British Energy posts profit, sells most of its generation capacity |
|
|
Published
:
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:05
|
LONDON: Britain's electricity generator British Energy Group Plc., posted a first quarter profit, thanks to the financial restructuring it undertook in January this year and the ever-increasing power prices in the country.
The company's underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter was 121 million pounds on revenues of 521 million pounds. It had 510 million pounds in cash and liquid funds and a net debt of 166 million pounds at the end of the period. Pretax profit was 45 million pounds. It generated 17.4 million terawatt hours of power during the period against 16.4 TWh a year ago.
As of 25 September, the company had sold 85 per cent of its planned output for the year ending 31 March at a rate of 31.8 pounds per megawatt hour. Its performance would have been better, had it not been for the problems at the Hartlepool and Heysham 1 units.
The company manages eight nuclear power stations and one coal plant in the country.
Chief executive Bill Coley said the company remains focussed on improving the operational reliability of its plants and resolving the issues at Hartlepool and Heysham 1.
British Energy had a debt for equity swap, which cleared its entire 1 billion-pound debt. It had also transferred all its nuclear liabilities, including decommissioning costs of certain nuclear plants to the government.
Coley said the government should give its clearance for new generation of nuclear power stations by the end of next year if it is to meet its climate change targets and safeguard security of supply. He said even if the company continued to depend on its aging nuclear energy stations, the contribution from nuclear energy would come down drastically by 2020. This will mean the country will have to depend on imported gas.
He said it takes 10 years to build nuclear power generation capability.
The company intends to spend 250 million pounds on its older plants this year.
Prime minister Tony Blair has already indicated that the government would consider building new nuclear power stations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
