Cleco Corporation To Acquire Mirant's Share of Louisiana Power Project.

Business Editors/Energy Writers

PERRYVILLE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 2002

Cleco Corp. (NYSE, PCX: CNL) and Mirant (NYSE: MIR) announced today the companies have signed an agreement in which Cleco will buy Mirant's 50 percent interest in the 725-megawatt power plant the companies are building in northeast Louisiana.

The natural gas-fired plant is owned by Perryville Energy Partners LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between subsidiaries of Cleco and Mirant. Under the agreement, Cleco will assume Mirant's $19.5 million future equity commitment to the project and pay $48 million to retire Mirant's project debt. Cleco intends to finance the transaction with a combination of new common stock and debt. Currently, the company is planning the issuance of 1 million shares of common stock.

The deal is expected to close early in the second quarter 2002.

"The sale of our interest in Perryville is consistent with the objectives stated in our new business plan, which include the sale of targeted assets in order to strengthen the corporation's balance sheet and improve liquidity," said Rick Pershing, executive vice president of Mirant's North American operations. "We stated that we may sell assets totaling nearly $1.6 billion, and this sale, along with the sale of our Bewag interest earlier this year and the proposed sale of our State Line facility, would put us at approximately $1.3 billion toward that goal."

Mirant will continue to control output of the plant under a 20-year power sales agreement. That agreement allows Mirant to own and market the plant's output and supply the natural gas needed to fuel the plant through its marketing and risk management organization.

Mirant will transition oversight of the remaining construction to Cleco. The plant's 568-megawatt, combined-cycle unit is scheduled to begin commercial operation in July 2002. The plant's first phase, a 157-megawatt, simple-cycle unit, began commercial operation last summer. Cleco will continue operating and maintaining the plant, which is located about 12 miles north of Monroe, La.

"We feel this was an acquisition we couldn't pass up. There are few opportunities in today's market to acquire power plants with a long-term output contract already in place," said David Eppler, Cleco's president and chief executive officer. "Purchasing the other half of this state-of-the-art power plant solidifies our position as a leading power provider in Louisiana. Also, we expect it will add another $0.02 to $0.04 per share to corporate earnings, and it puts us that much closer to our goal of having a portfolio of 4,000 megawatts by 2005."

Cleco Corp. is a regional energy services company headquartered in Pineville, La. It operates a nonregulated midstream energy business that has approximately 1,700 megawatts of unregulated generating capacity either in operation or under construction. Cleco also operates a regulated electric utility company that serves more than 250,000 customers across Louisiana.

Mirant is a leading, global competitive-energy company. Mirant delivers value by integrating an extensive portfolio of power and natural gas assets with marketing and risk management expertise. Mirant has facilities in North America, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe and operates one of the world's largest energy commodity trading organizations from its headquarters in Atlanta.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of Cleco Corp., nor will there be any sale of any such securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. Any offering of securities of Cleco Corp. will be made only by means of a final prospectus.

In addition to historical information, this news release contains forward-looking statements about Mirant's and Cleco's future results and circumstances with respect to which there are many risks and uncertainties, including the weather and other natural phenomena, state and federal legislative and regulatory initiatives, the timing and extent of changes in commodity prices and interest rates, the operating performance of Mirant's and Cleco's facilities, timely receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals and the other risks and uncertainties more fully described in Mirant's or Cleco's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. Both Mirant and Cleco expressly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.