May 30--TXU stock moved to its best close since late February as the utility's pending $45 billion buyout appeared more likely after the Texas Legislature adjourned without taking significant action that could have threatened the deal.

The Dallas-based company's stock (ticker: TXU) finished trading Tuesday at $68.04, up 23 cents, the highest since an investment group announced its $69.25-a-share offer Feb. 25. The shares had traded as low as $62.15 in the following weeks as concerns m unted that regulatory and legislative challenges could derail the deal. The stock has been trending upward since early May. Jeff Eller, a spokesman for Texas Energy Future Holdings, the potential buyer of TXU, declined to comment on the legislative outcome, as did TXU spokeswoman Lisa Singleton. Legislators had considered but did not pass measures that would have given the P blic Utility Commission a yes-or-no review on the buyout or required the company to break up its generating, transmission and retail segments.

Eller said the buyout group instead is "focusing on getting our commitments made binding and legal." Texas Energy Future Holdings, which includes private-equity giants TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., in late April made a PUC filing that makes various guarantees related to financing and operational issues at what is now called Oncor Electric Deli ery, TXU's regulated transmission-and-distribution business. Those guarantees do not apply to TXU's nonregulated businesses, which provide most of the company's revenue. Singleton said TXU has not yet set a date for shareholders to vote on the transaction.

She said the company has made necessary filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and still has to make filings with th Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. The FCC is involved because TXU wants to provide broadband Internet services over its power lines. The Justice Department will consider antitrust concerns. Singleton said TXU's next filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to be a preliminary merger disclosure, expected sometime in June. After the SEC reviews that, she said, the company will file its final merger disclosure and set a da e for the shareholder vote.

Barry Abramson with Gamco Investors in Rye, N.Y., which holds more than 1 million TXU shares, told Bloomberg News that the lack of legislation "bodes well for having the deal completed on schedule." It's generally been anticipated that the buyout could close by September or October.