KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, January 20, 2000 -- The appointment of Dan Warnock as chief executive officer of UnitedNetworks Limited in Auckland, New Zealand was announced today by Robert K. Green, president and chief operating officer of UtiliCorp United (NYSE:UCU) and chairman of UnitedNetworks.

UtiliCorp holds a 79 percent interest in UnitedNetworks, New Zealand's largest electricity distribution company.

Formerly UtiliCorp's senior vice president - Energy Supply Services based in Omaha, Neb., Warnock succeeds Don Bacon, who recently was named chief executive officer of United Energy, a Melbourne, Australia electric distribution company which UtiliCorp manages with a 34 percent ownership interest.

Warnock joined UtiliCorp in 1988 as manager of regulatory affairs at the company's Peoples Natural Gas division. Prior to that he served in regulatory and finance posts with Northern Natural Gas. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a bachelors degree in business administration. Prior to joining UtiliCorp in 1993 as the head of its West Kootenay Power utility in British Columbia, Canada, Bacon was a vice president at TransAlta Utilities Corporation for 18 years, and earlier held various management and engineering positions with Calgary Power Ltd. and East Kootenay Power Co. Ltd. He assumed the UnitedNetworks post in 1997.

Based in Kansas City, UtiliCorp United is an international energy company with about 4.5 million customers across the U.S. and in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Its Aquila Energy subsidiary is ranked the second-largest wholesaler of electricity and third-largest wholesaler of natural gas in North America. Aquila also provides wholesale energy services in the U.K. and in 1999 established a presence in Scandinavia, Germany and Spain. At September 30, 1999, UtiliCorp had $8.5 billion in assets and 12-month sales of $17.5 billion.