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Gexa: Hunt Companies Using Gexa's NextEra Affiliation As "Guise" To Block Discovery

November 30, 2015

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Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

Various Hunt Consolidated companies are using concerns about Gexa Energy's affiliation with NextEra Energy as a, "guise," to block discovery in the Oncor change-in-control proceeding, Gexa alleged in replying to an earlier pleading from the Hunt companies

As previously reported, Ovation Acquisition I, L.L.C., Ovation Acquisition II, L.L.C., and Shary Holdings, L.L.C., the Hunt Consolidated companies which are seeking to purchase Oncor, sought to prevent Gexa from reviewing certain HSPM [highly sensitive protected material] by noting that a protective order was filed to allow Joseph Balzano, Director of Finance for the Treasury Department at NextEra, to review the documents. The Hunt companies argued that Balzano, due to his position at NextEra, was not qualified to receive protected materials. NextEra recently expressed its continued interest in purchasing Oncor

However, Gexa alleges that, based on discovery responses from the Hunt companies prior to Balzano's introduction to the case, the Hunt companies never intended to produce certain materials, and are now using the Balzano issue to support the withholding of certain materials

"[W]hile Purchasers' claim that their pending motions are in response to Mr. Balzano's Protective Order certification, it is clear that Purchasers decided at least two days before Mr. Balzano filed his Protective Order certification not to disclose HSPM to Gexa. Clearly, Purchasers never intended to provide certain HSPM to Gexa, and they are now improperly using Gexa's affiliation with NextEra as a guise to preclude any Gexa representative from reviewing the HSPM documents, which has been provided to every other party that has executed a Protective Order certification -- all without even a scintilla of evidence that Gexa has violated or intends to violate the terms of the Protective Order," Gexa said

"On November 20, 2015, without making any attempt to discuss their concerns about Mr. Balzano or negotiate a solution to those concerns, Purchasers filed their Emergency Request for Enforcement and Request for Non-Disclosure, ostensibly in response to Mr. Balzano's Protective Order certification. If Purchasers had addressed these concerns with Gexa, Gexa could have informed Purchasers that it only intended to allow Mr. Balzano access to two discovery responses (TIEC 1-1 and TIEC 2-10), as well as testimony prepared by Gexa's outside consultants and other parties that is directly relevant to Mr. Balzano's area of expertise," Gexa said

Gexa said that its primary concern in the proceeding is, "that Purchasers' acquisition strategy for Oncor, and Oncor's long-term financial stability, appear to rest entirely on Purchasers' ability to establish a REIT structure for Oncor despite the fact that this has never been done before on this scale and that many of the investors in this transaction are the same hedge funds that invested in Oncor's bankrupt parent, Energy Future Holdings."

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