Calpine Reports Wide Loss

Calpine(CPN Quote) dumped another ration of bad news on the market Wednesday, saying its second-quarter loss widened substantially from a year ago while a Canadian court directed proceeds from a recent asset sale into a subsidiary to cover potential bond redemptions.

Calpine, the once high-flying power merchant whose stock has traded below $6 for the better part of two years, lost $298.5 million, or 66 cents a share, in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $28.7 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 0.5% from a year ago to $2.2 billion.

The latest quarter included a loss of 4 cents a share from continuing operations and charges netting to 11 cents a share from power-plant impairments, the termination of several long-term leases, and debt redemption gain. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting a loss of 29 cents a share on sales of $2.5 billion. ...