German utility EnBW sees profits fall 21%

EnBW, Germany's third-biggest power supplier, said on Tuesday that business in the first three months of the year was in line with expectations as its net profit dropped. "Business trends in the first quarter were in line with expectations," EnBW said in a statement. Revenues grew by 12.8 percent to 5.746 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in the period from January to March and operating profit grew by 1.9 percent to 876.5 million euros, while bottom-line net profit fell by 21.1 percent to 443 million euros. EnBW said that while electricity sales fell by 3.5 percent to 33.5 billion kWh, gas sales soared by 48.5 percent to 38 billion kWh due to the long and cold winter.