Two weeks after Perry Gas filed for bankruptcy and sued its retailclient billing provider, PowerTrust.com, the marketer confirmed it hasdropped the lawsuit and is selling its residential energy marketingunits to that same provider (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31).

Perry Gas Co., in an effort to re-organize its companystructure, entered into a letter of intent to sell two marketingsubsidiaries to PowerTrust. Included in the deal are the stock andassets of Southeastern States Energy, and the assets of PerryEnergy Services. “This is part of Perry Gas’ plan to maximize thereturn to its creditors in the bankruptcy plan, and we are in theprocess of reorganizing Perry Gas,” said Tom Dickinson, Perry Gas’attorney.

Southeastern States Energy operates in Georgia’s deregulated gasmarket with about 10,000 residential gas customers. Perry EnergyServices markets gas to residential customers in theWashington-Baltimore area.

“This has always been part of our plan,” explained Dickenson.”We have been working on this with PowerTrust even prior tobankruptcy. PowerTrust has expressed an interest in SoutheasternStates over an extended period of time. Perry Gas formedSoutheastern States probably over a year and a half ago. Soon afterthat, PowerTrust began expressing interest in acquiring thesubsidiary.”

Dickinson said the lawsuit that Perry had filed againstPowerTrust was an effort to obtain information pertaining to thecompany’s financial woes. “We had requested accounting informationfrom PowerTrust on the subsidiary. They furnished it to us; weanalyzed it and got our questions answered. That really was one ofthe steps we needed to clear to complete the negotiations for thesale of the subsidiaries.”

Even though Dickinson claims the lawsuit was just a request foraccounting, Perry Gas’ CEO Beth Perry Sewell issued a statementdivorcing Powertrust from its financial woes. “PowerTrust.com, Inc.operates under a contractual alliance with Perry Gas entitiespursuant to which PowerTrust provides marketing, customer serviceand billing support for natural gas customers served by the PerryGas entities in certain deregulated natural gas markets. Perry Gasdoes not at this point have basis to conclude that the financialdifficulties resulting in the Chapter 11 filing were caused by theperformance of PowerTrust.”

Perry Gas plans to continue its retail gas business andrestructure its business plan. “I think it is safe to say that weare getting out of the residential retail gas market, but we arerefocusing on the commercial, small industrial and industrialretail markets which is the bulk of our business,” said Dickinson.The company operates its commercial and industrial businesses inthe mid-Atlantic states and the southeast.

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