Press release
Evergy Affirms Board and Management’s Focus on Delivering Long-Term Value Creation and Serving Stakeholders’ Best Interests
Updates Stakeholders Regarding Dialogue with Elliott Management KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Evergy, Inc. (NYSE: EVRG), a vertically integrated,
About this update from Evergy, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nUpdates Stakeholders Regarding Dialogue with Elliott Management\n\n KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nEvergy, Inc. (NYSE: EVRG), a vertically integrated, regulated, investor-owned electric utility created by the merger of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy in June of 2018, today issued the following statement regarding the dialogue the Company has had with Elliott Management Corporation (Elliott):\n\n\nIn October 2019, we were approached by Elliott, which proposed two alternative paths for the Company to consider:\n\n\n1. Evergy should immediately initiate a process to explore the sale of the Company or some other business combination;\n\n\n2. Evergy should significantly increase its capex over the Company’s current plan, cut investments in operations and maintenance (O&M) to help offset this increase, and halt its existing share repurchase program.\n\n\nSince October, we have engaged in good faith with Elliott to fully understand and evaluate their proposals. As a part of this process, we have engaged Morgan Stanley as financial advisor and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as legal counsel to assist management and the Board with an evaluation of Elliott’s proposals and our strategic plan.\n\n\nWe are open to evaluating opportunities that may create greater value and recognize that Elliott has different views regarding our strategic plan. At the same time, there are various considerations that we believe are important when evaluating the conclusions that Elliott has asserted in its letter.\n\n\nAs expressed to Elliott, we are confident in our ability to deliver long-term growth and shareholder value creation through the execution of our strategic plan. This plan includes maximizing operational savings from our 2018 merger, the share repurchase program we committed to when this merger was completed, paying a competitive dividend and making capital investment that will drive value.\n\n\n• We are executing on our operating plan and are achieving substantial cost savings. We are on track to exceed the $550 million of cumulative net cost savings targeted through 2023 in connection with the merger. These savings include $110 million of savings in 2019 alone – $80 million above our 2018 target. Notably, these savings are being achieved while protecting jobs; there have been no involuntary layoffs at the Company.\n\n\n• Merger saving...