NZ's Contact Energy full year falls 50 pct

WELLINGTON Aug 14 (Reuters) - Contact Energy Ltd. CEN.NZ, New Zealand's largest listed power company, posted a 50 percent drop in full year profit on Friday, due to volatile wholesale electricity prices.

Contact made a net profit of NZ$117.5 million ($79.9 million) for the year to June 30, from NZ$237.1 million last year. Analysts expected a net profit of around NZ$105 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Contact, which generates nearly a third of New Zealand's electricity, declared an unchanged dividend of 17 cents per share.

In June, the company said it expected underlying earnings to fall by as much as 33 percent because full hydro lakes meant wholesale electricity prices were well below the previous year. Contact uses mostly natural gas to fire its stations.

It said it had been affected by severe weather conditions, which had affected wholesale prices, but it did not expect similar weather in the coming year.

However, it said the current economic environment was dampening demand and it would not give any forecast for 2010.

Shares in Contact, 51.2 percent owned by Australia's Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AX), closed on Thursday at NZ$6.29. The stock has fallen more than 14 percent so far this year, compared with a 15 percent rise in the benchmark NZX top 50 index .NZ50. ($1=NZ$1.47)