“All parts of the business performed well and contributed to the strong financial results and that, I believe, makes Alinta well placed to report a solid result for the 2004 calendar year,” said Alinta chairman, Tony Howarth.

“The acquisition of Duke Energy Corporation’s Australian energy assets is complete and the integration is on track. There have been no negative surprises for us, and in fact we are already starting to see the potential unfold. We remain confident in the gas throughput forecasts included in the Rights Issue Prospectus in March.”

Alinta said its retail gas business had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $20.5 million. This was a lower result than in the first half of 2003 but was a 56.5% improvement over the first six months in 2002.

“Our result has been particularly strong in the retail sales area, where increased industrial demand and a continued strong West Australian housing market drove demand for gas. Our construction and maintenance subsidiary, National Power Services, also performed solidly.”

Gas sales volume rose 3.9% in the first half of 2004 to 31.7 petajoules (PJ) and total revenue rose 24.2% to $177.3 million.

In the energy distribution division AlintaGas Networks reported EBITDA of $38.2 million, a 5.8% increase over the previous corresponding period. Gas transmissions reported an EBITDA of $13.2 million on revenue of $18 million.

The company said earnings from all pipeline assets met or exceeded budget, with the Eastern Gas Pipeline in particular benefiting from the Moomba Gas Plant fire earlier in the year that led to reduced gas availability on the Moomba to Sydney Pipeline.

“We are particularly pleased with the performance of the gas transmission assets on the east coast of Australia with all pipelines performing at or above expectations,” said Howarth.

The Uecomm sale to Optus for $155 million, will be recorded in the second half of the year.