Experts debate how energy companies should be valued in the wake of electric restructuring and Enron.
Richard Stavros is the executive editor of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
How should you value a diversified energy holding company with regulated and unregulated subsidiaries? How should you value a pure play merchant generation developer, an electric utility distribution company, or a stand-alone vertically integrated utility? Which is the good investment and what's the ideal energy corporate model?
Furthermore, should energy companies continue to pursue accelerated growth strategies, or avoid it by focusing on the regulated (and some say safe) stable earnings?
Ever since electric restructuring began in the mid-nineties, industry executives, mutual fund managers, Wall Street equities analysts, and ratings agencies have been struggling to find the answers.