Held for Sale and Divestitures (CenterPoint Energy and CERC)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

Held for Sale and Divestitures (CenterPoint Energy and CERC)

Held for Sale. On February 19, 2024, CERC Corp. entered into the LAMS Asset Purchase Agreement, pursuant to which CERC Corp. agreed to sell its Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses. The purchase price for the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses is $1.2 billion and subject to adjustment as set forth in the LAMS Asset Purchase Agreement, including adjustments based on net working capital, regulatory assets and liabilities and capital expenditures at closing. The completion of the proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including (i) the expiration or termination of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, (ii) approval of the LPSC, (iii) approval of the MPSC, (iv) no Material Adverse Effect (as defined in the LAMS Asset Purchase Agreement) having occurred and (v) customary closing conditions regarding the accuracy of the representations and warranties and compliance by the parties with the respective obligations under the LAMS Asset Purchase Agreement. The proposed transaction is not subject to a financing condition and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2025, subject to satisfaction of the foregoing conditions. The businesses include approximately 12,000 miles of main pipeline in Louisiana and Mississippi serving more than 300,000 customers. The Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses are reflected in CenterPoint Energy’s Natural Gas reportable segment and CERC’s single reportable segment, as applicable. The transaction was approved by final orders issued by the MPSC on December 3, 2024 and the LPSC on December 17, 2024.

In February 2024, certain assets and liabilities representing the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses met the held for sale criteria. The sale will be considered an asset sale for tax purposes, requiring net deferred tax liabilities to be excluded from held for sale balances.

The Registrants record assets and liabilities held for sale at the lower of their carrying value or their estimated fair value less cost to sell. Neither CenterPoint Energy nor CERC recognized any gains or losses upon classification of held for sale during the year ended December 31, 2024. If a disposal group reflects a component of a reporting unit and meets the definition of a business, the goodwill within that reporting unit is allocated to the disposal group based on the relative fair value of the components representing a business that will be retained and disposed. See Note 6 for further disclosure regarding the amount of goodwill allocated to the businesses to be sold.

The assets and liabilities of the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses classified as held for sale in CenterPoint Energy’s and CERC’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, as applicable, included the following:


	December 31, 2024
	CenterPoint Energy		CERC
	(in millions)

Accounts receivable, net	$	27	$	27
Accrued unbilled revenues	26		26
Materials and supplies	13		13
Natural gas inventory	5		5
Property, plant and equipment, net	1,052		1,052
Goodwill	217		122
Regulatory assets	15		15
Other	6		6
Total current assets held for sale	$	1,361	$	1,266

Short-term borrowings	$	3	$	3
Accounts payable	44		44


Customer deposits	14		14
Regulatory liabilities	31		31
Other	84		84
Total current liabilities held for sale	$	176	$	176

Although the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses meet the held for sale criteria, their proposed disposals do not represent a strategic shift for CenterPoint Energy and CERC as both will retain significant operations in, and will continue to invest in, their natural gas businesses. Therefore, the assets and liabilities associated with these transactions are not reflected as discontinued operations on CenterPoint Energy’s and CERC’s Condensed Statements of Consolidated Income, as applicable, and the December 31, 2023 Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets were not required to be recast for assets held for sale. Since the depreciation on the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses assets will continue to be reflected in revenues through customer rates until the expected closing of the transaction and will be reflected in the carryover basis of the rate-regulated assets once sold, CenterPoint Energy and CERC will continue to record depreciation on those assets through the expected closing of the transaction.

The pre-tax income for the Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses, excluding interest and corporate allocations, included in CenterPoint Energy’s and CERC’s Statements of Consolidated Income is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2024		2023		2022
	(in millions)
Income Before Income Taxes	$	67	$	44	$	42

Divestiture of Energy Systems Group. On May 21, 2023, CenterPoint Energy, through its subsidiary Vectren Energy Services, entered into an Equity Purchase Agreement to sell all of the outstanding limited liability company interests of Energy Systems Group to ESG Holdings Group, for a purchase price of $157 million, subject to customary adjustments set forth in the Equity Purchase Agreement, including adjustments based on Energy Systems Group’s net working capital at closing, indebtedness, cash and cash equivalents and transaction expenses. The transaction closed on June 30, 2023, and CenterPoint Energy received $154 million in cash. In November 2024, CenterPoint Energy paid $2 million to ESG Holdings Group for working capital and other adjustments set forth in the Equity Purchase Agreement. For a discussion of CenterPoint Energy’s pre-disposition guarantees related to Energy Systems Group, see Note 14(c).

CenterPoint Energy recognized a loss on sale of approximately $13 million, including $3 million of transaction costs, during the year ended December 31, 2023, in connection with the closing of the sale of Energy Systems Group. Additionally, CenterPoint Energy recognized a current tax expense of $32 million during the year ended December 31, 2023, as a result of the cash taxes payable upon the closing of the sale.

The pre-tax income (loss) for Energy Systems Group, excluding interest and corporate allocations, included in CenterPoint Energy’s Statements of Consolidated Income is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2023 (1)		2022
	(in millions)
Income (Loss) Before Income Taxes	$	(4)	$	2

(1)Reflects January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023 results only due to of the sale of Energy Systems Group.

Divestiture of Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas Businesses (CenterPoint Energy and CERC). On April 29, 2021, CenterPoint Energy, through its subsidiary CERC Corp., entered into the AROK Asset Purchase Agreement to sell its Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas businesses for $2.15 billion in cash, including recovery of approximately $425 million in natural gas costs, including storm-related incremental natural gas costs associated with the February 2021 Winter Storm Event, subject to certain adjustments set forth in the AROK Asset Purchase Agreement. The assets included approximately 17,000 miles of main pipeline in Arkansas, Oklahoma and certain portions of Bowie County, Texas serving more than half a million customers. The transaction closed on January 10, 2022.

The sale was considered an asset sale for tax purposes, requiring net deferred tax liabilities to be excluded from held for sale balances. The deferred taxes associated with the businesses were recognized as a deferred income tax benefit by CenterPoint Energy and CERC upon closing of the sale in 2022.

CenterPoint Energy and CERC recognized gains of $303 million and $557 million, respectively, net of transaction costs of $59 million, in connection with the closing of the disposition of the Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas businesses during the year ended December 31, 2022. CenterPoint Energy and CERC collected a receivable of $15 million in May 2022 for full and final settlement of the working capital adjustment under the AROK Asset Purchase Agreement.

The pre-tax income for the Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas businesses, excluding interest and corporate allocations, included in CenterPoint Energy’s and CERC’s Statements of Consolidated Income was $9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, which only reflects January 1, 2022 to January 9, 2022 results due to the sale of the Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas businesses previously described.

Effective on the date of the closing of the disposition of the Arkansas and Oklahoma Natural Gas businesses, a subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy entered into the Transition Services Agreement, whereby that subsidiary agreed to provide certain transition services such as accounting, customer operations, procurement, and technology functions for a term of up to twelve months. In November 2022, a significant majority of all services under the Transition Services Agreement were terminated, and on January 10, 2023, all remaining services were terminated.

CenterPoint Energy’s charges to Southern Col Midco for reimbursement of transition services was less than $1 million and $40 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Actual transition services costs incurred are recorded net of amounts charged to Southern Col Midco. CenterPoint Energy had no accounts receivable as of December 31, 2023 from Southern Col Midco for transition services.