Sri Lanka Hemas Power Dec net up 71-pct

Feb 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas Power said December quarter net profit rose 71 percent to 142 million rupees from a year ago as thermal power generation costs fell and hydro power hit peak output during the rainy period. Sales of the firm, which supplies power to state-run Ceylon Electricity Board and is a unit of the Hemas Holdings group, fell 41 percent to 765 million rupees, according to a stock exchange filing.

Earnings per share for the quarter were 1.11 rupees compared with 0.87 rupees a year ago.

The performance of the current quarter has been extremely satisfactory for both thermal and hydro segments of the company, managing director Kishan Nanayakkara said in a statement accompanying the accounts.

We expect that the forthcoming quarter also to be reasonably good, although our two hydropower plants will gradually be moving in towards dry-season operations.

The company’s first hydropower plant, Giddawa Hydro Power, did well to make a net profit of 30.3 million rupees for the quarter under review, Nanayakkara said.

As expected, Giddawa reached peak performances during inter-monsoonal and North-East monsoonal periods, sustaining around 80-90 percent plant utilization lev