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The Sacramento Municipal Utility District was looking to tap the municipal bond market late last week with a $269 million offering of subordinated electric revenue refunding bonds to refinance a $274.5 million bond seiers issued in 1992. Lina Santoro, an analyst at Fitch Ratings in New York, says SMUD is looking to refinance the debt to take advantage of the low interest rate environment. Calls to Larry Stark, assistant treasurer at SMUD, were not returned by press time.

Houston-Based Reliant Resources is likely to pledge assets as part of the refinancing of a $2.9 billion 364-day revolver used to fund the acquisition of Orion Power, according to officials tracking the deal. The company had initially planned to take out the facility with a bond issue (PFR, 2/11) but that route was blocked when it became embroiled in the round-trip trading affair. Officials say the firm is now looking to negotiate a more universal refinancing, which may include the $800 million in bank debt that was termed out earlier this month (PFR, 7/22). To get banks to sign on for that, financiers say assets will have to be pledged to create a secured facility. Reliant is also plotting a refinancing for a chunk of non-recourse debt associated with the Orion acquisition (PFR, 8/12).

St. John's, Newfoundland-based Fortis Inc. has secured $65 million in non-recourse financing for a joint venture expanding capacity at two hydro facilities in Newfoundland. The 25-year facility was set up with a syndicate of mostly insurance companies headed up by Canadian firm Clarica, says John Evans, chief engineer at Fortis.

The Aquila weather derivatives team is aiming to move en masse to a new home, and some industry watchers say DTE Energy Trading is a likely strong suitor. The Kansas City, Mo., player is shuttering its entire merchant trading operation and Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, a one time suitor for Aquila's trading operation, has agreed to offer posts to some of Aquila's energy trading staffers. However, DTE is a more likely home for Ravi Nathan, head of Aquila's weather team, and his colleagues, says one official. Randy Balhorn, president of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based unregulated unit of DTE Energy, has been looking at how to enter the weather market for some time, but has not settled on a strategy as yet, explains the official. Balhorn declined comment.

Concern that Dynegy could be forced into bankruptcy has prompted U.K. energy traders such as BP, Centrica, Hetco and Entergy-Koch Trading to rapidly form an ad hoc pressure group to demand better security on the natural gas they store with the company's Dynegy Storage (formerly BG Storage) subsidiary. Officials at BP, Centrica, Hetco and EKT either declined to comment or did not return calls.

Electricite de France has stunned market watchers by awarding BNP Paribas the second advisory mandate for its upcoming privatization and partial floatation. French power sector investment bankers had been predicting right up until the eleventh hour late last week that Deutsche Bank was a shoe-in to land the prized role (PFR,8/12). The state-owned utility had already retained Paris-based NM Rothschild as one of its advisors. EdF spokesman Stephan Gabard, and Olivier Petros, Deutsche Bank's coverage banker for EdF did not return calls.

The banking syndicate involved in financing Entergy Wholesale Operations' Damhead Creek power plant in the U.K. is looking to restructure the roughly GBP500 million ($835 million) merchant deal in an attempt to stave off a full blown default on the non-recourse loan, according to market watchers. Bankers involved in the syndicate say they have formed a steering group that will work with the project sponsor to tackle problems associated with the loan.

Gaz de France is looking to enter the U.K. power generation market and has initiated negotiations with BP to purchase its 400 MW Great Yarmouth facility on England's East Anglian coast. A person close to the matter says Paris-based GdF is presently undertaking due diligence on the newly built combined-cycle gas turbine plant and could be ready to make a bid within the next few weeks. Oil giant BP put its Great Yarmouth facility up for sale in May and has hired J.P. Morgan to shop the asset (PFR, 6/13). Colum Doyle , a spokesman for BP's Gas, Power and Renewables division, and Jeremy Wilson , head of power at J.P. Morgan, did not return calls.

Electricité de France is believed to have hired Deutsche Bank to work alongside NM Rothschild to advise on its upcoming privatization and partial floatation. A banker in London says an EdF official told him of the news last week, but said a formal announcement would not be made just yet. The banker says the threat of trade unions protesting against the privatization likely has caused EdF to adopt a low-key approach.

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