Romania’s Nuclearelectrica 9-mo net profit up 14.8% y/y on lower operating expenses

Operating profit increased by 1.1% year-on-year to 946.5 million lei as of end-September, influenced by a 5% annual drop in operating expenses, Nuclearelectrica said in an interim financial statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.

Nuclearelectrica generated about 7.684 million MWh of electricity in the nine months through September, up 2.1% on the year. Electricity sales contributed 1.73 billion lei in revenue in the first nine months, down 2.2% year-on-year.

The company said it plans to invest 309.5 million lei this year, mainly in upgrade works at Cernavoda NPP. So far, the company has completed 51% of the planned investment for the year.

In 2019, Nuclearelectrica's net profit rose 31.7% to 540.9 million lei on the back of increased electricity sales.

The Cernavoda plant, located in southeastern Romania, has two reactors of 700 megawatts each, which meet roughly a fifth of the country's electricity needs.

In October, the Romanian and US authorities signed an $8 billion (6.8 billion euro) cooperation and financing agreement for the modernisation of Cernavoda's Unit 1 and the construction of units 3 and 4.

Nuclearelectrica shares traded 1.09% higher at 16.66 lei by 1013 CET on Thursday on the BVB.

(1 euro =4.8678 Romanian lei)