The company – in which the States have a 60 per cent stake – increased pre-tax profits by 37 per cent to £6.
m in the year to 30 September, although overall sales fell by two per cent to £59.
m.
he JEC has finally returned to its profit levels of the 1990s after two difficult years.
The dip was caused by a global increase in the price of oil – when the fuel was still used to produce half of the Island’s electricity.
The company also kept a pledge to freeze electricity charges and absorb the extra cost of production.
ow with profits rising, the company has once again frozen charges for the year ahead.
ince those difficult days, the JEC has sharply reduced its reliance on La Collette – which now supplies just one per cent of the Island’s electricity – and started importing power via its under-sea link to France.
he main reason for this year’s jump in profits was improved terms when buying power from the competitive European electricity grid.
This was boosted by a three per cent rise in electricity sales in Jersey.
However, the pre-tax profit figure is offset by £2.
m of exceptional items, which includes the £1.
m cost of cutting back staff at La Collette and the £900,000 cost of scaling down the company’s contracting business.
I am pleased to report on another year of increasing profits, falling electricity prices in real terms, excellent environmental performance and continued high reliability from our electricity supply system,’ said the JEC chairman, former Deputy Derek Maltwood.
The growth in sales reflects our continuing success in securing the major share of the new energy market offered by Jersey’s booming property development programme, in which three out of every four premises built so far this decade are all-electric.
Our focus remains on sustaining electricity’s environmental and price stability and advantages over other fuels, while preserving the high reliability of electricity supplies on which Jersey’s finance industry, in particular, depends.
The dividend for the year rose by 10 per cent to 72.
p (net) for the year.
With its 60 per cent, the States will receive £700,000 while the company will also pay the Treasury £1.
m in tax.
he average level of debt was lower than last year – with a £200,000 fall in interest paid – but the company ended the year with a net debt figure of £4.
m, which is up £1.
m on the year before.
This was due to a £7m injection into the JEC pension scheme in March yet despite a £9m bill for a new gas turbine at La Collette and a recently completed sub-station at Rue des Prés.
