EFH Bankruptcy Filing Expected as Soon as Monday

Leading Texas power company Energy Future Holdings (EFH) is expected to file for bankruptcy as early as Monday evening, sources close to the situation said on Friday, as it struggles to pay its hefty debt load of more than $40 billion because of cheap electricity prices.

The former TXU Corp, which owns 14 power plants, faces a deadline next Thursday, when a 30-day grace period stemming from a missed bond payment will expire and push the company into default.

The long awaited filing would be one of the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcies in history.

Consumers are not expected to suffer power disruptions in the deregulated power market in Texas, but the bankruptcy could touch off years of expensive court-supervised negotiations with investment funds.

(Reporting By Nick Brown and Billy Cheung)