RWE books jump in profits despite poor trading in UK
RWE, Europe’s fifth-largest utility, yesterday met forecasts with a 3.8 per cent rise in first-half operating profit, as lucrative power sales made up for a weak performance at its UK subsidiary NPower.
The German power giant said it made an operating profit of €4.1bn (£3.5bn) in the six months to June.
Earnings, which had been adjusted for the fluctuation in fuel prices, hit €2.23bn, up from €2.12bn in the same period the previous year.
Ingo Becker, analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, said the German utility’s first-half “earnings are only so-so as the company benefited from its volatile energy trading unit.”
But the company’s oil and natural gas unit said potential delays at its fields may lead to it missing its target of doubling production by 2013.
The firm, which has a 15 per cent share of the British energy market said it was implementing a cost-cutting programme worth €120m to offset the cost of a new British directive which says energy firms must spend €100 must spend on promoting energy efficiency in homes.