Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) on Thursday said its first-quarter net profit more than tripled to Dh534 million ($145.5 million), helped by a gain on sale of some of its non-core Canadian assets.

The state-owned utility made a profit of Dh152 million in the quarter year ago, it said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse.

Taqa, which is 75-per cent owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, disposed of certain non-core assets in Canada during the first-quarter, making a gain of Dh378 million, it said.

The quarterly results also included a one-off gain of Dh92 million from a change in fair value of its Otter field acquisition in the U.K North Sea, the statement said.

Revenue for the quarter rose five per cent to Dh5.7 billion. In May, Taqa said it plans to start work on its delayed gas storage project in the Netherlands in July following approval from the Dutch government.

Taqa, which owns assets in Canada and Europe, also sold a 650 million Malaysian ringgit ($215 million) denominated Islamic bond or sukuk in February, as part of plans to diversify its funding sources.

Carl Sheldon, chief executive officer of TAQA, said: “The first quarter of 2012 has seen steady performance from our portfolio of assets, against the backdrop of a stronger global oil price and weak North American gas prices.  This performance has seen revenues and EBITDA grow by 5 per cent, and our profit before tax, which incorporates the benefit of asset disposals, jump by 46 per cent.”

“We remain focused on our strategy of delivering organic growth with our key projects, such as the expansion at Jorf Lasfar in Morocco, where construction of Units 5 and 6 continued on time and budget, and at Bergermeer gas storage, where last week we secured final approval from the Dutch Council of State to proceed with construction.”

“In addition to this organic growth, we continue to seek ways of streamlining and enhancing our portfolio, and during the quarter this included the monetisation of non-core land holdings in North America at an attractive price, and acquiring acreage adjacent to our facilities in the UK North Sea,” Sheldon noted.

“As a respected global operator, we are increasingly seeing more and more opportunities and  the joint venture agreement that we signed with Mass Global Investments Company Limited in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to acquire a 50 per cent stake in a 1,000 MW power station at Sulaymaniyah reflects this,” he added.

Stephen Kersley, chief financial officer, said: “We have seen our financial performance boosted during the quarter by our new capacity at Fujairah 2 and Shuweihat 2 contributing to 5 per cent growth in our EBITDA year on year.”

“We continue to enjoy record levels of liquidity with nearly Dh20 billion available to the business and with no significant short term refinancing requirements. While relatively small, our recent maiden Malaysian Ringgit sukuk is indicative of the increasing optionality we have in respect of financing,” Kersley added.

Shares in Taqa were up 4.2 per cent on the Abu Dhabi bourse at 0640 GMT. – Reuters & TradeArabia News Service