ČEZ's outlook for this year worse than expected by market, analysts say

Prague, Feb 28 (CTK) - The 2012 business results of power utility CEZ did not bring any surprise and they fulfilled market expectations, according to analysts polled by CTK yesterday.

However, the outlook for this year, when CEZ expects its net profit to fall by 8 percent to Kc37bn, is lower than the market expected, the analysts said.

"The year 2012 can be described as satisfactory because CEZ fulfilled its annual resolutions, even though the management revised them slightly downwards in the second half of the year," analyst Petr Hlinomaz of BH Securities said.

CEZ's operating profit EBITDA amounted to Kc85.5bn last year. Net profit reached Kc40.2bn.

"There has been no mention of dividend for 2012, but in our opinion we can most likely expect gross dividend of Kc45 per share, the same as in the previous year," Hlinomaz said.

"Investors are not interested in last year's results so much as in outlooks for this year, which are lower than most of the market expected. The information that the results will be annually worse is not new, but analysts expected the fall to be slightly smaller," Marek Hatlapatka of the Cyrrus company said.

The figures released by CEZ yesterday did not please the market, Hatlapatka added.

According to Hlinomaz, the expected decrease in CEZ's profit is huge and probably too pessimistic. "If the year 2012 meant stagnation against 2011, the outlooks for 2013 are markedly lower even without taking into account possible problems in Bulgaria," Hlinomazt said.

Bulgarian authorities are conducting investigation proceedings over suspicion that CEZ breached local regulations. CEZ's distribution unit in Bulgaria faces licence withdrawal.

The CEZ management nevertheless stays optimistic regarding the situation in Bulgaria and is convinced that the situation in Albania cannot repeat in Bulgaria, which is a member of the European Union.

Albanian authorities revoked distribution licence from CEZ's distribution subsidiary in Albania in January.