GDF Suez reports 6.5 bln euro profit in 2008, up 13 pct

French energy giant GDF Suez reported a 13-percent rise in net profits in 2008 to 6.5 billion euros 8.2 billion dollars and said operating results would rise again this year despite the economic crisis.

The company, formed in July of a merger of French groups GDF and Suez, also said that this year it would continue to increase the number of people it employed which had risen by 32,000 last year, of whom 13,000 were recruited in France and 3,700 in Belgium.

Chief executive Gerard Mestrallet said: "We have exceeded all of the targets which we had set ourselves." He also highlighted what he termed "a very good operating performance."

The group benefited last year from high oil prices against which the price of gas is indexed. The average price of a barrel of oil in the year was 97 dollars, about 25 dollars more than in 2007.

On Thursday the price of oil was about 45 dollars a barrel.

The group said it expected its operating profit to rise further this year, but gave no explanation.

It said that operating profit would rise by more than 20 percent during the next three years to 17-18 billion euros about 22 billion dollars in 2011 "on the basis of the return of a better economic environment."









A Matschie's Tree Kangaroo is seen in the Fragile Forest section of the Singapore Zoo. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

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