Iceland's Landsvirkjun says net profit grew 85% in H1 2015

Landsvirkjun, the power company of Iceland, said Thursday its net profit for the first half of 2015 has jumped by 85.2% year-on-year to USD 63.9 million (EUR 56.8m).

As Iceland's main power producer, the company operates hydropower, geothermal and wind power plants and generates about 3/4 of the country’s total electricity. It explained that the improvement in its performance was helped by low interest rates in the global markets and a decrease in interest bearing liabilities, among other positive factors.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at USD 169.3 million, while the EBITDA margin grew to 78.5% from 76.2% in the same period of 2014.

Landsvirkjun’s total operating revenues for January-June rose by 6.2% on the year to USD 215.7 million. The top line result suffered from a drop in aluminium prices over the past few months, as the firm's electric power sales deals are directly dependent on them, and low inflows to its reservoirs in the summer.

Looking forward, the company sees an increase in demand from multiple industries in Iceland, which may pay even higher prices than the current ones. “Landsvirkjun aims to utilize every opportunity the Company has to increase the energy production in order to meet this interesting demand.”

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.888)

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