The biggest business deal in Black Hills Corporation history means greater stability for the company's shareholders, potentially fewer rate increases for its customers, and a little more sleep for some of its overworked employees, its president said Monday.

David Emery, BH Corp.'s chief executive officer, was joined by about 100 community leaders and employees for an outdoor press conference at company headquarters in downtown Rapid City to mark the completion of a $940 million purchase of five Aquila Inc. utilities in four states.

The company's new growth as a regulated utilities company is a good deal for both its shareholders and its customers, Emery said. "We're going to be a lot more efficient. We're going to be able to serve a lot more customers with the same infrastructure … because of synergies that result from this acquisition," he said.

Those savings may mitigate the need for as many utility rate increases in the future and its new focus on regulated utilities also makes the company less risky for investors, Emery said.

But the "two largest deals in two business days" ever done in the company's 125-year history also made for some sleep-deprived employees by Monday's celebration, Emery said. He thanked them for their hard work during a 17-month-long government regulatory process that included the three-way transaction between BH Corp., Aquila and Great Plains Energy. BH Corp. also completed a July 11 sale of seven other power-production facilities to help pay for its Aquila purchase, plus it integrated those utilities in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska as Black Hills Energy under BH Corp.'s corporate umbrella as of midnight Sunday.

"It was a really long haul," Emery said. "But this is truly a great day for the company."

The deal increases BH Corp.'s customer base five-fold - to 750,000 customers. Along with 600,000 new natural gas and electric customers in four states comes another 1,110 employees, raising its work force to about 2,200.

The merger has created 134 new jobs at its Rapid City headquarters and Emery expects to fill another 40 positions soon.

That's economic development music to Mayor Alan Hanks' ears, who said the "high-quality" jobs will mean more families living and shopping in Rapid City.

"All too often we talk about 30 or 40 jobs and what hourly wage they'll pay. Well, here we're not. We're talking about salaries, we're talking about benefits. We're talking about pay levels that actually let people move back to Rapid City and raise their families here. We're extremely excited about that," Hanks said.

Lt. Gov. Daugaard congratulated BH Corp. on behalf of Gov. Mike Rounds, who is attending the National Governor's Conference in Pennsylvania. "This diversified foothold in these other states gives more strength and stability to a dynamic, strong and growing company," Daugaard said.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com