As part of its house cleaning following its merger withConsolidated Natural Gas, Dominion Resources announced Friday thatit has agreed to sell to GE Capital Commercial Finance $948 millionin commercial loans held by First Source Financial, a unit of itsDominion Capital subsidiary.

The company agreed to sell Dominion Capital to obtain regulatoryapproval for its $8.5 billion acquisition of CNG, which closedearlier this year.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourthquarter. It marks a big step in Dominion’s effort to raise $1.5billion in cash through asset divestitures.

“This transaction will enable Dominion to enhance the company’sdebt structure and significantly de-leverage its balance sheet,”said Dominion CEO Thos. E. Capps. “It also advances our long-termstrategy to divest non-core assets and focus our resources onenergy markets in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regionsof the United States.”

Chicago-based First Source Financial originated the loanportfolio after being acquired by Dominion Capital in 1995. Theportfolio includes loans made to middle-market companies forexpansion, acquisitions and recapitalization, and represents abouthalf of First Source Financial’s total loan portfolio.

Robert O’Reilly, a managing director of GE Capital CommercialFinance, said the “pool of loans is a good fit with our existingmiddle-market equity sponsor-focused lending business. We willcontinue to look for asset acquisition opportunities that canbroaden our portfolio.”

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.