Enron puts assets up for sale

Enron, the once mighty US energy trader, was today moving towards break-up as it put its most valuable assets on sale.

The sale could mean that Enron, formed in 1985, will cease to exist following its meteoric fall into bankruptcy last year. The company wants to sell its 12 most valuable assets to raise as much money for creditors as possible.

"One of the possibilities is if the bids are sufficient," an Enron official said. "You do end up selling off the company. There wouldn't be a lot left."

The company will seek a first round of bids in October, a final round in November and may accept some or all of them in December - a year after filing what was at the time the largest bankruptcy in US history.

Telecommunications giant WorldCom has since taken that dubious honour. The collapse of Enron and WorldCom, caused by questionable accounting practices, undermined investor confidence around the world and contributed to a sharp fall in share prices.

The decision to sell off most of Enron marks a change of tack for Stephen Cooper, the bankrupt company's interim chief executive. In May, Mr Cooper unveiled a strategy for emerging from bankruptcy that included ditching its name and focusing on moving electricity and natural gas.

At the time Mr Cooper said that Enron would revert to its origins in 1985, when it was formed through the merger of Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. The once-lauded company was sold in February to UBS Warburg, the Swiss banking group.

The latest announcement indicates a willingness to dispose of most of what is left of Enron if bidders stump up the money; a big if, as other energy companies are also trying to sell assets in a competitive market.

Enron's old competitors, Dynegy and the Williams group, are fighting off bankruptcy by selling natural gas pipelines and power plants too.

But pipelines have gone quickly, most notably Dynegy's recent sale of Northern Natural Gas to MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a unit Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle run by Warren Buffett, the investment guru.

The assets Enron is putting up for sale include Portland General Electric; the Portland, Oregon, utility acquired in 1997 that serves 740,000 customers in the north-west, and Enron's whole or part ownership in its three remaining pipelines.