Become a Member
  • Track your favourite stocks
  • Create & monitor portfolios
  • Daily portfolio value
Sign Up
Quickpicks
Add shares to your
quickpicks to
display them here!

Final Results - Part One

4th Mar 2008 07:01

Drax Group PLC04 March 2008 4 March 2008 DRAX GROUP PLC (Symbol: DRX) PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007 - PART ONE Drax Group plc ("Drax" or the "Company"), the UK power generator, announces itspreliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2007 and reports on keydevelopments. Highlights •EBITDA(1) of £506 million (2006: £583 million) reflecting a strong trading and operating performance offset by, amongst other things, a weaker electricity market following an exceptionally warm first quarter of 2007, and rising coal prices throughout the year. •Adjusted PBT(3) £439 million (2006: £524 million). •Final ordinary dividend proposed of 9.9 pence per share and special dividend of 7.8 pence per share giving a total of 17.7 pence per share or £60 million. •Returns to shareholders in respect of 2007, by way of dividend and share buy-back, totalling £160 million. •Good delivery on our strategic priorities through the effective alignment of trading, production and investment, in particular: •Leading operating performance amongst UK coal-fired generation plant maintained with plant availability of 86% and high commercial despatch with a load factor of 75%. •Two major planned outages completed, each within 12 weeks. •Winter forced outage rate of 4.2%, better than our challenging long-term target of 4.5%. •Strong trading performance in line with our strategy to match our power sales with corresponding carbon and fuel positions. •Good progress on our major carbon abatement projects. •Capital expenditure target totalling £250 million now planned for the three years 2008 to 2010. Year ended 31 December 2007 compared to year ended 31 December 2006: Year ended 31 December 2007 2006 £ million £ million Total revenue 1,247 1,387Gross profit 701 746EBITDA (1) 506 583Operating profit (2) 471 658Profit before tax 449 634Adjusted profit before tax (3) 439 524Profit after tax 353 464 Pence per share Pence per shareBasic and diluted earnings per share (4) 99 116Proposed final ordinary dividend (5) 9.9 9.1Declared special dividend (5) 7.8 32.9 Notes: (1) EBITDA is profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, exceptional items and unrealised gains on derivative contracts. (2) Operating profit includes exceptional items and unrealised gains on derivative contracts totalling £10 million (2006: £110 million). (3) Adjusted profit before tax excludes exceptional items and unrealised gains on derivative contracts totalling £10 million (2006: £110 million). (4) During the period the Company has amended the calculation of earnings per share to reflect share consolidations associated with special dividends from the date of consolidation only. Comparatives have been restated accordingly. (5) Based on the number of shares in issue as at 31 December 2007 and31 December 2006 respectively. Commenting on the performance, Dorothy Thompson, Chief Executive of Drax, said: "Our strategy is to grow shareholder value by exploiting the strategic andcommercial value of Drax Power Station and by deploying and developing our corecompetencies to deliver additional value through fuel diversification and carbonabatement. "We believe developments in the UK electricity market will present opportunitiesfor Drax to exploit its strategic position as a key generator in the market andto use its competencies in the areas of trading and operations." ------------------------- Forward Looking Statements This announcement may contain certain statements, statistics and projectionsthat are or may be forward-looking. The accuracy and completeness of all suchstatements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the futurefinancial position, strategy, projected costs, plans and objectives for themanagement of future operations of Drax Group plc ("Drax") and its subsidiaries(the "Group") are not warranted or guaranteed. By their nature, forward-lookingstatements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and dependon circumstances that may occur in the future. Although Drax believes that theexpectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, no assurance can begiven that such expectations will prove to be correct. There are a number offactors, many of which are beyond the control of the Group, which could causeactual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed orimplied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are notlimited to, factors such as: future revenues being lower than expected;increasing competitive pressures in the industry; and/or general economicconditions or conditions affecting the relevant industry, both domestically andinternationally, being less favourable than expected. We do not intend topublicly update or revise these projections or other forward-looking statementsto reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, and we do not assumeany responsibility for doing so. ----------------------- Management Presentation and Conference Call Management will host a presentation for analysts and investors at 9:00am (UKTime) today, Tuesday 4 March 2008, at the City Presentation Centre, 4 ChiswellStreet, Finsbury Square, London, EC1Y 4UP. The meeting can also be accessed remotely via a conference call or alternativelyvia a live webcast, as detailed below. After the meeting, a video webcast andrecordings of the call will be made available and access details for theserecordings are also set out below. A copy of the presentation will be made available from 7:00am (UK time) today,Tuesday 4 March for download at www.draxgroup.plc.uk >> investors>>results andreports>>IR presentations>>2007 or use the link http://www.draxgroup.plc.uk/investor/results_and_reports/presentations/ Event Title: Drax Group plc: Full Year ResultsEvent Date: Tuesday 4 March 2008Event Time: 9:00am (UK time) UK Call In Number: 020 7162 0125International Call In Number: +44 (0)20 7162 0125US Call In Number: +1 334 323 6201 Webcast detailsLive Event Link: http://events.webeventservices.com/drax/2008/03/04/ UK Instant ReplayStart Date: Tuesday 4 March 2008Delete Date: Thursday 3 April 2008Dial In Number: 020 7031 4064Freephone number (UK only): 0800 358 1860Passcode: 782426 US Instant ReplayStart Date: Tuesday 4 March 2008Delete Date: Thursday 3 April 2008Dial In Number: 1-954-334-0342Freephone number (US only): +1 888 365 0240Passcode: 782426 Video WebcastStart Date: Tuesday 4 March 2008Delete Date: Tuesday 3 March 2009Archive Link: http://events.webeventservices.com/drax/2008/03/04/ For further information please contact: On the day Thereafter Dorothy Thompson, Chief Executive Gordon Boyd, Finance Director +44 (0) 20 7353 4200 +44 (0)1757 618381 Andrew Jones, Investor Relations +44 (0) 20 7353 4200 +44 (0)1757 612938 Melanie Wedgbury, Media Contact +44 (0) 20 7353 4200 +44 (0)1757 612438 Tulchan CommunicationsDavid Trenchard and Peter Hewer +44 (0) 20 7353 4200 Website: www.draxgroup.plc.uk --- PART TWO TO FOLLOW--- This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Related Shares:

Drax
FTSE 100 Latest
Value8,823.20
Change48.51