Romania’s Nuclearelectrica Net Profit Drops 68% in 2014

Nuclearelectrica [BSE:SNN], the operator of Romania's sole nuclear power plant Cernavoda, said on Monday itsnet profit dropped 68%to a preliminary 137 million lei($35.2 million/30.9million euro) in 2014, mainly hurt by a newtax introduced at the beginning of the year.

Theresult, however,ishigher than the 99 million lei net profit projected for 2014 by the company in September.

Operating expenses rose 2%to 1.634 billion lei, mainly due to atax on special constructionsintroduced in January 2014. The tax on special constructions owed by the company for 2014 amounts to89.4 million lei, Nuclearelectrica said in its preliminary, unaudited financial statement for 2014.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 32% on the year to606 million lei.Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) dropped 61% to 180million lei.

Nuclearelectricasoldabut 10.84 million MWh of electricity last year, down from 10.99 million MWh in 2013,including3.74 million MWhon the regulatedmarket.Revenues from electricity sales fell to 1.69 billion lei from 1.83 billion lei in 2013.

Commenting on Nuclearelectrica's financial results, Raiffeisen Bank said in a note to investors on Monday that the company's sales were slightly below the bank's estimates.

"Given the preliminary net profit, and assuming a pay-out of 75%, we see a 2014e DPS [dividend per share] of 0.33 lei, implying an yield of 4.2%." The bank's analysts see the company's results as neutral for its share price.

The Cernavoda plant, located in southeastern Romania,has two reactors of 700 megawatts each, which cover roughly a fifth of the country's power needs.

Blue chip Nuclearelectrica was trading 0.38% up at 7.83lei by 0935CET on Monday.

Source: SeeNews