(Repeats story published on Nov 5)
* Q3 results due Tuesday, Nov 9 at 0700 GMT
* Net profit seen down 17.0 pct to CZK 10.03 bln
* Lower electricity prices, nuclear outages weigh
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech power group CEZ <> is
expected to post a 17 percent annual drop in third-quarter net
profit, as it sold electricity for lower prices than a year ago,
a Reuters poll showed on Monday.
The average estimate of 16 analysts showed net profit at
central Europe's biggest listed firm at 10.03 billion crowns
($579.1 million) for the quarter, which is usually the weakest
on a seasonal basis, down from 11.18 billion crowns a year ago.
This year, CEZ has been selling baseload electricity for an
average of around 54 euros ($76.37) per megawatt hour, compared
with 62 euros in 2009.
The drop was partly compensated by higher power production,
due to reviving demand at its key Czech market, and launching a
347.5 megawatt wind farm in Romania, which helped to keep CEZ's
revenue slightly up year-on-year.
The margin at the firm, 70 percent state-owned, was also
hurt by a longer-than-expected shutdown at its Temelin nuclear
plant, from July until early October, which CEZ had to make up
for at its more costly coal plants.
A growth in solar capacity in the Czech Republic, due to
generous subsidies expiring at the end of this year, will
dampen profits at CEZ's distribution segment.
This is because high regulated feed-in tariffs on solar
power will be paid by distributors, and compensated for by
higher payments from end customers only in the following years.
CEZ shares, the biggest stock in central Europe by market
valuation, have dropped 10.9 percent this year, underperforming
a 4.6 rise in Prague bourse's PX <> index.
The stock fell to a 19-month low in October on government
plans to impose a 32 percent tax on CO2 credits, and on reports
of a delay in new nuclear reactors at Temelin, which could
postpone the project by several years beyond 2020.
"We expect the results to still look weak at first glance
and not to provide significant support for the stock price,
which is mainly driven by developments in CO2 allocations and
taxes," said Erste Group in a report.
Following is a summary of analysts' estimates for the third
quarter of 2010 (figures in billions of crowns):
Q3/10 Average Median Range Q3/09
Revenue 44.04 44.00 42.20-45.69 42.99
EBITDA 18.33 18.23 17.61-19.33 19.18
Operating profit 12.48 12.42 11.83-13.54 13.63
Net attributable profit 10.03 9.88 8.77-11.18 12.08
The following banks and brokerages took part in the poll:
Atlantik FT, BH Securities, BRE Bank, BZ WBK Brokerage,
Citigroup, Cyrrus, Deutsche Bank, Erste Bank/Ceska Sporitelna,
Fio, KBC Securities, ING Commercial Banking, Komercni Banka,
Macquarie Securities, Raiffeisen Centrobank, UniCredit Global
Research, Wood & Company.
(Reporting by Jan Korselt, editing by Jason Hovet, Sharon
Lindores)
($1=17.32 Czech Crown)
($1=.7071 Euro)
