Last year CEZ made a profit of 6.3 billion CZK, which translates into a 10% increase compared to the previous year

Preliminary, unconsolidated and non-audited economic results of the CEZ power company for the year 2001

CEZ made a net profit of 6.3 billion CZK in 2001, which is 0.6 billion more then it generated in 2000, i.e. the company managed to increase its profits by 10 per cent. The increase in profits is due to cost-effective measures, which resulted in reducing the overall costs by 2 billion CZK, thus making up for relatively smaller revenues generated by the sold electricity volume.

Considering the preliminary results CEZ expects the consolidated profit generated by the entire "CEZ Group", will amount to approx. 7.8 billion CZK when calculated according to Czech accounting standards, and to 9.3 billion CZK when calculated according to the IAS (International Accounting Standards).

The economic result of the company was considerably influenced by the appreciating Czech currency. The new management, which has been leading the company for one year and a half, thus managed to achieve its principal objective, i.e. to boost the company's efficiency. For example the labour productivity, measured in coarse production process, increased by more than 40% last year. The company staff was downsized by 14 per cent, i.e. by 1,243 employees. The number of company employees at the end of the year totalled 7,552 people, compared to the 16,407 people the company was employing at the time of its establishment in 1992.

CEZ managed to overturn the long-term trend, when the share of the company in the domestic electricity market had been decreasing every previous year. Last year CEZ managed to increase its market share by 0.7%, thus reaching the level of 65.6 %, including the purchased electricity volume. The percentage of electricity generated by CEZ´s own sources increased even more significantlyby 1.5 % up to 58.9 per cent.

"We proved to be able to cope with the strong competitive environment and sustain our position in the Czech market," said Petr Voboril, the company CEO for financing and administration.

The demand for electricity in the Czech Republic increased by 2.8%, compared to the same period last year, reaching the level of 53.8 TWh. The volume of electricity consumed by the industrial sector rose by 2.6 % and the consumption of retail customers increased by 3.1 %, particularly the consumption by retail entrepreneurial sector, which accounted for 3.4 %.

"We believe that our new commercial and marketing strategy, heralded by the launch of the "Rainbow Electricity", will continue to bring us success, even though the market with electricity was fully opened for all interested providers at the beginning of this year," concluded Mr.Voboril.

The launch of the new "Rainbow Electricity" product brought a significant breakthrough and success for CEZ. The company managed to sell 90% of this year's production volume for the domestic market already by the end of last year. CEZ continues to sell the remaining part of this year's capacity through short-term deals.

	(mil. CZK)	compared to the previous year
Total revenue	57,868	- 1.5 %
- revenue from sold electricity	49,102	- 2.4 %
Total costs	48,457	- 4.0 %
- fuel	13,053	+ 3.2 %
Gross profit	9,411	+ 13.9 %
Net profit	6,325	+ 10.1 %

Ladislav Kriz, CEZ Press Officer

28. 2. 2002