Common

Southern Union Co. announced Monday that it has priced an offering of approximately 14.9 million shares of common stock at $23.00 per share to pay down debt incurred with its investment in CCE Holdings, LLC, a joint venture with GE Energy Financial Services which purchased CrossCountry Energy LLC from Enron Corp. (see Daily GPI, Nov. 18, 2004). CCE paid Enron $2.45 billion in cash and assumed the debt for 7,400 miles of natural gas pipelines with 4.2 Bcf/d of transportation capacity. CrossCountry owns 100% of Transwestern Pipeline and 50% of Citrus Corp., which owns 100% of Florida Gas Transmission Co. The offering was underwritten by the joint book-running managers, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. A limited number of institutional investors have agreed to purchase the shares from the underwriters. In addition, Southern Union announced Monday it has launched an offering of $100 million of equity units at $50 per unit, also to pay off debt incurred in the pipeline purchase.

In what Standard & Poor’s (S&P) says will become more common among the large energy companies, Sempra Energy was the second firm subjected to an accounting analysis to adjust the company’s reported financial results to get what S&P considers a more accurate set of financial ratios to adjust or affirm companies’ true credit risk. In Sempra’s case, the ratings were unchanged, staying at “BBB+” and at the “A” level for its two major utilities.

In what Standard & Poor’s (S&P) says will become more common among the large energy companies, Sempra Energy was the second firm subjected to an accounting analysis to adjust the company’s reported financial results to get what S&P considers a more accurate set of financial ratios to adjust or affirm companies’ true credit risk. In Sempra’s case, the ratings were unchanged, staying at “BBB+” and at the “A” level for its two major utilities.

In what Standard & Poor’s (S&P) says will become more common among the large energy companies, Sempra Energy was the second firm subjected to an accounting analysis to adjust the company’s reported financial results to get what S&P considers a more accurate set of financial ratios to adjust or affirm companies’ true credit risk. In Sempra’s case, the ratings were unchanged, staying at “BBB+” and at the “A” level for its two major utilities.

Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP and GulfTerra Energy Partners LP have scheduled a special meeting of their common unitholders on July 29 to vote on the approval of a merger between the two partnerships. The two announced their merger late last year, which, when approved, will form the second largest publicly traded energy partnership in the United States (see Daily GPI, Dec. 16, 2003). The new partnership will be worth about $13 billion, with the jointly owned affiliates of Enterprise and El Paso Corp. each owning a 50% stake. Enterprise’s registration statement on Form S-4, including the joint proxy statement/prospectus for the special meeting, was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the proxy statement was to be mailed to the unitholders of both companies.

ChevronTexaco Corp. and Devon Energy both announced plans to repurchase their company’s common stock last week. Chevron began its $5 billion stock repurchase on Thursday and will continue it up to three years, while Devon’s would begin once it pays down more debt.

ChevronTexaco Corp. has approved a program to repurchase up to $5 billion of the company’s common stock. The repurchases were to begin Thursday and continue for up to three years.

Kinder Morgan’s board of directors said Wednesday that they have approved expanding the company’s common stock repurchase program by $50 million to $500 million. Since the start of the program in August of 2001, Kinder Morgan has repurchased approximately $450 million, including $38 million this year. The company noted that the additional $50 million, the majority of which is expected to be used in 2004, is consistent with KMI’s previous share repurchase guidance given in May at the time it significantly increased the dividend. In response to federal tax legislation, Kinder Morgan increased its quarterly dividend to $0.40/share ($1.60 annualized) and expects to further increase its quarterly dividend to at least $0.50 per share ($2.00 annualized) in January 2004.

Sempra Energy indicated Monday it should gain about $407 million from its sale of 15 million new shares of common stock. The sale will be completed Tuesday, according to a San Diego-based spokesperson for the utility and merchant energy holding company.