8 November 2007Pete Harrison
Electricity firm International Power Plc (IPR.L: Quote, Profile , Research) reported a 12 percent rise in profit for the first nine months of its financial year, despite some adverse weather conditions, and pledged more investment in renewables.
Chief Executive Philip Cox said the group was looking to expand its renewable energy portfolio, especially wind power.
"The markets we're really concentrating on are Europe and Australia, and we're starting to take a look in North America," he told reporters. "It's principally wind... we want to concentrate on technologies that are proven and commercial."
The UK-based group, which operates in over 20 countries, said profit from operations was 634 million pounds ($1.33 billion) in the nine months to Sept. 30, compared with 564 million a year earlier.
"Financial performance in the nine months has been impacted by mild weather in North America and by the effects of drought in Australia," it said.
"Despite the continuing impact of inter-regional pricing differentials in Australia, we remain confident that overall 2007 will be a year of further growth," it added.
International Power shares rose 0.2 percent to 478 pence by 1024 GMT, valuing the group at around 7.2 billion pounds.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said: "We see these as a solid set of numbers, although we retain a hold recommendation."
Profit rose 22 percent in Europe to 377 million pounds, boosted by the first full contribution from its Levanto wind farms in Germany and France, and its Indian Queens oil-fired power station in Britain.
In North America, profit from operations rose by a third to 104 million pounds, following the acquisition in April 2006 of its Coleto Creek coal-fired power station in Texas.
But in Australia, profit was down by a third at 66 million.
"Australian performance continued to be impacted by adverse inter-regional pricing differentials that we reported at the half year, together with an unplanned outage at a 200 MW unit at Hazelwood during late September through to mid October," it said.
Profits rose 24 percent to 46 million in the Middle East and increased 3 percent in Asia to 77 million.
(Editing by Sue Thomas/Elizabeth Fullerton)
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