NZ's Vector full year profit more than doubles

WELLINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - New Zealand's biggest electricity and gas distributor Vector Ltd. (VCT.NZ) reported on Tuesday a 125 percent rise in full year profit, on the back of cost cutting and the sale of an asset.

Vector said net profit was NZ$370.5 million ($254 million) for the year ended June 30, compared with a profit of NZ$164.4 million a year earlier.

In early June Vector said it expected full year earnings and net profit to match or better than analysts' expectations.

The result included the one-off gains for the sale of its Wellington lines business in 2008, which had just been settled.

The profit from continuing activities was NZ$164.9 million.

A survey of six analysts by Reuters Estimates had forecast a net profit of NZ$159 million.

Vector declared a final dividend of 7.25 cents per share, compared with 6.75 cents per share last year.

Its shares, 75 percent held by an Auckland-based consumer energy trust, closed on Monday at NZ$2.05. The stock has been flat so far this year, compared with a near 13 percent rise in the benchmark NZX-50 index .NZ50.

A government report released on August 12 suggested an overhaul of the electricity sector, including giving lines companies, such as Vector, the ability to retail power in order to boost competition. [ID:nWEL511866] ($1=NZ$1.46)