Vistra quarterly profit slips on hedging losses despite strong power demand
Vistra quarterly profit slips on hedging losses despite strong power demand Aug 7 (Reuters) - Vistra Corp VST.N reported a slight decline in second-quarter profit on Friday, as unrealized losses on commodity hedges outweighed strong growth in its power generation business amid periods of extreme heat in some of its markets.
While independent power producers benefit from stronger power demand during hot periods, higher operating costs and volatile mark-to-market adjustments on hedging contracts can pressure quarterly earnings.
Shares of the company fell 2.5% in premarket trading.
Vistra reaffirmed its guidance for 2026 ongoing operations adjusted EBITDA of $6.8 billion to $7.6 billion.
The company incurred an unrealized loss of $472 million during the second quarter from hedges expected to settle in future years.
Quarterly interest expenses and related charges rose 3% from a year earlier to $312 million, while operating costs increased 16.4% to $853 million.
The Irving, Texas-based utility posted a quarterly net income of $305 million, down from $327 million a year earlier.
However, quarterly ongoing operations adjusted EBITDA rose 31% to $1.77 billion, driven by higher realized energy and capacity prices and contributions from plants acquired from Lotus.
The company said it has committed up to $1 billion to Helix Digital Infrastructure, an AI infrastructure venture launched in June by a KKR-led KKR.N consortium with more than $10 billion in committed capital and backing from Nvidia NVDA.O, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Vistra.
Vistra also said it received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for its pending acquisition of Cogentrix Energy.
(Reporting by Varun Sahay in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)