Generator predicts return to profit

(First Edition)

NUCLEAR Electric, the state-owned generator, expects to report a reduced loss for last year of about pounds 200m before the benefit of the nuclear subsidy, raised from a levy on electricity bills, which amounts to about pounds 1bn a year. The result compares with a loss before the levy of pounds 619m in 1992/93.

The company, which wants to be privatised, said it would be making an operating profit before the levy within two years.

Bob Hawley, chief executive, said the levy could not be regarded as a subsidy for nuclear electric as it covered historic liabilities relating to the former Central Electricity Generating Board.

He told a meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers that the company had inherited CEGB liabilities of pounds 10.5bn, of which only 9.1bn would have been raised when the levy expired in 1998.

Generator predicts return to profit