TrustPower swims out of the red

By CHRIS DANIELS

TrustPower is back in the black after last year's cold, dry winter put a dent in its bank balance.

The Tauranga-based electricity generator and retailer has announced an after-tax profit of $1.3 million for the year to April, after a loss of $12.2 million in the previous six months.

Extremely low inflows into New Zealand's hydro storage lakes meant TrustPower had to cut back on electricity generation and was forced to buy high-priced power on the spot market to meet its commitments to its retail customers.

Revenue for the year was up 19 per cent to $596.8 million.

Generation output for the first six months was down 17 per cent and dropped 13 per cent overall, when judged against a 10-year average.

The $1.3 million profit result takes into account the $6.7 million earned from the sale of 20,000 of its Northland, Auckland and Thames Valley customers to state-owned rival Mighty River Power.

TrustPower, which has 280,000 retail power customers and is New Zealand's fifth-largest electricity generator, has four main shareholders: Infratil, with 28.4 per cent of shares, the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (24.5 per cent), US energy company Alliant (19.1 per cent) and Australian Gas Light (14 per cent).

A final dividend of 10c a share will be paid on August 30. It will not carry any imputation credits.

The company also says it is considering raising $50 million to $100 million through a capital bonds issue.