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ABB Treasury and Energy Services has hired Richard Cockburn, a power options trader at U.K. utility Innogy, to trade the U.K. electricity market. Mark Meyrick, managing director and head of ABB's energy trading unit in London, says the hire reflects ABB's growing franchise in the U.K. power market. The unit is doing more business and needed to add another trader to its small desk, he explains. Meyrick notes Cockburn will trade both options and forwards in his new position. Cockburn is in between posts and could not be reached for comment. He joins ABB in July.

CIBC Capital Partners, a merchant banking affiliate of CIBC World Markets, is closing down its power technology venture capital unit, say market officials, and earlier this month laid off Jay Hatfield, managing director and head of power technology, and other high-ranking bankers in the group.Robert McCloud, a CIBC spokesman, confirmed that Hatfield and a handful of his colleagues had been handed pink slips, but declined to comment on the number of casualties or discuss the matter further.

U.K. transmission monopoly National Grid has been holding merger discussions with Northeast Utilities for the past few months and is planning to swoop for the U.S. utility toward the end of this year following the completion of its announced tie-up with Lattice, a U.K. monopoly gas pipeline business. A banker close to the negotiations says Northeast Utilities has retained Morgan Stanley to advise on the deal, but he declined to name National Grid's advisor.

Bonds Issue Date Maturity Issuer Amount ($mil) Offer Price Type of Security Coupon (%) Spread to Treasury Moody's S&P Bookrunner(s) 05/03/02 05/22/07 RWE 58.9 100 FRNs Floats - A1 AA- HypoVereins 05/06/02 06/01/12 CLECO Power 50 100 IQ Notes 6.05 97 Aaa AAA Ed.Jones 05/07/02 05/30/08 Forces Motrices de Mauvoisin 63.1 100.8 Fxd/Straight Bd 4 - NR A+ Zuercher 05/07/02 05/15/07 Western Resources 365 100 Fst Mtg Bonds 7.875 342 Ba1 BBB- SSB 05/07/02 05/15/07 Western Resources 400 100 Sr Unsecurd Nts 9.75 529 Ba2 BB- SSB 05/08/02 05/01/07 TECO Energy 300 99.733 Notes 6.125 160 A3 BBB+ BofA/BoNY/CSFB/SSB 05/08/02 05/01/12 TECO Energy 400 99.89 Notes 7 180 A3 BBB+ BofA/BoNY/CSFB/SSB M&A Date Announced Date Target Name Target Advisors Target Country Acquiror Name Acquiror Advisors Acquiror Country Value ($mil) 05/02/02 05/02/02 Vattenfall Heating - Sweden Rindi Energi - Sweden - 05/03/02 05/03/02 Braunschweiger Versorgung - Germany TXU Corp - U.S. - 05/04/02 05/04/02 Enel Power Plants (2) - Nicaragua Coastal Corp - U.S. 41.400 05/06/02 - Braunschweiger Versorgung - Germany TXU Corp - U.S. - Source: Thomson Financial Securities Data Company. For more information, call Rich Peterson at (973) 645-9701.

Citibank, BNP Paribas and the Export Development Corp., Canada's national credit export agency, have closed financing for InterGen's $600 million multi-tranche non-recourse loan for the construction of La Rosita I and II (1,075 MW). A project financier involved in the deal says that initial funds were released late last month to the project sponsor.

Oncor Electric Delivery, the regulated transmission and distribution arm of TXU, has tapped the bond market for the first time with a $1.2 billion two-part offering. The $700 million of 10-year and $500 million of 30-year first-mortgage notes will be used to pay off a mix of maturing and callable debt, says Bert Gilson, an investor relations official in Dallas. He declined to comment on which issues will be taken out.

The Nebraska Public Power District plans to use the proceeds from a $75 million offering of one-year notes, which were set to reach the market late last week, to partly finance the construction of a gas-fired power plant in Beatrice, Neb. The 229 MW facility is expected to cost approximately $230 million and will come on line in 2005, according to Marcia Cady, an NPPD spokeswoman. She was unable to provide details on how the rest of the plant's construction costs are being financed.

U.K. oil giant BP has decided to offload its only U.K. power generation asset, Great Yarmouth, because the plant does not support any of its other operations. Colum Doyle, a spokesman for BP's Gas, Power and Renewables division, explains that unlike some of the other global oil giants, BP has no desire to own generation capacity for its own sake. Rather it builds or buys power plants if they support an existing business, such as a petro-chemical plant that requires power, or if they can provide offtake agreements for BP's gas assets. Great Yarmouth, a 400 MW combined-cycle gas-fired power plant in Norfolk, southeast England, provides none of these associated benefits, explains Doyle.

New Orleans-based Entergy has paid off lenders in a $350 million revolver that was arranged last fall to fund its acquisition of turbines. The Turbine Trust 1 facility was only funded last September, but with Entergy scaling back its development activities, and so reducing the need for turbines, the loan was taken out early, explains an official close to the deal. A financier at Barclays Capital, lead arranger of the revolver, and Morgan Stewart, a spokesman at Entergy, declined comment.

Lead arrangersCitibank and Mizuho Financial are in discussions with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and ING Barings about committing to a $210 million long-term non-recourse loan earmarked for the construction of Altamira (495 MW), a combined-cycle gas-turbine plant in northeastern Mexico. A project financier involved in the financing says BTM and ING are likely to come on board as co-arrangers shortly and adds the loan is expected be sealed by the end of this month. Project sponsors Electricité de France (51%) and Mitsubishi (49%) should receive the construction funds by the end of June or early July, he notes. The financier declined to comment on the terms of the loan.