DONG Energy owned 1.4 GW of wind farm capacity

Dong aims to complete two large offshore wind farms, Westermoust Rough in Britain and Borkum Riffgrund 1 in Germany, and to start production from the British Laggan-Tormore gas field in the North Sea in 2015.

 

Danish utility Dong Energy reported a slight dip in first-quarter earnings due to weak oil and gas prices, as the state-backed company prepares for a possible stock market listing.

The company, which is also Europe’s largest offshore wind farm developer, has increasingly turned to wind power to reduce its reliance on a challenging oil and gas exploration market.

Dong said in March it has hired JP Morgan to look into an initial public offering (IPO), aiming to make a decision in the second half of this year.

The Danish government sold an 18 percent stake in the utility to investors led by Goldman Sachs last year on the understanding that the company would be floated. Analysts said they expect a listing to take place between 2017 and 2018.

Dong reported first-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 6 billion crowns ($875.49 million) compared with 6.3 billion a year ago.

The utility kept its forecast for 2015 core profit of 15.5 billion to 17.5 billion crowns and maintained its plan to spend 35-40 billion crowns in 2015 and 2016, with around 60 percent of the total to be invested in offshore wind.