Iberdrola SA, the world's biggest owner of wind-energy parks, maintained its profit forecast of more than 3.5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) for 2010, helped by increased demand for new power plants in the U.S. and the U.K.
The Spanish electricity company, which earned 2.35 billion euros last year, will invest 25 billion euros in its energy business and international growth from 2008 to 2010, the company said in a presentation filed today to Spanish regulators. The investment planned is 3.3 percent more than budgeted in October.
“These are perfectly credible figures,'' said Marian Fernandez, an equity fund manager at Inversis Banco in Madrid. “Here in Spain we've been seeing electricity prices going up and there is yet more room for further price increases.''
Ignacio Sanchez Galan, chairman of the Bilbao-based operator of wind turbines and nuclear plants, is betting on increased investment in power generation that produces no greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming.
He earmarked 8.1 billion euros of the new spending on renewable energy. Iberdrola has 7,700 megawatts of installed capacity of renewable power, most of that wind.
The company's contracted and expected projects for hydroelectric and atomic plants will “guarantee'' that future margins increase, Iberdrola said in forecasts presented today at a conference for analysts and investors in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Iberdrola gained 8 cents, or 1 percent, to 8.20 euros in Madrid. That compares with a 0.2 percent declined in the 34-member Dow Jones Europe Stoxx Utilities Index.
