Court approves Boston Gen asset sale

NEW ENGLAND - A U.S. bankruptcy court approved the sale of five Boston Generating LLC power plants for $1.1 billion to Constellation Energy Group Inc., a lawyer involved in the hearing said.

Boston Generating, a unit of privately held US Power Generating Co, had arranged the sale to Constellation as part of its bankruptcy filing in August but needed court permission to go ahead.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman approved the sale in a lengthy, late afternoon ruling, according to the lawyer.

The five Boston-area plants have a combined capacity of 2,950 megawatts, making them the third-largest power generating fleet in New England. They include four natural gas-fired plants and a fuel oil plant.

Constellation, which owns Baltimore Gas and Electric, has about 9,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

Boston Generating filed for bankruptcy protection in August after it was unable to generate sufficient cash to service its debt and fund operations.

The majority of creditors of Boston Generating's $1.1 billion first-lien term bank loan, $250 million first-lien synthetic letter of credit and $70 million first-lien revolving credit facility signed a sales support agreement, the company has said.