16 Jul 2013

Orion says profit still affected by quakes

8:33 am on 16 July 2013

Christchurch-based electricity lines company Orion has reported a 10% drop in annual net profit compared with the previous year's result, which was boosted by an insurance payout.

Orion made a net profit of $49 million for the 12 months to the end of March, down $5 million on the previous year, which included a $21 million one-off after tax insurance payment.

Orion chief executive Rob Jamieson says underlying profit this year was higher but it still wasn't a normal result.

"It's a one-off result, because we've got three years where we'll be spending $300 million of capital on the network to start getting it back to the level of resilience it had before the earthquakes."

Mr Jamieson says the company is not expecting to be back to normal until 2019.

Orion has applied to the Commerce Commission to increase its prices, but Mr Jamieson says a reply is not expected until August.