Dynegy may go on buying hunt in Q4

By Lisa Lee

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dynegy Inc. (DYN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would prefer to target a portfolio or a company for an acquisition and would ideally begin shopping in the fourth quarter, Chief Executive Bruce Williamson said on Wednesday.

Williamson said at the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York he would prefer to buy in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, and California, with a focus on cleaner power generation.

Individual power plants would not be as interesting to Dynegy, Williamson said, since private equity could bid up their prices.

The head of the independent power company said the fourth quarter would be ideal because he wants to show that Dynegy had earned the right look at an acquisition by posting its second- and third-quarter results.

Dynegy in April closed on the $2 billion purchase of power plants from private equity fund LS Power Group. LS Power also took a 40 percent stake in Dynegy.

Still, the company would "kick the tires" on deals popping up before October, Williamson said.

Dynegy, which sells power through the wholesale market, would not rule out buying an integrated power company, which has both regulated utility and wholesale merchant arms, Williamson said. "We would look at anything."

In addition, he said Dynegy may reconsider a plan to sell its Kentucky and Georgia gas-fired power plants. The decision to keep or sell the plants will come "probably over the next three or four weeks," Williamson said.  Continued...