MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish power group Iberdrola (MC:IBE) will set out a new proposal for its $3 billion takeover of U.S. firm UIL Holdings (N:UIL), the two companies said on Tuesday, as they seek to address objections raised by a Connecticut antitrust watchdog.
The energy companies said in a letter to Connecticut's utilities regulator, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that they would withdraw the pending application and submit a new one in the U.S. state by the end of the month.
Iberdrola agreed in February to buy UIL to gain presence in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New York as part of an expansion plan in the United States, which it hopes will offset falling profits at home.
But in a preliminary decision earlier in July, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) of Connecticut rejected the deal saying the benefits for the public were not "tangible and sizeable".
Federal regulators have already approved the takeover.