UPDATE 1-Czech CEZ Q1 net profit beats fecast but sales lag

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Czech power firm CEZ posted a higher-than-expected first quarter net profit but sales and operating results lagged forecasts due to warm weather.

CEZ had a first quarter net attributable profit of 12.68 billion crowns ($609.9 million), beating market expectations of 12.09 billion crowns and up from 9.99 billion a year ago.

Sales rose 8 percent to 44.12 billion, below average expectations of 46.61 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

"Warm weather together with growing output from renewable resources had a significant impact, especially in the dsitribution segment," CEZ said in a filing with the Prague Stock Exchange on Thursday.

"Despite that, we are not changing our expectation of full-year profit of the group at the level of 35.1 billion crowns. We believe that we can compensate for this fallout mainly by cost savings," Chief Financial Officer Petr Voboril said in the statement.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 10.1 percent to 16.32 billion, below the market expectation of 16.87 billion. Profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 6.6 percent to 21.74 billion, below market forecast of 22.61 billion.

The company, the largest Czech firm with market capitalisation of $30 billion, maintained its full-year guidance for EBITDA of 70.9 billion crowns.

CEZ shares traded 0.4 percent lower at 1,043 crowns after the results announcement, but still gained 0.1 percent on the day, beating the main Prague PX index which stood 0.3 percent weaker at 1152 GMT.

CEZ said electricity output rose 12 percent year-on-year, but that was mainly due to inclusion of two newly acquired power plants in Poland and one in Bulgaria. Domestic production rose by 2 percent, CEZ said.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]