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To: Nemer who wrote (42444)	8/1/2002 9:56:46 PM
From: Larry S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53068

WMB cut deal with Buffett and Lehman, but are they selling the prized assets in trying to stay alive?: biz.yahoo.com I think Buffett is going to do something really BIG in the IPP sector soon. he's just been nibbling. larry more on wmb deal from wsj: New $3.4 Billion Fund Package Will Help Williams Streamline Sales of Pipelines and Gas Properties, Loans Are Set to Cover Debt Through Year End By CHIP CUMMINS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL With a new load of cash from asset sales and loans, Williams Cos. bought itself some valuable time as it tries to rein in its troubled energy-trading business. The Tulsa, Okla., energy concern said Thursday that it agreed to sell $1.8 billion in pipelines, natural-gas properties and other assets, and had lined up financing from banks and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Altogether, Williams will have about $3.4 billion in cash and available credit, enough to help it pull out of a near-crippling plunge into energy trading and allow it to pay off debt maturing through the end of the year. The company's stock, which dove under $1 last week, jumped 85 cents, or 29%, to $3.80 in 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Williams executives, in a conference call, said the company has received bids for parts of its energy-trading portfolio as it moves to further reduce its financial exposure to that business. The company also said it is still discussing a joint venture involving the trading floor with at least two serious investors. The fire sale is a dizzying about-face from just a year ago, when Williams was snapping up assets that executives believed would bolster trading profits. But the once-bright prospects for energy trading have been all but extinguished following Enron Corp.'s fantastic failure and a handful of federal inquiries focused on accounting and trading shenanigans in the sector. Late last year, Williams embarked on a series of asset sales and other debt-reduction initiatives to strengthen its balance sheet. Executives said Thursday's sales wouldn't be the last. "We are moving ahead and pursuing additional asset sales, again very aggressively," said Steve Malcolm, Williams's chairman and chief executive. Mr. Malcolm said Williams is considering additional sales but will stay focused on its core businesses: natural-gas pipelines, "midstream" businesses such as liquids storage and processing facilities, and exploration and production. The sales -- along with about $2 billion in new financing from banks and Mr. Buffett -- provide Williams with a lifeline as it struggles to meet mounting debt and rebuild its damaged credit. Williams said the company repaid $800 million in debt due this week and will now be able to cover $1.8 billion in further debt payments due through the end of the year. But the company still has challenges ahead related to decisions made in the last few years. Starting in 1998, Williams traders began to sign long-term electricity deals with power-plant operators, agreeing to provide natural gas to the plants and pay a fee for the right to sell their electricity in newly deregulated markets. Last summer, Williams paid about $2.38 billion in cash and stock for Barrett Resources Corp., calling the gas exploration and production company the perfect "natural hedge" for those trading deals. When the deals were signed, the price spreads between natural gas and electricity made the arrangements look like a big moneymaker. Those spreads have since collapsed. As part of the deals, Williams committed itself to providing about $8 billion in natural gas and fees in the next two decades. If the price spread between electricity and gas stays depressed, some of Williams's options to sell the plants' electricity may prove worthless. And now, the Barrett properties backing up those deals are the collateral securing some of Williams's new financing. Other assets Williams invested in -- in part for their trading opportunities -- have been shed completely. Natural gas from Williams's interest in the Jonah field in Wyoming once flowed through the company's Kern River natural-gas pipeline to the deregulated California market. EnCana Corp. now owns Williams's Jonah interest, and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Mr. Buffett's Berkshire, bought Kern River Gas Transmission Co. from Williams in March. The company said it expects to have about $2 billion in cash on hand at the end of the year, up from just over $400 million earlier this week. "We are cash-rich today," Mr. Malcolm said. Williams confirmed that it expanded a revolving credit line from Citigroup Inc., giving it access to about $1.1 billion. That facility is fully secured, though the company wouldn't disclose which assets back it. At the same time, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Mr. Buffett's Berkshire provided Williams with an additional $900 million in loans, backed by Barrett's properties. Williams said Thursday it sold controlling interests in two natural-gas-liquids pipelines to Enterprise Products Partners LP, of Houston, for $1.2 billion. In addition, Williams reaped a total of $387.5 million from the EnCana deal and properties in Texas and Oklahoma sold to Chesapeake Exploration LP. It also agreed to sell a liquefied-natural-gas facility and pipeline to a unit of Dominion Resources Inc. for $217 million. That deal is expected to close in 45 days.

To: Nemer who wrote (42444)	8/2/2002 7:56:35 AM
From: Ron McKinnon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53068

to summarize for those who don't want to go read all those posts: >>>I run (culled DOWN to thirty six screens ) >>>(and have been diligently working on simplification for three years now) >>>I translate the ROC of the ROC of the market price into an acceleration figure in my head to attempt to understand perhaps how much farther and faster the price will move in the direction in which it is headed >>>can't help it if I have Attention Deficit Disorder and need lottsa lottsa lottsa input to make up my feeble mind >>>I make hard copies and have them hanging all over the walls, the desktop, on the side of the monitor screens from SE: >>>Toss all the crap and throw the dart from Walt: >>> I don't think the fourth derivative has ever been named. The rate of change of jerk vs time. I vote we call that one the "Nemer".