For those who don't think we are balance sheet sensitive...
---------------------- Forwarded by Kay Mann/Corp/Enron on 04/18/2001 10:04 
AM ---------------------------


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Tuesday April 17, 7:29 pm Eastern Time
Enron CEO uses vulgarity in attack on fund manager
(UPDATE: Adds share price, paragraph 15)
By C. Bryson Hull
HOUSTON, April 17 (Reuters) - Enron Corp.'s (NYSE:ENE - news) top executive 
on Tuesday publicly fired off the same vulgarity that brought President 
George W. Bush embarrassing headlines when he unwittingly uttered it in front 
of an open microphone last fall.

But unlike Bush, Enron President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling 
says he knew the microphone was on when he called a fund manager an 
``asshole'' during a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings with 
analysts.
Bush made headlines on the campaign trail last year when he remarked to Vice 
President Dick Cheney that a New York Times reporter was a ``major-league 
asshole,'' not knowing that a microphone had picked up his remark.
Skilling laid down the insult after an exchange with Richard Grubman, 
managing director of Highfields Capital Management in Boston, who asked to 
see Enron's balance sheet and was told it would not be available until its 
inclusion in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing later this month.
``You're the only financial institution that can't come up with balance sheet 
or cash flow statement after earnings,'' Grubman grumbled.
``Well, thank you very much, we appreciate that. Asshole,'' Skilling 
responded with a laugh.
Skilling, whose candor frequently gives his public relations staff fits, told 
Reuters in a telephone interview that he knew the microphone was on.
``The specific fellow that I was not real happy with is a shortseller in the 
market. I don't think it is fair to our shareholders to give someone a 
platform like that they are using for some personal vested interest related 
to their stock position,'' Skilling told Reuters in an interview.
``I get a little exasperated with that sort of thing, and I want people to 
know I am exasperated,'' he said.
Grubman said he felt ``pretty thin-skinned'' about the remark.
He disputed Enron's assertion the balance sheets and cash flow statements 
were not ready yet, particularly in light of Skilling's mention during the 
call that Enron reconciles its credit risks and trading book daily.
``I'm sort of at a loss as to why that was such an objectionable question,'' 
Grubman said, adding:
"He's got some nerve. He and his management team sold 7 million shares into 
the market last year, so he's plugged the market for a half a billion dollars 
worth of stock valued in the $70s and $80s.
``Now the stock is the high $50s-low $60s and I'm an asshole because I ask 
about the balance sheet?''
Enron's shares closed at $60, up 56 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange on 
Tuesday, after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. 
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