ADD to BW0564 MO-EMPIRE-DISTRICT-ELECT that ran Dec. 15.

ADD to BW0564 (MO-EMPIRE-DISTRICT-ELECT) that ran Dec. 15.

The Empire District Electric Company and UtiliCorp United File

Merger Application With Missouri Commission (adding information

to second paragraph)

JOPLIN, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1999--

In the press release issued December 15 regarding the joint application of merger between The Empire District Electric Company (NYSE:EDE) and UtiliCorp United (NYSE:UCU), a portion of the second paragraph was inadvertently omitted. The corrected paragraph reads as follows:

Empire District shareowners overwhelmingly approved the combination in September, and will receive $29.50 worth of UtiliCorp common stock for each share of Empire District common stock. The agreement also contains a provision under which the value of the merger consideration per share will decrease if UtiliCorp's common stock is below $22 per share at closing, and will increase if UtiliCorp's common stock is above $26 per share at closing. Empire stockholders may elect to take cash or stock, but total cash paid to Empire stockholders will be limited to no more than 50 percent of the total merger consideration, and the stock that may be issued in the merger is limited to 19.9 percent of the then outstanding common stock of UtiliCorp.