Power giant Tenaga said today net profit jumped 16.2 percent to RM1.11 billion in the full year due to strong sales and smaller forex translation costs.

Electricity sales rose to 68,254.30 gigawatthours (GWH) from 63,533.60 GWH a year ago, Tenaga Nasional Bhd said.

The company said sales for the year to August came to RM16.46 billion from RM15.38 billion previously.

Tenaga said forex translation loss fell sharply to RM28.60 million from RM95.40 million.

The full year pretax profit rose to RM1.72 billion from RM1.51 billion ringgit.

The power company declared a final dividend of 7.80 sen compared 6.00 sen previously.

Fourth quarter

Its fourth quarter sales rose 5.9 percent year-on-year to RM547.20 million, but a forex translation gain of RM55.00 million compared with a loss of RM359.60 million a year earlier substantially enhanced the net profit to RM203.70 million from RM28.40 million.

Tenaga said the translation gain in the fourth quarter resulted from the strengthening of the ringgit compared with the British pound and euro.

The final quarter's pretax profit rose to RM547.20 million from RM216.70 million.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, sales rose 4.80 percent in the fourth quarter from RM4.13 billion in the third, with pretax profit up 89.10 percent from RM289.30 million, thanks largely to the RM55.00 million forex translation gain compared with a forex loss of RM64.40 million previously.

Tenaga said it expects a satisfactory performance in 2004, supported by a 5.50-6.00 percent economic growth forecast.