By Tom Kleckner
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has approved a reorganization plan that will take Energy Future Holdings’ competitive businesses out of Chapter 11 after two years.
In a statement posted on its website Friday, Dallas-based EFH said the bankruptcy judge approved Texas Competitive Energy Holdings’ tax-free spinoff of generator Luminant, electric retailer TXU Energy and supporting business services. The Wall Street Journal reported that the companies will be taken over by senior lenders, including affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Brookfield Asset Management and Oaktree Capital Management.
EFH said the “Reorganized TCEH,” as it will be known in the short term, has already received “a majority of the key regulatory approvals required for emergence,” in addition to the bankruptcy court’s approval. EFH expects a final approval, related to Luminant’s mining operations, from the Railroad Commission of Texas in September.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi said the plan “was the best possible deal” for EFH to emerge from bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy court’s approval doesn’t apply to EFH’s regulated transmission and distribution provider, Oncor. NextEra Energy has reached an agreement to buy for $18.4 billion the 80% share of Oncor currently owned by EFH and Energy Future Intermediate Holdings, another of EFH’s several holding companies. (See NextEra Reaches Deal for Oncor.)
A confirmation hearing on the Oncor assets’ emergence from bankruptcy is scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
EFH, then known as TXU Corp., was acquired in 2007 by private equity firms KKR & Co., TPG Capital LP and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners through a $45 billion leveraged buyout. Low gas prices have bedeviled EFH ever since, forcing the holding company to file for bankruptcy protection in April 2014.
