莱茵集团一季度利润增长

据路透社5月13日报道，因为寒冷的天气促进了天然气销售量的增长，德国最大的能源公司莱茵集团（RWE）和意昂集团（E.ON）今年第一季度利润均好于预期。

莱茵总裁Peter Terium周三在致股东信中说道：“相比去年一季度异常温暖的天气，今年一季度正常气温帮助我们在天然气业务中获得了利润。”

莱茵集团第一季度的营业利润减少了5.1%至16.3亿欧元（18.3亿美元），高于路透社15.8亿欧元的平均预期。其中发电部门的贡献最大，虽然该部门利润减少23.4%至4.28亿欧元，但比分析师预期的3.72亿欧元高出许多。

意昂集团在上周发布报告，其在第一季度因为天然气销售量增长，同样获得好于预期的核心营业利润。

德国的公共事业企业正在经历一个全行业危机，不仅欧洲能源需求疲软，而且相比传统的天然气和煤炭，电网会优先接入目前发展迅速的可再生能源产生的电力。

三月份莱茵集团曾表示，其45%的传统发电厂目前无法盈利。为应对危机，莱茵集团在今年早些时候将其DEA石油公司，以51亿欧元的价格出售给了俄罗斯大亨米哈伊尔·弗里德曼，从而帮助该集团净负债从去年年底的310.1亿欧元，减少到三月底的277亿欧元。

沈佳蕾摘自路透社

原文如下：

Cold winter boosts RWE's Q1 profits

FRANKFURT, May 13 (Reuters) - Germany's largest power producer RWE joined larger peer E.ON in posting forecast-beating results for the first quarter, citing a rise in gas sales that were boosted by colder winter temperatures.

"In the gas business, we benefited from a normalisation of temperatures compared to the extremely mild first quarter last year," Chief Executive Peter Terium said in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday.

RWE's first-quarter operating profit declined by 5.1 percent to 1.63 billion euros ($1.83 billion), the company said, higher than the 1.58 billion average forecast in a Reuters poll.

The beat was driven by its generation unit, where profits fell 23.4 percent to 428 million euros, significantly better than the 372 million feared by analysts.

Larger peer E.ON had also reported higher-than-expected core earnings for the first quarter last week, pointing to increased gas sales.

German utilities are grappling with an industry-wide crisis caused by weak demand for energy in Europe and a boom in renewable energy sources that are given priority access to power grids over conventional gas and coal-fired power plants.

RWE in March said that up to 45 percent of its conventional power stations were not making any money at the moment.

In response to the crisis, the company sold its oil and gas unit DEA for 5.1 billion euros to Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman earlier this year, a move that reduced net debt to 27.7 billion euros by end-March, compared with 31.01 billion at end-2014.