Stakes

Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG) raised its stakes in the New York generation market by announcing it will pay $401 million to purchase the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, a 495 MW facility located on Lake Ontario near Rochester. Once the transaction is approved, CEG plans to invest $32 million over the next several years to increase plant capacity by 17% to 580 MW. The Ginna asset, along with CEG’s Nine Mile Point Nuclear Power Station, also located on Lake Ontario, enhances its physical presence in the New York generation market and boosts its involvement in the New York Independent System Operator, the company said. The deal will give the Baltimore-based utility three nuclear power stations with five units total, as well as a fleet of natural gas, coal, hydro and geothermal generators that together total nearly 12, 600 MW of capacity. CEG is acquiring the New York facility from the Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. (RG&E), a unit of Albany, NY-based Energy East Corp. CEG also will purchase nuclear fuel from RG&E for the plant for $21.6 million. Completion of the transaction is expected in June. Because of refueling and uprate initiatives, CEG said the Ginna acquisition would be “mildly accretive” through 2006. After that, CEG expects the plant to add substantially to its profits. Constellation will sell 90% of the plant’s output and capacity through a power purchase agreement (PPA) to RG&E for 10 years at an average price of $44/MWh.

Affiliates of TECO Energy, Atmos Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources are exiting the propane business and selling their interests in Heritage Propane Partners LP, which has agreed to a $980 million merger transaction with Texas natural gas midstream operator Energy Transfer. The propane asset sales are expected to net the utilities a total of $130 million. Each of the sellers said the asset didn’t fit well with their core regulated utility operations.

Heritage Propane Partners LP, which has agreed to buy Texas natural gas midstream operator Energy Transfer, including Oasis Pipeline and the company’s Southeast Texas and Mid-Continent lines, for $980 million including debt. As part of the merger Heritage will buy out interests held in its propane business by affiliates of TECO Energy, Atmos Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources for an estimated $130 million.

LNG receiving terminal developer, Cheniere Energy Inc., announced Monday that it posted first quarter 2003 net income of $3,121,309, or $0.23 per share, compared with a net loss of $2,530,967, or $0.19 per share, a year earlier.

Indicative of industry-wide trends in the same direction, Rosemead, CA-based Edison International’s senior executives told financial analysts Tuesday that the energy holding company is staking its future on restoring its traditional utility operations to full financial health.

FERC late Thursday said it is launching an investigation as a result of allegations that former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and Enron executive Michael Kopper created partnerships to mask the former energy trading giant’s stake in three wind power farms.

FERC late Thursday said that it is launching an investigation as a result of allegations that former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow and Enron executive Michael Kopper created partnerships to mask the former energy trading giant’s stake in three wind power farms.

Calpine will more than double its natural gas reserves and gaina critical transportation link between the United States andwestern Canada after agreeing yesterday to pay $1.2 billion topurchase Calgary-based Encal Energy Ltd., whose core natural gasdrilling operations are in northeastern British Columbia and westcentral Alberta. Power producer Calpine plans a stock-for-stockexchange and would assume Encal’s debt.

AIG Financial Products Corp. and Enron Investment Partners Co.have acquired minority stakes in TreasuryConnect, a transactionexecution system for financial products traded between corporationsand banks. Bruce Usher, co-founder and president ofTreasuryConnect, said he was “extremely pleased” with AIG’s andEnron’s investment in his company, and said that “it reflectsfavorably on our technology and its ability to improve trading andoperational efficiency.” Even though it domestically transacts morethan $6 trillion a year, the interest rate and currency swap marketis one of the last markets to migrate to the Internet because ofthe relative complexity of derivative products, and the subtletiesof the trading process, according to Usher. TreasuryConnect, withoffices in New York City and Los Angeles, offers an Internet-basedtrading platform specifically designed for financial transactionsbetween banks and corporations. It also offers direct back officelinks for straight through processing, documentation solutions,historical data, research and analytical tools to facilitatetrading. AIG Financial is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AmericanInternational Group Inc. and Enron Investment is a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Enron Corp.