Enron Corp., whose record-shattering bankruptcy turned it into the ultimate symbol of corporate excesses, on Friday filed a reorganization plan that will probably pay creditors less than one-fifth of the $67 billion they are owed.

The plan comes 19 months after Enron's spectacular failure, which led to one of the costliest Chapter 11 bankruptcies in history with professional fees nearing $500 million.

If U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in New York approves the reorganization plan, Enron would no longer exist as a single entity.

Rather, its interest in three pipelines and 19 international assets would be spun off into two separate companies whose shares would be distributed to creditors. Its other assets, including Oregon utility Portland General Electric, would be sold.

Interim Chief Executive and Chief Restructuring Officer Stephen Cooper acknowledged in a conference call that Enron's plan was essentially a liquidation, but not in the traditional sense that nothing will remain.

"What will emerge out of the bankruptcy are three or more hard asset platforms that will continue to employ 12,000 people and will have very solid revenues," he said.

The preliminary estimated recovery rate for creditors is 14.4 cents to 18.3 cents on the dollar, far lower than the corporate average. For example, many creditors of telecommunications company WorldCom Inc., which took the bankruptcy crown from Enron, are expected to fare about twice as well with a recovery rate of about 36 cents.

'ASSET-LIGHT' PHILOSOPHY

The plan also needs the approval of 50 percent of the creditors and holders of two-thirds of the dollar amount, which is likely, given that the plan had the tentative approval of the creditor's committee.

That Enron creditors would get so little is hardly a surprise. Revelations of a wildly inflated balance sheet sent the company spiraling into what was then the world's largest bankruptcy.

Former chief executive Jeff Skilling also carried out to an extreme an "asset-light" philosophy that looked upon hard assets as burdens, and Enron shed them whenever it could.

About 30 percent of the money for creditors will come from the proposed pipeline company, CrossCountry Energy, and the planned international gas and power company to be built from Enron's mostly South American assets, Cooper said.

The remaining 70 percent will be cash. Those funds will come from about $5 billion in proceeds from Enron's commodity contracts; the expected sale of Portland General Electric, which could fetch $2 billion; and other lesser asset sales.

Cooper said there is much work yet to be done to bring the outstanding claims in line with the $67 billion the company's books show as owed. A final recovery estimate is not likely until August, he said.

The estimated recoveries range from 100 percent for certain claims to nothing for common stockholders. There are more than 350 classes of creditors.

Enron has not included in its calculations potential proceeds from litigation against its banks and financial advisers. So far, that has only reached the mediation stage with no claims filed yet, Cooper said.

Those claims would assert the financial institutions helped put Enron into the ground by enabling the company to engage in too many ultimately detrimental financial transactions.

Enron hopes to have the plan confirmed by year's end.

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