Hunt Consolidated Inc. has dropped its bid to salvage the $17 billion buyout of Oncor, but is trying to put together a new transaction for the electricity transmission business largely owned by Energy Future Holdings Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported today. Investors, including a large group of Energy Future creditors, walked away from the buyout after the Public Utility Commission of Texas put conditions on the approval of the transaction. Hunt was going to ask the Texas PUC to reconsider its rulings, which changed the economics of the deal. If regulators relented, the deal could be saved, Hunt’s lawyers had said. Instead, Hunt yesterday asked Texas regulators to drop the matter, on the grounds that the deal wouldn’t close. In the request for dismissal, Hunt lawyers said a new buyout transaction is in the works that would keep Oncor in the hands of Hunt, a Texas-owned company. “While we wanted to have a rehearing on the order, it is obvious now that, as written, the transaction will not close; So we believe that it is best to clean the decks and start over,” Hunt spokeswoman Jeanne Phillips said.
