Ailing

Among the reforms for the world’s ailing financial system, there should be an efficient system of sharing market surveillance information among U.S. agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Treasury, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told a congressional committee last week.

Ailing NUI Corp. warned last Tuesday that it has delayed posting its financial results because of an ongoing internal investigation into its energy trading division, NUI Energy Brokers.

Ailing NUI Corp. warned Tuesday that it has delayed posting its financial results because of an ongoing internal investigation into its energy trading division, NUI Energy Brokers.

After spending their first complete year as a merged entity, ChevronTexaco Corp. posted full-year 2002 net income of $1.1 billion ($1.07 per share — diluted), compared with $3.3 billion ($3.09 per share — diluted) in 2001. For the fourth quarter, the company — which tied the knot in October of 2001 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 10, 2001) — reported net income of $904 million ($0.85 per share diluted), compared with a net loss of $2.5 billion ($2.38 per share — diluted) in the year-ago quarter.

Aquila said it is targeting its energy risk management expertise at the ailing fertilizer industry, which has suffered tremendously over the past two years from volatile natural gas prices. Natural gas can account for up to 80% of a fertilizer product’s costs.

Enron Corp’s top two in its ailing broadband division have left the company to pursue other opportunities — Ken Rice, 43, the Broadband Services chairman, and Kevin Hannon, 41, the president and COO. They both had been rumored to be leaving since the unit has lost money since its inception. In April, Enron eliminated 250 employees in the broadband division, and earlier this year, a major deal with Blockbuster Inc. fell through. The broadband unit is now moving into the wholesale services division. The broadband executive team loss follows the departure last month Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling (see Daily GPI, Aug. 15). Chairman Kenneth Lay resumed the CEO post following Skilling’s resignation, and announced the promotions of Greg Whalley, 39, to president and COO and Mark Frevert, 46, to vice chairman (see Daily GPI, Aug. 29). Whalley and Frevert will serve with Lay in the Office of the Chairman at Enron, which is responsible for strategic planning at the Houston-based company.

After two closing dates failed to materialize earlier in the week, Edison International, parent to financially ailing Southern California Edison Co., announced Thursday its newly created nonutility financing arm has completed a $1.2 billion debt restructuring that will close Monday. Through a complicated set of transactions within the Edison family of companies, the net proceeds ultimately will be used by Edison International to pay off loans due this year.

Seeking to flesh out several key points of a sweeping market monitoring and mitigation plan for California’s ailing energy markets, FERC recently said that it expects California’s Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to ensure the presence of a creditworthy buyer for all transactions made with any generator that offers power in compliance with a must-offer requirement included in the monitoring and mitigation plan.

Seeking to flesh out several key points of a sweeping market monitoring and mitigation plan for California’s ailing energy markets, FERC last week said that it expects California’s Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to ensure the presence of a creditworthy buyer for all transactions made with any generator that offers power in compliance with a must-offer requirement included in the monitoring and mitigation plan.