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Callum McCarthy, ceo of Ofgem, the U.K. power regulator, has turned a cold shoulder to the pleas of embattled independent power producers in the U.K, many of whom have been brought to their knees by the near 40% fall in U.K. wholesale power prices over the past two years.

CenterPoint Energy is looking to get an extension on its $3.85 billion loan facility, maturing this fall, out to June 2005 and also delay and reduce two $600 million payments due this year that are required under the current deal. With the first $600 million due at the end of this week, the Houston player will likely be right up against the clock, say lenders poring over the paperwork. "It'll be tough to make the deadline," says one banker. Leticia Lowe, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint, says the company isn't commenting on its negotiations with banks.

London-basedInternational Power is looking to take out options to acquire many of the struggling U.K. power plants that have fallen--or are set to fall--into the hands of their creditors and is offering the incentive of low-cost operation and maintenance services to land the contracts. Phil Cox, cfo at IP, says it has approached a few plant operators but declined further comment.

Commerzbank has released Mark Robinson, its London-based U.K. utility equity analyst. An official at the firm says Robinson was released early this month as part of a round of job cuts at the German bank. The bank has retained Harold Hutchinson, its mainland European utility analyst. Calls to Hutchinson were not returned and Robinson could not be reached for comment.

RWE Trading Americas has hired Sean O'Neal, v.p. responsible for Mid-continent power trading at Morgan Stanley in New York, as director of power trading, according to Gerald Balboa, v.p.-power trading in Houston. O'Neal, who starts today, takes a new role covering the ERCOT, SPP and SERC regions. "He has a stellar reputation in the market," says Balboa, adding that O'Neal has also previously worked at Duke and Enron. O'Neal could not be reached.

*Federal securities regulators have ruled that Duke Energy must allow a vote on a shareholder's initiative asking the company's board to re-examine its dividend. The initiative, similar to one Duke successfully blocked last year, was sponsored by a shareholder angry that Duke's dividend has not grown along with management salaries. A federal rule allows companies to block proposals if they require a maximum or minimum dividend payout (The Charlotte Observer, 2/22).

Spurred by the success of a $1 billion debt offering at its Ohio subsidiaries, American Electric Power decided to follow suit one day later with a similar flurry of bond sales for its Texan utilities. Ohio Power and Columbus Southern Power each issued $250 million in tranches of 10- and 30-year notes on Tuesday of last week. The next day, AEP Texas Central issued four tranches totaling $800 million and AEP Texas North issued $225 million of 10-year notes.

Reno, Nev.-based Sierra Pacific Resources upsized a recent private placement to $300 million of convertible notes from $250 million, which helped stave off the prospect of default on an issue that matures next month. Karl Walquist, a spokesman for the company, say the increased size simply reflected stronger than expected demand. The issue will refinance $192 million of floating-rate notes and the balance will be used to strengthen the balance sheet.

International Power is looking to tap the project loan market to part fund a potential $1 billion generation spending spree. CFO Phil Cox says the company has a $500 million cash warchest set aside to fund future deals, but notes it wants to double its firepower through the use of project-level bank loan leverage.

Calpine is close to selling its 600 MW portfolio of qualified facilities (QF) plants and most of the interest is coming from U.S. private equity funds and other financial players, say market watchers. They add the long-dated offtake agreements typically attached to QFs provide the kind of strong and steady revenue stream that attracts financial bidders.