HoustonStreet weaves new round of investments and strategic partnerships into its "web for the Web"

Thomas H. Lee Company, Sapient, Bowstreet and others bring financial, marketing and B2B Internet savvy to Web-based wholesale energy exchange

PORTSMOUTH, NH, March. 23, 2000 - Taking another step toward becoming the Internet-based energy trading leader, HoustonStreet Exchange today announced a new round of investments and strategic relationships with key experts. Thomas H. Lee Company, Sapient and Bowstreet have all joined HoustonStreet's web for the Web, a virtual network of business and technology companies that support HoustonStreet's delivery of wholesale energy trading platforms.

HoustonStreet established the web for the Web business model as a rapid-development network of strategic partnerships with companies that have expertise in disparate fields, rather than building its own departments in-house. Leveraging the core competencies of its key partners, HoustonStreet is able to execute quickly and effectively in a rapidly changing environment. After helping HoustonStreet launch its company and its wholesale power trading exchange, HoustonStreet.com, these businesses are now helping the company improve the exchange and expand it aggressively into additional markets.

Thomas H. Lee Company, one of the oldest, largest and most successful private equity investment firms in the country with more than $6 billion in total capital under management, will provide HoustonStreet with important financial advisement and significant contacts to help the company expand.

"HoustonStreet has a great Internet exchange platform and stands alone in its ability to give energy traders the information they need within an easy-to-use, fluid trading environment," said Tom Hagerty, managing director at Thomas H. Lee Company. "We believe online energy trading will grow dramatically in the months and years ahead, and HoustonStreet is well positioned to seize this opportunity."

In addition to Thomas H. Lee Company, leading technology companies Sapient and Bowstreet, private equity investment firms Omega Advisors, Inc. and Elliott Associates, L.P., and principals from MicroArts Corporation participated in this round of financing. Sapient, Bowstreet and MicroArts all play integral roles in HoustonStreet's Web-driven business model, and will continue to help the company respond to market demand in Internet time. HoustonStreet Exchange relied on Sapient's strategic and systems integration experience to design and build the site. MicroArts developed the user interface, interactive marketing Web site, and marketing plan for the site's launch. Bowstreet is working with HoustonStreet.com to develop the platform for HoustonStreet to provide additional value-added services to its customers and to link trading information directly to trading companies' mid- and back-office systems using XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology. This will allow risk managers to have a real-time view of trading activity.

"These relationships demonstrate the strength of our web for the Web," said HoustonStreet president and CEO Frank Getman. "We pride ourselves on working with the best and brightest in their particular areas of expertise who share our commitment to execution and success. Omega, Elliott and Thomas H. Lee bring financial and Wall Street expertise, while Sapient, Bowstreet and MicroArts provide us with the technology and marketing savvy that have given us a leadership position in the market."

About HoustonStreet Exchange
Designed by traders for traders, HoustonStreet Exchange represents the first Web portal for the trading of wholesale energy products. HoustonStreet.com provides an online trading engine that allows traders to buy and sell their energy products faster, more efficiently and more easily than they do today. HoustonStreet Exchange is headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with offices in Houston, Texas. HoustonStreet Exchange is a majority-owned subsidiary of BayCorp Holdings, Ltd., (AMEX: MWH).

About Thomas H. Lee Company
Thomas H. Lee Company is one of the oldest and most successful private equity investment firms in the United States. Since its founding in 1974, Thomas H. Lee Company has invested more than $5 billion of total capital. The firm's investment strategy has been consistently focused over its 25-year history on growth companies with strong fundamentals.

About Sapient
Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE) is a leading e-services consultancy providing Internet strategy consulting and sophisticated Internet-based solutions to Global 1000 companies and startup businesses. As Architects for the New Economy, Sapient helps clients define their Internet strategies and design, architect, develop and implement solutions to execute those strategies. Founded in 1991, Sapient has been providing Internet solutions for over five years and employs approximately 2,100 people in offices in Cambridge, Mass., the company's headquarters, as well as London, Sydney, Milan, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Denver and Houston. More information on Sapient can be found at www.sapient.com.

About Bowstreet
Bowstreet provides the XML infrastructure to automate the creation of dynamic and customized B2B web marketplaces that enable new business models, extend companies' market reach and generate new revenue. These "business webs" link an infinite number of customers, suppliers and partners in minutes instead of months and at a fraction of the cost of today's web development methods. Founded in January 1998, Bowstreet was ranked as one of the top e-commerce start-ups in the country at the Enterprise Outlook Conference, and has raised $90 million from leading venture capital firms, global investment banks and strategic corporate investors. For more information, visit www.bowstreet.com or call 603-436-9100.

About MicroArts
Designers of technology brands since 1988, MicroArts Corporation focuses on business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce brand marketing, including: brand strategy, identity design, user-experience design and demand-generation campaigns. Employing both print and interactive media, MicroArts has established brands that turn e-commerce start-ups into industry leaders and repositioned traditional businesses as e-businesses. Clients include: APC, Celarix, FitPlay.com, Hasbro Interactive, HoustonStreet.com, ICG Commerce, I-many.com, iPhrase.com, PaperExchange.com, RedHat Software, Send.com and traffic.com.

About Elliott Associates, L.P.
Elliott Associates, L.P., a New York hedge fund, and its offshore sister fund, Westgate International Limited, represent one of the oldest and most stable hedge fund groups. Elliott was formed in 1977 with $1 million of capital, and Westgate was formed in late 1994 with $80 million of capital. The two funds now have more than $1 billion of capital. About Omega Advisors, Inc. Omega Advisors, Inc. is an equity-oriented investment manager with more than $2.5 billion in assets under management. In operation since 1992, Omega seeks to invest in fundamentally attractive companies with superior financial and business characteristics at attractive valuation levels.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause these forward-looking statements to be materially inaccurate. These factors include, without limitation, that (i) energy traders may be unwilling or unable to use Internet-based energy trading systems, including HoustonStreet.com, (ii) HoustonStreet.com may not be able to operate profitably, (iii) technological or systems outages could occur, (iv) competitors with greater financial, marketing or other resources could emerge, (v) performance is contingent upon successful completion of design and implementation of the crude and refined products site, and (vi) market acceptance of HoustonStreet.com cannot be predicted. HoustonStreet.com is a registered service mark of HoustonStreet Exchange.