North Carolina agencies investigating Duke Energy CEO shuffle HOUSTON (Reuters) - North Carolina officials late Friday launched two investigations into the surprising move by Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N) directors to replace former Progress Energy Chief Executive Bill Johnson with Duke CEO Jim Rogers, just a day after a deal to create the largest U.S. utility company was finalized. The North Carolina Utilities Commission, which approved Duke's $18 billion buyout of Progress late last week, ordered Rogers to appear at a hearing Tuesday to answer questions on the timing of the decision to replace Johnson, the commission said in a two-page order. Separately, Roy Cooper, attorney general in North Carolina where both companies are based, opened an investigation and ordered Duke officials to produce merger-related documents from board members and senior managers of both companies from as far back as January 2011. "This significant management change within hours after the merger has put the company on credit watch, so we need to get to the bottom of this to make sure we protect consumers," Cooper said in a statement. The attorney general requested "all documents or communications that discuss the prospective chief executive officer of the merged entity" and "any discussion of any effort or plan for James E. Rogers to be the chief executive officer of such merged entity." The agency also seeks documents that "identify or assess risks and/or impacts," such as financial, investor or regulatory associated with a change of management after the merger. A Duke spokesman said Rogers would be at the commission hearing Tuesday and the company was evaluating the request for documents from the attorney general. The investigations followed public comment earlier Friday by Progress's former lead director that Duke directors acted in "bad faith" when it replaced Johnson. Duke completed the buyout of Progress on Monday, and on Tuesday the Duke board announced that Johnson, who had been slated to run the combined company, was leaving by "mutual agreement." Standard & Poor's said it was reevaluating credit ratings for Duke and its utilities, citing the management news. "The sudden shift in management raises concerns about effective corporate governance, successful handling of the anticipated merger integration and the ongoing effective management of pending challenges that face the combined entity," S&P said. The decision by the 18-person Duke board, with 11 legacy Duke directors and seven Progress directors, to install Rogers as chief executive officer was "the most blatant example of corporate deceit that I have witnessed," Mullin wrote. Johnson will receive up to $44 million in payouts related to his resignation from the company, according to regulatory filings. It is unclear if either man voted on the CEO change, though Johnson has now left the Duke board, reducing its size to 17. Duke shares closed down 2.3 percent Friday at $66.23 amid a broad market slide. Robert Gruber, executive director of the NCUC Public Staff, an independent agency that makes recommendations to the utility commission on consumer matters, said Johnson's sudden departure raises questions about how the combined utility will operate. "They presented it as a friendly merger that made the best of the synergies, the cost-savings and putting the best people possible in place to manage the company," Gruber said. Suddenly, it became an unfriendly merger in one day. The controversy did not appear to concern Gruber's counterparts in South Carolina. "We have great respect for Bill Johnson, but we also have great respect for Jim Rogers," said Dukes Scott, executive director of the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, which participated in the merger deliberations. Johnson's departure from Duke cost him a leadership position at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry's Washington-based trade group. And Citigroup Inc's (C.N) plan to have Sandy Weill and John Reed serve as co-chairmen and co-CEOs after Citicorp merged with Travelers in 1998 lasted about a year-and-a-half. Additional reporting by Ernest Sheyder and Michael Erman in New York; editing by Leslie Gevirtz, Jeffrey Benkoe and Richard Chang