13th Nov 2013 08:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Drax Group PLC Wednesday raised its full-year forecasts after saying that trading conditions had remained strong in recent months, with contracted sales up at the coal-fired units at its power station.
The power generator, which is gradually converting coal-fired units to biomass, said it now expects full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and earnings per share excluding exceptional items to be "materially ahead of current market consensus forecasts."
Drax said it is encouraged by the performance of the first unit it converted to biomass. It is on trcak to commission the new site facilities for the unit by the end of the year and to convert a second unit in the second quarter of 2014.
"We now have over six months' experience operating the largest converted unit in the world. The unit is performing well and, whilst optimisation work continues, we have developed technical solutions to deliver output of 600 megawatts from a converted Drax unit," the company said in its statement.
It said it had added 3.4 TWh of contracted power sales for 2014 from its coal-fired units since it reported its half-year results in July. It now has 25.6 TWh under contract for 2013 and 20.5 TWh for 2014.
Drax shares were up 4.5% at 665 pence early Wednesday, one of the biggest gains on the FTSE 250.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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