(MENAFN- AFP) E.ON, Germany's biggest power supplier, held to its full-year forecasts on Wednesday despite a slump in profits in the second quarter and first half.
The group also expressed confidence that Russia would not raise energy prices in Europe.
"Our half-year earnings were in line with our forecast, considering the difficult situation. So on balance E.ON performed rather well in a difficult environment," said chief executive Johannes Teyssen.
Teyssen affirmed the group's full-year forecast for underlying or operating profit of 8.0-8.6 billion euros ($10.7-11.5 billion) and net profit of 1.5-1.9 billion euros.
In the period from April to June, E.ON's bottom-line net profit plunged to just 59 million euros from 909 million euros a year earlier.
Taking the first half, net profit tumbled 73 percent to 821 million euros.
First-half operating profit was down 12 percent at 5.01 billion euros and sales were down 13 percent at 56.119 billion euros.
The drop in underlying earings was "almost entirely attributable to changes in our portfolio and adverse currency-translation effects in numerous European markets and in Russia," chief executive Teyssen said.
In a telephone conference, Teyssen said he was convinced that Russian energy suppliers would not push up their energy prices for Europe.
"I'm certain that the contractually agreed prices won't change," he said.
"No side has the right to fix prices unilaterally depending on the political climate," Teyssen continued.
Against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, the European Union and the United States imposed economic sanctions against Russia at the end of July and Moscow responded by threatening to raise energy prices for European customers.
But the majority of Russian gas supply contracts have fixed prices long-term and Russian gas giant Gazprom has said it will honour its commitments.
E.ON itself sources between a third and half of its gas from Russia.
"Going by the current level of European gas reserves, I don't expect any supply problems this winter," Teyssen said.
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