OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2010. INTER RAO held a round table with analysts, during which management provided guidance for 2009 financials and an outline of the company’s 2010 strategy, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

View: The key takeaways from the meeting are as follows:

INTER RAO’s consolidated revenues under IFRS for 2009 will amount to EUR1.57bn (15% above our forecast of EUR1.3bn), EBITDA will be equal to EUR195m (34% above our forecast of EUR170m) and net income to EUR20m (below our forecast of EUR34m). The company’s 2009 net income was negatively impacted by FX losses. Overall, we view INTER RAO’s top line and EBITDA guidance as relatively positive.

During 2010 INTER RAO plans to borrow an additional EUR170m, while keeping its Debt/Equity ratio below 3.5x.

In 2010 INTER RAO will continue to diversify its electricity trading business by tapping into the Moldavian, Ukrainian, Romanian and other electricity markets. Capacity utilization of the company’s 2.5GW Moldavskaya GRES will increase, which is in line with INTER RAO’s earlier plans.

Valuation: INTER RAO trades at an EV/installed capacity of USD275/kW versus the Russian thermal generation peer average of USD 309/kW.

Action: We view this news as neutral for INTER RAO’s shares, as we believe that currently its market valuation is driven more by speculative support ahead of the upcoming asset swaps with the state this summer. We continue to see significant dilution risks for INTER RAO’s minorities.