Reuters reported Tuesday that Enron Corp. has received an offer for its CrossCountry Energy unit from an unidentified “investment-grade company” that is substantially larger than the earlier bid that Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt’s company made earlier this year. This Chronicle story reports that the new suitor for the assets is Southern Union Co.
Wyatt and his financial partners (which includes Citigroup) offered Enron $2.2 billion for CrossCountry, a collection of Enron’s North American natural gas pipelines. The Wyatt offer included $1.74 billion in cash, the assumption of $461 million in debt, and a $25 million “stalking horse” fee if Wyatt’s group were to be outbid for the pipelines.
The new offer includes about $55 million more in cash and is not conditioned on the payment of a “stalking horse” fee. Consequently Enron’s largest unsecured creditors are now requesting that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez accept the new offer instead of the bid from the Wyatt-led consortium. A hearing is scheduled on the matter this Thursday in New York.