July 29, 1998 98-R-0921

FROM: Kevin E. McCarthy, Principal Analyst

RE: Foreign Ownership of Connecticut Utility Companies

You asked what proportion of the stock of Connecticut's major utilities is owned by foreigners and whether this proportion has increased over the last ten years.

Very little of the utilities' stock is foreign-owned, and in most cases there has been little change in this proportion over the past ten years. Fewer than 250,000 shares of Northeast Utilities' (NU) total of 130 million shares (0.2%) are foreign owned. Foreigners own less than 3% of the Southern Connecticut Gas Company's shares. These proportions have remained substantially unchanged over the past ten years. According to Tom Dorsey, director of investor relations for Yankee Gas Services, less than 0.1% of the shares of his company are foreign owned, and this has been the case historically. One hundred and seventy nine of Southern New England Telephone's (SNET) 49,800 investor accounts (0.4%) are foreign. The number of foreign accounts has approximately doubled over the past ten years. Information on foreign ownership of United Illuminating and Connecticut Natural Gas Company stock is not available at this time.

Jeff Kotkin, NU's director of investor relations, noted that most American utilities have a low profile abroad, and investors are less familiar with them than companies that have a world-wide presence. He also noted that foreign investors seeking to make the type of investment historically represented by utility stocks (low risk/low return) are more likely to buy U.S. Treasury notes than stocks.

KM:pa