Fortnightly Magazine - March 2008

Bond Bonanza

January’s debt-issue activity portends a rush on the markets later this year.

Something seemed rotten in December. Fortnightly’s survey of utility and financial deals for that month turned up so few debt issues, we wondered if our research methods were failing. We found only one significant utility bond issue during the month; Allegheny’s West Penn Power issued $275 million in 10-year notes. December’s deathly quiet raised questions about whether we were missing most of the deals.

Coming to America

U.S. utilities are gaining valuable lessons from technology developments abroad.

Structural and regulatory factors have allowed utilities in some countries to leapfrog America’s utility industry in terms of technology leadership. But U.S. utilities are learning valuable lessons from international advancements.

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