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Saudi To Announce Gas Proj Winners In Next Two Wks-Report
Dow Jones, 05/03/01 Missing link The Daily Deal, 05/03/01 World Bond Markets: Healthy Supply Boosts Activity In Eurobond Market --- General Motors Acceptance, International Finance Launch Dow Jones Newswires, 05/03/01 REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial) Power, Pricing and Politics The Asian Wall Street Journal, 05/03/01 INDIA: Foreign funds plough money into Indian shares Reuters, 05/03/01 India: Parties up the ante for probe into Enron deal The Hindu, 05/03/01 India: Handle Enron cautiously: Deshmukh The Hindu, 05/03/01 India: Promoters holding parleys on future course of action Business Line (The Hindu), 05/03/01 India: Bank of America to invest $50 m more in India Business Line (The Hindu), 05/03/01 India: Renegotiation with Enron likely, says Deshmukh Business Line (The Hindu), 05/03/01 Let Enron Exit The Times of India, 05/03/01 IDBI: whose life is it, anyway? Business Standard, 05/03/01 UK names coastal zones Lloyd's List International, 05/03/01 UK: Emetra delays derivatives, to focus on physicals Reuters, 05/03/01 Scottish Power Earnings Fall But US Strategy On Track Dow Jones, 05/03/01 Scottish Power CEO: Hunter Plant Fully On Line Dow Jones, 05/03/01 UK: UPDATE 3-Scottish Power restructures as profits slip Reuters, 05/03/01 Distractions interfere with key growth questions Financial Times, 05/03/01 USA: UPDATE 2-Calpine, Kinder Morgan plan N.M.-Calif. natgas line. Reuters, 05/02/01 USA: Enron says vice chairman Clifford Baxter resigns Reuters, 05/02/01 Enron Vice Chairman Cliff Baxter Resigns PR Newswire, 05/02/01 PARDON ME WHILE I SCREAM IN THE DARK The Press Democrat, 05/02/01 LNG carriage to be preserve of India-flag ships Lloyd's List International, 05/02/01 SCOTTISHPOWER REPORTEDLY TRYING TO PURCHASE PGE Portland Oregonian, 05/02/01 SCI ups profile with Petronet deal Lloyd's List International, 05/02/01 CALIFORNIA GENERATORS REPORT RECORD PROFITS THAT DWARF FERC'S LATEST REFUND ORDERS Foster Electric Report, 05/02/01 Saudi To Announce Gas Proj Winners In Next Two Wks-Report 05/03/2001 Dow Jones Energy Service (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) DUBAI -(Dow Jones)- Saudi Arabia will announce the names of international oil companies which have been awarded a role in the kingdom's three core gas ventures in the next two weeks, a Saudi official said in published remarks Thursday. The Arabic daily Al Watan quoted Abdulrahman Al-Sahibani, a member of the Saudi negotiating committee which has been consulting with IOCs on the projects, as saying that a Saudi ministerial committee had made its recommendations to the country's Supreme Petroleum Council about 10 days ago and that the SPC will now make the final selection. Al-Sahibani said the ministerial committee didn't recommend some of the IOCs originally shortlisted to the SPC. He wouldn't elaborate. The 11 companies shortlisted last year for consideration are Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), BP PLC (BP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CHV), TotalFinaElf (TOT), ENI SpA (E), Enron Corp. (ENE) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) who are bidding jointly, Marathon Oil Canada Inc. (T.M), Conoco Inc. (COCA) and Phillips Petroleum (P). The three ventures on offer have been estimated at a combined value of about $25 billion. Saudi Arabia invited international oil companies in October 1998 to participate in proposals for downstream gas projects and upstream gas enhancement. -By Dyala Sabbagh, Dow Jones Newswires; 9714 3314260; dyala.sabbagh@dowjones.com Post Mortem Missing link by Claire Poole 05/03/2001 The Daily Deal Copyright © 2001 The Deal LLC Buying Illinova gave Dynegy a key piece in a puzzle for trading energy anywhere, anytime. When Chuck Watson decided to take his company beyond natural gas trading, he changed its name to Dynegy Inc. and took as its logo a tangram, a seven-piece puzzle that can be assembled in thousands of ways. Buying utility Illinova Corp. in February 2000, gave him a piece for delivering such flexibility. "The Illinova acquisition was probably the most well-timed and best conceived buy of the year," raves Jeremy Butler, an analyst at Value Line Publishing Inc. ReportCard DYNEGY -- ILLINOVA Stock Price A Profitability B+ Strategy A- Braintrust B Culture B Competitive Position A Overall A- Why? Besides providing electricity to 650,000 customers in a 15,000-square-mile area in Illinois, Decatur, Ill.-based Illinova also had recently received regulatory approval to transfer its coal and gas-fired generating plants -- 3,800 megawatts in all -- to an unregulated subsidiary as part of the state's deregulation of its electricity industry. Thanks to soaring energy prices, as well as to $125 million to $165 million in overall earnings estimated or achieved from optimizing Illinova's generation assets and improving its operating efficiencies, Dynegy is seeing the effects of the deal on its bottom line. "Illinova has been extremely accretive to earnings," said M. Carol Coale, an analyst at Prudential Securities in Houston. Last year, in fact, Dynegy's revenues nearly doubled to $29.4 billion, while its net earnings almost tripled to $452 million, or $1.43 per diluted share, as a result of the $4 billion Illinova deal. In the first quarter, Dynegy's net earnings jumped 73%. Investors have been amply rewarded. Dynegy's stock took off last year, jumping 135% to $56.06 per share, making it the second best performing stock in the Standard & Poor's 500. Since the Illinova deal was announced June 14, 1999, Dynegy's stock has skyrocketed an astounding 207%, from $18.25 to $56.11. (One of those happy investors is San Francisco-based oil and gas giant Chevron Corp., which owns about 27% of Dynegy.) For Watson, who formed Dynegy in the late 1990s out of Houston energy company NGS Corp., where he was CEO and chairman, the success of the Illinova deal underscores his quest to take power and trade it anywhere he wants, anytime he wants, at any price he wants. That's why he dubbed the company Dynegy, a hybrid name taken by combining "dynamic" with "energy." If energy prices stay high and Dynegy's traders continue to make winning bets, analysts expect the company's net earnings per share to increase another 25% this year to $575 million, or $1.80 per share. But Dynegy hasn't been immune to the power crisis afflicting California, where it co-owns four power plants with NRG Energy Inc. of Minneapolis that generate 2,800 megawatts of capacity. Indeed, since the crisis began, Dynegy's been defending itself against allegations that it's overcharging for power. The California situation has hurt Dynegy in other ways, too. On April 6, for example, its stock fell 5%, to $48.34, after utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a unit of PG&E Corp., filed for bankruptcy. (Dynegy provides power to the California market as a wholesaler but not to PG&E directly.) Dynegy has also been quibbling recently with another teetering California utility, Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric, which claimed April 12 that Dynegy ordered it to shutter some of the facilities the utility sold it in 1999 -- but that it still operates -- because it doesn't think it will get paid. Dynegy denied the charge. "Dynegy did not instruct SDG&E to shut down generating units, nor did we suggest that we would not make power available to creditworthy buyers," Stephen W. Bergstrom, Dynegy's president and COO, wrote in a letter to SDG&E Chairman and CEO Stephen Baum. Dynegy has tried to downplay its exposure to the state's power woes. It's repeatedly pointed out to the press that its 50% stake in the four power plants in California only represents 1,400 of its total generating portfolio of 13,000 megawatts, or about 10.8%. Analysts, however, estimate Dynegy's exposure in California could give its earnings a haircut of as much as 15% this year. Even so, Dynegy's stock has recovered to a recent $56. "Illinova has created some volatility to Dynegy's stock because of the addition of power generation to its business," Prudential's Coale said. "But overall, it's been a great deal." While keeping most of Illinova management in place, Dynegy made the company's chairman, president and CEO, Charles Bayless, a nonexecutive director of the combined entity. Dynegy's also marketing and trading all of Illinova's 3,800 megawatts of output. "They've streamlined power generation and traded around the assets while keeping the distribution business in a sweet spot," said John Olson, an analyst at Sanders Morris Harris in Houston. Illinova, meanwhile, solved a big investor-related problem for Dynegy. Before the merger, only 10% of Dynegy's shares were available to the public. As part of the deal, Watson convinced two of Dynegy's strategic partners, British Gas plc and Nova Chemicals, to sell their combined 50% stake for approximately $542 million in cash and 3,348,888 shares of a new convertible preferred stock. It also issued 3.3 million shares after the deal closed. Those moves increased Dynegy's float to more than 60% of the shares outstanding, which led money managers to flood in. The company's market capitalization has since tripled to $18.3 billion. Operationally, in its effort to focus on power generation, trading and marketing, Dynegy has been dumping some of its mid-stream assets, such as processing plants and pipelines, particularly in the mid-Continent region. The idea now is to increase Dynegy's so-called merchant power capacity -- or the electricity it sells wholesale to anyone who needs it -- to 70,000 megawatts by 2004 through acquisitions, new construction and asset management agreements. As a result, Watson has become what some are calling "an acquisitions hound." He's already acquired some facilities. On Jan. 31, Dynegy completed the purchase of two power plants in the Hudson River Valley -- the 1,200-megawatt Roseton power plant in Newburgh, N.Y., and the 500-megawatt Danskammer plant nearby -- from various area utilities for $376 million. Banc of America Securities llc advised Dynegy on both purchases. Dynegy has had trouble picking up other power plants, however. Witness the deal it announced Nov. 20 to acquire 1,330 megawatts worth of electricity-generating assets in Nevada from Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources for $634 million. The deal got scotched April 18 when Nevada regulators -- spooked by its next-door neighbor's power crisis -- repealed the state's electricity deregulation plan and put a moratorium on all power plant sales in the state. (Dynegy estimated the acquisition would have added 5 cents per share to 2001 earnings.) Still, since the Illinova merger, the total generating capacity built or acquired by Dynegy now exceeds the total capacity added through the merger. That includes 1,160 megawatts of new natural gas-fired generation facilities in Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana that are expected to begin commercial operation by June -- just in time for summer. Like its cross-town rival, Enron Corp., Dynegy has also expanded via acquisitions into broadband telecommunications. (Dynegy also competes with Houston-based Reliant Energy and Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy.) Both Enron and Dynegy see a big opportunity in broadband, given that there are few other suppliers and that managing its movement is akin to what's involved with natural gas or electricity. In August, Dynegy announced it was acquiring Aurora, Colo.-based Extant Inc., a privately held developer of telecom solutions, for $188 million in cash and stock. It completed the deal in September. Then in November, Dynegy announced it was acquiring privately held Iaxis Ltd., a London-based telecom that owned and operated an 8,750-mile fiber-optic network throughout Europe, for almost $200 million. Dynegy completed the deal in March. Dynegy is now developing a 20,000-mile fiber-optic cable network in the U.S. that it will link to Iaxis' network in Europe. It hopes its broadband unit, which lost $11.6 million in the first quarter, will be profitable by the second half of 2002. Still, Dynegy has differentiated itself as the "anti-Enron" because, among other things, it continues to buy power plants rather than sell them. (Enron, meanwhile, has been trying to dump its hard assets, such as Portland General Electric in Portland, Ore.) Enron CEO Jeff Skilling -- a polished former McKinsey & Co. consultant -- just wants to be a go-between, and not just in energy, but in broadband, pulp and paper and metals, while Dynegy's Watson -- a scrappy former commodities trader -- thinks he can play power generation and trading off each other. It'll be interesting to see who is right. Looking back at the Illinova deal Dynegy Inc.'s acquisition of Illinova Corp. has proven one of the best deals of the year. Company Dynegy Inc. President Charles L. (Chuck) Watson Headquarters Houston Market cap $13.6 billion* Date Action 1/03/00 Federal regulators http://www.thedeal.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic%2BFTContentServer?pagename=Futu reTense/Apps/Xcelerate/Render&c=TDDArticle&cid=A12621-2000Jan3&preview=true for Dynegy Inc. and Illinova Corp. to complete their $2 billion merger 1/06/00 Dynegy has to say in a release that the http://www.thedeal.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic%2BFTContentServer?pagename=Futu reTense/Apps/Xcelerate/Render&c=TDDArticle&cid=A12891-2000Jan6&preview=true. Late in December the companies said the deal's completion, scheduled for Jan. 4, would be postponed until mid-January because of a delay in Dynegy's sale of assets to El Paso Energy Corp. 1/14/00 Watson is betting that he can succeed where Enron failed: by http://www.thedeal.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic%2BFTContentServer?pagename=Futu reTense/Apps/Xcelerate/Render&c=TDDArticle&cid=A13445-2000Jan14&preview=true to boost the fortunes of its lucrative energy trading business 2/02/00 Dynegy, Illinova complete merger, creating a new entity named Dynegy Inc. Shareholders in the previous Dynegy Inc. receive 0.69 shares in the new company, or $16.50 cash, for each of their shares, while Illinova stockholders receive one share for each of their shares. * Figure from 5/02/01 Source: The Deal Back to story http://www.thedeal.com World Bond Markets: Healthy Supply Boosts Activity In Eurobond Market --- General Motors Acceptance, International Finance Launch Dow Jones Newswires 05/03/2001 The Asian Wall Street Journal M9 (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) LONDON -- Activity in the primary Eurobond market picked up early Wednesday amid a growing pipeline of supply, with a $500 million issue of five-year bonds by General Motors Acceptance Corp. and a $300 million 10-year issue by International Finance Corp. The market also was awaiting the landmark GBP 2 billion ($3.2 billion) equivalent asset-backed issue from Glas Cymru, due to launch via Royal Bank of Scotland and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, dealers said. The deal will fund Glas Cymru's acquisition of Welsh Water from WPD and was expected to come in slightly tighter than original talk for triple-A tranches of between 110 and 120 basis points, or hundredths of a percentage points, over U.K. government bonds. Elsewhere, Finance for Danish Industry, rated A1, was set to issue 600 million euros ($535.7 million) of four-year bonds via Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and BNP Paribas. Energy group Innogy PLC also was expected to tap the market again Wednesday with a 500-million-euro seven-year issue, expected at a spread of 110 basis points over midmarket swaps. Meanwhile, Finland has mandated ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and Nordea to joint lead manage the issue of a syndicated government bond due 2007, ABN Amro said. According to market speculation, the size is around three billion euros. Energy group Enron has mandated Schroder Salomon Smith Barney as bookrunner for a multicurrency credit-linked notes trust transaction, consisting of tranches in intermediate maturities. Launch will follow a European roadshow, subject to market conditions, and UBS Warburg is joint lead manager. Secondary market activity was once again dominated by the telecommunications sector, where British Telecommunications bonds were between 10 and 15 basis points tighter on news that it will sell its stakes in Japan Telecom, the J-Phone Group and Airtel to Vodafone for GBP 4.8 billion in cash, reducing its debt burden by GBP 4.4 billion. "This is undoubtedly positive news for BT bond holders," HSBC said in a research note. REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial) Power, Pricing and Politics 05/03/2001 The Asian Wall Street Journal 7 (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) India's electricity shortage can't be solved without a new approach. India's power problem is back on the front burner because global generating giant Enron is threatening to turn off the lights at its Dhabol plant and walk away from a contract with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. In an effort to collect $48 million owed for electricity already supplied, the American company has invoked central government guarantees and declared a political force majeure, but without much success. So technically India is facing a sovereign default, after which Enron would spend years battling through the courts to get compensation for the $3 billion project. Of course everyone knows that's not going to happen. After more brinksmanship from both sides, in the coming days they will have to sit down and negotiate a settlement. Some of the problems with Enron are unique to that particular arrangement, but in its basic outline the saga epitomizes a flawed attempt to deal with India's power problem, narrowly defined: a shortage of generating capacity. The country suffers constant blackouts due to a supply shortage of about 6%, and even more during times of peak demand. In the early 1990s, the central government sought to solve this shortfall by opening the doors to private investors like Enron. But this proved to be a mistake because power distribution is controlled by the state governments -- they run it as a system of wealth redistribution rather than a business. California recently made the earth-shattering discovery that a lack of market pricing at the consumer level leads to disaster. But India's state electricity boards, or SEBs, proved that long ago; they have long been bankrupt, and often default on payments to private generators. As a result, most of the big names in power have now pulled out of India. Yes, the country does need to worry about generating capacity. It's estimated that in the next 12 years demand will more than double, with an additional 100,000 megawatts needed, but only half of that is likely to be built. That could increase the shortfall during peak demand to 24%, a frightening prospect. But the first order of business is to reform distribution. There is a debate now about how to give state governments the right incentives to reform their SEBs. These owe almost $6 billion to central government-owned generators and mines, from whom they buy much of their power and coal. In the recently passed budget, New Delhi included a provision to forgive this debt as long as the state governments commit to either privatizing their SEBs or putting a floor on electricity prices. Electricity meters would actually be installed to measure power usage, but subsidies would still be allowed; many customers wouldn't pay enough to cover the true cost of that power. Still, this would be big progress by Indian standards if it happened. Many farmers currently get their power for free, and over 30% of power generated is stolen -- something the SEBs euphemistically call "transmission and distribution losses." As a result, the electricity boards average a return on investment of negative 18%. However, New Delhi is offering quite a big carrot and not much stick. After a March 3 meeting between the prime minister and state leaders, Rajnath Singh, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said quite clearly that he wouldn't hike energy charges for farmers. The reason is obvious -- he faces elections next year, and free power has become an entitlement that no politician lightly takes away. Chief ministers will likely sign on to New Delhi's plan in order to get debt relief, but will backslide on implementation. The only thing that will make the states serious about reform is a hard budget constraint, which is the opposite of what the government is offering. One way to provide it would be to hand over the centrally owned power generators and mines to the states. They would then have to figure out how to keep the system running. If they still chose not to charge for electricity, they would have to find the money for power generation from other parts of their budgets. Another reform some have suggested is to pass a national law which legalizes private power producers. Some states allow companies to have their own "captive" power plants to maintain supply when the public grid fails. But these are typically not permitted to sell their power outside of the parent company. If larger plants that could supply several industrial firms were legalized, the states would come under greater pressure to reform. The private power suppliers could cherry-pick the best customers, those willing to pay for reliable power, leaving the state to subsidize the freeloaders. This would also have the benefit of quickly boosting the country's power supply, since captive plants already have about 10,000 megawatts of unused capacity. New Delhi is still trying to reform the country's power market by fiat. This means years of political wrangling while a growing economy is strangled by a shortage of electricity. Instead, the would-be reformers could let the power of the invisible hand push the state governments in the right direction. INDIA: Foreign funds plough money into Indian shares. By Anurag Sood 05/03/2001 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2001. BOMBAY, May 3 (Reuters) - A stock market scandal, the high-flying software sector skidding to a slowdown, a faltering industrial growth and fears India's biggest foreign investor might pull out. These are some of the events that shook Indian investors, regulators and legislators in the first four months of 2001. Yet foreign funds with deep pockets seem undeterred and have pumped money into emerging Asia's third biggest stock market by market capitalisation. Official data show foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian shares of $340 million in April, boosting the January-April tally to $1.98 billion - exceeding the $1.53 billion in the whole of 2000. "There has been a higher allocation to Asia this year, part of which has found its way into India," said Singapore-based Samir Arora, head of Asian Emerging Markets at Alliance Capital. He said these were funds deserting the United States on fears of a slowdown and losses on Wall Street, but afraid to get into crisis-ridden Japan, and hence hunting for better returns in emerging Asia. According to Lipper Asia Ltd, a Reuters global funds data company, investments by the 20 biggest fund investors in Asia soared to $615.8 billion in the January-March period, up from $354.3 billion in the same quarter last year. But the country's stock market this year has been among the worst performers in the region. The Bombay benchmark index is down 10.92 percent since the start of January, only ahead of Indonesia. THE BUY LIST The shopping cart shows pickings this year have been widespread, from technology where fund managers say valuations were attractive after the meltdown, to the old industrial firms they feel could ride the wave of a turnaround. The Indian economy, number two in developing Asia by gross domestic product, is seen growing close by an average six percent - the IMF estimates 5.6 percent, the Asian Development Bank 6.2 percent and the Indian central bank 6.0-6.5 percent. Ajit Ranade, economist at ABN AMRO Bank, says India's large domestic economy, resilient to the global slowdown, could pull more funds into the country. But a blizzard of stock market scandals which revealed share price manipulation has unnerved some foreign investors. "Weak regulation is a part of an emerging market risk, but that does not rule out caution," said an India strategist at a foreign brokerage. Analysts say foreign fund flows are unlikely to be influenced much by events such as the Enron controversy, where the U.S. energy giant is threatening to pull out of its $2.9 billion power project in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Enron is India's single biggest foreign direct investor. They say factors that influence foreign portfolio investments are different from the considerations that drive longer term direct investments. The Indian government's decision to hike foreign funds' investment limit in Indian firms to 49 percent has also added to fresh buying in Indian software services firms. "India's technology sector is still the best in the region. It has got low capital expenditure, no inventory, and increasingly their customers are outside the technology sector, in areas like banking, insurance and other industrial sectors," Arora of Alliance Capital said. India: Parties up the ante for probe into Enron deal Mahesh Vijapurkar 05/03/2001 The Hindu Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire MUMBAI, MAY 2. All left-of-centre political parties, either partners in the coalition or supportive of the Democratic Front Government, today thrashed its effort to renegotiate the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Enron -sponsored Dabhol Power Company. The least- cost option was to initiate a judicial probe into the deal, which was replete with fraud, and seek the scrapping of the project, they said. This view was made public after the parties - Peasants and Workers Party, the CPI(M), the Janata Dal (Secular), the Samajwadi Party and others - met here and decided to press the demand at a meeting of the coordination committee of all parties, including the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, on May 8. Its scheduled meeting for today was put off as the Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, was away electioneering in the South. These parties, worried about the huge, unpayable DPC bills, had been demanding a probe under the Inquiries Commissions Act but today upped the ante, saying "we are convinced of fraud" in the agreement with DPC. "The renegotiation," Mr. N. D. Patil, who leads the Left grouping and heads the all-party coordination panel said, "is not what we want... we don't want it at all." He and Mr. Prabhakar Sanzgiri, CPI(M), said "we no longer suspect it. We are convinced" of malfeasance. Along with Mr. Pradhyumna Kaul of the Anti-Enron Campaign, they told a press conference that the moment fraud was proved, the PPA could be annulled and "the huge liquidation penalties can be avoided." The demand was to scrap the 1,444 mw phase II, "take over" the 740 mw Phase I and initiate a probe. "The Godbole Committee (report) has provided enough grounds," though Phase I "was a reality and Phase II only an eventuality." Even a small criminal probe would put any arbitration decision, sought by the DPC, "on hold." The lobby pressing for scrapping the PPA said an FIR against the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, under the provisions of Section 10 of the Electricity Supply Act, would suffice as there were enough grounds to prove that the entity or persons concerned had 'played games' at one time or the other. It cited bloated projections of energy demand in Maharashtra, provided by the MSEB to DPC, to justify the work on the Phase II which is now under stress following lenders' reluctance to provide funds till the issue is sorted out. When asked why Mr. Deshmukh preferred renegotiation and trimming of power tariff to a probe, Mr. Patil said "that is his view." For their part, the parties "would press for change at the meeting on May 8... We are not witch hunting. There have been fraudulent acts and we want them probed." India: Handle Enron cautiously: Deshmukh Our Special Correspondent 05/03/2001 The Hindu Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 2. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, today advised the State to handle the Enron issue cautiously and refrain from committing the mistakes made by his State. Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Deshmukh said the Maharashtra Government was treading carefully on the Enron issue and it hoped to renegotiate the power tariff with the U.S. company. Mr. Deshmukh's observations assume significance in the context of the running controversy regarding the Kannur Power Project, which had been denied permission by the LDF Government. Mr. Deshmukh said that Enron had written to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board that it was ready to renegotiate the power tariff provided the Government of India made a formal request. He said the renegotiation would start as soon as the Union Government handed over the formal letter asking for a renegotiation. Mr. Deshmukh pointed out that the basic issue in Enron's Dabhol project was related to the power tariff. The foreign exchange rate was fixed at Rs. 32 a dollar at the start of the project. But now, it had gone up to Rs. 47 a dollar, thereby pushing the cost of power up. He indicated that the renegotiations would focus on this aspect as well. The Maharashtra Government had proposed renegotiation on the basis of the Godbole Commission recommendation. He was confident that the Enron would agree to renegotiate the tariff in the interests of the Maharashtra Government and its own interests. In reply to a question, Mr. Deshmukh said the Enron project had been a major drain on his State's finances, but it had overcome all problems by handling them very carefully. He said the Maharashtra Government would extend all support to the UDF if it were to come to power to process the various parameters relating to the Kannur project so that it did not commit the same kind of mistake as Maharashtra did. He, however, made it clear that his Government welcomed foreign direct investments but not at the cost of the State's interests. Mr. Deshmukh attacked the Centre for not using the various options available under the WTO agreement to come out with a balanced import-export policy. Asked for his comments on Mr. Sharad Pawar's statement that the NCP was considering joining the People's Front, Mr. Deshmukh made it very clear that his party's alliance with the NCP was confined to Maharashtra alone. 'The alliance with the NCP is a post- election affair as part of the attempts to unite all secular forces. The Congress had fought the NCP and several other parties which are now part of the Congress-led Government. But the alliance had been formed in order to keep the BJP-Shiv Sena combine out,' he said. Asked how his party could accept the NCP which had an alliance going with the BJP in Meghalaya, Mr. Deshmukh said the Congress- NCP ties were confined to Maharashtra. 'If the NCP creates any problems in Maharashtra, the alliance would end,' he said. Mr. Deshmukh attacked the CPI(M)-led LDF for its five- year misrule which had left the State virtually bankrupt. 'The credibility of the LDF is so low that the people would not vote for it.' The CPI(M)-led Left parties would be defeated in Kerala and West Bengal, he added. ? India: Promoters holding parleys on future course of action 05/03/2001 Business Line (The Hindu) Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire NEW DELHI, May 2. THE Shipping Corporation of India, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Atlantic Commercial Inc (an Enron affiliate) are holding parleys at Houston, US, the headquarters of Enron Inc,to decide the future course of action on its LNG shipping deal for the Dabhol Power Company (DPC). The controversy surrounding the Enron-promoted DPC and the apprehension raised by the lenders to the LNG shipping project has made the three shipping promoters of Greenfield Shipping Company take stock of the situation. "A final view on the LNG shipping deal will depend on what Enron decides on the power project per se and not just the second phase of the project which is being planned as a LNG- driven plant. Even the first phase is expected to switch-over to LNG in a couple of years", sources tracking the sequence of events told Business Line. The promoters have already paid 70 per cent of the vessel building cost to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan, where the 135,000-cubic metre capacity vessel is being constructed at a total cost of $ 224 million. According to the delivery schedule, the LNG vessel named Laxmi is expected to be completed and delivered by October end this year. A consortium of 11 global banks led by ANZ Investment Bank has taken a high exposure on the LNG shipping project. The Greenfield Shipping Company had struck a 10-year loan with the lenders worth $ 165 million at 325 basis points over libor. SCI has a 20 per cent equity stake in the project while Mitsui O.S.K.Lines hold 60 per cent and Atlantic Commercial Inc. 20 per cent. The LNG shipping deal for Dabhol was the first LNG shipping contract in the country involving an Indian shipping line. Greenfield Shipping Company had entered into a time- charter agreement with DPC to transport LNG from West Asia to its power plant in Maharashtra at a time-charter hire rate of $ 98,600 per day for 20 years. Unlike in the case of other ships, LNG ships do not have a secondary market since these are acquired against specific long-term contracts. In case of any eventuality, Greenfield Shipping Company would find it difficult to divert the vessel elsewhere as globally spot trade in LNG is almost nil. Fortunately for the Greenfield Shipping Company, the prices for new LNG buildings have started "firming up" after travelling through a downward trend till recently. Mitsui O.S.K.Lines-NYKK Line-KKK Line-SCI consortium which recently bagged the shipping contract from Petronet LNG Ltd also, has placed an order with Daewoo Shipbuilding Yard to construct two LNG tankers of 1,38,000 cubic metre capacity each at $ 185 million per vessel. This phase witnessed LNG building prices go down substantially, but has since started picking up. Our Bureau India: Bank of America to invest $50 m more in India 05/03/2001 Business Line (The Hindu) Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire MUMBAI, May 2. BANK of America plans to invest around $50 million (Rs 235 crore) to expand its business in India in the next two years, according to Mr Viswavir Ahuja, who took over as Country Manager of the bank in India from May 1. "We have already obtained FIPB and RBI clearance and the first installment of $10.5 million will be brought in shortly," Mr Ahuja said. The bank is setting up a 100 per cent subsidiary - Banc of America Securities Pvt Ltd - for undertaking primary dealership in Government securities and dealing in other debt products. In a chat with presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr Ahuja said in terms of strategy, "the bank intends to favour judicious balance sheet usage while increasing trading and distribution and advisory capabilities." Bank of America, which exited from retail banking a couple of years ago, is now focussing on the wholesale segment. It would open a new branch in Bangalore, the fifth in the country, in the third-quarter. The bank has an exposure in power, telecom and other segments of the infrastructure sector. Bank of America is among the foreign lenders to the Enron's Dhabol Power Project. Our Bureau India: Renegotiation with Enron likely, says Deshmukh 05/03/2001 Business Line (The Hindu) Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 2. THOUGH it continues to be a major embarrassment and a heavy draw on its finances, the Enron issue seems to have armed the Maharashtra Government with enough "expertise" to advise on similar projects elsewhere in the country. This was one of the upshots at the news conference by the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is on an election campaign on behalf of the United Democratic Front (UDF), here on Wednesday. In the course of his interaction with the newspersons, he said his Government would extend all support to UDF, if it came to power, to process the various parameters relating to the Kannur project so that it did not commit the same kind of mistakes such as Maharashtra. He, however, made it clear that his Government would welcome foreign direct investments, but not at the cost of the State's interests. Mr Deshmukh said the Maharashtra Government was hopeful of renegotiating the issue of tariff for the power from Dhabol project with Enron. He said Enron had written to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) that it was ready to renegotiate power tariff provided the Union Government made a formal request. The renegotiation would begin as soon as the Union Government handed over the formal letter in this regard, he added. The Chief Minister said the basic issue was related to the power tariff. The foreign exchange component was fixed at Rs 32 per dollar at the start of the project, which had now gone up to Rs 47 per dollar thereby pushing up the cost of power. He indicated that the renegotiations would focus on this aspect as well. He explained that the Maharashtra Government had proposed renegotiation on the basis of Godbole Commission recommendation. He was confident that Enron would agree to renegotiate the tariff in its own interest as well as that of the State Government. Our Bureau Let Enron Exit ADITYA CHATTERJEE & POOJA KOTHARI 05/03/2001 The Times of India Copyright (C) 2001 The Times of India; Source: World Reporter (TM) FOR years, Enron tried to woo Indian policy-makers, who couldn't seem to decide whether the Dabhol project was a good idea or not. Today, the boot is on the other foot, and it seems to be pinching. Enron's management is keen to stop investing in huge, capital-intensive plants around the world. In keeping with this strategy -and no doubt exhausted by its ceaseless crisis management in India - Enron is mulling a pullout. But both the Centre and Maharashtra government want to renegotiate the power purchase agreement and have entrusted this responsibility to the Madhav Godbole panel. Is Enron really as indispensable as the authorities seem to think it is? Financially, no. Indeed, if the only way to continue the project is on the present terms, then it makes better sense to simply scrap it. After all, it's better to amputate a gangrenous limb than to let the problem spread further. A little arithmetic will make this amply clear. If the Dabhol Power Company (DPC) does scrap its agreement with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, the Centre will have to cough up a sum of Rs 2,910 crore - a penalty amount of Rs 1,500 crore for one year's electricity bill, and $300 million as termination fees (which works out to Rs 1,410 crore at an assumed exchange rate of 47 rupees to one dollar). This is a one-time payment, and the figure of Rs 2,910 crore is corroborated by a recent statement by Union power secretary A K Basu. Now, if India were to continue with the present arrangement, it would end up paying at least Rs 1,500 crore per year for the next 10 years to DPC. On the other hand, what would happen if the project were scrapped? Well, very simplistically, India would save Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 1,500 crore multiplied by 10 years). But things aren't quite that simple, because that money could earn interest, while inflation would mean that Rs 15,000 crore after 10 years would not have the same value it would have today. To get around this problem, financial experts use a concept called net present value, which discounts future earning streams as well as inflation, to evaluate the attractiveness of a project. If we use a discount rate of 10 per cent, then the value of the amount India would save by scrapping the Dabhol project works out to Rs 9,217 crore, over three times the amount India would have to pay today if the agreement with DPC is terminated. Indian financial institutions (FIs) and banks which have lent money to DPC are actively lobbying to prevent such an eventuality. But how badly would they be hit? Well, FIs led by Industrial Development Bank of India have provided loans of $95 million and $333 million in two phases. This brings their total exposure to $428 million (Rs 2,012 crore at an exchange rate of 47/$). Besides, State Bank of India also underwrote the maximum portion of a $557 million cross-border loan, and has an exposure of about $175 million (Rs 823 crore). Thus, the cumulative exposure of Indian banks and FIs in DPC works out to around Rs 2,835 crore. However, since only 80 per cent of this amount has been disbursed so far, the net exposure of Indian lenders amounts to Rs 2,268 crore. Since the Indian lenders are not covered by any counter-guarantee, their bottomline would be hit if Enron backs out. The government, being a majority stakeholder in most of these institutions, would also be affected. But even if all these loans are taken into account and added to the one-time payment of Rs 2,910 crore, the total cost to the government would be Rs 5,178 crore - still lower than Rs 9,217 crore. Thus, the termination option will prove less costly for the nation than proceeding on the present terms. What will happen to the assets and the plant, did we hear you ask? Well, the government can sell it to private players and re-negotiate the cost factor with them - this time hopefully after doing a cost-benefit analysis! A sale of assets would also lessen the load on the government. Who knows, the government may actually manage to sell the ownership of DPC at a premium to another private sector player! Of course, fears have been raised that cancelling the project might cost us foreign direct investment since Enron is the biggest investor in India so far. After all, Brazil raised $31 billion and China $49 billion last year in comparison with India's measly $4 billion. But there's another way of looking at the problem - what does India really have to lose? In short, it's a case of losing what you don't even have in the first place. Many developing nations which were pushed into signing expensive power projects by multinationals have successfully re-negotiated their contracts with no serious financial consequences. Many nations simply did not have the money to pay for the inflated bills, some refused to pay even after losing international arbitration awards, while others like Costa Rica declared that the 15 contracts signed with independent power producers (like Enron) have no legal status or are bad in law. In July 1999, the Hungarian parliament declared that a PPA signed with multinational RWE was unconstitutional and void. In August 2000, the Croatian government tore up a PPA signed between Enron and a previous government. The contract was considered to be unaffordable, and was allegedly signed in suspicious circumstances. Enron subsequently abandoned the original agreement. In September 2000, the Philippines took a decision to not renew financially crippling contracts with IPPs. Controversy has accompanied the Dabhol project from the start. In August 1994, the finance ministry had written to the power ministry that the size of "the potential liability for a 1,000 megawatt plant was around Rs 3,000 crore per year". The department of economic affairs had also warned that the "...risk of counter-guarantees being invoked was not unreal, given that state electricity bills had been defaulting in payments". Caution was thrown to the winds then. The least India can do now is ask for a re-negotiation. But does the Indian government have the courage to go eyeball-to-eyeball with Enron and not blink first? * Scrapping the power purchase agreement involves a one-time payment of Rs 2,910 crore * However, India would save over Rs 9,000 crore by doing so * There would be a net saving even after writing off FI loans to Dabhol Power Company IDBI: whose life is it, anyway? Tamal Bandyopadhyay 05/03/2001 Business Standard 14 Copyright © Business Standard On April 30 a terse one-line announcement by the finance ministry gave the acting chairman and managing director of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), S K Chakrabarti, a three-month extension. The government was generous enough not to keep the CMD as well as the institution waiting till late evening which it normally does for the fax message from North Block. But the acting IDBI chief may be asked to step down even in three weeks if the government is able to identify his successor. He has been reappointed for a period of three months or till a regular CMD takes charge "whichever is earlier". Could there have been a better way to insult the country's largest financial institution (and its chief)? First, the government planned to merge the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) _which is on the brink of collapse under the burden of ballooning non-performing assets with IDBI to make them sink together. Unable to push through the proposal in the face of stiff resistance put up by IDBI, the government now appears to be keen on leading the country's premier financial institution to its grave alone. This, not by giving an extension to the existing acting chief but by failing to identify his successor and thereby continuing the uncertainty at the top. Nothing can move in an organisation when the CEO himself does not know how long he will survive. India's financial institutions have been repositioning themselves by going short-term both on the assets as well as the liabilities sides. But for that transformation to take effect, they need leaders with a long-term tenure at the helm. To understand this, let's look at what's happening at ICICI, another financial institution in the country that is breathing down on IDBI's neck and threatening to overtake it. K V Kamath, CEO and managing director of ICICI, got a second five-year term seven days ahead of the expiry of his first term on March 30. Once his second term is complete, Kamath will have ended up running the show at ICICI for a decade. ICICI does not only give its chief a long term to steer the ship but also grooms talent to take over the institution in due course. Kamath was groomed by his predecessor N Vaghul. In turn, he is now grooming Nachiket Mor to succeed him. Mor, a former senior general manager of ICICI, has recently been shifted to ICICI Bank as an executive director in charge of wholesale banking. He is likely to be made the managing director of the bank when the present incumbent H N Sinor steps down next year. Eventually, he will take over the mantle from Kamath in 2006 by which time his stint at the bank will have given him enough operational experience in addition to his treasury management and other skills. Given the circumstances, IDBI is fighting a losing battle. It will not be surprising if it goes the IFCI way with an uncertain leadership unable to steer a demoralised, overstaffed ship becalmed by the apathetic bureaucracy of the North Block. This is despite its tremendous brand value in project financing and widespread corporate relationships. Carved out of the Reserve Bank of India by an Act of Parliament in 1976, IDBI has business relations with virtually every corporate house in India. But that is not helping it tide over the crisis, because the key to any financial intermediary's success at this juncture is how it handles its resources _both currency as well as human. In an ideal situation, the cost of funds should be lower while the cost of human resources should be market-driven. In IDBI's case, it is the reverse: its cost of funds is on the higher side in the absence of aggressive treasury operations and it is not allowed to pay market-driven salary to its employees. The net result? There has been an exodus of talent from IDBI and the institution is struggling to stay afloat just when recession has prompted corporations to cut back on their borrowings. IDBI's sanctions and disbursements have been falling and non-performing assets increasing. It is sitting on piles of cash but finding deployment avenues hard to come by. Two former chiefs of IDBI S H Khan and G P Gupta spent a large chunk of their tenure and energy pleading with the finance ministry to delink IDBI's salary structure from that of the Reserve Bank of India, but without success. Small wonder that Chakrabarti, who became acting chairman on February 1 for a three-month term, has singled out the low morale of the staff as his prime concern. He wants to address this on a war footing. The Centre has now successfully demoralised him by offering him another uncertain term. Former finance minister Manmohan Singh accepted Khan's argument on market-driven package (he reportedly wanted a pay scale for his employees that was higher ICICI's) but could not do anything about it. P Chidambaram repeated Singh's failure on this front and Yashwant Sinha too thinks the proposal is not worth considering because it will have a ripple effect in the industry. For instance, RBI employees will immediately demand their pound of flesh. The finance ministry refuses to see the point that the country's central bank is not a commercial organisation and does not have to compete with ICICI. When three successive finance ministers failed to address IDBI's, problems, the institution went for soft options. It ended up appointing three consultants for restructuring in six years! First, Booz, Allen & Hamilton (in 1997), followed by M B Athreya (in 1999) and finally Boston Consulting Group (2001). The third consultant, BCG, is yet to submit its report. While Booz, Allen & Hamilton charted out the roadmap for diversification and suggested that the institution spread its wings overseas and tap new business opportunities, the Athreya panel said it must convert itself into a bank and the government's stake should come down without delay. Over the last few years, the institution has been planning its conversion into a bank and blaming the economy for its indifferent performance even as ICICI has been going full steam with new initiatives. ICICI Bank is also exploiting synergies with its parent to the hilt while IDBI Bank seems to be embarrassed about ackowledging its pedigree. It's not that everything is great at ICICI. Over the past few years, the institution has lost some senior executives: I-Sec managing director Kishore Chaukar left to join the Tata group, ICICI senior general managers Anando Mukherji joined Enron and N J Subaiah took charge at Centurion Bank (which he subsequently left). The industry suspects the quality of ICICI's assets and is not comfortable with the scorching pace of growth. Even the well-paid ICICI executive cadres find the pace of work is too much to handle and complain of fatigue. In private, they hate the mad rush for excellence. And yet there is a method in ICICI's madness. It has trimmed the flab with two successive voluntary retirement schemes, branched out into consumer loans in a big way and transformed treasury operations into an art. The finance ministry would do well to explore the possibility of divesting the government's stake in IDBI to ICICI. Instead of pumping in Rs 300 crore as recapitalisation funds into IFCI it can simply let it die and sell its assets to other banks and financial institutions. IDBI's bulk and the brand name in project financing would combine well with ICICI's growing retail presence and unbridled aggression. The combination would be formidable enough to give the State Bank of India a run for its money. Of course, a whole lot of issues need to settled before the process takes off like trimming the flab in IDBI and delinking it from the RBI pay structure et al. IDBI merging with ICICI may sound like an absurd dream but it is certainly a better option than merging IFCI with IDBI. If Reliance is willing to bid for state-run oil majors HPCL and BPCL, what's the harm in wooing ICICI to take over IDBI? UK names coastal zones HUGH O'MAHONY 05/03/2001 Lloyd's List International 6 Copyright (C) 2001 LLoyds List; Source: World Reporter (TM) For wind farm installations The UK's potential to exploit wind energy offshore has taken a step closer to reality. The Crown Estate has nominated 13 zones in UK coastal waters for wind farm installation, marrying 18 developers to nominated 10 sq km sites. The 18 developers have pre-qualified to obtain lease of seabed agreements, with each of the sites having space to accommodate 30 The largest of the sites calls for the installation of 90 turbines at the Shell Flat, 7 km off Cleveleys (northwest England). This is in the hands of three developers: Shell WindEnergy Aegir; Elsam; and Celtpower. Other developers are: Solway Offshore and Offshore Energy Resources (at Solway Firth); Warwick Energy (Barrow); EnergieKontor UK Offshore (Southport); SeaScape Energy (Burbo); NWP Offshore (North Hoyle); Celtic Offshore Wind (Rhyl Flats); Hyder Industrial (Scarweather Sands); NEG Micon (Kentish Flats); Enron Wind Gunfleet (Gunfleet Sands); Powergen Renewables (Scroby Sands); Beaufort Consortium (Cromer); AMEC Offshore Wind Power (Lynn); Offshore Wind Power (Inner Dowsing); and Northern Offshore Wind (Teesside). By the end of July, Crown Estates will issue full lease arrangements. No more than three years later, the licensees must take up 20-year leases, committing to construction within two years. By 2006, offshore wind farming should be a reality in the UK. Should all the 18 projects go ahead, the combined energy output from the various sites could reach between 1,000 MW and 1,500 MW, depending on whether developers install 2 MW or 3 MW turbines. The existing standard is 2 MW but, by 2005, it is anticipated that 3 MW units will be practicable. The DTI has suggested that offshore wind energy will contribute 1.8% of total UK electricity by 2010, equivalent to 2,612 MW. While this may not be relative to non-the developments already mooted call for the installation of 540 turbines, and overall investment from the private sector of Pounds 1.6bn (Dollars 2.3bn), and the plans offer significant potential for UK-based turbine construction. For offshore use, the turbines feature a monopile steel foundation, driven into the seabed. The wind turbines, connected in daisy-chain fashion, are linked to land-based substations via conventional submarine cable, plugging into the national grid. Danish specialist Vestas Wind Systems is preparing its first major offshore wind farm site, the 80 turbine, 160 MW Horns Rev site off the coast of Denmark, in concert with utility Elsam. Vestas has also already turbines to Scroby Sands and Blyth, pilot UK projects using two turbines respectively off the coast of Great Yarmouth and Blyth. The supplier is now keen to develop a UK-based manufacturing site and has been in negotiations with the Scottish Executive over construction of its first UK-based turbine tower plant, at Machrihinish, the former US airbase, which remains in the hands of the MoD. NEG Micon, another Danish builder of offshore wind turbines, is also one of the developers in the UK, with a proposal to install 30 turbines at Kentish Flats. NEG Micon has installed offshore wind turbines at Yttrestengrad, Sweden, and is also participating in the Danish coastal programme. NEGhas already established a UK manufacturing presence, having bought out Aerolaminates in 1998 from Taylor Woodrow, and developed a riverside blade-building facility on the Isle of Wight, capable of building blades of up to 50 m in length. This size of blade will equip turbines to develop 3 MW of power, which the manufacturer expects to be in place by 2005. UK: Emetra delays derivatives, to focus on physicals 05/03/2001 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2001. LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) - Metals Internet trading group EMETRA has postponed the development of its derivatives platform and will focus on building its physical business, company CEO Peter Sellars said on Thursday. "The world has changed in the past six months. It will be very tough to launch the derivatives project right now," Sellars said. "We are focusing on developing the physical platform and speeding that up a bit," he said. EMETRA has secured fresh funding from its shareholders to continue developing the physical metals trading platform, Sellars said. EMETRA and Deutsche Boerse announced a letter of intent to develop a derivatives platform in June of last year; under the terms of the deal DB was to contribute the trading platform and take an equity stake in the derivatives project. The companies initially targeted January 2001 for the start-up of derivatives trading; this deadline was gradually pushed back, but as recently as Copper Club week in February EMETRA officials were indicating September of this year as a likely launch date. The company began trading on its physical platform last October at its website, www.emetra.com, with over a million tonnes of initial liquidity. EMETRA was founded in February 2000 as ajoint venture between London Metal Exchange ring dealer MG plc - subsequently bough by U.S. energy and power giant Enron Corp - Internet Capital Group and Safeguard International Fund. ?? Scottish Power Earnings Fall But US Strategy On Track By Andrea Chipman Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 05/03/2001 Dow Jones International News (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. multi-utility Scottish Power PLC (SPI) reported lower earnings for the 2000-2001 fiscal year Thursday but said it has resolved problems with its U.S. Pacificorp subsidiary and has streamlined its domestic business for further growth. Scottish Power said pretax profit before goodwill, amortization and exceptional items for the year ending March 31 fell to GBP628 million from GBP736 million a year ago, in line with overall analyst expectations. Sales rose to GBP6.35 billion from GBP4.12 billion a year ago. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 30.65 pence for the current fiscal year, down from 41.22 pence a year earlier, and said it will pay a total dividend of 26 pence a share after paying 24.8 pence a share a year earlier. Scottish Power said it has taken a number of steps to improve shareholder value, including restructuring into three divisions - a U.S. division to include its Pacificorp unit, and two U.K. sectors concentrating on generation and power supply, and infrastructure - to focus on energy growth and expand its activities overseas. Analysts reached before a meeting with the company said they were looking for more details on the company's growth strategy. The company said its Utah-based Hunter power plant is back on line feeding electricity into the local grid after a six-month outage that exposed the company to inflated western U.S. wholesale electricity prices and cost Scottish Power an estimated $160 million. "This year's financial results have been impacted by the outage at the Hunter power station in Utah at a time of exceptional volatility in the western U.S. power markets, and by the expected reductions in revenues resulting from the U.K. regulatory reviews" Chief Executive Ian Russell said. With Hunter back on track, Scottish Power is looking to grow the business of Pacificorp, Hunter's owner, and plans to add some 1,000 megawatts of new capacity by the end of the year, Russell said. He didn't rule out plans for further acquisitions in the U.S., but declined to confirm or deny reports earlier this week that the U.K. utility is considering bidding for Enron Corp.'s (ENE) Oregon-based subsidiary, Portland General. "Obviously Portland is in our own backyard," Russell said. "Frankly, we're still busy with Pacificorp and at the moment; that's what we're focusing on." Closer to home, competition in the wholesale generation and retail supply markets squeezed Scottish Power's profit margins, with generation operating profits at GBP93 million, down GBP14 million from the 1999-2000 fiscal year. The company's customer base remained flat at 3.5 million. Scottish Power is interested in further expansion in both generation and supply, Russell said. "Our strategy is very definitely to expand in the UK, both in generation and supply," Russell said. "We are very focused on expanding the value that we get from that integrated chain. At the moment, we are doing well on the organic side and would seek opportunities in acquisitive supply if we thought we could do so profitably." The company's regulated infrastructure business was also hit by strict revenue limits, cutting total operating profit in its power systems and water business to GBP545.5 million from GBP647.7 million a year earlier. The company's 90% debt levels are likely to increase pressure on Scottish Power to sell its Southern Water unit in order to fund its expansion strategy, Lehman Brothers analyst Gareth Lewis-Davies said. Speaking to journalists on a conference call Russell reiterated that the company is still considering all options for the water company, although he confirmed that Scottish Power had received "a number of offers" from potential buyers. "We have had a number of offers of interest, but we are weeks, or months, away from announcing anything," Russell said. "The underlying performance of Southern Water as a business has been very good." He declined to identify bidders or discuss prices offered. Italian energy company Enel SpA (ENI) is the only company to publicly declare its interest in Southern Water. The chief executive also insisted that his company is still committed to its telecoms unit Thus, in which it holds a 50.1% stake, despite the company's report Tuesday of a 2000 fiscal year loss before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of GBP21.4 million. "We're very supportive of Thus's strategy. I think the results show they have turned the corner," he said, noting that the unit demonstrated growth of more than 30% in its underlying business. "We are very happy with them." Company Web site: www.scottishpower.com -By Andrea Chipman, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9259; andrea.chipman@dowjones.com Scottish Power CEO: Hunter Plant Fully On Line 05/03/2001 Dow Jones International News (Copyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Scottish Power PLC's (SPI) Utah-based Hunter power plant is fully on line following a six-month outage, Chief Executive Ian Russell told a media conference call Thursday. "The plant started commissioning this last weekend, has been building up and is now producing electricity," Russell said. The plant is pumping electricity into its regional grid. The plant, which belongs to Scottish Power's Portland, Oregon-based Pacificorp unit, went out of service in November after an electrical short in the laminate ends of the plant machinery started a fire. The outage exposed the U.K. utility to wholesale electricity prices inflated by the power crisis in the Western U.S. market, costing the company an average of $1 million a day. The total cost of the outage is around $160 million, Russell said. He said the company is planning 1,000 megawatts of new capacity in the U.S. by the end of this year, a 10% increase in its U.S. capacity. The new capacity will include 100 MW of peaking plant from the Gadsby generator in Salt Lake City, which is already up and running, and 400 MW from its Klamath Falls plant in Oregon, which is scheduled to be on line by the end of the month. Russell declined to comment on reports earlier this week that Scottish Power is considering buying Enron Corp.'s (ENE) Oregon-based subisidiary, Portland General. "Obviously Portland is in our own backyard," Russell said. "Frankly, we're still busy with Pacificorp and at the moment that's what we're focusing on." Turning to Scottish Power's U.K. businesses, Russell said it had received "a number of offers" for its Southern Water unit but reiterated the company hasn't yet decided on a sale. "We have had a number of offers of interest, but we are weeks, or months, away from announcing anything," Russell said. "The underlying performance of Southern Water as a business has been very good." The company is continuing to look at all options for the unit, including refinancing it to draw out more
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