El Paso Merchant closes $226-mil sale of four power plants

Washington (Platts)--7Jul2004

El Paso Merchant Energy Wednesday said it had closed on the sale of four US
power plants to Northern Star Generation LLC for about $226-mil and the
assumption of roughly $39-mil in non-recourse debt. The plants, located in
Orlando, Florida; Dartmouth, Massachusetts; Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania and Las
Vegas, Nevada, have a combined capacity of 348 MW, Houston-based El Paso
Merchant said. The four represent a portion of the 25 domestic power plants
that El Paso announced in January it had agreed to sell to Northern Star. The
sales support El Paso Corp's long-range plan to reduce the company's debt, net
of cash, to about $15-bil by year-end 2005. El Paso has targeted asset sales
within the range of $3.3-bil to $3.9-bil by the end of 2005. To date, the
company has announced or closed about $3.5-bil in asset sales.

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