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CMS Energy, International Power and ADWEA's $1.3 billion Al Shuweihat S1 Loan

Northeast Utilities tapped the bond market April 4 with a $263 million issue to lock in fixed rates and longer-term funding for a chunk of debt originally incurred in 2000. The 7.25%, 10-year unsecured notes will pay down an equal amount of floating-rate notes issued last February, says Jeff Kotkin, an investor relations official in Hartford, Conn. At the time of the FRN offering, NU was in merger talks with Consolidated Edison and wanted to avoid setting up long-term funding, he explains. With the merger collapsing, and interest rates hitting the bottom of the cycle, the company decided to lock in the funding, Kotkin says.

Allegheny Energy Supply, the unregulated generation subsidiary of Hagerstown, Md.-based Allegheny Energy, increased the size of its recent 10-year bond offering from $550 million to $650 million as fixed-income investors flocked to the deal. Mona Yee, an analyst at Fitch in New York, says the IPP upped the size of the transaction because of strong demand for the credit.

Citibank and Société Générale have taken joint honors as the top lenders in the North American market in PFR's inaugural 2001 project finance awards. InterGen won the award for top North American deal. In Europe, International Power's innovative Rugeley mini-perm took top ranking and its monster Al Shuweihat loan, in conjunction with co-sponsors CMS Energy and ADWEA, claimed first place in the Middle East.

Ohio energy concern DPL has put itself up for sale for the second time in two years and has initiated sale discussions with fellow Midwestern utility holding companies Cinergy and FirstEnergy, according to a New York banker. He says DPL has retained Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale, adding a tie-up could be announced by late summer. Calls to Elizabeth McCarthy, cfo at at DP&L, and bankers at Morgan Stanley were not returned. Steve Brash, a spokesman at Cinergy, and Ralph DiNicola, a spokesman at FirstEnergy, declined to comment, citing company policy.

Xcel Energy has hired Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and ABN AMRO to shop affiliate NRG Energy's entire 5.4 GW international plant portfolio and trading operations. The three firms were awarded the divestiture mandates earlier this month after a beauty parade in mid March (PFR, 3/18). Bankers say Goldman has been retained to sell NRG's European trading operations and 1,830 MW asset portfolio, Deutsche Bank has been retained to sell NRG's 1,100 MW Latin American book of power plants, and ABN AMRO has been hired to shop the IPP's 2,400 MW Asia-Pacific business. Lehman Brothers, which advised on the beauty parade, is also being retained to oversee the sale process. Officials at the banks either declined to comment or did not return calls. Mary Sandok, an Xcel spokeswoman, declined to comment.

TXU is looking to bid on some of the domestic generation assets being sold by AES and NRG Energy as part of plans to expand its North American power plant portfolio beyond its Texan base, says a New York banker familiar with the matter. He adds TXU is looking to strike within the next two months to take advantage of falling valuations for generation assets. TXU is in the process of evaluating the assets that it would like to acquire and has spoken to a few banks about advising it on the purchases, but has yet to retain one, according to the banker.

Electric distributor Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CEMIG) and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), a Brazilian mining group, have selected Citibank to arrange $235 million in financing for the construction of two hydroelectric projects in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. According to a project financier familiar with the matter, the financing will consist of a domestic capital markets offering and a non-recourse loan involving Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento (BNDES), Brazil's state-owned development bank. The financier declined to comment further, beyond saying they expect to close the deals by July.

Mirant has retained Banc of America Securities to shop four natural gas-fired facilities located in Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin that have a combined capacity of 1,733 MW, says a banker familiar with its plans. If successful in divesting the assets, the sales could mark Mirant's exit from these markets as it only has one plant in each of the states. Calls to Marce Fuller, ceo of Mirant, were not returned and bankers at BofA declined to comment.

Scotia Capital has added two bankers to its recently launched London based energy group.Andrew Davison joined as a director in mid March. Previously he worked for Enron in London, most recently working in its renewable energy team. Before that Davison was a financier atSociété Générale and Hambros Bank. Scotia also landed David Falcon early last month as an associate director from Citibank. Before Citi, Falcon worked in the energy industry for Sithe Energy and Vivendi.