Energy Future Holdings has enough money to pay its debts for at least the next year, but lawyers and bankers are betting that a big chunk of the Texas power company will file for bankruptcy, and are already trying to line up clients to represent in the event of a restructuring, Reuters reported today. Energy Future—formerly TXU—set the wheels in motion last week when it tapped restructuring advisers from law firm Kirkland & Ellis and financial advisers Evercore Partners and the Blackstone Group. The hiring of advisers comes just months before the company, which was taken private in 2007 in the largest leveraged buyout, must start making payments on some of the $52 billion of debt it had as of the end of September. Now, creditors have begun to organize themselves for a restructuring and a plethora of large law firms are involved or making pitches to represent creditor groups, including Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Brown Rudnick, Otterbourg Steindler Houston & Rosen, and White & Case.
