The “new” Enron Corp. will be a smaller company, based on hard assets with predictable revenue and cash flow, its new interim CEO said in his first press conference Wednesday night in Houston. He also was emphatic in talking about what caused the Fortune 100 company to go under so quickly. “I frankly don’t care,” said Stephen Cooper.

In just his second day on the job, Cooper spent about 30 minutes talking with reporters around the country last week, telling reporters that Enron’s new platform is being evaluated “literally every day,” and in the next month, the company’s senior management will get organized to understand what Enron will look like in the future. “We are going to drive this against a very fast timetable,” said Cooper. While he couldn’t discuss specifics, he said it would move at “light speed.”

What it will become, he is certain, is a smaller company. “I think we’re going to have in the main domestic and international entities dedicated to natural gas and the movement of electricity,” said Cooper. “There is a second undertaking, which is the sale of businesses or assets that are hard, and then the wind down of a number of our terminated or live contracts that will require an additional organization.” He said assets the company may sell are still being reviewed, along with structure and staffing — there could be more job cuts.

Noting that he “can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for Enron’s employees over the last several months,” Cooper said with the “distractions” it was “surprising how they’ve been able to keep the focus on business as well as they have.”

For now, Cooper and his team will be looking at four metrics: organization; business involved with the entities served; the entities’ customer base; and cash on hand. Admitting he had only been there for a “couple of days,” Cooper said nonetheless, “my sense is that Enron has a tremendous, tremendous organization…people are very bright, very dedicated.” He will focus on “whatever it takes to have a successful reorganization,” but he said he will not “look in the rear-view mirror.” When asked what he thought had caused Enron’s meltdown, Cooper said he didn’t care. “We are keeping our eye on the objective…and to ensure within that context, that we preserve as many jobs as possible.”

He also expects the internal report on Enron to be completed within the next week. Enron has indicated that the report would be completed by Feb. 4 (Monday). Cooper said once it is released, he is prepared to do “whatever it takes” to make sure there are no more problems. He also said no new auditor had been selected, and that may delay fourth quarter earnings reports.

Cooper, a managing principal with crisis and restructuring specialist Zolfo Cooper, has more than 30 years of experience leading companies through operational and financial reorganizations. Cooper will be joined by a team of Zolfo Cooper professionals and current Enron executives to assist with Enron’s restructuring effort. Zolfo Cooper, with 85 professionals, has worked on more than 500 reorganizations, including Federated Department Stores, Sunbeam, Laidlaw, Washington Group International, Polaroid Corp., Morrison Knudsen, Pegasus Gold, NationsRent, and ICG Communications. Founded in 1982, Zolfo Cooper also has offices in New Jersey and Los Angeles.

Enron’s board of directors, working in cooperation with its Creditors Committee, selected Cooper, 55, after a review of candidates two weeks ago. Also named to the Office of the Chief Executive are current CFO Jeff McMahon, who will become president and COO, and Ray Bowen, who has been named executive vice president and CFO. Bowen had been Enron’s treasurer. Cooper and his team are expected to begin working immediately with Enron’s current management and its Creditors Committee on the company’s continuing efforts to reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy.

“Our focus is on the future of Enron,” said Cooper. “With more than 19,000 employees worldwide, Enron has real businesses with real value. We will work closely with the board of directors, management, and the Creditors Committee to develop a reorganization plan to maximize value for the company’s stakeholders.” Cooper is a graduate of Occidental College and holds an MBA from Wharton Business School. He previously was a partner in Touche Ross & Co.

The board also said it will “promptly focus” to select a new chairman. Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay recently resigned but remains on the board.

Enron also announced, in accordance with the previously disclosed Master Agreement with UBS Warburg concerning its purchase of Enron’s North American wholesale natural gas and power trading business, that Lawrence G. Whalley has resigned his position as president and COO of Enron and will accept a position with UBS Warburg.

In related Enron news, Swiss-based investment banker UBS, which was recently given the green light by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York to acquire Enron’s wholesale energy and marketing unit, apparently will trim 300 of its 800 jobs in the unit once the transaction is completed, according to UBS CEO Peter Wuffli.

In an interview with Handelsblatt, a German daily newspaper, Wuffli said that the trading unit, once the backbone of Enron’s entire business, will be completely absorbed into UBS’s risk-management system. He also said that once the transaction is completed, he expects the unit, which will fall under its UBS Warburg unit, will resume its former business volumes in six to 12 months. At the end of 2000, the Enron unit on paper was in a class by itself in commodity trading, and Enron estimated that the revenues from the wholesale unit accounted for more than 90% of its income.

Also, a coalition of more than 400 current and former Enron employees filed a class action lawsuit in a Houston federal court last week. The Severed Enron Employees Coalition (SEEC) is asking a jury to “make good” on losses suffered by employees who contributed to Enron’s 401(k) Corporate Savings Plan. Defendants named in the lawsuit include former chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay, who resigned last week; former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who resigned in August 2001; former CFO Andrew Fastow, who was fired in October 2001; Northern Trust Co., the retirement plan’s trustee; and Arthur Andersen LLP, Enron’s accountant, which was also fired in early January.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants “strongly encouraged” Enron employees to invest in company stock while “failing to notify them of the company’s precarious financial condition.” In addition, the “defendants placed restrictions on the employees’ ability to sell the stock in their 401(k) plans, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.” The SEEC is represented by several attorneys, including Whittenburg Whittenburg & Schachter PC and McClanahan & Clearman LLP.

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