April 15, 2013
Energy Future Holdings Offers Bankruptcy Plan
Energy Future Holdings, the Texas energy giant that was taken private in 2007 in a record-breaking $45 billion buyout, disclosed a potential bankruptcy plan to its creditors on Monday.
The proposal to restructure about $32 billion in debt is the opening move in what many say could be a long and contentious battle between the company and its largest creditors.
During the last month, Energy Future Holdings has held discussions with a group of investors that hold a large amount of the senior secured debt of the segment of the company that controls its power-generation business.
March 20, 2013
Energy Future Holdings Comes Under Fire From One of Its Creditors
The feeding frenzy to reclaim cash from one of private equity’s biggest bets – the $45 billion buyout of the Texas utility once known as TXU Corp. – has begun.
As Energy Future Holdings, the holding company set up by investors Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR +4.15% & Co Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s GS +0.29% GS Capital Partners, and TPG Capital for TXU’s assets, struggles under its debt load, creditor Aurelius Capital has fired a new shot against the utility and its investors.
The New York hedge fund is suing the company, and its executives and directors, for $725 million in unpaid interest.
March 4, 2013
Energy Future Holdings’ impressive report card
As the Texas Legislature convened earlier this year, state Comptroller Susan Combs reported a big jump in the state’s revenue forecast. She projected, conservatively, $30 billion more in assets compared with the start of the 2011 session. Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU Corp., played an important part in this progress. In 2007, the company made a number of commitments to Texas, and the company made good on every one. It thus was part of the Texas economic revival.
Improved consumer confidence and related spending have figured, to be sure, but the real driver for the unexpected windfall is Texas’ ongoing energy boom. According to Bloomberg, the taxable value of oil produced in Texas surged to $39.1 billion in 2011 from $18.4 billion in 2009, while oil and natural-gas drilling rigs more than doubled by mid-2012 compared with two years earlier. The industry’s workforce climbed 9.2 percent during the same period. And, in contrast to prior “boom and bust” cycles, the data suggests that current growth will be sustainable over the long term.
Friday, Feb. 15, 2013
White Stallion Energy suspends coal plant project
BAY CITY, Texas — An energy company says it is halting development of a coal-fired power plant 90 miles southwest of Houston that ran into fierce local opposition.
The White Stallion Energy Center announced Friday it was stopping work on the 1,200-megawatt power project in Matagorda County.
The Case to Retire Big Brown, Monticello and Martin Lake Coal Plants
This study shows why the replacement of three coal fired power plants built in the 1970′s (Big Brown, Monticello and Martin Lake) is a financial and environmental necessity. The plants, currently owned by Energy Future Holding/Luminant and serving North Texas are financially mismanaged, cannot compete profitably in the current market, require pollution control upgrades that are unaffordable and have suffered deep losses in market value. The financial outlook for the company and the plants going forward show very little upside. A broad look at the national and Texas energy market suggest planning tools and resources exist to ensure a smooth transition to a more financially stable and reliable supply of electricity.
October 22, 2012
Bloomberg declares Energy Future Holdings ‘technically insolvent’
Bloomberg News declared Energy Future Holdings "technically insolvent" in an article published Monday.
Bloomberg compared the Dallas power company’s total liabilities, at $52.2 billion as of June 30, to total assets of $44.1 billion, "indicating the company is technically insolvent," the article states.
Oct 21, 2012
TXU Teeters as Firms Reap $528 Million Fees: Corporate Finance
KKR & Co. (KKR), TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners (GS), which took the former TXU Corp. private five years ago in the largest leveraged buyout in history, have paid themselves $528.3 million in fees, even as the electricity provider teeters toward a near-term bankruptcy or restructuring.
The payments consist of a $300 million charge for advising on the buyout, annual management fees totaling $171 million and as much as $57.3 million for consulting on debt deals, the Dallas-based company now called Energy Future Holdings Corp. said in regulatory filings. The private-equity firms’ fees are as much as 25 times greater than average, based on data from law firm Dechert LLP and researcher Preqin Ltd.
Energy Future’s long-term debt has soared to $42 billion since the buyout and the company is poised for its seventh straight quarterly loss as it struggles with natural gas prices 73 percent below their 2008 peak. Moody’s Investors Service says the company may need to restructure next year and derivatives traders are pricing in a 95 percent chance of default within five years for its deregulated unit.
Big Win
AUGUST 22, 2012
Mystery Behind Sandy Creek Power Plant Begins to Unravel
Robert Cervenka, a neighbor of the troubled coal power plant, has been ranching here for over seventy years.
PHOTO BY JEFF HEIMSATH/STATEIMPACT TEXAS
What happened at the Sandy Creek power plant? The new coal-powered generator, one of the few developing coal projects in the state, had a strange malfunction last fall, setting back construction on the plant a year, and pushing the Texas electric grid even further into a tight spot. The power station in Riesel was set to produce 925 megawatts of electricity for Texas, enough to power an estimated 900,000 homes.
The Issue
Seven more dirty coal-burning power plants are being rushed through the permitting process in Texas. Our health, our economy and our air quality are at risk.
- Pollution from coal plants shortens the lives of 1,160 Texans each year. It also causes 196,149 lost work days, 1,105 hospitalizations and 33,987 asthma attacks every year.
- Each year, 144 lung cancer deaths and 1,791 heart attacks in Texas are attributable to power plant pollution.
- A UT Health Science Center San Antonio study found that autism increases by 17% for every 1,000 pounds of mercury that is emitted locally in Texas.
Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars
Narrated by Robert Redford and produced by The Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media, FIGHTING GOLIATH: TEXAS COAL WARS follows the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air. The film introduces the unlikely partners-mayors, ranchers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, lawyers, and citizens-that have come together to oppose the construction of 19 conventional coal-fired power plants that were slated to be built in Eastern and Central Texas and that were being fast-tracked by the Governor.
- Offical movie web site. Where you can watch the trailer.
Texans Beat Big Coal, and a Film Shows How
"David had only a slingshot. Texans fighting big coal have Robert Redford."
Read New York Times article about the movie
Voices From The Community
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“Increased levels of mercury in our waters – primarily from coal fired power plants – have forced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to warn pregnant women and any woman who might want to become pregnant to avoid or limit fish consumption. This year alone, an estimated 630,000 children will be born to women with unsafe blood levels of mercury, as determined by the EPA. This in utero exposure can contribute to severe mental retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and seizures.” -Dr. Kimberly Carter, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, Austin, TX “Mercury gets into our waterways and into our fish and the contamination — Ed Parten, President of Texas Black Bass Unlimited, Houston, TX “Jo and I have been farming and ranching on this land for 45 years. Several — Robert and Jo Cervenka, Ranchers, Reisel, TX |
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