In these extremely uncertain times, cash may be "king" as David Crane, president and CEO of hostile takeover target NRG Energy proclaimed last week. But in the world of US publicly traded electric utilities and merchant power generators, shareholders hold the keys to the kingdom. The apparent desire of Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG to remain independent will be sorely tested in the coming days after Exelon last week made good on a late October threat to continue its determined pursuit of NRG, even if the latter spurned Exelon's $6.2 billion all-stock merger offer (EUW, 27 Oct, 1). On November 12, three days after NRG management rejected the deal, the Chicago-based parent company of Commonwealth Edison and Peco Energy bypassed NRG executives and directors and took their bid of 0.485 shares of Exelon stock for each share of NRG stock directly to shareholders of the "pure play" power generation company. An Exelon takeover likely would require it to refinance almost $8 billion of NRG outstanding debt.
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