Posted on 04/07/2003 10:30:21 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Mirant and Calpine gained Monday as investors expressed optimism the two would soon announce refinancing deals. El Paso advanced as the company announced a slate of directors for its board. Last week, Reliant Resources (RRI: news, chart, profile), Dynegy (DYN: news, chart, profile) and AES Corp. (AES: news, chart, profile) completed deals considered critical to the survival of each.
Reliant, which announced a new $6.2 billion financing package Tuesday, declined 2 cents to $4.31 in Monday midday trading. See related story. The stock is up more than 17 percent in the last week. Dynegy added 6 cents to $2.75 in recent action. The company announced a $1.66 billion financing through subsidiary Dynegy Holdings Wednesday. And AES Corp. said Friday it plans to launch a refinancing that would include a private offering of $1 billion in new senior secured notes. See full story. Shares rose 15 cents to $4.85 on volume of 3.7 million in recent Monday action. The daily average is 2.54 million.
Given the refinancing news in the last couple of weeks, bankruptcy risk for the energy merchants is "not as high as people have speculated," said Lasan Johong, an analyst at Blaylock and Partners. See Due Diligence for more. Shares of Mirant (MIR: news, chart, profile) rose 9 cents to $2.01 and Calpine (CPN: news, chart, profile ) added 12 cents to $4.28. Both companies have declined to comment on ongoing negotiations related to debt refinancing. Calpine was the most actively traded energy stock Monday with volume of more than 6 million. On Monday, Mirant said the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada had approved three long- term power contracts signed by Mirant and Nevada Power Company in January. Under the contracts, which extend to April 2008, Mirant will provide 325 megawatts of capacity and electricity to Nevada Power Company.
Also Monday, El Paso Corp. (EP: news, chart, profile ), which has been accused by dissident shareholder Selim Zilkha of having a board lacking in oil and gas industry experience, announced the slate of directors to be voted on at the company's annual meeting. A date for the meeting has yet to be set. El Paso said it had elected to the board James Dunlap, a former vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of Ocean Energy/United Meridian Corp. and former president of Texaco. Other board nominees include Robert Goldman, formerly the chief financial officer of Conoco, Michael Talbert, chairman of Transocean (RIG: news, chart, profile), and John Whitmire, chairman of Consol Energy (CNX: news, chart, profile). See more. Shares of El Paso were up 33 cents, or 5.4 percent, to trade at $6.49 on volume of 5.6 million.
Elsewhere, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC: news, chart, profile ) declined 52 cents to $44.88. The Houston-based company announced it had discovered natural gas at its Jubilee prospect in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Atwater Valley 349 No. 1 is the first well drilled under the exploration program in the Eastern Gulf. The Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG: news, chart, profile) rose 1 percent to 171.48, lifted by Williams Cos. (WMB: news, chart, profile). Shares rose 18 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $5.08 to help offset losses in Anadarko, Apache Corp. (APA: news, chart, profile), and EOG Resources (EOG: news, chart, profile). On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May natural gas gained 19.2 cents to $5.135 per million British thermal units on forecasts of colder weather. Crude for May delivery shed 46 cents to $28.16. See Futures Movers.
I agree, but the first time I ever make a recommendation, be sure and short the stock.
AES has been on my radar screen for a long while but I was chicken to pull the trigger when it was low, and then it started to run away and kinda scared me. You might want to look into that one, I think they have some new plants coming on line or are already, that feed the CA market, which will get wild on elec prices this summer if its hot.
Very low on hydro power this year, which means huge reliance on gas fired power plants. I may buy some anyway, even though its gone up like a rocket.
Many people do not understand nor realize the above factor in regard to power plants. You're sharp.
Last time I looked, I think the total US usage of natural gas by Power Generators is somewhere around 30% of ALL production, which will go nowhere but upward (thank you greenies) . For the last two years, production has declined 2-4%, usage has inclined 1-3%, thus the rise in stock price. When I get to my office, I'll give you a link to the EIA (US Gov't) website which reports weekly storage reports for natural gas. Very useful for determination of value of some of those stocks which we've discussed.
The ones who will really fare well, are producers of natural gas, tranporters (pipelines) and generators. (EP, WMB, CLP, etc.)
Ah, that's why Warren Buffet bought the pipeline itself. Hmmmmm....
Guess maybe I don't look so stupid after all. Sometimes one gets tired of the offhand comments and inflammatory remarks denigratig one's good judgement and character. Oh well.
Here, take a look at THIS story on the Business Week website posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/905735/posts
Let's try that link again:
Thank you!,
I am extremely grateful to those people who have decided to get out and let them go cheap. This opportunity will never come again in my lifetime.
Check out this message and link: Click here.
You were right, just a few days late. The big boys are playing around with all of the IPPs. Almost all of them dropped dramatically yesterday. Some bounced back today. Sure are cheap...not enough money to buy all that I want.
I knwo what you mean. Scary market, but I think with the looming natural gas supply problems, these companies will continue to grow.
No greater enjoyment exists for me short of teaching people about Christ than doing research on secular subjects. Have a good day. God is most certainly good. The Lord gives...and the Lord takes away...blessed be the name of the Lord.
Hear ye. Have a good day as well.
All of that should be public knowledge through filing of the Form 4. What I know I cannot disclose publicly. Sorry. Mirant (MIRKQ) jumped up today almost 8% on pretty good volume. They should be coming out with the Plan of Reorganization pretty soon. Hopefully, it will keep the common intact and it looks like (in my humble opinion) that such will be the case.
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