Retail sales give Contact profit boost

By CHRIS DANIELS

On the eve of today's annual shareholders' meeting, Contact Energy has announced an $18.4 million profit for the last quarter of 2002, a slight improvement on the year before.

While it made less money on the wholesale market in the three months to December 31, the company sold more power to its retail customers.

It is the first time Contact has reported financial results for the December quarter since it moved to quarterly reporting last year.

Unaudited net profit for the quarter was $18.4 million, slightly above the $16.2 million for the corresponding period in 2001.

The company said the result was 9 per cent less than its adjusted result for the quarter in the year before.

But its depreciation charge rose by $5.2 million after a revaluation of assets, which Contact said made any comparison difficult.

Contact shut down its Otahuhu power station for maintenance for 12 weeks during the quarter.

Chief executive Steve Barrett told the Stock Exchange on December 5 that the high prices it was being forced to pay for wholesale electricity might eat into earnings.

Revenue, at $247.8 million, was 9 per cent ahead of the $228.2 million for the comparable period last year, with electricity revenue up by 19 per cent.

Contact achieved earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $68.2 million, an increase of 21 per cent.

Compared with the same quarter the year before, Contact sold 50 per cent more electricity to its retail customers. The number of retail customers increased by 60,000 and it now supplies power to 465,000 connections.

Increased power sales were, said Barrett, driven by "organic customer growth" and higher demand coming from the addition of new business customers.

Wholesale prices dropped in October and November, prompting Contact to reduce its electricity generation.

Revenue from gas sales dropped 14 per cent in the three months to December 31, largely because of a drop in wholesale sales to electricity generators.

Barrett said revenue earned from retailing gas was "on a par" with the year before.