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J.P. Morgan is looking to add up to half a dozen senior executives to its global power group, in the face of broader plans at the blue chip firm to lay off 15-20% of its bankers in an attempt to cut costs. A banker in New York says the decision to divert resources to the power group was made recently after an internal analysis showed the power group performing strongly against other sector specific groups at Morgan. He adds the plan to increase the headcount remains at an early stage, so specific details on positions and geographic locations have yet to be worked out.

Lead underwriter KBC Bank has relaunched syndication of a $252 million non-recourse loan funding the construction of the 725 MW Perryville project and is looking to draw in an additional $120 million of lending commitments. The loan, which stalled in syndication last summer amid concerns of a flood of paper from co-sponsor Mirant (PFR, 8/6), has been re-structured with a shorter tenor and less gearing. The tenor has been cut to construction plus five years, instead of eight years, and equity in the $346 million project has been juiced up. The construction period is expected to end this July.

Mirant is looking to exit the Massachusetts generation market and has retained Credit Suisse First Boston to shop its three Bay State plants, which have 1,221 MW of combined capacity. A New York banker familiar with the matter says the divestiture is part of Mirant's restructuring plan to unload $1.6 billion in assets to shore up its balance sheet and maintain its credit rating in the wake of the Enron meltdown. James Peters, a Mirant spokesman, declined to comment on the matter, except to say that it has already sold $1.3 billion in assets. Calls to bankers at CSFB were not returned by press time.

Spokane, Wash.-based Avista, parent of Avista Utilities, is readying a renewal of its $220 million 364-day corporate revolver. The current facility expires May 29, says spokeswoman Laurine Jue. One loan syndicator says a bank meeting is slated for April 10 and the lead arrangers are Bank Of New York and Union Bank Of California. Avista's Jue was unable to provide details on the launch date or the bank line up by press time and calls to BoNY and UBC were not returned.

Cash-strapped U.S. fuel cell producers need to form strategic alliances with heavyweight industrial concerns to ride out the present funding crisis afflicting the sector, argued bankers at the Strategic Research Institute's Second Annual Fuel Cell Investor Conference in New York late last month. The move is vital for under-funded fuel cell developers because both the public and private equity markets are proving inaccessible.

RWE will launch an extensive investor roadshow on April 10 to drum up support for a EUR5 billion ($4.4 billion) dual-currency bond offering due to be launched later this month. Analysts say the offering is likely to prove the biggest European utility bond offering to date and will need to be extensively pre-marketed if it is to be executed at attractive spreads. "Clearly one of the issues that may concern bond investors is the scope of [RWE's] future European and U.S. expansion plans," says one fixed-income analyst. He notes Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's put the German utility on negative outlook and creditwatch negative, respectively, March 22 following news of its tie up with U.K. utility Innogy.

Element Re Capital Products's head of weather derivatives research has left the firm and returned to his old stomping ground J.P. Morgan. Bob Henderson joined Morgan two weeks ago as a v.p. focusing on market risk in equity derivatives, says a spokesman for the bank. Element is currently working on filling the vacated slot, says Lynda Clemmons, president. Henderson, who worked on the research side at Morgan before joining Element, was a well-regarded weather player, according to rivals. They added he was an important cog in the success of the Stamford, Conn.-based shop that launched in March 2000.

DTE Energy tapped the bond market for $200 million in seven-year 6.65% coupon notes last Wednesday, in its latest effort to pay-down debt associated with its $3.9 billion acquisition of MCN Energy. Nick Khouri, treasurer in Detroit, says half of the proceeds are earmarked to refund some of MCN's $800 million of debt. DTE is calling paper and also replacing maturing debt as it falls due, with the aim of securing tighter spreads and reducing the number of entities in the company that issue paper, he says. The other $100 million is for general purposes.

Central Hudson Gas & Electric used some of the proceeds from a $69 million offering of medium-term notes, issued March 25, to refinance existing short-term debt. The regulated utility arm of CH Energy paid down some $10 million of short-term debt, its entire debt load, with proceeds from the new offering. The remainder of the proceeds will be used to maintain and operate existing transmission lines, says Mona Yee, an analyst at Fitch in New York. She adds the deal was drawn down from a $100 million shelf registration filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late February.

NRG Energy's management and shareholders are pushing Xcel Energy to sweeten its tender offer for the unregulated generation business it partly spun off last year if it's to win support for its repurchase plans, say bankers familiar with the negotiations. While NRG has until now remained tight-lipped on whether to back Xcel's repurchase terms for the outstanding 24% of the IPP it doesn't already own, one banker says behind the scenes it is pushing for a higher price of $12.86 a share, against Xcel's current offer of just $12.45.