Aleo Solar Rises After Company Says Profit More Than Doubled

By Nicholas Comfort Joseph Mapother

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Aleo Solar AG, a German maker of solar-energy products, rose in Frankfurt after saying second- quarter profit more than doubled on sales in the Spanish market and expansion into the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

Aleo Solar gained as much as 54 cents, or 5.8 percent, to 9.85 euros in Xetra electronic trading. A close at that price would the biggest one-day gain since July 31. The stock was up 44 cents as of 9:43 a.m. local time.

The company said in a statement today second-quarter net income jumped to 4.4 million euros ($6.7 million) from 1.7 million euros a year earlier. Sales rose 71 percent to 90.5 million euros.

Oldenburg, Germany-based Aleo reiterated its full-year sales forecast of ``at least'' 330 million euros, 40 percent of which will come from outside of Germany.

``Aleo Solar will benefit this year from the strong demand in Spain'' in the first half and Germany in the second, Unicredit SpA analyst Alexander Stiehler said in a note to investors today.

The Munich-based analyst left his ``hold'' rating and 2008 sales estimate of 359 million euros unchanged.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.netJoseph Mapother in Frankfurt at jmapother1@bloomberg.net