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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (1232)	11/30/2001 1:25:30 AM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 15516

Ain't dat jus amazin!!

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (1232)	11/30/2001 1:52:18 AM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 15516

Here is an article about Enron from SI's headliners: Reuters Finance News Congress to Probe Enron Financial Crisis Nov 30 1:33am ET By C. Bryson Hull and Andrew Callus HOUSTON/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional panels launched probes into Enron Corp.'s financial disaster on Thursday, as the energy trader's European arm sought creditor protection and the aftershocks of history's biggest corporate collapse ripped through world markets. Creditors, traders and banks faced the loss of billions of dollars after a rescue takeover of the Western world's dominant power and gas trader, thrown into crisis by a cash crunch and investor doubts about its viability, evaporated Wednesday. The company is now working with its lawyers and advisers to file for bankruptcy proceedings in a U.S. court and is likely to do so early next week, a source familiar with the proceedings said. "They are working on the details. Tomorrow is too early but early next week looks more likely," the source, who has been in regular contact with Enron management, told Reuters. He said that Enron was looking to file for Chapter 11 and seek temporary protection from creditors and then work on ways to reduce its debt. He could not confirm whether Enron wanted to revive its operations in the form of a smaller company or not. AUSTRALIAN BANKS EXPOSED Four of Australia's biggest banks said on Friday they had Enron liabilities ranging from around $50 million to $100 million. Commonwealth Bank of Australia had a contingent exposure to the energy firm of under A$100 million ($52 million), Westpac Banking Corp said its unsecured exposure was around $51 million, ANZ Banking Group's exposure was $69 million and National Australia Bank Ltd's $104 million. NAB, Australia's largest bank, said the Enron liability represented "less than 0.1 percent" of its total international loan portfolio. ANZ, the fourth-biggest bank in Australia, said that in addition to the $69 million direct exposure, it had indirect or contingent exposures of about $51 million on standalone power projects. But it said earnings expectations for 2001/02 remained unchanged. Several Japanese brokerage firms have Enron bonds in their money market funds. On Thursday, French bank Credit Lyonnais said it was exposed by $250 million, half of it unsecured, and utility holding company Duke Energy Corp. reported about $100 million of unsecured exposure. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said it had $500 million of unsecured exposure, and Citigroup Inc. had between $700 million and $800 million, about half unsecured. Dutch bank ABN AMRO is part of an international syndicate that has loaned up to $3 billion to Enron's Dabhol Power Co. project in India, all of it secured. ENRON HEARINGS Meanwhile, legislators from both major U.S. parties called for inquiries into the finances of Enron, which had billed itself as "The World's Leading Company," and as recently as February had been a bulletproof Wall Street favorite. Republican House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin launched a congressional probe and instructed his staff to begin preparing for hearings on Enron's financial collapse early next year. Enron found few partners to trade with in exchanges the world over, its credit ruined and financial heart barely pumping. The New York Mercantile Exchange restricted all trades with Enron, and the effects of that order helped drive the price of oil lower there. The company's once-lucrative Internet trading platform, EnronOnline, reopened Thursday for the sole purpose of allowing traders to unwind their positions with Enron and manage their credit, a spokesman said. In London, accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed administrator for Enron Europe and a number of its operating companies -- a legal move similar to U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The appointment follows the downgrading of Enron's debt on Wednesday and the impact on its ability to trade, the accounting firm said in a statement. The administrator said buyers were already circling viable parts of the European business, including its metals trading operation. Enron said it may not be able to pay declared dividends on some preferred stock. BIGGEST U.S. BANKRUPTCY If Enron files for bankruptcy, it would be the largest in U.S. history. Enron said its assets as of Sept. 30 were $61.8 billion, easily dwarfing the $35.9 billion in assets Texaco had when it filed for bankruptcy in April 1987. Enron shares resumed their relentless plunge, closing down 41 percent at 36 cents on the New York Stock Exchange, a far cry from their peak of $90.56 in August 2000. Enron executives had told investors that it was undervalued even at that price, for a company that had revolutionized the energy industry and ranked No. 7 on the Fortune 500 list of large companies. In little more than a year, Enron's market capitalization has dropped to about $268 million from almost $80 billion at its peak. ENRON ROCKS MARKETS Enron's fall sent shrapnel throughout world financial markets. Besides crude oil's fall on NYMEX, electricity markets in Europe suffered from Enron-related jitters. Enron pioneered power trading in Europe. It had been dealing with about 300 trading partners, from multinationals to local utilities, in the region's fledgling gas and electricity markets. But the feared demise of the company was good for some markets. Commodities dealers in Asia said speculation Enron would be forced to cover short positions in copper and aluminum drove up prices of base metals over the past three weeks. Chairman and Chief Executive Chuck Watson of Dynegy Inc., the energy trading rival that had planned to take over Enron, on Thursday said disclosures of further deterioration in Enron's operations led Dynegy to pull out of a deal. A Nov. 19 filing with regulators showed that Enron faced insurmountable problems both in the long and short terms, causing Dynegy to invoke "material adverse change" clauses allowing it to pull out of its takeover agreement, Watson told reporters. "We never really recovered after (the report) was filed," he said. "It doesn't take a college graduate to figure out there was a material adverse change in their business."

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (1232)	11/30/2001 9:20:46 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Enron rode a wave of energy deregulation in the past decade to grow rapidly from a sleepy gas pipeline operator into the world's biggest energy trader and a significant player in other commodities. But the company unravelled with astonishing speed once it revealed last month it would have to take a huge equity writedown because of losses in certain partnerships that were designed to hide debt and that several years of reported profit would have to be restated, because they were not accurate. Regulators launched a probe of the dealings, investors fled in droves and credit agencies slashed Enron's vital debt rating to junk status. Such is the vast, octopus-like reach of the company that its woes affect not only the financial and energy sectors but the global derivatives market, metals and minerals, pulp and paper and other commodities in which it made markets.