(Repeats story published on Aug 10)
* Due on Aug 13 at 0715 GMT
* Q2 net profit seen up 1 pct, revenue up 5 pct
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech power firm CEZ <> is
expected to report a 1.2 percent rise in the second quarter net
profit thanks to last year's forward sales of its current output
at higher prices.
Twelve analysts in a Reuters poll gave an average net profit
for the period at 13.23 billion crowns ($726.9 million), up from
13.07 billion last year.
Net profit in the second quarter of 2008 got a 1.5 billion
crown boost from one-off income from dissolving emission
allowance provisions and electricity derivative contracts gains.
Revenue at central Europe's largest listed firm was seen up
5 percent year-on-year, while earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) should grow by 6 percent.
Demand for electricity on the Czech market, the main source
of income for the power group, was hit by an economic crisis,
which dampened production at its key industrial customers.
"We expect power demand to have fallen more in the second
quarter versus the first quarter, as the benefit of the cold
winter disappears," Citigroup analyst Sofia Savvantidou said in
a report.
The company often has planned outages at its nuclear units
during the second quarter, therefore its ability to optimise its
output for changes in power, coal and CO2 prices will have been
reduced, she said.
CEZ benefited from selling most of its production in advance
at prices above 60 euro per megawatt hour before the market
meltdown in the second half of 2008, analysts said.
CEZ Chief Financial Officer Martin Novak told Reuters in an
interview in June that the group was sticking to its full-year
earnings guidance as the decline in consumption and power prices
were both in line with expectations.
CEZ said it expected net profit before minorities to rise by
6 percent year-on-year to 50.2 billion crowns in 2009. It said
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(EBITDA) should increase by 2 percent to 90.3 billion.
CEZ shares have dropped 19.6 percent over the past 12
months, underperforming a 2.2 percent loss for Prague bourse's
PX index <>. But the stock has regained 52 percent from last
October's lows to trade at 10.4 times expected 2009 earnings.
Estimates for consolidated results in billions of crowns:
Q2/09 Average Median Range Q2/08
Revenue 43.84 43.70 42.79-45.39 41.82
EBITDA 22.64 22.96 20.38-24.17 21.31
Operating profit 17.78 17.46 14.89-26.20 16.03
Net profit incl minorities 13.80 13.85 11.06-16.08 13.23
Net attributable profit 13.23 13.03 10.00-15.98 13.07
H1/09 Average Median Range H1/08
Revenue 97.15 97.01 96.09-98.69 90.42
EBITDA 52.86 53.19 50.60-54.40 48.55
Operating profit 42.57 42.26 39.68-51.00 37.75
Net profit incl minorities 33.18 33.23 30.45-35.47 28.96
Net attributable profit 32.53 32.12 30.02-35.07 28.58
The following banks and equity houses took part in the poll:
Atlantik FT, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Cyrrus, Deutsche Bank,
Erste Bank/Ceska Sporitelna, KBC/Patria Finance, Komercni Banka,
Raiffeisenbank, Sal.Oppenheim, UBS Investment Bank, UniCredit
Global Research, and Wood & Company.
Estimates for EBITDA and operating profit were provided by
13 analysts, for revenue by 11 analysts and for profit before
minority interests by 6 analysts.
($1 = 18.20 Czech crowns)
(Reporting by Jan Korselt; editing by Karen Foster)
