American Water Works prices below range

Voorhees, N.J.-based American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) finally made it onto the public market, but pulled in a lower-than-expected $1.25 billion after pricing 58 million shares at $21.50 per share.

American Water Works is trading under the symbol AWK on the New York Stock Market.

The company had originally planned to offer 64 million shares at $24 to $26 (see Cleantech water deals diving into rough market).

All of the proceeds from American Water Works' initial public offering are going to German power company RWE (OTC: RWEOY), which is exiting its water activities.

RWE acquired American Water Works for €4.5 billion in 2003. It's already sold its Thames Water Holdings division, the U.K.'s largest water company, for £8 billion in 2006 to a consortium led by Macquarie Bank's European Infrastructure Funds unit.

Originally set to float in 2007, unfavorable market conditions caused RWE to pull its sale of American Water Works last November (see American Water IPO put on the backburner).

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were the joint underwriters on the deal.

Although all of the cash from the IPO will be going to RWE, American Water Works does plan to raise some funds of its own with a concurrent offering of $500 million of equity units.

American Water Works has said it expects to use a portion of the proceeds from the equity offering to repay commercial paper borrowings and for general corporate purposes.