Shares of Puget Energy Inc. (PSD) closed Monday near a 52-week high after a deadline to file regulatory appeals to the company's $7.4 billion purchase by units of Australian bank Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG.AU) passed uneventfully.

Shares of Puget, a Bellevue, Wash., utility holding company, closed trading 50 cents, or 1.8%, higher at $28.53, just shy of the $28.62 52-week high and near the $30 a share that the Macquarie units offered in October 2007. The $30-a-share offer represented a 25% premium to Puget's share price the day before the deal was announced.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approved the deal Dec. 30, allowing the investor group to buy the company, taking it private.

The WUTC gave the companies and other interested parties until last Friday to file regulatory appeals or requests for clarification of the commission's decision. No appeal or any other regulatory filings were made by the Friday deadline, WUTC spokeswoman Marilyn Meehan said. This means the merger has been approved and is out of state regulators' hands, she said.

Judicial appeals of the acquisition must be filed with a county Superior Court within utility Puget Sound Energy's service territory by Jan. 29, Meehan said. If no court appeal is filed by Jan. 29, nothing would appear to stand in the way of the merger being completed.

The acquirers include Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, Macquarie-FSS Infrastructure Trust, Macquarie Capital Group Ltd., the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and Alberta Investment Management Corp.

It was unclear when the deal would close. Puget spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken referred questions about the merger to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners. Telephone calls to Macquarie spokesman Brian Doughty were not returned.

Since the WUTC approved the deal, neither Puget nor Macquarie has issued a statement or publicly confirmed that the acquisition will proceed.

Les Levy, an analyst with ICAP Plc (IAP.LN) unit ICAP Corporates, said he believes the deal will close by Jan. 22, in line with a stipulation in the merger agreement that calls for the deal to close within 15 business days of all closing conditions being met, with the last condition being WUTC approval.

Levy said that Macquarie confirmed the Jan. 22 deadline. But he added that many investors are rightfully confused about whether the merger will go through because of the companies' silence.

"Because Macquarie or Puget hasn't issued a press release saying they're going to accept the agreement, everyone is nervous the deal is going to collapse," said Levy, who is based in Jersey City, N.J.

"They don't have to say anything," Levy added. "This deal could close without (Puget or Macquarie) making a statement."

After the Macquarie-led investors and Puget reached a settlement agreement last fall with WUTC staff and customer groups, the only remaining critic of the acquisition was the state's top consumer advocate, the Public Counsel Section of the Washington State Attorney General's Office.

Public Counsel Section Chief Simon ffitch criticized the WUTC's approval of the merger in a statement Dec. 30. But ffitch didn't request a review of the commission's Dec. 30 decision and is unlikely to pursue a court appeal.

Financing for the deal is in place and has been fully syndicated.

The merger is seen closing in view of the fact that all approvals have been obtained and all necessary financing has been secured, said David Parker, an analyst at Robert W. Baird in Tampa, Fla.

"We expect the deal ... will close at $30 a share, but there's always a risk something could happen," Parker said. He added that he doesn't see the deal fully out of the woods until the companies set a closing date and until Jan. 29 passes without any court appeals filed.

The acquisition will be funded with $3.4 billion in cash, $2.6 billion of assumed debt held by Puget Sound Energy and $1.45 billion of newly issued debt. Of the new debt, about $600 million will be used to replace or refinance existing utility debt and $850 million will be held separately by parent company Puget Energy.

Puget shareholders and federal regulators have approved the deal.

Puget Sound Energy is Washington state's largest electric and natural gas utility, serving more than 1 million electric customers and 737,000 natural gas customers, primarily in the western part of the state.

-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com

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