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French firm Suez keen to acquire Enron assets

French utility Suez Sa is interested in acquiring some of the assets of the ruined US energy trading company Enron Corp, though it won't rush simply to win a bargain, managing director Jean-Pierre Hansen said in a newspaper interview.

"Like many of our competitors, we are looking actively and very closely at certain assets of Enron, conscious that there are important industrial opportunities to be seized,'' Hansen told Le Figaro in an interview published on Tuesday.

"Nonetheless, there is no question of us rushing, the group having never envisaged buying at bargain prices."

Enron filed the biggest bankruptcy in the US corporate history after Dynegy Inc walked away from a hastily arranged $9-billion rescue bid, making it hard for Enron's crippled trading business to survive.

On Monday, Enron said it had won an emergency round of financing to run a skeleton operation as it lays off 4,000 employees.

It is now in talks with third parties which could lead to a sale of the trading business, according to people familiar with the situation.

"We have always chosen the path of profitable growth, with the permanent priority of testing our acquisitions for profitability using strict and rational criteria," Hansen said.

"It will be no different with Enron."

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