Renewable Energy Swings To FY Profit
Date: 09-Mar-10
Country: BANGALORE
Author: Anirban Sen
British wind-farm developer Renewable Energy Holdings swung to a full-year profit, helped by the sale of its CETO wave energy technology, and said it was confident about the future despite the difficult economic conditions.
Renewable Energy, which gets more than half its revenue from Germany, said its operations in the country suffered due to lower wind speeds.
However, the company expects to improve its performance in Germany in 2010, Chief Executive Mike Proffitt told Reuters.
Renewable Energy said it might sell off its turbines in the Kesfeld II site in Germany to enhance cash flow.
In 2009, Renewable Energy sold its CETO technology, used for generating electricity and desalination of water, to Carnegie Wave Energy Ltd.
The company said it expects to save about 500,000 pounds in 2010.
Renewable Energy, which bought Polish firm Gamar GHL in 2009, would look to expand further in Poland and Wales, Proffitt said.
"It (Poland) has a combination of a very good wind regime as well as a very good tariff setup ... In Poland you get exposure to the rising wholesale market for electricity," he said.
The company expects the UK government's policies on climate change to remain the same, post elections in June.
"It's probably fair to say that a Conservative government will follow the same policies as a Labour government because the pressure on climate change remains the same," the CEO said.
For the year ended December 31, the company posted a pretax profit of 11.2 million pounds ($16.96 million), compared with a pretax loss of 2.1 million pounds a year ago.
Revenue, including discontinued operations, climbed 68.4 percent to 8.9 million pounds.
Shares of Renewable Energy were up 4.1 percent at 19.25 pence at 1257 GMT on Monday on the London Stock Exchange. They have lost about 36 percent of their value over the last six months.
(Editing by Vinu Pilakkott, Unnikrishnan Nair)
