Both United Kingdom and United States laws clearly recognize and consistently hold for the ability to organize a company to fully insulate the parent from liabilities of subsidiaries. When insolvency became likely, we took a great deal of care to ensure that TXU Europe was operated to minimize the loss to creditors.

As we focused during that time on preserving shareholder value, one of the most difficult but essential actions undertaken was the board of directors’ decision on October 12 to reduce the dividend. We were confident we could maintain the dividend since we never used cash flows from Europe to support it. However, the intensifying credit crisis affecting TXU Corp. made it imperative that we further strengthen credit and liquidity to address the concerns of the financial markets and credit-rating agencies.

Reductions in the dividend and also in developmental capital expenditures produce an estimated annual cash savings of $850 million to $950 million, which provides substantial funds for debt reduction. Once we have restored unquestioned confidence in our credit and our ability to access the capital markets on favorable terms, it is my desire to readdress the dividend as soon as practical.

We also took significant steps to shore up liquidity, quickly completing financing actions that positioned the company well to maintain liquidity at a minimum of $1.5 billion. These actions included issuance of $850 million of bonds at Oncor to refinance near-term maturities and repay short-term debt, issuance of $750 million in exchangeable subordinated notes at TXU Energy, and completion of a public offering of $516 million of TXU common stock.