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To: BWAC who wrote (1339)	7/21/2002 10:49:12 AM
From: Return to Sender	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13403

Fitch revises Duke Energy outlook to negative biz.yahoo.com (Press release provided by Fitch Ratings) NEW YORK, July 19 - Fitch Ratings has changed the ratings outlook of Duke Energy Corp. and subsidiaries Duke Capital Corp, Texas Eastern Transmission Company and PanEnergy Corp. to Negative from Stable. Fitch also lowered Duke Energy's commercial paper rating to 'F1' from 'F1+'. The rating action reflects the uncertainties arising from the company's response to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) request for information about round trip energy trades. In its response to the SEC, Duke identified 46 round trip trades that had the apparent purpose of increasing volumes on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) electronic trading platform, of which Duke is one of 13 equity owners. The trades inflated revenues by $126 million, but had no impact on earnings. The company also indicated it was still investigating 3,000 additional trades. Duke had previously disclosed $1.1 billion of revenue associated with round trip trades in the western market in response to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) inquiry. While the revenue associated with the matched trades is immaterial in comparison to consolidated revenue of $51 billion, the negative outlook reflects the potential for further disclosures and the impact on capital market access. The previous Stable Rating Outlook assumed Duke would issue about $1 billion of equity or equity hybrids in 2002 to provide permanent funding of its acquisition of Westcoast Energy. Fitch will continue to monitor Duke's ability to execute its financial plan as well as the credit impact of its substantial capital program. The ratings of Duke Energy and its subsidiaries are as follows: Duke Energy --First Mortgage Bonds, 'AA-'; --Senior Unsecured Debt, 'A+'; --Preferred Stock, 'A'; --Trust Preferred, 'A'; --Commercial Paper, lowered to 'F1' from 'F1+'. Duke Capital --Senior Unsecured Debt, 'A'; --Trust preferred Stock, 'A-'; --Commercial Paper, 'F1'. Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. --Senior notes, 'A-'. PanEnergy Corp --Debentures, 'A-'.