Last November the company admitted it was thinking of selling its international operations, with subsidiary Edison Mission Energy securing a commitment letter for an $US800 million loan intended to provide "bridge financing to asset sales, including the sale of some or all of its international operations".

That confession from the cash-strapped company intensified speculation about its $NZ1.5 billion stake in Contact, one of this country's largest energy players, as well as other wholly or partly Edison-owned power stations in Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

Aussie assets include stakes in the Western Australian Kwinana gas-fired station and the Victorian coal-fired Loy Yang B plant.

Now the Dominion Post today reports that the surging Kiwi dollar and record Contact share price are once again putting the spotlight on Edison's 51% stake in Contact.

Some market commentators say the time is ideal for the indebted United States company to sell its stake in Contact, reaping gains from the strong dollar and record share price - that today was hovering around the $NZ5.60 mark.

However, analysts also say any sale would not be easy for Edison - which bought a 40% stake in Contact in May, 1999, for $NZ1.2 billion. Five years ago that would have cost it about $US570 million, though the stake would now be worth about $US800 million with the rampant rise in the Kiwi dollar to US67c.

JB Were analyst Peter Sigley is reported as saying any sale would be complicated by the fact that Contact is a listed company and by Edison's majority stake.

Any buyer would have to be willing to make a full takeover offer to all shareholders under New Zealand takeover rules. The alternative was to sell the 51% stake to institutional and retail shareholders in a public offering of the 295 million Contact shares owned by Edison.

Either process would take about six months, with investment bankers scouring the world for buyers for the Edison stake.

However, another analyst said the rise in the New Zealand currency would not be the driving force for Edison and that debt reduction would be the top priority, whatever the level of the various currencies.

The un-named analyst said Contact was probably one of Edison's biggest and most liquid assets, but that there would also be risks for an overseas buyer facing the prospect of a falling New Zealand dollar later in the year once the US economy and Greenback improved.

A tidy takeover bid was not likely as Contact's more than 100,000 small Kiwi shareholders had clung to their shares when Edison made a proposed complete takeover in late 2001, offering $NZ4.14 a share.

Edison paid $NZ5 a share for its initial 40% stake of 241.6 million shares in 1999 and has built that to 295 million shares, or 51%, at an average cost of $NZ4.60 a share.

EnergyReview.Net has been unable to contact Edison in the US, as it is still their weekend, or Contact Energy, as it is Wellington Anniversary.