Energy, electronic deals worth 3 billion

Baton Rouge Advocate - Two business deals worth a total of $3 billion were recently announced in the energy and electronics industries, coming off a huge weekend deal aimed at Guidant Corp.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy Corp. will sell its unprofitable North American wholesale power generation assets outside the Midwest for about $1.5 billion to a subsidiary of LS Power Equity Partners.

One analyst praised the sale, saying it will help Duke Energy raise enough cash to move forward with its plans to expand its natural gas transmission business and still have enough resources left over to finance the cost of building a nuclear plant in the Carolinas.

Duke is looking to add more generation, including a potential new nuclear plant, in its Southeast territory, Shelby Tucker, an analyst with Bank of America Equity Research, wrote in an investor note after the announcement. A healthy level of cash would alleviate some pressure of high capital expenditures related to new generation construction program.

Charlotte-based Duke said the deal has a minimum value of $1.48 billion. Texas Instruments Inc. announced the long-rumored sale of its sensors unit to private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC.