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Matahina Power Station. Photo: Manawa Energy / supplied
Power generator Manawa Energy says it has delivered a solid first full-year result after selling off its retail business the year earlier.
While net profit was down on the year earlier, chief executive Clayton Delmarter said Manawa was able to offset a loss of $17m in revenue with increased energy margins, an improved asset performance and operational efficiencies.
Key numbers for the year ended March compared with a year ago:
- Net profit *$23.7m vs **$444m (*reflects loss of $17m in avoided cost of transmission revenue) (**includes $342.1m gain on sale of Trustpower retail business to Mercury, plus and minus $63m gain and $46m loss in value of financial instruments)
- Revenue $473.1m vs $436.8m
- Net underlying profit $66m vs $66m
- FY dividend vs 16.5 cents vs 58.5 cps
"We have reset the business as an independent power producer focused on delivering for shareholders through strong asset management, a clear focus on value creation, and progressing a competitive new development pipeline," Delmarter said.
He said Manawa currently had a significant amount of volume contracted to Mercury Energy under hedging arrangements made at the time of the sale of the mass market retail business, which would begin to reduce from October 2024.
"This additional volume, along with repricing of the hedge from October 2026, provides further opportunities to create value for shareholders," he said.
"We have reflected carefully on our revenue contracting strategy and significant work has been completed to understand potential channels to market and how these might underpin future growth.
"We're in discussions with a number of parties who have a strong interest in long-tenor, large volume offtake agreements from our existing and future portfolio."
Delmarter said the outlook was positive - the current full year underlying profit expected to be in a range of $130m to $150m, with capital expenditure in a range of $40m-$50m.
Hydro-generation volumes were expected to be around 1880 gigawatt hours, down on FY24 and below normal expected volumes, reflecting planned outages associated with the major asset refurbishment programme.
"By FY27, we expect our annual average generation from the fleet to exceed our current long-run expected annual production of 1942 gigawatt hours."