FirstEnergy gets consents to amend covenants of 15 revenue bond series

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, Feb. 15 - FirstEnergy Corp. said its subsidiaries FirstEnergy Generation Corp. and FirstEnergy Nuclear Generation Corp. received the needed consents from a majority of holders to amend 15 series of tax-exempt revenue bonds.

As a result, the proposed amendments were executed, and the companies modified the covenants that require them to maintain their "corporate existence" to covenants to maintain their "existence," according to a company press release.

The effective time for each series of bonds listed was Feb. 14, the release noted.

The payment will be $1.25 in cash for each $1,000 principal amount of bonds for which consents were delivered by the offer deadline at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 7. Holders must be of record as of Jan. 13.

Settlement was to occur on Feb. 15. The offers began on Jan. 17.

The bonds covered by the solicitations included the following:

• $72.65 million of series 2005-A pollution control revenue refunding bonds issued by the Beaver County Industrial Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Nuclear Generation project;

• $177 million of series 2009-A State of Ohio air quality development revenue bonds issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Generation project; and

• $6.45 million of State of Ohio pollution control revenue refunding bonds series 2009-A issued by the Ohio Water Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Generation project.

Also included were the following State of Ohio pollution control revenue refunding bonds issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Nuclear Generation project:

• $7.2 million of series 2005-B bonds;

• $23 million of series 2008-C bonds;

• $62.5 million of series 2009-A bonds; and

• $8 million of series 2010-A bonds.

The solicitations also included the following State of Ohio pollution control revenue refunding bonds issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Generation project:

• $234.52 million of series 2006-A bonds;

• $50 million of series 2009-A bonds;

• $141.26 million of series 2009-C bonds; and

• $100 million of series 2009-D bonds.

Finally, the solicitations also included the following State of Ohio pollution control revenue refunding bonds issued by the Ohio Water Development Authority for the FirstEnergy Nuclear Generation project:

• $82.8 million of series 2005-B bonds;

• $33 million of series 2008-C bonds;

• $107.5 million of series 2009-A bonds; and

• $99.1 million of series 2010-A bonds.

FirstEnergy previously said the companies sought to amend the notes in order to pursue a conversion from Ohio corporations to Ohio limited liability companies. They expected this conversion to better align their tax status with their direct parent, FirstEnergy Solutions Corp., with the manner in which their competitive business is viewed for operational and financial reporting purposes, according to a previous press release.

The solicitation agent is Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (212 762-8290). The information and tabulation agent is Bondholder Communications Group, LLC (888 385-2663, 212 809-2663, fedwards@bondcom.com or www.bondcom.com/firstenergy).

FirstEnergy is an energy company based in Akron, Ohio.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.