senior partner from Strategy&, enjoyed a global consulting career spanning over forty-five years, leading utilities consulting practices at several top-tier firms. Focusing on all sectors of the utilities industry, he specialized in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business models, organization architecture, and innovation.
The early 1990s triggered policy, regulatory, and economic factors to enable market competition, driving utilities to seek greater scale within a highly fragmented sector. Mr. Flaherty led hundreds of merger and acquisition analyses for clients, including the vast majority of U.S. utilities stock transactions and deals in multiple global regions. These transactions transformed the U.S. power and gas sectors, resulting in consolidation of the industry from approximately 150 tradable companies in 1995 to less than 50 today.
His recognized expertise in synergies quantification, regulatory strategy, and post-close integration led to testimony before twenty-five federal and state regulatory agencies and frequent articles on mergers and acquisitions.