PG&E; Has Quarterly Profit of $37 Million

The corporate parent of Pacific Gas & Electric posted a fourth-quarter profit of $37 million, continuing a recovery from the California power crisis that crippled the company.

PG&E; Corp. on Thursday said earnings of 9 cents a share reversed a loss of $2.2 billion, or $5.41 a share, during the same three-month period in fiscal 2002, when its power-generating unit wrote down the value of plants it was selling.

Revenue totaled $2.5 billion, up 6% from a year earlier.

For all of 2003, PG&E; earned $420 million, or $1.06 a share, on revenue of $10.4 billion.

In 2002, the San Francisco-based firm lost $874 million, or $2.26, on revenue of $10.5 billion.

PG&E; said its operating earnings -- results before certain income and expense items -- totaled $139 million in the fourth quarter and $611 million for the year, down from $220 million and $851 million in the previous respective periods.

The company’s stock rose as high as $28.34 on Thursday -- a three-year high -- then pulled back to close unchanged at $27.73 on the New York Stock Exchange.

PG&E;’s stock doubled in value during 2003, largely reflecting investors’ satisfaction with the reorganization plan that would make Pacific Gas & Electric’s customers responsible for most of the costs for bailing out the utility from bankruptcy protection.

The company rewarded its management by paying bonuses totaling $84.5 million to 17 current and former executives.

PG&E; Chairman Robert D. Glynn Jr. was the biggest winner in the group, receiving $17.1 million under an incentive plan approved in the midst of a California energy crisis that resulted in rolling blackouts in PG&E;’s service territory during 2001.

California ran short of electricity after wholesale power costs soared far above the prices paid by households and businesses, causing a financial strain that prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to seek shelter in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 2001.

PG&E; executives reassured analysts Thursday that the utility was on track to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April.

Pacific Gas & Electric has recovered much of its financial strength during its years under bankruptcy protection, largely because wholesale power costs have plunged dramatically since 2001. The utility ended 2003 with $3.4 billion in cash.

But the firm still has more than $12 billion in debt.