Enron closes $2 billion assets sale

By Kristen Hays
Associated Press

HOUSTON — Enron Corp. took another step toward disappearing yesterday when the company closed the $2 billion sale of its most prized remaining assets and its plan to emerge from one of the most costly and complicated bankruptcies in history became effective.

Enron's sale of its interest in three natural gas pipelines to CCE Holdings LLC, a joint venture of Southern Union Co. and a unit of GE Commercial Finance, was approved in September by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzales in New York. CCE Holdings also will assume $430 million in debt.

Still pending is a $1.25 billion sale of Portland General Electric, Enron's Pacific Northwest utility, to a holding company backed by Texas Pacific Group, which also will assume $1.1 billion in debt. Gonzales approved that sale in July. That deal, announced a year ago, is awaiting approval from Oregon regulators.

If the Portland General sale closes as expected, the last remnant of the one-time energy giant that once claimed billions in revenues and pioneered trading operations beyond energy will be Prisma Energy International Inc. — a smattering of pipeline and power assets in 14 foreign countries, mostly in Latin America.

Once the Portland General sale closes and outstanding claims are resolved, Enron can begin distributing about $12 billion to creditors — 92 percent in cash and 8 percent in Prisma stock. If the Portland General sale falls through, creditors will receive stock in both Prisma and the utility and less cash.

Eventually, the Enron name will vanish. But even when Prisma becomes an entity all its own, a form of Enron will remain to handle distributions and litigation, Lowney said.