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Enron Mail |
-----Original Message----- From: Watt, Ryan Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 3:17 PM To: Cowan, Mike; Home (E-mail); Geordie Hochbaum (E-mail) Subject: Revived Enron Trading Unit Unlikely To Regain Top Spot Revived Enron Trading Unit Unlikely To Regain Top Spot By Kristen McNamara, Jon Kamp and Jason Leopold 01/11/2002 Dow Jones Energy Service (Copyright © 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- It's too soon to tell how successful a revived Enron Corp. (ENE) trading operation might be, but it's almost certain never to regain its once-dominant market position, energy experts and executives said. UBS AG (UBS), which Enron chose Friday as the winning bidder for its North American natural gas and electricity trading business, may bring the credit quality needed to get Enron's traders back in the market. But energy companies that picked up market share as Enron collapsed won't let it go easily, and Enron's once vaunted name is now seen by most as a liability. "The question is whether it will be a market leader and as profitable as it once was. I'm doubtful it will be," said Andre Meade, an analyst with Commerzbank in New York. "I think UBS could restart the business, but they will have an ongoing problem of keeping Enron's traders in-house. It will also be hard for UBS to convince Enron's former counterparties to start trading with a reconstituted Enron. The brand has been enormously damaged." Enron, once the country's largest trader of power and gas, filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2 and has been scrambling since to find financially sound partners to help revive its wholesale power trading unit, which was responsible for 90% of the company's $101 billion revenue last year.
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