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"If possible we'd have them on a double credit watch."--Jack Kennedy, an analyst at Standard & Poor's, referring to the rating agency's recent decision to place troubled power company Dynegy on credit watch, following the resignation of Chairman and CEO Chuck Watson.

Southern Power, the generation arm of Southern Co., is planning to tap the bond market for $560 million to refinance a portion of a $850 million corporate construction loan taken up by three power plant developments, says an official close to the matter. Construction of the 1,134 MW Wansley project in Georgia, the 571 MW Goat Rock I in Alabama and the 810 MW Dahlberg plant in Georgia was funded via the loan, led by Citibank last year (PFR,10/8), and also some inter-company loans from parent outfit Southern Co. A Southern spokeswoman was unable to provide more details by press time.

Standard & Poor'sheld its annual Power and Energy Credit Conferenceat the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on June 12. Some 300 attendees and speakers, made up primarily of power company executives and bankers, focused on the liquidity crisis facing energy companies in the wake of the Enrondebacle and more recently the round-trip trading scandal.

Merill Lynch energy bankerRuss Robertson has joined UBS Warburg as a New York-based managing director in its global energy and power group, rejoiningKen Crews, vice chairman of the group, with whom he had worked at Lehman Brothers. Robertson will focus on power and reports to Walter Hulse, head of the group.

The Weather Board of Trade, a nascent financial weather derivatives exchange, is pitching clearing memberships tickets to weather-trading shops at $200,000 a pop. Dan Parker, ceo of the Atlanta-based exchange, says the plan is to wrap an initial phase of fund raising within the next four to five weeks. He adds there are around a dozen firms who've been approached and have shown interest, but weather players note that the $200,000 price tag might prove too large for some to swallow.

Bonds Issue Date Maturity Issuer Amount ($mil) Offer Price Type of Security Coupon(%) Spread to Treasury Moody's S&P Bookrunner(s) 06/06/02 06/14/05 RWE 328.7 99.965 Mdm Trm Fl Nts Floats - A1 AA- Citigroup SSB 06/06/02 06/15/32 Rochester Gas and Electric 125 100 Fst Mtg Bonds 6.65 102 Aaa AAA Morgan Stanley 06/07/02 06/07/32 E.on 182.6 102.074 Fxd/Straight Bd 6.375 110 Aa2 AA- BarCap 06/11/02 03/24/05 Chubu Electric Power 40.2 100 Fxd/Straight Bd 0.2 - Aa2 AA- Nomura 06/11/02 06/15/12 Energy East 400 99.835 Bonds 6.75 178 Baa2 BBB Jpm/Morgan Stanley/UBS 06/13/02 07/08/18 National Grid 441.4 100 Fxd/Straight Bd 2.983 - A1 A+ Morgan Stanley/RBS 06/13/02 07/08/32 National Grid 73.6 100 Fxd/Straight Bd 2.817 - A1 A+ Morgan Stanley/RBS 06/13/02 07/27/20 National Grid 29.4 108.396 Fxd/Straight Bd 3.806 - A1 A+ Morgan Stanley/RBS 06/13/02 07/27/30 National Grid 44.1 109.17 Fxd/Straight Bd 3.589 - A1 A+ Morgan Stanley/RBS M&A Date Announced Date Effective Target Target Advisor Target Country Acquiror Acquiror Advisor Acquiror Country Value ($mil) 06/06/02 - Cinergy Renovables Ibericas J.P. Morgan Spain Energi E2 A/S Danmark DrKW Denmark - 06/06/02 06/06/02 E/S Intressenter - Sweden Bravida Norge AS(Telenor AS) - Norway - 06/07/02 - North West Delhi Distribution - India Tata Power - India - 06/08/02 - G-8 Group - Poland Investor Group - Germany - 06/10/02 - Wisvest Connecticut - U.S. PSEG Power - U.S. 220 06/11/02 - AES Newenergy - U.S. Constellation Energy Group - U.S. 240 06/11/02 06/11/02 Hamburgische Electricitats Morgan Stanley Germany Vattenfall AB(Sweden) - Sweden 820.771 06/11/02 - Vattenfall-Heat&Power Plant - Sweden Naessjor Municipality - Sweden - Equity Issue Date Issuer Amount ($mil) Offer Price Type of Equity Book Manager 06/06/02 FPL Group 440 50 Eq Sec Units GS/Merrill Source: Thomson Financial Securities Data Company. For more information, call Rich Peterson at (973) 645-9701.

Lead banks Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Société Générale have signed up seven banks for $8-15 million tickets during syndication of a $160 million non-recourse loan being used to finance the construction of the Termopernambuco project in Brazil. A financier close to the matter says it received the commitments in the past few days and hopes to wrap up syndication later this week. He declined to name the banks or discuss the pricing and terms of the loan.

Electricité de France is actively looking to develop projects or buy plants in Mexico and will act over the next several months. An analyst familiar with the company's strategy says that EDF has chosen to stay away from the U.S. market in light of the fall of energy-trading giant Enron and most recently, the scandal that has ensued over round-trip trading. He adds that the company has chosen to focus on Mexcio in particular because it has confidence in the Comision Federal de Electricidad, Mexico's national power company. Calls to officials at EdF in France were not returned.

Some $210 million in debt financing earmarked for Iberdrola's construction of an 800 MW, $700 million inside-the-fence gas-fired power project in Vera Cruz on Mexico's Gulf coast has been delayed. A project financier familiar with the matter says that the Spanish power concern has been struggling to find enough private sector lenders to support the project and has been trying to come up with an alternative financial structure.

Scott Taylor, an associate director at Standard & Poor's in New York, told attendees that AES' exposure in Latin America is the central reason for S&P's recent rating downgrade from BB to BB- and said the company might consider "walking away from its assets in the region." He added that the agency is closely monitoring AES' Latin American assets for further developments.