AES Q2 profit climbs on asset sale gain; boosts FY08 adj. EPS ...

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(RTTNews) - Electric utility firm AES Corp. ( AES ) said Friday morning that second quarter profit surged from lastyear, driven by a gain from the sale of its Northern Kazakhstanbusinesses. Quarterly revenues rose 24% and came in above analysts'estimate. The company approved a stock buyback plan and also liftedits fiscal 2008 adjusted earnings per share forecast.
AES benefited from higher demand in Latin America, as well ashigher pricing in Europe and Latin American generation businesses,partially offset by planned outages at North American generationbusinesses, tariff reset at Eletropaulo, and increased corporateoverhead costs related primarily to SAP implementation worldwide.
Second Quarter Results
The Arlington, Virginia-based company reported net income for thesecond quarter of $903 million or $1.31 per share, compared torestated net income of $254 million or $0.37 per share in theprior-year quarter.
Income from continuing operations for the quarter rose to $903million or $1.31 per share from $286 million or $0.42 per share inthe year-ago quarter.
Results for the latest quarter include net adjustments of $1.14 pershare, including a gain of $908 million or $1.31 per share fromsale of Northern Kazakhstan businesses and an additional taxexpense of $131 million or $0.19 per share related to therepatriation of a portion of the Kazakhstan sale proceeds that wereused to fund the early retirement of corporate debt.
Results also included net mark-to-market derivative gains of $89million or $0.08 per share at the company's North Americasubsidiaries and a one-time loss of $69 million or $0.06 per sharerelated to debt restructuring charges.
The prior-year quarter results included a gain of about $0.15 pershare related to the acquisition of a leasehold interest in theEastern Energy business in New York and the recovery of certain taxassets in Latin America.
Excluding mark to market losses and asset impairment charges,adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.17,sharply lower than $0.41 per share in the previous year. Onaverage, three analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financialexpected the company to earn $0.30 per share in the second quarter.
Adjusted earnings per share for the latest quarter include $0.08 offoreign currency transaction losses primarily in Chile and thePhilippines, as well as $0.02 of one-time tax expense related tothe repatriation of a portion of the Kazakhstan sale proceeds.
Net revenues for the quarter rose 24% to $4.15 billion from $3.34billion in the same quarter last year. Wall Street analysts had aconsensus revenue estimate of $3.38 billion for the quarter.
The company attributed the revenue growth to higher prices acrossall regions, increased volume in Latin America, and favorableforeign currency translation.
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