By Angela Chen
PPL Corp. said its first-quarter revenue more than doubled on
growth in its utility and retail-energy businesses.
Chief Executive William Spence said that the "regulated
businesses in both Pennsylvania and Kentucky continued to perform
well and benefited from ongoing infrastructure investments."
The Pennsylvania utilities company is in the process of spinning
off its competitive generation business in order to remain "a
purely regulated utility company." The competitive generation
business will be combined with RJS Power Holdings LLC to create a
company called Talen Energy Corp. The transaction will close June
1.
Talen Energy will become the third-largest investor-owned,
independent power producer in the U.S. based on megawatts of
generating capacity.
PPL has also been aiming to increase its presence in
regulated-power markets. The company more than doubled the number
of PPL's regulated utility customers through the 2011 acquisition
of two Kentucky utilities and an electric-distribution business in
the U.K. Midlands.
For the latest period, PPL reported a profit of $647 million, or
96 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $316
million, or 49 cents a share.
Excluding special items, earnings from ongoing operations were
77 cents a share, up from 66 cents a share a year earlier.
Operating revenue grew to $3.17 billion from $1.19 billion, as
unregulated wholesale energy revenue surged to $521 million from a
loss of $1.46 billion the year earlier. Revenue from utilities grew
to $2.21 billion from $2.16 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 70
cents a share on revenue of $2.59 billion.
The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance.
Shares, inactive premarket, have been down about 12% this year
through Wednesday's close.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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