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Bidders are circling Babcock & Brown's wind development pipeline with an eye to buying it and forming a new development company that would use the company's existing personnel.

Calyon, Mashreqbank and Standard Chartered have begun taking commitments for the $1.2 billion financing for Al Dur.

Michael Lopez, director of syndications at ING Capital, and Vicente Leon, director of Latin America syndicated finance, left the firm yesterday. The move comes as lenders across the board trim costs in the economic crisis, a banker says. ING is cutting 5% of its workforce, or roughly 7,000 employees out of 130,000 worldwide, says a spokeswoman, declining to comment on Lopez and Leon.

Moody’s Investors Service is reviewing American Electric Power for possible downgrade and is planning to hand down a decision within 90 days. Moody’s has the company on negative watch with a Baa2 rating for senior unsecured debt. Larry Hess, managing director for the rating agency in New York, says a number of the company’s subsidiaries are also on review for a downgrade.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has shuttered its project finance group in the Americas and moved staffers into the structured finance group. The bank will continue to work on pending transactions and on future deals with core clients, an official says.

Bank of Ireland is seeking potential sponsors of Irish renewable energy projects to invest in its newly launched EUR100 million ($127.45 million) renewable energy fund. BOI and Allied Irish Bank are mandated to put into place a EUR100 million fund for environmental spending to reduce the country’s carbon footprint as a condition of the Irish government’s recapitalization which was finalized earlier this month, says Andrew Cullen, head of tax and project finance with BOI in Dublin. An official at AIB in Dublin was unable to comment.

Reykjavík Geothermal is seeking $50 million from international investors to develop projects in three or four undisclosed locations overseas from Iceland. The company founded by former Reykjavik Energy CEO Gudmundur Thoroddsson in August of last year has been in discussions with U.S. investors and other investors abroad, says Gunnar Örn Gunnarsson, managing director of business development. “This is a very exciting market. There are so many opportunities,” says Gunnarsson.

Solar Ventures, a Milan-based independent power producer, is in talks to mandate a bank to arrange financing supporting the first phase of a EUR150-200 million ($191.53-255.38 million), 40 MW pipeline of solar projects across Italy.

Merrillville, Ind.-based electric and gas utility NiSource is foregoing bond issues and cutting financing costs by using a $265 million term loan. “The term loan was suggested by one of our lead banks. It was the most cost-efficient way to finance our needs,” says David Vajda, v.p. and treasurer. The LIBOR-based cost of the loan translates into roughly 5.85%—significantly less than bonds that would likely price in the 14-15% range, he adds. The company closed the initial portion of the two-year facility last Monday.

Pinnacle West Capital subsidiary Arizona Public Service will use the proceeds from an issue of $500 million of 10-year senior unsecured notes to repay short-term debt. The issue is pricing today and is expected to close Thursday. “We think coming earlier may be better than waiting. We hear there are other issues in the pipeline,” says Chris Froggatt, v.p. and treasurer in Phoenix, noting the company wanted to get ahead of the competition.