New York-based Sithe Energies, a privately held leadingindependent power producer, said it has hired Goldman, Sachs &Co. as an advisor in its previously announced intention to sell thecompany.

Earlier this month, the company said it started looking for abuyer after its 60% owner France’s Vivendi decided it wanted toreallocate its investments into core operations that excluded U.S.power production.

At a meeting in Paris on Oct. 1, Sithe’s board of directors,including representatives of Vivendi and Japan’s Marubeni Corp.,Sithe’s two largest shareholders, appointed William Kriegel,chairman and CEO of Sithe to initiate and manage the sale process.

The “for sale” sign came as a surprise to observers becauseSithe has spent the last few years building a massive U.S. powerproduction portfolio, which includes 51 plants with 28,000 MW ofgeneration capacity; 40 plants are located in the northeastern U.S.

The company currently is attempting to complete a $1.68 billionacquisition of GPU’s 23 non-nuclear power plants after havingpurchased Boston Edison’s fossil-fuel plants two years ago for $536million. It also previously announced plans to spend another $1billion on power plants over the next couple years.

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