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Strategies & Market Trends : IPPs and Merchant Energy Co.s -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NDBFREE who wrote (3020)	12/30/2003 7:46:41 AM
From: Larry S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3358

Reliant Prepays $917 M Of Debt, Cancels $300 M Credit Facility And Gains Flexibility To Buy Assets DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON -- Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI) prepaid $917 million in debt using funds that were earmarked for the now unlikely purchase of a stake in energy company Texas Genco Holdings Inc. (TGN). The wholesale and retail energy seller also retired a $300 million senior credit facility and amended its bank credit facilities. In a press release Monday, energy company Reliant said it funded the debt prepayment through an escrow account formed for the potential purchase of electric and gas distributor CenterPoint Energy Inc.'s (CNP) 81% stake in energy company Texas Genco. Earlier this month, Reliant said it was unlikely to exercise an option to purchase the stake. About $784 million was used to prepay Reliant Resources' bank term loans while $133 million paid down its revolving credit facility. With the debt prepayment, Reliant Resources said it resolved all "soft amortization" objectives its bank credit facility and has no further requirements until its credit facilities mature in 2007. In 2003, Reliant said it prepaid over $2 billion in term loans. Reliant Resources retired the $300 million credit facility, obtained in March of this year, to eliminate associated costs. The company said it never used the facility and instead focused on reducing liquidity. The amendment to its bank credit facilities grants Reliant the ability to purchase up to $1 billion in individual generating assets from Texas Genco and other entities to support its Texas retail business. The amendment also allows the company to increase debt to finance any possible Texas Genco acquisitions. Earlier in December, Reliant sold its Dutch electricity-generation business to Dutch energy and water company Nuon NV (N.NUN) for $1.3 billion. Proceeds were used to reduce debt, which totaled about $7.52 million in debt as of Sept. 30. New York Stock Exchange-listed shares of Reliant Resources recently traded at $7.04, up 22 cents, or 3.2%.

To: NDBFREE who wrote (3020)	1/6/2004 11:41:23 PM
From: robbie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3358

Court approves El Paso/Mirant $87.5 mln settlement Wednesday December 24, 11:57 am ET HOUSTON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - A Texas bankruptcy court approved a settlement under which El Paso Corp. (NYSE:EP - News) will pay Mirant Corp. (Other OTC:MIRKQ.PK - News) $87.5 million to unwind energy trades between the two power companies, Mirant said on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Mirant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, which led to a default on a "master netting agreement" with El Paso Merchant Energy that combined the gains and losses from hundreds of trading positions between the two companies. Natural gas company El Paso originally calculated its net loss on the trading positions to be $37 million, while Mirant had said it was owed $107 million. Mirant and El Paso reached an agreement on the settlement earlier in December after both parties had made "significant movements and concessions," Mirant said in documents filed in the court of bankruptcy judge Michael Lynn, Mirant Americas Energy Marketing has already drawn about $36 million of the total from letter of credit facilities posted by El Paso Merchant Energy, Mirant spokesman Lloyd Avrams said. Mirant filed the largest U.S. bankruptcy of 2003 after failing to reach agreement with bond holders and banks to restructure heavy debt obligations. Mirant, one of the few remaining energy merchants to stick to the energy trading model since the collapse of Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - News), listed total debt at $11.4 billion in July. Energy merchants market power and natural gas for both wholesale producers and consumers. Atlanta-based Mirant earlier this month said it had $1.734 billion in total cash and cash equivalents. The company is expected to announce a new business plan during the first quarter of 2004, but has no target date for a full restructuring plan.