“Duke Energy Corp. reported profit rose 51 percent in the fourth quarter, the second period after its $17.8 billion takeover of Progress Energy Inc. made it the largest U.S. utility owner as cooler temperatures boosted earnings from its regulated units.
Net income was $435 million, or 62 cents a share, compared with $288 million, or 65 cents, a year earlier, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke said in a statement today. Excluding costs associated with the merger, charges for a coal gasification plant in Indiana, discontinued operations and financial contracts, per-share profit was 70 cents. That was more than the average of 16 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The Progress purchase expanded Duke’s regulated sales of power to customers, a segment in which revenue almost doubled to $4.87 billion. Duke sees power demand increasing by less than 1 percent annually.
“It was a good start for the franchised electric and gas business,” Chief Financial Officer Lynn Good said today in a telephone interview. “We continue to have a very cautious outlook about load growth. For 2012, our load grew at slightly less than 1 percent and we think that’s a reasonable planning assumption.”
