Bloomberg: GDF Suez Earnings Decline 16% After Mild Winter Curbs Gas Demand
GDF Suez SA (GSZ)’s first-quarter earnings fell 16 percent as a mild French winter cut demand for fuel for heating from the owner of Europe’s biggest natural-gas network.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization slid to 4.2 billion euros ($5.82 billion) from 5 billion euros a year earlier, the utility based in Courbevoie outside Paris said today in a statement. The result compares with the 4.28 billion-euro average of nine analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. GDF affirmed its full-year forecasts.
The drop “is mainly explained by the unfavorable impact of weather on natural gas sales,” it said in the statement. The utility also suffered from lower European power prices, it said.