India Dabhol Creditors: Mtg In Singapore "Productive"
Dow Jones Energy Service, 02/22/2002  


Jeb Bush Had Profit on Enron Unit
The Washington Post, 02/22/2002  


Enron unit investment made profit for Jeb Bush                                                                                                 Houston Chronicle, 02/22/2002

Enron has deal to sell wind unit / GE purchasing one of largest assets left
Houston Chronicle, 02/21/2002  

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India Dabhol Creditors: Mtg In Singapore "Productive"

02/22/2002 
Dow Jones Energy Service 
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 
SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Financiers of Enron Corp.'s (ENE) US$2.9 billion Indian power unit, the Dabhol Power Co., described two-day talks that concluded in Singapore Thursday as "productive," according to a statement issued Friday. 
"The meetings were productive and a plan of action is being developed," said the statement from the steering committee representing Dabhol's international lenders. 
"The meetings were confidential in nature, and therefore no further detail can be provided," it said. 
Dabhol's Indian and foreign lenders were meeting behind closed doors earlier this week to discuss ways to revive the ailing power project. 
Dabhol, the largest foreign investment project in India, has been mired in conflict since 1995 due to payment disputes with its sole customer, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. 
Lenders to the beleaguered company are keen to find a buyer for the 85% foreign equity, which includes Enron's 65% controlling stake. 
     
Earlier this week, A.K. Doda, executive director of the Industrial Development Bank of India (P.IDB), told Dow Jones Newswires the lenders' meeting would finalize a due-diligence time frame for prospective buyers of Dabhol's foreign-held equity. 
A source close to the international lenders suggested further lenders' meetings in the future. 
"We are still in productive dialogue, but where and when there will be meetings has not been decided," the source said. 
"It's natural to expect that there will be follow-up meetings at some stage," he added. 
India's Tata Power Co. (P.TPW), BSES Ltd. (P.BSX), U.K.'s BG Group PLC (BRG), Gaz de France (F.GAF), the Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) and India's largest gas distributor and marketer, the state-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd. (P.GAI), have expressed interest in bidding for Dabhol's foreign equity. 
Dabhol's domestic lenders include IDBI, ICICI Ltd. (IC), IFCI Ltd. (P.ICI) and the State Bank of India (P.SBI). 
Loans by foreign lenders - including investing bank ABN Amro, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) - are backed by government guarantees. Domestic lenders' loans aren't. 
Aside from Enron's 65% controlling stake, Dabhol's remaining foreign equity is held by General Electric Co. (GE) and Bechtel (X.BTL), who each hold a 10% stake. The Maharashtra State Electricity Board holds the remaining 15%. 
   
-By Sri Jegarajah, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-415-4066; sri.jegarajah@dowjones.com





Jeb Bush Had Profit on Enron Unit
April Witt

02/22/2002 
The Washington Post 
FINAL 
Page A04 
Copyright 2002, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved 
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush invested in a publicly traded Enron Corp. partnership in 1995 and turned a modest profit before selling it less than a year later. 
Bush invested $91,527 in Enron Liquids Pipeline LP in February 1995 and realized a profit of just $7,118 when he sold it 10 months later, according to his 1995 tax returns. 
Justice Department and congressional investigators and securities regulators are investigating the role Enron's off-the-books partnerships played in the company's collapse last fall, in which thousands of people lost their jobs and life savings. One of the biggest single losers was Florida's pension fund. 
The focus is on partnerships run by former Enron chief financial officer Andrew S. Fastow, none of which were publicly traded. 
Former Enron president Richard Kinder -- who recently hosted a $500-a-person political fundraiser for Bush in Houston -- now controls Enron Liquids Pipeline. Kinder and a partner bought it for $40 million in 1997, and it became the basis for Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. 
Bush did not know Kinder at the time he invested in the partnership, Katie Baur, the governor's spokeswoman, said yesterday. At the time, Bush was a businessman who had just lost an election for the Florida governorship. Baur said he invested in Enron Liquids Pipeline on advice from his broker at Charles Schwab Corp. -- not insider information about the future sale. 
"Why not this investment?" Baur said. "Any Joe Schmo citizen could have walked in off the street and requested to invest in Enron Liquid Pipelines." 
Still, Baur said that she expects Democrats to try to capitalize on Bush's investment in Enron Liquid Pipelines. "Admittedly, anything with the word Enron in it is incendiary," she said. 
"You could look at this backward and forward, but the facts are pretty simple. He made one investment and made $7,000 . . . This isn't like Hillary Clinton's cattle futures here." 

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Enron has deal to sell wind unit / GE purchasing one of largest assets left
ERIC BERGER

02/21/2002 
Houston Chronicle 
3 STAR 
Page 6 
(Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle) 
Enron agreed Wednesday to sell to General Electric Co. its California-based wind-turbine unit, one of its largest remaining assets that could be used to pay creditors. 
Terms of the deal for the largest U.S. manufacturer of wind turbines were not disclosed, but an attorney familiar with it said it was worth $250 million in cash, and GE agreed to assume more than $100 million in debt and other obligations. 
GE's Power Systems unit will acquire Enron Wind's turbine- manufacturing operation. Last year the company had nearly $800 million in worldwide sales and 1,500 employees. 
Enron will retain control of six wind farms it owns or operates in the United States, and three in Europe. 
The deal still must be approved by federal regulators and New York bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez. 
Enron Wind was one of three major assets the company can sell that do not have liens. For that reason they have been closely watched by the company's unsecured creditors, who are owed billions. 
The unit filed for bankruptcy court protection Wednesday, joining dozens of other Enron subsidiaries in the Enron Corp. case before Gonzalez. This will allow GE to complete the sale free of creditors' claims. 
GE said it expected the sale to close in April 2002. 
Gonzalez has already approved the sale of Enron's oil and gas fields in India, Enron Oil & Gas Ltd., to the British company BG Group for $350 million. 
The third asset that can be sold is Portland General Electric Co. Its sale to Northwest Natural Gas Co. for $2.9 billion is expected to be approved by regulators by year's end. 
The wind unit, founded in 1981 as Zond Corp., was acquired in 1997 by Enron. 
The new owner will be able to invest much needed capital to fund Enron Wind's expansion which Enron could no longer provide, said Stanley Horton, chairman and CEO of Enron Global Services, Enron Wind's parent company. 
Wind industry advocates hailed the sale. 
"We're very excited about it," said Randy Swisher, executive director of American Wind Energy Association. "It's one more indication that wind energy technology has finally come of age." 
Swisher welcomed GE's entry into the wind energy business, which has doubled nationally about every three years, he said. 
Several wind projects in Texas, including a 220-megawatt site in Culberson County, a 161-megawatt site in Pecos County serving San Antonio and a 150-megawatt site in Nolan and Taylor counties, use Enron Wind turbines. 
A 150-megawatt site can power up to 75,000 homes.





Feb. 21, 2002, 9:52PM
Enron unit investment made profit for Jeb Bush 
Associated Press 
WASHINGTON -- Jeb Bush invested about $91,000 and turned a small profit in 1995 from an Enron partnership, tax records indicate. 
The enterprise now is controlled by a former Enron president who has been helping the Florida governor raise money for his re-election bid. 
Bush's investment in Enron Liquids L.P. three years before he became governor is the only known investment by a member of President Bush's immediate family in an Enron partnership. 
Investigators have been looking at some of Enron's privately traded partnerships as contributors to the company's collapse. Enron Liquids, however, was publicly traded and is not part of the investigation. 
Jeb Bush's investment brought him a $7,000 profit, according to his 1995 tax return. 
"It was an investment for less than a year and it was done long before last year's bankruptcy," the governor said this week. 
President Bush said last month that his mother-in-law was among Enron Corp. stockholders who lost money on the failed company -- about $8,100. 
Spokeswoman Katie Baur said Thursday the Jeb Bush investment was chosen for him by an investment advisory firm. 
Democrats eager to defeat the president's brother in the fall election are trying to make an issue of his ties to Enron. 
In a state whose pension fund lost more than $300 million in the collapse, Bush's fund-raising trip to the Houston home of former Enron president Richard Kinder "rubs in the face of people who lost their life savings," the chairman of the Florida Democratic Party said last month. The Bush camp said it saw no problem, since Kinder left Enron in 1996. 
Aside from the two fund-raisers, the two men have had infrequent contact, said Larry Pierce, a spokesman for Kinder's energy company. The two men have run into each other occasionally at public events and they have never had any business relationship, he added. 
Kinder "hosted these fund-raisers as a favor to the Republican Party," said Pierce. 
"What Democrats are doing nationally in trying to capitalize on the suffering of Enron employees for their own cheap political gain is absolutely shameful," said Karen Unger, the governor's campaign manager. She called it "an act of sheer desperation" by the Democrats. Bush released his tax return four years ago. 
Kinder's latest event for Bush was a $500-per-person fund-raiser on Jan. 17 for about 100 political donors at Kinder's home. 
Kinder is a longtime political supporter of the Bush family and the Republican Party with contributions totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars dating to 1988. 
In 1997 after leaving Enron, Kinder and a partner paid $40 million for the general partnership that ran Enron Liquids, a pipeline network carrying liquid natural gas. 
Kinder, Enron's president from 1990 to 1996, was the heir apparent to Chairman Ken Lay. But Kinder resigned when Lay decided to stay on for another five-year term. Kinder's successor, Jeff Skilling, is among those at the center of the various investigations into Enron's collapse. 
Bush's re-election effort is one of the major gubernatorial races this fall. Former Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno is one of four Democrats seeking a chance to run against him in November. 
Enron's bankruptcy has reverberated in Florida, where losses in the state's $94 billion pension fund are greater than in any other state. 
Bush, the state treasurer and the state comptroller oversee the agency in charge of investing the state pension fund. 
One of about 70 money managers the state of Florida contracted with was buying Enron stock even after the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the energy giant and its business practices.