Perusahaan Gas Negara Q4 net profit down 15 pct

Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) , Indonesia's biggest gas distributor, said its fourth quarter net profit fell 15 percent, as a shortage gas supplies affected its earnings.

The firm's fourth quarter net profit was 1.55 trillion rupiah ($178 million) compared with 1.83 trillion rupiah in the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculations showed based on published full-year and nine month results.

PGN, which said that it revenues will remain flat this year due to limited fresh gas supplies, reported a flat full year 2010 net profit of 6.24 trillion rupiah.

That compared with analysts' forecasts for 2010 net profit to rise 6 percent to 6.58 trillion rupiah, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates.
PGN shares rose 0.7 percent on Thursday after the results, but have fallen 13 percent this year. Its shares rose 13 percent in 2010, underperforming the 46 percent rally in the Jakarta index. Source: Reuters