Northeast Utilities (NU) To Offer 15.5M Shares

Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU) plans to make a public offering today of 15,500,000 common shares. In connection with the offering, NU expects to grant the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to an additional 2,325,000 shares.

Standard & Poor's has announced that, effective as of the close of trading on March 16, 2009, it will include our common shares in the S&P 500 Index. Index funds whose portfolios are primarily based on stocks included in the S&P 500 Index may be required to purchase our shares as a result of the inclusion of our common shares in the index. This offering is intended to be marketed to both these index funds and to other investors, including non-index active investors.