LV firm sells utility

Friday, April 19, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

A Las Vegas-based timeshare developer in the process of changing its corporate name has sold a utility subsidiary it owns.

Mego Financial Corp., which recently announced that it is changing its name to Leisure Industries Corp. to more accurately reflect its primary business, announced Thursday that it has sold Central Nevada Utilities Co., for $5.5 million.

Central Nevada Utilities, which operates a sewage treatment plant in Pahrump, was sold to Utilities Inc., Northbrook, Ill., which owns 350 treatment plants and has 235,000 customers nationwide.

Floyd Kephart, chairman and chief executive of the company, said proceeds of the sale would be used to retire $4.2 million of subordinated debt.

"The sale of the utility company is part of management's plan to sell non-core assets, reduce debt and focus on the company's core operation of being a vacation solutions provider," Kephart said.

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