TransAlta FY13 FFO Declines; Revises Dividend

(RTTNews) - TransAlta Corp. (TAC) (TA.TO), an electricity power generator and wholesale marketing company, Thursday reported a decline in Funds From Operations, or FFO, for the year ended December 31, 2013.

The company declared a quarterly dividend of C$0.18 per share on common shares, payable on April 1 to shareholders of record at March 4. In the last quarter, the company had paid a dividend of 29 cents.

FFO declined to C$729 million or C$2.76 per share, from C$788 million or C$3.35 per share, a year earlier.

The company said the yearly decline in FFO was primarily due to higher cash interest and cash taxes as well as differences in timing of cash proceeds associated with power hedges.

For the full-year 2013, reported net loss narrowed to C$71 million or C$0.27 per share, from a loss of C$615 million or C$2.62 per share a year earlier.

Annual revenues were C$2.292 billion compared with C$2.210 billion in 2012.

For the fourth quarter, FFO decreased to C$179 million or C$0.67 per share, from C$214 million or C$0.84 per share a year earlier.

The company reported loss attributable to shareholders of C$66 million or C$0.25 per share, compared with a profit of C$39 million or C$0.15 per share a year ago.

Fourth-quarter revenue declined to C$587 million from C$646 million a year earlier.