Taqa Second-Quarter Net More Than Doubles on High Oil

By Ayesha Daya

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the state-controlled energy company known as Taqa, said second- quarter profit more than doubled on acquisitions and higher oil and gas prices.

Net income jumped to 471 million dirhams ($128.2 million), or 11 fils a share, from 186 million dirhams, or 4 fils, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Revenue rose to 4.6 billion dirhams from 1.8 billion dirhams.

Revenue from oil and gas soared to 2.3 billion dirhams from 77 million dirhams on acquisitions of exploration, production and processing assets in North America and Europe.

``The results show the significant change in the nature of our business compared to just 12 months ago,'' Chief Executive Officer Peter Barker-Homek said in the statement. ``While our domestic power generation and water desalination assets have continued to deliver solid performance, we are now seeing the full impact of the acquisitions made in the past year on Taqa's results.''

Oil prices have soared 64 percent in the past year. Crude oil for September delivery traded 30 cents, or 0.3 percent higher, at $118.88 a barrel at 2:06 p.m. Singapore time on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Shares Fall

Taqa shares fell 2.4 percent to 2.9 dirhams in Abu Dhabi trading at 11:02 a.m. local time, valuing the company at 12 billion dirhams.

Taqa, which supplies 90 percent of the water and electricity needs of the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, aims to triple its assets to $60 billion by 2012. The company's assets at the end of the second quarter reached 85.9 billion dirhams.

Second-quarter oil and gas production averaged 119,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily. Its Canadian unit known as Taqa North contributed 96,700 barrels, while European assets, including gas production in the Netherlands known as Taqa Energy, produced 7,400 barrels of oil equivalent daily, and Aberdeen-based Taqa Bratani produced 15,100 barrels a day.

Upstream and midstream businesses contributed 55 percent of total revenue, while the rest came from power generation and water desalination. Revenue from the electricity and water business rose 16.7 percent to 1.4 billion dirhams. Its power generation capacity is 9,423 megawatts.

Financing Plans

Taqa has raised money to fund its acquisition plans several times this year. In July, it sold $1.5 billion of senior unsecured long-term notes and said it planned to raise more than $1 billion in a sale of convertible bonds. It hired banks in June to help borrow $3 billion in a three-year loan, and secured a one-year, $3.1 billion revolving credit facility in January.

The company may invest some $4.5 billion in power plants in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. and plans to bid for a Moroccan wind-farm project with Theolia SA. Taqa on July 30 said it plans to borrow as much as $3.5 billion to finance future acquisitions in Japan.

The company will convert 4.15 billion dirhams of bonds into shares on Sept. 1, for the equivalent of 2 dirhams a share, it said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ayesha Daya in Dubai adaya1@bloomberg.net