AES Net Income Falls on Lower Power Sales, Prices

By Mark Chediak

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- AES Corp., the U.S. power producer and distributor with operations in more than two dozen countries, said first-quarter profit fell 6.4 percent on lower electricity sales and prices.

Net income declined to $218 million, or 33 cents a share, from $233 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier, Arlington, Virginia-based AES said today in a regulatory filing.

Profit excluding quarterly adjustments to the value of contracts used to lock in prices or currency rates and one-time items was 37 cents, 13 cents higher than the average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Profit on that basis was 35 cents a year earlier, AES said.

AES rose 97 cents, or 12 percent, to $9.11 at 10 a.m. on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has five buy ratings from analysts and two holds.

First-quarter revenue fell 17 percent to $3.38 billion. AES owns or operates 132 power plants worldwide with generating capacity of 43,000 megawatts. Its utilities deliver power to 11 million homes and businesses.

(AES’s conference call started at 10 a.m. New York time, accessible on the company’s Web site at http://www.aes.com.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Chediak in San Francisco mchediak@bloomberg.net.