Power utility Tenaga Nasional, roundly condemned over a recent blackout, said on Wednesday income from sales of electricity in the first quarter grew 6.9 percent from a year ago.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd said the increase was attributed mainly to strong growth in peninsular Malaysia, as well as a 34 percent rise in sales at its Liberty Power unit in Pakistan.

The company said its results for the three months to November were affected by higher coal prices and an increase in export sales, as well as foreign exchange translation losses.

"Management expects this (the forex losses) to be partially mitigated by continued electricity demand growth, coupled with the initiative embarked on to improve the operating efficiencies of the group," Tenaga said.

For the three months to November 2004, Tenaga posted a net profit of RM8.5 million compared with a loss of RM26.4 million previously. Revenue grew seven percent to RM4.54 billion from RM4.24 billion, while pre-tax profit was up 58.2 percent to RM216.5 million.

Higher electricity growth

Tenaga chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohd Noh told a press conference the company's performance for the rest of the year was expected to improve.

He said the second quarter was traditionally better than the first because of the festive season.

Separately, Tenaga chairman Leo Moggie said electricity growth for 2005 is estimated to reach 7.2 percent.

A power blackout attributed initially to a technical glitch hit Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur and several southern states for several hours on January

Asked whether the company would compensate consumers for the outage, Leo said based on preliminary reports by Tenaga and independent consultants, there was no indication of liabilities.

He added utility companies around the world did not compensate consumers for power breakdowns, adding: "We will adopt such a policy in Malaysia as well."