* Enel raises FY EBITDA guidance to 17 bln euros
* CEZ keeps 2010 outlook, cuts capex
* Enel sold 20-25 pct of 2012 output at higher price vs 2011
* Enel and CEZ shares rise, outperform sector
(Adds Enel CFO comments, shares)
By Jan Korselt and Stephen Jewkes
PRAGUE/MILAN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Italian utility Enel
<ENEI.MI> and Czech power group CEZ <> stuck to or
improved their full-year outlooks on Tuesday, adding they hoped
power prices could recover in coming years to rescue margins.
Enel, Europe's second biggest utility in terms of installed
capacity, raised its target for core earnings in 2010 thanks to
growth in its international business and renewable unit Enel
Green Power <EGPW.MI>. []
In a conference call Chief Financial Officer Luigi Ferraris
also said Enel would beat its full-year net profit target of 4
billion euros.
CEZ confirmed its full-year net profit and EBITDA forecasts
while cutting investments for 2010-2014 to focus on the domestic
market and respond to weaker prices. []
The Czech company, the no. 8 European power company by
market value, said it expected power prices to creep up in the
years ahead, without reaching the pre-crisis levels that had fed
ambitious investment programmes.
Falling demand due to the economic crisis has pressured
power prices in Europe making the industry the worst-performing
sector in the last two years.
The European energy sector has been retrenching, with
Germany's E.ON <EONG.DE> rethinking strategy and RWE <RWEG.DE>
saying it would have to update in February its earnings outlook
for 2013.
On Monday, the chief executive of Enel Green Power Francesco
Starace said the company had already seen a better tone in
prices for 2011 forward sales, adding: "Italian pool prices
should firm up in 2012 as CO2 auctions begin to kick in."
Ferraris said the group had sold 65 percent of its 2011
production in Italy at 72 to 73 euros per megawatt hour, while
the 20 to 25 percent of 2012 production already sold was locked
in at 73 to 74 euros/MWh.
In 2010, Enel sold forward at 75 euros per megawatt hour.
Enel, Europe's most indebted utility, confirmed its end-year
debt target of 45 billion euros as it moves to protect its
credit rating.
Ferraris said cash flow and disposals, including the sale of
a minority stake in Enel Green Power -- Europe's biggest initial
public offering since 2008 -- would help achieve the target.
"We also expect a first tranche of the Spanish deficit
tariff to be cashed in by the end of the year and our part will
be around 1.5 billion euros," he said.
The Spanish tariff deficit is what the government owes to
power groups to cover a shortfall in government-set consumer
tariffs from 2001 to 2010 and the costs borne by companies to
supply the power.
Enel shares closed up 0.9 percent at 4.0975 euros while CEZ
shares closed up 2.2 percent. The STOXX Europe 600 Utility index
<.SX6P> ended flat.
(Additional reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by David Holmes)
