El Paso Corp. has closed on the sale of its Aruba refinery and related marine, bunkering, and marketing affiliates to Valero Energy Corp. for $465 million plus $162 million for working capital. In connection with closing, El Paso retired a $366 million lease financing associated with the refinery. The sale supports El Paso’s long-range plan to reduce the company’s total debt, net of cash, to approximately $15 billion by year-end 2005. So far, the company has announced or closed $2.9 billion of the $3.3 billion to $3.9 billion of asset sales targeted under the plan.

Despite a 4% increase in futures and options trading and clearing volume last year to a record 139.2 million, Nymex Holdings, the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, reported that its net income fell 28% to $8.9 million, while its earnings per share dropped by the same amount to $10,882. Operating revenue decreased $5 million to $184.2 million. Operating expenses rose about $3.1 million to $165.5 million while clearing and transaction fees were reduced 0.7%. Volume submitted for clearing only through the Nymex ClearPort clearing platform rose 0.5 million to six million contracts. Nymex division seat values reached a record $1.625 million.

Leucadia National Corp. has not given up its plan to acquire Houston-based midstream operator Plains Resources Inc. On Friday, the investment company raised its offer to acquire the producer by 8.6%, making its debt and cash offer about $18.19/share. The offer is $1.44 above Leucadia’s $16.75 offer. However, the board of directors at Plains has already indicated it prefers an all-cash offer by private equity firm Vulcan Capital for $16.75/share (see Daily GPI, March 2). Vulcan is controlled by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen. Representatives of Leucadia and Pershing Square LP will host a conference call at 2 p.m. EST on March 15 to talk with shareholders regarding the offer. The call may be accessed at (800) 299-8538 with participant passcode 24546151.

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