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*French utility conglomerate Suez, saddled with one of the biggest corporate debt loads in Europe, has pledged to sell EUR9 billion ($9.44 billion) of assets over the next two years. It hopes the large asset sales will restore the confidence of skittish investors after its shares lost half their value last year amid concerns about its €27 billion debt (Wall Street Journal Europe, 1/10).

Companhia Energética de São Paulo (CESP) is putting together a refinancing plan for $750 million of debt that matures in May 2003.

The North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) plans to use the proceeds from a $300 million offering of fixed-rate revenue bonds, which were due to be sold late last week, to refinance nearly $300 million of revenue bonds that mature between 2005-2017.

The U.S. IPP sector, down in the dumps for most of last year over bankruptcy fears, is being bid up in the secondary bank market by funds taking a bullish stance on the security tied to IPP's debt lines. Energy names have been received with open arms by investors returning from vacation, notes one bank-loan buysider. He adds AES and Calpine's debt has rallied sharply as investors have become more comfortable with their refurbished credit facilities and collateral packages.

Allegheny Energy is looking to raise $400-600 million in equity capital either through a private placement later this year or via the public stock market next year to bolster liquidity and fend off the threat of bankruptcy, says a New York analyst who follows the energy company.

PSEG Global is firming up plans to raise $250 million to finance peaker plants in California and is looking at both the bank debt and the private placement market to execute the deal.

Allegheny Energy's bid to extend $1.3 billion in bank lines and add a new secured $470 million facility is facing resistance from bondholders who believe the new loans could be secured ahead of their claims, say financiers. The investors, who are believed to mainly consist of insurance companies, hold $380 million in bonds issued as part of the financing for a now suspended 540 MW plant in Indiana. Allegheny is in default on the terms on its loans and has a waiver in place until Jan. 14, but with the bondholders resisting the company may need to extend the waiver.

Albuquerque, N.M.-based utility Public Service Company of New Mexico has inked an expanded credit line to increase liquidity and also get more banks involved in its financing. "We wanted more banks involved so we have a deeper bench," says Bob Hagan, spokesman at parent PNM Resources.

Entergy has walked out on its last remaining U.K. generation asset, Damhead Creek, and handed control of the 800 MW power plant to the junior bank group that financed its construction. The dramatic move likely heralds the first of many such power plant takeovers by banks over the next year as embattled generators look to wash their hands of loss-making U.K. power plants, predict market watchers. The collapse in wholesale power prices and slender spark spreads are prompting generators to exit the U.K. market, they explain. "We could see a tidal wave of IPP failures, first in the U.K. and then the U.S.," forecasts Michael Hogan, former executive managing director for Europe and the Middle East at InterGen. Gareth Brett, head of Entergy's European operations, did not return calls.

Houston-based Coral Energy has a question mark hanging over its AAA rating after Standard & Poor's last week put the Shell affiliate on creditwatch. The impact of a downgrade would be most likely felt in Coral's trading operations, rather than in the U.S. project finance market where the company is a high profile name through its involvement in power-plant tolling agreements, say bankers. One financier notes that guarantees on those tolls are signed up at the Shell level, whose AAA rating isn't under review.