UTILITIES FirstEnergy profits again after loss

The company settled lawsuits from the blackout and nuclear power outage.
AKRON (AP) -- FirstEnergy Corp. returned to a profitable second quarter, after a loss a year ago, driven by strong revenue and fewer unusual charges.
FirstEnergy, the parent company of Ohio Edison and other utilities, said Wednesday it earned $204 million, or 62 cents per share, in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $57.9 million, or 20 cents per share, in 2003.
Excluding charges, the company earned $221.6 million, or 67 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected earnings per share of 64 cents.
Settlement
The charges related to the settlement of securities and derivative lawsuits and the sale of the company's interest in Great Lakes Energy Partners LLC, an independent oil and gas company.
A year ago, the company earned $152.9 million, or 52 cents per share, excluding a loss on discontinued operations and other unusual charges.
Total revenues for the 2004 second quarter were $3.1 billion, up from $2.9 billion in 2003.
FirstEnergy said Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $89.9 million to settle shareholder lawsuits resulting from last summer's blackout, an extended outage at its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant and a restatement of its earnings.
In trading Wednesday, FirstEnergy shares closed up 28 cents to $38.20.
Explanation
Chief Financial Officer Richard Marsh said in a conference call with analysts that the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing by the company. He said insurance companies would pay $72 million of the settlement costs.
In April, a joint U.S.-Canadian task force report on the Aug. 14 blackout leveled much of the blame on FirstEnergy lines and procedures. The blackout affected 50 million customers across the upper Midwest, New England, New York and Ontario.