Traders with an eye on Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings are trimming their odds that the state's biggest electricity producer will file for bankruptcy this year.
On Dec. 21, EFH -- formerly known as TXU Corp. -- disclosed in a regulatory filing that it borrowed $769 million from a credit line, giving it $1.3 billion in cash and equivalents. It said it also completed a debt exchange and asked lenders for a debt extension affecting nearly $800 million in debt.The measures could help EFH avoid a default, and Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that the cost of protecting against default on EFH debt has dropped by nearly 50 percent from just two months earlier. Bloomberg also said $1.8 billion worth of its unsecured bonds due in 2015 traded at 30 cents on the dollar as of Dec. 27, up from a low of 18.5 cents on Nov. 29.A group of investors, including Fort Worth-based TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, in 2007 took TXU private in the largest leveraged buyout ever. The deal left the company with about $44 billion in debt, and the heavy financial losses it has suffered since have put EFH's future in question.According to the Dec. 21 filing, Texas Competitive Electric Holdings, the company's biggest unit that includes Luminant Generation and TXU Energy, had $32.2 billion in debt, of which just $700 million would have been due in 2013. But it asked lenders to extend $645 million in revolving debt to 2016."Texas Competitive has a strong liquidity position, which is only strengthened by extending the 2013 revolver," Allan Koenig, a spokesman at Energy Future, told Bloomberg in an e-mail. "If the entire revolver extends, there are no significant debt maturities for Texas Competitive until October 2014."The company does face $2.7 billion in interest payments this year, and $2.6 billion next year. That compares to interest and related charges of $4.3 billion in 2011 and $2.75 billion in the first nine months of 2012, according to EFH disclosures."At Texas Competitive, it's the first time they've done anything there for over a year," said Andy DeVries, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York. "Now they're saying, 'Let's address this.' That implies they're going to try to keep the party going at Texas Competitive, and I don't think the market expected that."According to the Dec. 21 filing, EFH has extended $24.3 billion worth of debt to between 2017 and 2021.Staff writer Jim Fuquay contributed to this report, which includes material from Bloomberg News.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
