DATELINE: 04 August 2004
Reliant posts wider loss due to falling margins
Dow Jones / Associated Press
Reliant Resources, Inc., an independent power producer, saw its second-quarter loss expand from a year ago as profit margins fell in its retail and wholesale businesses.
B
In the quarter ended June 30, the Houston-based company today posted a loss of $71.7 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $2.22 billion. In the same period last year, it posted a loss of $5.9 million, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $2.7 billion.
Excluding items from both periods, the company said it had a loss of $11 million, or 4 cents a share, in the latest quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $7 million, or 3 cents a share.
Analysts were expecting a loss of 2 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call.
Gross profit margin in Reliant's retail energy business fell 17 percent to $207 million, as an increase in residential customers was offset by lower sales due to milder weather and higher supply costs.
Gross profit margin in wholesale energy slipped 4.6 percent to $247 million. Reliant said improvements in the New York and western regions were partially offset by a decline from the company's mid-continent region.
In the six months ended June 30, Reliant reported a loss of $110 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $3.93 billion. In the same period last year, it reported a loss of $458.3 million, or $1.57 a share, on revenue of $5.13 billion.
Reliant reiterated its forecast for 2004 earnings, excluding items, of 25 cents a share.
In May, Reliant agreed to sell 71 hydroelectric plants in upstate New York and a gas-fired generating plant in East Syracuse, N.Y., to Toronto-based Brascan Corp. for $900 million.
Reliant said proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce debt, and it expects the transaction to be completed later this year.
The assets once were part of Orion Power Holdings Inc., which Reliant purchased in 2001.
|
