I don't think it frees up any money.  The footnote is only indicating that 
they
have $50 million in lease obligations for the upcoming year.  I may be missing
something but what this would potentially affect is the asset turnover and
leverage ratios since non-capitalized leases are off-balance sheet items and 
so
don't get included in the Total Assets category.

**********************************************
Mark D. Guinney, CFA
Consultant
Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting
345 California Street, Ste. 1400
San Francisco, CA  94104
(415) 733-4487 ph.
(415) 733-4190 fax


____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    Re: Home Depot Memo - Revised
Author: Jeff.Dasovich@enron.com
Date:       02/08/2001 11:13 AM

Gang:
Quick question.  Does the lease-buy-back free up $50M of funds for 1987?
Mark, is that captured in the 1987 cash flows?  Don't think that should
change our recommendation, but ran across it in the case and was wondering
if we captured it.

Best,
Jeff