2013022501

Successor

Energy Future Holdings Corp.

Event Publicly Available Information:

DC STATEMENT: March 19, 2013. DC members considered the exchanges of bonds of Energy Future Holdings Corp. (“EFH”) completed on December 5, 2012, December 19, 2012 and January 29, 2013. A Supermajority (as defined in the DC Rules) of DC members concluded that these exchanges occurred in connection with a Succession Event pursuant to Section 2.2(b) of the 2003 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions, as amended by the 2009 ISDA Credit Derivatives Determinations Committees, Auction Settlement and Restructuring Supplement to the 2003 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions (the “Definitions”). By virtue of these exchanges, considered in aggregate, Energy Future Intermediate Holding Company LLC (“EFIH”) and EFIH Finance Inc. (“EFIH Finance”) each succeeded to more than 25% of the Relevant Obligations of EFH and more than 25% of those Relevant Obligations remained with EFH. Pursuant to Section 2.2(a)(iv) of the Definitions, the DC therefore concluded that each of EFH, EFIH and EFIH Finance are Successors to EFH.

Memorandum

Additional information submitted to ISDA on March 8, 2013:

Subsequent to our submission of the General Interest Question on February 25, 2013 relating to an EFH Succession Event (the “Memo”), Moody’s announced that it has withdrawn EFH’s Corporate Family Rating (CFR) in the report linked below (the “Report”). We believe that this Report is relevant to the General Interest Question, because its analysis is based on factors that further bolster the arguments expressed in the Memo. Moody’s is generally in possession of non-public information, which makes this Report all the more noteworthy. Highlighted below are the salient points from the Report as they relate to the Memo.

In the Report, Moody’s states that “[t]he withdrawal of EFH’s CFR reflects a series of recent actions taken by EFH to insulate both EFH and EFIH from its more distressed subsidiary, EFCH, which appears to have a much higher probability of default within the consolidated corporate family. In addition, we believe EFH will continue transferring its remaining debt to EFIH over the next 6 to 12 months, leaving as little as debt as possible at the EFH parent holding company entity.”

The Report goes on to say that “Moody’s believes that EFH will engage in additional liability management and debt exchange activities aimed to transfer EFH’s remaining debt securities to EFIH from EFH.”

We believe the Report suggests that Moody’s shares our view that the “series of recent actions” are part of one broader corporate event, and that EFH will continue to transfer its remaining debt obligations to EFIH. If Moody’s view on continued transfers of EFH debt to EFIH proves correct, this would lead to the “illogical outcome” (described in the Memo) of an orphaning of EFH CDS or a Succession Event following the transfer of a de minimis amount of debt should the Determinations Committee ultimately not agree that a Succession Event has occurred. Further, Moody’s greatly emphasizes that the recent actions were taken to “insulate both EFH and EFIH from its more distressed subsidiary” (i.e., TCEH) as relevant to EFH’s overall credit profile. The Memo highlights this important aspect of the recent transactions as additional evidence that a major corporate event has occurred, which the Memo refers to as the “Effective TCEH Cross Default Elimination.”

Link to Moody’s report: http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-withdraws-EFHs-Corporate-Family-Rating-Assigns-two-new-CFRs--PR_266114

 

 

DateDescriptionDocument
Closed

DC Decision 031913

Closed

DC Decision 031413

Ongoing

DC Decision 022713

Request Accepted by DC
Pending DC Consent