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American Electric Power last week wrapped syndication for its $2.5 billion 364-day revolver, with a bank line-up some 30 strong. Lenders say the showing was as forecast given the Columbus, Ohio, player's strong name and bank following. In the pecking order after leads Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank Of America, Barclays and Key Bank committed to tickets for agent titles, says a banker, who was unable to provide definite allocations. David Hagelin, an AEP spokesman, confirmed the deal's closure adding that the deal was 20% oversubscribed.

Bankers for Dearborn, Mich.-based CMS Energy are expecting to close a $450 million 364-day revolver and a $300 million facility for its utility arm Consumers Energy within the next few weeks, after missing last Wednesday's target date for sealing the financing.

InterGen has awarded BNP Paribas and Société Générale joint lead arranger titles on its Rijnmond project loan in the Netherlands. The French pair beat rival bids fromABN AMRO, Credit Lyonnais and KBC Bank to win the mandate. At the beginning of this month InterGen whittled down the shortlist to BNP and SocGen (PFR, 5/6) and subsequently decided to hire both banks rather than opt for a sole arranger, says an official close to the deal.

Jacksonville Electric Authority plans to use the proceeds from a $75 million offering of senior revenue bonds to finance the development of its wires business and a further $15 million tranche of subordinated revenue bonds to finance acquisitions and also for general construction purposes, saysRoss Byers, an investment specialist at the Florida utility.

American Electric Power was due to collect final bids last Friday in its sale of U.K. supply and wires business SEEBOARD. Officials close to the sale say AEP has shortlisted four incumbent U.K. supply companies for the auction; London Electricity (the U.K. power arm of Electricité de France), Powergen (soon to be bought by E.on) and Scottish and Southern Energy. One banker involved in the sales process says AEP has yet to say when it will announce a sale and adds AEP could launch a second round of bidding if two of the binding offers are suitably close.

InterGen has sealed non-recourse bank financing for the construction of Spalding, an 860 MW combined-cycle gas-fired power project that it is developing in Lincolnshire, eastern England. PFR was unable to ascertain the terms, pricing or exact size of the loan, but market watchers say it is in the GBP300-400 million ($426-568 million) range.

Banc One Capital Markets has inked a deal with Wolverine Trading under which the bank markets and originates weather trades, and the Chicago-based broker executes the trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Jim Harkness, coo at Wolverine, says the agreement was fired up as part of his firm's move to become lead market marker for CME weather contracts (PFR, 5/20). "We are pricing and [Banc One] has the client base," he says, noting that Wolverine has struck this kind of relationship in other markets. Scott Mathews, a former United Weather broker who is heading up Banc One's weather push from New York, was out of the office last week and did not respond to messages.

Tractebel and a consortium led by the Brazilian arm of Alcoa, the U.S. aluminum giant, have emerged as the two main competitors bidding for the national government-sponsored Estreito hydroelectric power project in Brazil. A banker familiar with the matter says the 1,087 MW project will cost about $700 million to build and is expected to be operational by 2007. He adds that the government-run auction will be held on July 12.

St John's, Newfoundland-based Fortis is issuing equity to reduce gearing and take its capital structure back to a debt/equity split of 65/35, following a number of acquisitions over the last year. Karl Smith, cfo, says the company will raise a minimum of CAD97.7 million ($63.6 million) and there is an over allotment option that could take the total to CAD109.9 million. Equity is currently in the 30-33% range, he adds.

Calpine is looking to bulk up its planned $600 million B term loan to $950 million-1 billion and cut back its pro rata facility by an equal amount. The move reflects strong institutional investor interest after pricing was juiced to LIBOR +375, from LIBOR +275, bankers say. The $1.6 billion financing was launched earlier this year as part of the IPP's effort to secure a stronger liquidity cushion (PFR, 3/18).