NRG Energy and more than a dozen lenders will continue talks tied to NRG’s efforts to meet a $1.3 billion collateral payment and a related plan developed by the financially wounded unit of Xcel Energy to raise much needed funds.

Facing a Friday deadline of meeting the collateral payment, NRG huddled with lenders at the end of the week, but a spokesperson for the Minneapolis-based power company said no news would be announced on Friday. “Since we’re working with so many lenders, the date today wasn’t like a hard and fast date, necessarily,” NRG spokesperson Lesa Bader told NGI.

“There is not going to be an announcement today, so we’re continuing the discussions and expect we’ll be able to say something next week,” Bader said Friday evening. She said that NRG has been in talks with the lenders on a plan for the company, which includes NRG’s previously announced efforts to sell international and domestic power assets. NRG on Aug. 20 said that it had obtained approval from lenders to extend until Sept. 13, the deadline by which it needed to post collateral ranging in value from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion for certain agreements.

NRG, which has already warned that it may have to file for bankruptcy, needs to sell off a massive number of power generation assets in order to meet the collateral payment.

As part of a plan to strengthen its balance sheet, NRG announced earlier this year that it planned to market its international portfolio of assets as well as facilities in the South Central part of the United States. NRG previously announced sales of its interests in Energy Developments Limited, an Australian energy company, and the Collinsville Power Station, also located in Australia.

More recently, NRG last Wednesday said that it has reached an agreement to sell power generating facilities in Hungary and stakes it holds in a power plant and an electricity trading business in the Czech Republic for $525 million.

Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s are clearly concerned about the pace at which NRG has executed its asset sale program. Citing those worries, Moody’s recently lowered its debt ratings on NRG, a move that followed on the heels of a decision by S&P to downgrade its credit ratings for NRG to “CCC” from “B+.”

Moody’s late Friday lowered the senior secured debt ratings of NRG South Central Generating LLC and NRG Northeast Generating LLC to Caa1 from B3. The rating outlook is negative for both issuers.

The ratings agency said that the downgrade and the negative outlook reflect continued failure to fund the debt service reserve for either issuer, combined with “severe financial stress” at parent NRG and insufficient cash flow generation by NRG South Central and NRG Northeast. “Continued failure to fund the debt service reserve will cause a default under the terms of the indentures of NRG South Central and NRG Northeast, and is likely to also result in a payment default,” Moody’s said.

Meanwhile, shares of Xcel Energy received a nice pop on Friday after an analyst at A.G. Edwards raised his rating on the parent of NRG to “Buy” from “Hold.” According to a report on Bloomberg News, A.G. Edwards analyst Charles Fishman said that Xcel’s utility operations are “solid” and that there was a “low probability” that creditors would win claims against Xcel if NRG is forced to file for Chapter 11.

Xcel stock finished Friday’s trading session up more than 7% to close at $9.28 per share, compared to Thursday’s closing price of $8.60.

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