Evergy has announced a restructuring of its Board of Directors as part of an agreement with its largest investor, who had questioned the strategic direction of the utility a few weeks ago.
Evergy says the agreement with Elliott Management Corporation translates to two new board members — Paul Keglevic, a former chief financial officer and chief executive officer of Energy Future Holdings, and Kirk Andrews, the executive vice president and CFO at NRG Energy. Both will be appointed as new independent directors, initially swelling the board to 17 members. That number will come down to 13 after four current directors retire at the end of their current term this year.
In addition, Evergy is establishing a new Strategic Review and Operations Committee to “explore ways to enhance shareholder value.” That move comes after Elliott approached Evergy in late January with two strategic options to consider: explore the sale of Evergy or some other business combination as one option or increase its capital expenditures with subsequent reductions in operations and maintenance investments as another possibility.
Evergy has deferred questions to its news release.
In a separate announcement, Evergy announced earnings of $670 million last year, or $2.79 a share. That compared to $536 million in earnings, or $2.50 a share, in 2018. Adjusted earnings and earnings per share also climbed from 2018 to 2019.
