THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250340
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Milder-than-usual temperatures may have made summer more enjoyable for Virginians, but not for the state's largest electric utility.
Dominion Resources Inc., parent company of Virginia Power, announced Monday a 19 percent drop in its third-quarter net income, to $161.3 million this year from $199 million last year. That drop, largely related to less demand for air conditioning, translated to an earnings drop from $1.20 per share to 94 cents per share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
The company also posted Monday a one cent increase in its quarterly dividend - from 63.5 cents to 64.5 cents per quarter - making this the 14th consecutive year the company has increased its dividend. But the dividend increase was smaller than usual.
Dominion Chairman Thomas E. Capps said growing competition is making the climate for utilities more difficult.
``Although Dominion Resources is extremely well-positioned for competition, financial prudence requires that we slow dividend growth,'' Capps said.
The state's growing economy helped Dominion offset some of the weather-related profit drain. Virginia Power's industrial sales increased 7.6 percent over a year ago, for instance. And the average number of residential and commercial customers increased slightly - although not enough to keep commercial sales from declining 7.6 percent and residential sales from dropping 2.3 percent because of the mild weather.
The Richmond-based holding company was also hurt by its non-utility operations, which had earnings of 3 cents per share, or 6 cents per share less than last year. Dominion Capital was down 4 cents per share from the same quarter last year due to low water flows at the Vidalia hydroelectric plant in Louisiana.
Dominion Energy had lower income from its oil and gas operations, primarily due to the sale of a 65 percent royalty interest in the Black Warrior Trust during the previous quarter.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA POWER DOMINION RESOURCES INC.
by CNB