Blaming the economic downturn and mild summer weather, Northeast Utilities reported third-quarter profits down 10 cents from a year earlier. But earnings for the first three quarters were up 46 cents over the same period in 2008.
NU earned $64.8 million, or 37 cents per share, in the third quarter, down from $72.7 million, or 47 cents per share in last year’s third quarter. The utility earned $245.3 million, or $1.43 per share, in the first nine months of 2009, up from $188.9 million, or $1.21 per share, in that period in 2008, which included a charge of $29.8 million, or 19 cents per share for settling a lawsuit in the first quarter.
NU earned $42.8 million from transmission in the quarter, up from $35.9 million a year earlier, and $120 million in the first nine months, up from $103.6 million in the period in 2008. Profits from distribution and generation — the segment hardest hit — were $22.5 million in the quarter, down from $35.5 million a year earlier and $120 million in the first nine months, up from $114.9 million in 2008.
Connecticut Light & Power’s distribution segment earned $11.4 million in the quarter, down from $23.5 million, and $55 million in the first nine months, down from $57.2 million in the period last year. Yankee Gas lost $4.5 million in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $2.3 million a year earlier. But the utility earned $15.3 million in the first nine months of both 2009 and 2008.
The utility also reaffirmed earnings guidance for 2009 of $1.80 to $1.90 per share. NU projected $1.80 to $2 per share in 2010 earnings, with profits of 95 cents to $1.05 per share from distribution and generation and 90 cents to 95 cents per share from transmission.
NU also projected spending $6.4 billion from 2010 through 2014, including $1.1 billion in 2010. NU projected spending $960 million in 2009. About $1.35 billion to be spent from 2010 through 2014 would complete NU’s $1.49 billion share of a New England east-west transmission project. Also, $675 million would be NU’s share of a $900 million transmission line from Quebec to southern New Hampshire; $41 million would pay for 6 megawatts of solar generation in western Massachusetts; and $300 million would be for a wet scrubber at Public Service Company of New Hampshire.
NU CEO Charles Shivery said the projects would generate increasing cash flows as they’re completed, from $700 million in 2009 and 2010 to $1.1 billion in 2014. NU, which raised $380 million this year selling 19 million shares in a public offering, also projected only one public offering of $300 million over the next five years, no earlier than 2012.
NU also predicted compounded average annual earnings-per-share growth of 6 to 9 percent for 2010 through 2014, assuming regulators allow fair return on equity.
