EDF Q3 revenue up, says outages to hurt earnings

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PARIS -French utility Electricite de France SA said Monday that revenue rose 2.9 percent in the third quarter but warned full year earnings would be hurt by nuclear plant outages.

The state-controlled company reported third quarter revenue of euro13.43 billion ($20.19 billion) for the July to September period, up from euro13.06 billion a year earlier. International activities, particularly the recently acquired British Energy, offset lower sales in its home market of France.

EdF, which this month began a nuclear joint venture with Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, said however that unexpected outages at some of its nuclear plants during the current quarter would result in lower-than-expected earnings for the full year.

The Paris-based utility now expects net income from ordinary operations to decline further in the second half, after falling 5.5 percent in the first half. Previously, EdF had simply said these earnings, which exlude one-off or non-recurring gains, would not increase.

The company also lowered its guidance for operating earnings, saying they would be "close to" that achieved last year, excluding acquisitions and exchange rate impacts. In July, EdF forecast moderate growth in operating earnings, excluding acquisitions and foreign exchange impact.

However, taking into account its acquisition of British Energy earlier this year, EdF said reported net income and operating profit will both be higher this year.

EdF shares fell 0.5 percent to euro37.78.

2009-11-12 06:29:46