Enron Corp. remains committed to spinning off three businesses once it emerges from bankruptcy, according to an updated court filing Thursday. CrossCountry Energy would hold Enron’s North American pipelines, Prisma Energy International would consist of 18 foreign assets and Portland General Electric (PGE) would be a stand-alone utility. However, the restructuring CEO noted that Enron reserves the right to sell any of its businesses until the initial distribution of stock.

In a speech at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on Wednesday, Enron’s restructuring czar, Stephen Cooper, said that “to date, because of our situation, people had the view that they could take undue advantage of us by way of the difference between our ask and their offer. We have concluded jointly with the creditors committee that we will provide more value to the creditors by organizing these as publicly held platforms than we would by selling in a mistakenly distressed environment.”

Enron now has “in excess of $5 billion in cash,” and “we are by no stretch of the imagination particularly distressed.”

Efforts to recover value from the bankrupt trader had improved, he said, because of an upturn in the energy industry this year, which improved the bottom line of the remaining assets.

“There has been less fire sale-ing in the industry,” he said. “The regulated side of our business, which is virtually all of North America, has stabilized and recovered nicely.” However, he said many energy companies were continuing a struggle to pay their debts, and added, “I’m highly confident we’ll see more bankruptcies.”

The filing Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York offers more detail than previously, including valuations for the three businesses, future earnings projections and updated recoveries for those holding unsecured debt. Enron estimates its 350 classes of creditors with unsecured debt will recover 16.6 cents on the dollar. Enron North America debt holders will recover 19.5% and Enron Power Marketing Inc. creditors will recover 22.5%. The filing indicated that if PGE were sold — not broken up — Enron would distribute common stock to creditors.

Cooper said Enron would not load any corporate debt onto the three entities. He also expects PGE and Transwestern Pipeline, which would be part of CrossCountry, to carry investment grade credit ratings. However, the recoveries are before litigation is completed. The bankruptcy court is expected to hold a hearing on the disclosure statement in late October and a confirmation hearing in January 2004. If the court approves, a confirmation order could be entered by February.

The bankruptcy court could sanction the creation of CrossCountry by the end of this month, Cooper said. Both CrossCountry and Prisma already have independent boards and management teams.

The amended plan must be approved by more than half of 178 debtors and two-thirds of the dollar amount of claims in at least one creditor class for each of the Enron subsidiaries.

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