Int Power boosted by Brazil prices
INTERNATIONAL Power said trading in the nine months to September was in line with its expectations, as strong growth across its Latin American operations helped offset poor results across Europe.
The FTSE 100 firm, which merged with the power generation arm of GDF Suez in February, said revenues until the end of September were €12.3bn (£10.7bn), up from €12.1bn in the same period of last year.
Performance for Latin America was up strongly compared to the same period in 2010, benefiting from higher average achieved prices in Brazil, driven by inflation escalation and favourable renewal of contracts, International Power said yesterday.
Revenues across Europe however, fell by 10 per cent, weighed down by “the roll-off of higher priced contracts and weaker market conditions” in the UK.
In August the utility announced that it had “temporarily reduced the declared capacity” of Teesside, one of the country’s biggest power plants, to just 45 megawatts and would not return to full operation “until the market recovers”.
International Power is in the process of building 6,600 megawatts of new power plants, mostly in developing countries, such as Brazil and Thailand as well as North America.
Chief executive Phil Cox said the group continues to expect second-half performance to be similar to the first half.
“We are confident of delivering sustained growth in shareholder value from our significant pipeline of development projects in emerging markets, coupled with our strong competitive position and future recovery in merchant markets,” he said in a statement.