Dong doubles offshore wind earnings

DENMARK: Dong Energy has posted a bullish nine-month financial report following a doubling of earnings from its offshore wind power operations.

"Strategic focus on maintaining and developing Dong's global leadership position in offshore wind" ...Dong CEO Henrik Poulsen

The Danish developer said that its focus on offshore wind led its wind division's revenue to hit DKK 9.01 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) in the first nine months of 2013. This is up from DKK 5.1 billion last year.

Turnover was driven by higher electricity output and income from contracts for the construction of projects including London Array in the UK and Anholt in Denmark.

This led to an EDITDA of DKK 3.5 billion for the wind division, up from DKK 1.8 billion.

Dong's CEO Henrik Poulsen said: "The strategic focus on maintaining and developing Dong's global leadership position in offshore wind has led to a doubling of earnings from wind power in 2013.

"Three wind farms are under construction, two in the UK and one in Germany, and these are expected to be completed in the course of 2014 and 2015. Overall, the development in Wind Power is highly satisfactory."

For the first time, the company's wind business accounted for a greater share of total revenue than oil and gas exploration and production.

Investment in wind also outweighed oil and gas, accounting for 46% of the total, but was still DKK 2.1 billion lower than in 2012 at DKK 7.7 billion. This is largely explained by the completion of London Array and Anholt.

The company's success in the wind sector led it to raise its 2013 group earnings outlook by DKK 0.5 billion to DKK 13.5-14.5 billion.