New Power Co. Begins Offering Power Service In Ohio
Dow Jones, 02/07/2001

UK: Insurers Seen More Involved In Credit Derivatives
Reuters, 02/07/2001

India: Indian State Unable To Pay Enron-Chief Minister
Reuters, 02/07/2001

UK: Russian Energy Trader Crown Covets Marc Rich Jewels
Reuters, 02/07/2001

Tridium Inc. Appoints Laura Bacon As Chief Financial Officer
Business Wire, 02/07/2001


New Power Co. Begins Offering Power Service In Ohio

02/07/2001
Dow Jones Energy Service 
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- The New Power Company, a subsidiary of NewPower 
Holdings Inc. (NPW), said Wednesday it has started offering electricity 
service to residents in parts of central and southern Ohio. 
The company will compete for customers in parts of Cinergy Corp.'s (CIN) 
Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. territory and American Electric Power Co.'s 
(AEP) Columbus Southern Power Co. territory.
New Power said it will also begin offering competitive natural-gas service 
next week to customers of NiSource Inc.'s (NI) Columbia Gas of Ohio. 
A report last week from Ohio Consumers' Counsel, a state utility advocate, 
said electric competition was off to a slow start in the state following its 
introduction Jan. 1. Only six alternate suppliers were marketing power in the 
state, and none were operating in the Cincinnati or Columbus regions, the 
report said. 
-By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129; jon.kamp@dowjones.com

UK: Insurers seen more involved in credit derivatives.
By Tom Burroughes

02/07/2001
Reuters English News Service 
(C) Reuters Limited 2001. 

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Insurance firms are expected to step deeper into 
the credit derivatives market as they wake up to rich pickings in this field 
and as splits between financial sectors blur further. 
Insurers have provided clients with protection against credit problems for 
decades, so dealing in credit derivatives is a logical next step according to 
George Sandars, a partner at international law firm Denton Wilde Sapte.
"There is a tendency for the regulation of markets to converge. Being so 
analogous to insurance, it (credit derivatives) is an obvious area for 
insurers to build business in," said Sandars, who is the author of a Denton 
Wilde Sapte report on alternative risk transfer. 
Looking across all credit derivative contracts, the British Bankers' 
Association last year estimated insurers made up 23 percent of protection 
sellers and seven percent of protection buyers. Banks continue to dominate 
the market. 
A NEW ASSET CLASS 
A senior trader for a U.S. reinsurance firm in New York, who declined to be 
named, believes for the foreseeable future insurers will focus on selling 
credit derivatives to acquire assets rather than buying to them offset 
liability. 
"Insurers are taking on such risks for their asset portfolios," he said. 
However, some insurers are starting to buy credit derivatives too. 
"We have seen enquiry from insurers to buy credit protection and that has 
grown in the last year. 
"Given the significant increase in defaults over the last few months that are 
out of line with historical experience, the insurers who are comfortable with 
statistics and mortality are getting a bit concerned," he said. 
Reinsurance firms have tended to be more heavily involved in trading credit 
derivatives than insurers because the re-packaging of existing insurance 
deals meant firms had to look harder at the kind of risks they faced, he 
said. 
As for insurers' overall use of credit derivatives, he said, "I wouldn't say 
they are significant but they are getting to be more important. Most of the 
credit derivative market is being driven by the banks, mostly for regulatory 
and capital reasons." His firm estimates insurers take up to 15 percent of 
total credit derivative business. 
One type of derivative particularly attractive to insurers are bankruptcy 
swaps, said Bryan Seyfried, vice president of Enron Credit. Enron Credit is 
energy firm Enron's credit risk management arm and provides data on 
bankruptcy swaps. 
Bankruptcy is a less ambiguous event than default, which is currently plagued 
by debate over documentation and definitions, and insurers would not face 
uncertainty about payouts on contracts, he said. 
In default swaps, insurers tended to prefer deals involving a basket of names 
rather than an individual one so they can spread risk, Seyfried said. 
INSURERS' EXPERIENCE 
Insurers have long experience in offering protection against problems such as 
default or bankruptcy. 
Companies like U.S. bond insurer MBIA, for example, guarantee debt for firms 
such as U.S. utility Southern Californian Edison, which is currently facing a 
crisis due to soaring energy prices. If an issuer defaults, the insurer will 
pay the interest and principal amounts to creditors. 
Traditionally, they also provide surety bonds, which are issued to vendors 
and which guarantee that a vendor who bids on a contract will carry out the 
obligation.

INDIA: Indian state unable to pay Enron-chief minister.

02/07/2001
Reuters English News Service 
(C) Reuters Limited 2001. 

BOMBAY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The western Indian state of Maharashtra said on 
Wednesday it was unable to pay U.S. energy giant Enron Corp's 790 billion 
rupees ($17 million) bill for supplying power to Bombay and other centres. 
"It is not that Maharashtra state does not want to pay Enron's Dabhol Power 
Company. We don't have the money," Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of 
Maharashtra, told a news conference.
Enron is owed 790 million rupees by the Maharshtra State Electricity Board. 
The bill does not include an additional 1.52 billion rupees owed for 
December. 
On Tuesday, Enron invoked the Indian federal government's guarantee to pay 
debts owed by Maharashtra's electricity board, racheting up the stakes in a 
high-profile dispute. 
The chief minister said he did not know whether the latest development would 
affect foreign investment. "We have to wait and watch," he said. 
Four foreign companies have already pulled out of power projects in India, 
citing bureaucratic and legal problems. 
All the money owed is for electricity produced by a power plant built and 
largely owned by Enron, and supplied to the cash-strapped electricity board. 
The Maharashtra government has also written to Prime Minister Atal Behari 
Vajpayee appealing to him "to help bail the state out from the (payment) 
crises", the chief minister said. 
The Enron power project's first 740 MW phase is already running while the 
second 1,444 MW phase is expected to be commissioned next year. 
The state has announced plans for a new committee to review the Enron project 
and make recommendations to the government.
UK: Russian energy trader Crown covets Marc Rich jewels.
By Jonathan Leff and Amanda Cooper

02/07/2001
Reuters English News Service 
(C) Reuters Limited 2001. 

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire and former fugitive Marc Rich is in 
talks to sell his commodities trading business to Russian-owned Crown 
Resources, an aggressive trading house seeking to grow its energy unit and 
branch into metals, industry sources said on Wednesday. 
"It is definitely being negotiated. Whether it gets done is a different 
question," an industry source, who declined to be named, said of the deal. 
"Crown is a very aggressive company and they're looking to bring in whole new 
teams."
Crown, based in Zug, Switzerland, as is Marc Rich Investments, is part of 
Alfa Group, a Russian industrial and financial conglomerate with activities 
in a wide spectrum of banking and commodities businesses. 
Rumours have circulated for months that the company wants to buy Marc Rich 
Investments, owned by the eponymous billionaire, who fled to Switzerland 
almost 20 years ago after being indicted on charges of wire fraud, 
racketeering and income tax evasion. 
Many industry insiders have speculated that Rich is ready to once again cash 
out of the market, particularly after his pardon last month by Bill Clinton. 
Having already developed two successful commodity trading companies - the 
first one he sold years ago and is now Glencore International AG, a 
powerhouse in the market - the 66-year-old Rich could be winding down, 
industry sources say. 
They note that his company has been in play for some time, as talks with 
Lucerne-based commodities trader Trafigura were said to have fallen through 
last year. 
CROWN GAINS METALS FOOTHOLD 
As Rich appears set to ease out of the market, Crown is storming in, snapping 
up entire trading teams and anxious for a move into metals trade. 
"Our policy is not to comment on any type of discussion on acquisition. I can 
only say we are a growing organisation," said a spokesman for Crown Resources 
in London. 
"We are currently focused on energy trading... We would like to diversify 
into other commodities as well, including ferrous and non-ferrous metals. 
There's no sense of urgency for us and it all depends on the right 
opportunities." 
Once a member of the powerful triumverate that dominated the physical metals 
market together with Enron and Glencore, Marc Rich's metals operations have 
waned in recent years. 
Following the closure of its ferroalloys trading unit, the company's metals 
trading operations are now said to be about one third of the size of those of 
its leading rivals. 
"I think Marc Rich are fairly thin on the ground in metals now," said one UK 
trader. Last year's Trafigura rumours coincided with a flurry of resignations 
from the company's metals trading staff. 
But compared to the giant stature of the market leaders, Marc Rich is one of 
the few bite-size acquisitions that could propel Crown into the midst of the 
metals trade business. 
Crown would also gain access to Marc Rich's well-regarded name in the 
industry and the company's contacts, including close relationships in the 
Mediterranean crude oil market and recently developed ties in the realm of 
African oil products. 
"For a Russian company, this gives them a big 'in' on the West," said one 
industry insider. 
Crown now focuses largely on marketing some two million tonnes a month of 
crude from Tyumen Oil, part owned by Alfa Group, giving it a steady diet of 
oil but little experience in aggressive, speculative trading - Marc Rich's 
forte. 
"I believe within the next 24 months we'll reach the upper levels among the 
independant commodity trading community," said the Crown spokesman.
Tridium Inc. Appoints Laura Bacon as Chief Financial Officer

02/07/2001
Business Wire 
(Copyright (c) 2001, Business Wire) 

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2001-- 

Former Fort James Corporate Development Director to Lead Local
Software Company's Growing Financial Operations 

Tridium(TM) Inc., a leading provider of Internet-enabled, automation software 
infrastructure and applications, today announced the appointment of Laura B. 
Bacon as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. 
Bacon most recently served as corporate development director for Fort James 
Corp. (NYSE: FJ) in Richmond, where she was responsible for corporate 
development and finance activities including domestic and international 
acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures. 
At Tridium, Bacon will oversee the company's finance and human resources 
functions. She also will be responsible for communications with the financial 
community. 
"We are thrilled to have Laura join Tridium as our chief financial officer," 
said Jerry Frank, CEO of Tridium. "Her financial services background in both 
domestic and international markets will provide global management and 
financial leadership for our growing company." 
"With its advanced technology, Tridium quickly has become a major global 
provider of Internet-based energy services and building automation 
applications," said Bacon. "I'm excited to be a part of this growing 
technology company. The leadership has a strong vision and focus. The 
company's superior software products allow businesses around the world to 
better manage and control their enterprises' energy related activities." 
Bacon currently serves as a Board Member and Membership Chair for the 
Richmond Association for Corporate Growth. She earned a bachelor's of arts 
degree from Wake Forest University and a master's in business administration 
with an emphasis in finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill. 

About Tridium Inc. 

Tridium, Inc. develops and markets a universal software infrastructure, known 
as the Niagara Framework(TM), that allows companies to build software 
applications for accessing, automating and controlling smart devices in 
real-time over the Internet. This open, Java-based framework integrates 
diverse systems, devices and communication standards into an interoperable, 
Web-enabled application environment. In addition, Tridium offers the 
Niagara-powered Vykon(TM) suite, which is specifically designed for building 
automation and energy services applications. 
Tridium is a privately held software company headquartered in Richmond, Va., 
with subsidiaries based in London and Singapore. Venture capital partners 
include Enron Principle Investments and kRoad Ventures, L.P. The company has 
established key strategic alliances with leading corporations in the energy 
services, building control, home automation and industrial control 
industries. Tridium markets its products to value-added resellers, original 
equipment manufacturers and a network of Tridium Systems Integrators. 
Additional information about Tridium is available at http://www.tridium.com.

CONTACT: Tridium Dennis Tuft, 804/747-4771 dtuft@tridium.com or Carter Ryley 
Thomas Jeff Wilson, 804/675-8175 jwilson@crtpr.com