As expected, the New York Stock Exchange notified Dynegy Inc. Thursday that the company’s average share price for its Class A common stock has fallen below the price criteria for continued listing.

Dynegy closed at 82 cents on Thursday; the last time it traded at $1 or above was Oct. 3. Under the Exchange’s listing standards, companies typically are given six months following notification to raise their share price and average share price above $1. Dynegy said it would work with the Exchange to “satisfy these criteria to support its continued listing.”

The late announcement followed news earlier in the day that Centrica plc had purchased Dynegy’s remaining UK natural gas storage assets for $500 million. The sale, which includes the Rough storage facility, leaves Dynegy’s overseas operations consisting of just the remnants of its energy marketing and trading operation, which is expected to be closed within six months.

Part of the deal with Centrica included Dynegy’s natural gas processing terminal, Easington, which is located on the East Yorkshire coast. ABN AMRO acted as Dynegy’s financial adviser.

Mike Flinn, currently president of Dynegy Europe, will manage the shutdown of European energy trading. In September, Dynegy sold UK-based Dynegy Hornsea to SSE Energy Supply Ltd., a unit of Scottish and Southern Energy plc, for $200 million (see Daily GPI, Oct. 1).

Rough is the largest storage provider in the United Kingdom, used by about half of the natural gas shippers in the country. It has a deliverability rate of 1.5 Bcf/d and a total customer storage capacity of 100 Bcf of gas. The Easington terminal processes Rough and third-party natural gas streams for delivery into the UK gas transportation network. Centrica plans to hire nearly all of the former Dynegy Storage employees.

“The storage business sale is yet another significant accomplishment in our capital plan, which continues to improve our liquidity and enable us to focus on our core businesses going forward,” said Dynegy CEO Bruce Williamson. “When combined with the steps we are taking to restructure the organization and address the company’s financial obligations, we are continuing to build momentum for the new Dynegy and drive the company forward.”

Dynegy had purchased the UK assets in 2001, buying the lot from BG Storage Ltd. for about $600 million (see Daily GPI, Nov. 29, 2001). The deal included 30 wells with five offshore platforms, nine salt caverns, about 19 miles of pipelines and Easington, the onshore processing terminal.

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