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NorthWestern Corp. is looking to tap the institutional market for a $390 million term loan, a move that would add the Sioux Falls, S.D., company to the list of power players that have had to pay rich pricing to tap the B loan market this year (PFR, 12/2). The five-year facility is priced at LIBOR + 550 basis points with a 3% LIBOR floor. A number of embattled power players have been driven to the institutional mart because of credit and liquidity concerns that have tightened access to bank debt, says one financier. Roger Schrum, a spokesman for NorthWestern, did not return calls.

PSEG Global is looking to arrange non-recourse financing for at least one, and possibly more, peaker plants in California.

* Allegheny Energy is asking shareholders to approve the removal of a preemptive rights plan, which gives shareholders the right to pre-empt any issue of stock to another person by purchasing the stock on the same terms and conditions as offered to non-shareholders. The company said it has been approached by several well-known firms interested in making equity investments (Dow Jones, 1/8).

Three of the largest non-recourse lenders to the U.K. power sector are considering setting up a first of its kind bank-owned generation company as a way of salvaging their underperforming investments in England's generation market. Financiers from Abbey National, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland have met twice in recent weeks with advisors from Ernst & Young and Allen & Overy to thrash out a plan to pool some of their power plant project loans and convert the bank paper into equity, according to officials close to the talks.

Three of the largest non-recourse lenders to the U.K. power sector are considering setting up a first of its kind bank-owned generation company as a way of salvaging their underperforming investments in England's generation market. Financiers from Abbey National, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland have met twice in recent weeks with advisors from Ernst & Young and Allen & Overy to thrash out a plan to pool some of their power plant project loans and convert the bank paper into equity, according to officials close to the talks.

Prebon Energy has beefed up its recently relaunched London-based power brokering effort with the hire of two former U.K. power traders.

Brazilian oil concern Petrobras expects to seal a non-recourse loan early next year to fund the construction of an approximately $200 million, 700 MW thermal power plant in Brazil, dubbed Ibiritermo.

Zurich-based ABB will shortly shut down its London-based energy trading armABB Treasury and Energy Services, having failed to find a buyer for the business.

Richmond, Va.-based Dominion last week tapped the 30-year end of the curve for the first time in a $600 million issue of senior notes and has also placed $500 million in escrow to partially cover a $1 billion debt that matures next month. Mark Lazenby, spokesman, says the company hasn't used the 30-year debt market for the holding company level before. Market conditions made the timing appropriate for the foray as finance staffers thought spreads at the end were attractive, he notes, adding that the deal was oversubscribed. Lazenby was unable to ascertain why the escrow was used.

New power project-based financing opportunities are expected to remain scarce in 2003, offering no respite from this year's sluggish primary market, argued the vast majority of bankers at Euromoney's Global Energy Finance Summit in New York earlier this month.