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Sempra Energy Resources has secured $135 million of loans from the Inter-American Development Bank and Société Générale to finance the building of its portion of the North Baja gas pipeline. A New York financier familiar with the deal says the Sempra loan consists of a $110 million tranche provided by SocGen and a $25 million piece from the IDB. He says the deal will likely close later this year, but declined to comment on its pricing, structure and tenor.

The retail round for PG&E National Energy Group's planned $1.7 billion non-recourse loan has so far taken overall commitments to $1.5 billion, after $1.075 billion was booked in the earlier wholesale round. One banker says while $1.7 billion is the target, it is possible Pacific Gas & Electric's IPP arm may inject more equity to close out the second round of the deal. He says the retail end might be better described as an add-on, as the initial closing covered three plants and the latest round is earmarked for developing a 170 MW plant in Covert, Mich.

TheAbu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority will send out RFPs next month to candidates looking to bid for Um Al Nar, a power and water desalination provider in Abu Dhabi City that it is looking to offload. An official involved in the privatization process says ADWEA has received a strong response through an initial round of requests for quotes and could see as many as eight international power producers bid for the 1,100 MW and 80 million gallons per day business. As part of the sale process ADWEA wants to the buyer to increase capacity to 1,750 MW and 150 million gallons of desalinated per day (PFR, 1/27).

Another ex-Enron weather specialist has resurfaced in the market, underscoring a talent dispersal that many players are seeing as a big positive for the market. "It's the old Drexel Burnham effect. The scattering of Enron people is good for the market," says Ethan Kahn, president of Chicago-based consulting and brokerage shopCastlebridge Partners, referring to the bond shop that dominated the junk market before it collapsed and its staffers dispersed to other firms. Castlebridge has recently added Bob Beyer, who covered Midwest origination at Enron, to help it re-start an inter-dealer broking operation, Kahn says.

UtiliCorp entered the retail bond mart for the first time last week to tap into cheaper financing. Mike Cole, assistant treasurer in Kansas City, Mo., says savings on the $250 million 30-year offering are likely in the 25-100 basis points range over an institutional deal.

Belgian utility Tractebel is in talks with AES to acquire an electric distributor the U.S. power producer owns in southern Brazil. A New York official close to Tractebel says the company is eyeing AES Sul, a utility with 935,125 customers, in the belief it will fit in strategically with its generation investments in the region. Tractebel already owns Centrais Geradoras do Sul do Brasil (Gerasul), a 4,205 MW generating company in southern Brazil and is developing a further 4,620 MW of assets there. Jacques Van Hee, a Tractebel spokesman in Brussels, declined to comment and Kenneth Woodcock, a spokesman at AES in Arlington, Va., did not return calls.

Calpine is considering selling Saltend, the U.K. power plant it bought for $815 million from Entergy just last summer, according to market watchers. A rival power company executive says his firm has been sounded out by the San Jose, Calif.-based independent power producer over whether it would be interested in buying the 1,200 MW combined-cycle gas-fired plant. A banker in London adds one of his power company clients has also been approached. Rick Haviland, senior v.p. of international development at Calpine in Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

Duke Energy International plans to finance a $270 million, 500 MW combined-cycle gas-fired generation project in Pederneiras, Brazil with equity from its parent company Duke Energy. Stephen Morrisseau, a company spokesman, expects the project to come on line by December 2003. He says that it has been in development for about a year and is not yet under construction. He declined further comment.

Despite recently announcing that it's looking to scale back its financial commitments in the Middle East, bankers familiar with the company say CMS Energy still intends to complete its $200 million acquisition of Sadaf, a 250 MW oil-fired plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, from Saudi Arabia Basic Industrial Corp.

National Rural Utilities Cooperative tapped the euro-denominated bond market for the first time earlier this month to broaden the appeal of a $3.5 billion bond deal--the largest debt offering in its history.Richard Eisenberg, treasurer in Herndon, Va., explains, "By doing euros we attracted investors outside the U.S. who might normally not buy this deal." He adds the coop embarked on a week-long road-show across the pond to familiarize investors with it.