DALLAS, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Texas' largest electricity producer, TXU Corp., said Monday it agreed to be sold for about $45 billion including debt in the largest-ever leveraged buyout.
The buyers included private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, along with Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the company said.
Under the deal, the company would cut rates 10 percent, saving customers more than $300 million a year, with price protections through September 2008, TXU said.
It would also eliminate eight of 11 coal-fired power plants it proposes, which the company said would prevent 56 million tons of annual carbon emissions.
TXU had already planned to cut six of those plants but had not announced it, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker will serve as the investor group's advisory chairman.
World Wildlife Fund Chairman Emeritus William Reilly, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, will lead TXU's effort "in making climate stewardship central to corporate policies," TXU said.
TXU directors voted Sunday night to recommend shareholders approve the sale. The price represents a 25 percent premium to TXU's recent average closing stock price and includes $13 billion in debt.
