ST. LOUIS — Gas utility company Spire announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire the biggest investor-owned gas utility in Tennessee for nearly $2.5 billion.

The deal is expected to close early next year, and requires regulatory approval in Tennessee.

The move will give Spire control of Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Duke Energy. Piedmont — which will become known as Spire Tennessee after the deal closes — serves more than 200,000 customers in the Nashville area.

Spire, based in St. Louis, said in a press release that the move “significantly increases” the scale of its gas business, with Piedmont operating nearly 3,800 miles of pipelines and serving “one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S.” in the Nashville metro area.

“This acquisition is a natural fit for Spire, allowing us to expand our core utility business and increase our utility customer base to nearly two million homes and businesses,” said Scott Doyle, Spire’s president and CEO, in the release. “We look forward to serving customers in the Nashville area.”

The deal continues Spire’s decade-plus run of predominantly fueling its expansion by buying gas utilities in the South. In 2014, the company — then still called Laclede Group, the longtime name it shared with St. Louis’ founder — purchased Alagasco, the largest gas utility in Alabama, for $1.6 billion.

And in 2016, the company added a significant pool of new customers in Alabama and Mississippi through its acquisition of EnergySouth Inc. for $344 million.

Spire also bought Missouri Gas Energy for $975 million in 2013, adding roughly half a million customers in the Kansas City and Joplin areas.

The company’s aggressive growth strategy and multibillion-dollar buying spree more than quadrupled its market value during the transformative 12-year tenure of former CEO Suzanne Sitherwood, who retired at the end of 2023.

©2025 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.