Mirant resumes share repurchases after suspending program to evaluate possible transaction

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., Aug. 8 - Mirant Corp. has resumed purchasing shares of its common stock in the open market after briefly suspending share repurchases to pursue a proposal from another company that Mirant thought could potentially bring significant value to its shareholders, Edward Muller, chief executive officer of Mirant, said Friday during the company's second-quarter earnings call.

"We have $1.55 billion to return to shareholders, and we intend to go back into the market as we have done in the past," Muller said.

Mirant aggressively considered the potential transaction but has since concluded it will no longer pursue the proposal, he said.

At July 31, Mirant had purchased $3.051 billion of its stock under its previously announced plan to return $4.6 billion to shareholders.

The company plans to continue to evaluate all methods for returning cash to shareholders, Muller said.

Net loss increases

Mirant reported a second-quarter net loss from continuing operations of $832 million, compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $83 million in the second quarter of 2007.

The company said the decrease was principally due to lower gross margins from fuel oil management and proprietary trading activities and lower realized value of hedges, partially offset by higher capacity revenues.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the second quarter was $143 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations of $230 million for the same period in 2007.

During the call, Muller said that while Mirant's results were down in comparison to 2007, the numbers were on track with where the company had expected them to be this year.

Mirant raised its 2008 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $877 million from $861 million and raised its 2009 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $1.096 billion from $1.062 billion.

Mirant is an Atlanta-based competitive energy company.

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