14 Enron managers 'shared ?6.4m commission

Fourteen Enron managers shared a commission of ?6.2m for helping to find a buyer for the collapsed group's UK retail arm, one of the company's creditors said today.

Enron Direct, Enron's UK retail arm, was sold by administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers to Centrica, the utility company, for ?96.4m last December, days after Enron Europe went into administration.

The highest bid for Enron Direct prior to the efforts of its staff was ?30m, said Enron Direct creditor Chris Fisher of consultancy Qualtrak after a creditors' meeting.

"Enron Direct [staff] participated in ?6.2m of commission," Mr Fisher told Reuters. "One or two people expressed some surprise. They were paid ?6.2m for four days' work."

The fee was shared equally among the 14 managers. Mr Fisher said PwC confirmed the payment at today's meeting. PwC declined to confirm the size of the payment but said a scheme was in place to encourage the Enron Direct team to find a buyer for the company.

"There is nothing out of the ordinary in that," PwC said.

News of the fee came after Enron Direct's 270 creditors were told by PwC at the meeting they would get back between 55p and 75p pence for every pound they were owed.

PwC said it expected to distribute ?94m, raised from the sale of Enron Direct, to creditors who were owed between ?130m and ?170m.

PwC is due on Friday to tell the bulk of Enron Europe's creditors how much they can expect to claw back of the billions of dollars lost in failed power and gas trading contracts spread across the continent.

PwC is expected to tell creditors that the bankrupt Houston-based firm had 250,000 trading positions with 1,000 parties. The administrator expects to recover ?150m from the trades.

Recoverable assets will not include proceeds from the sale of Wessex Water, which is not actually owned by the UK operation, or Enron's Teesside power plant, which is UK-owned but not in administration.