UPDATE 2-NZ's Contact Energy says to raise debt for projects
(Releads on debt plans, updates shares)
WELLINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Contact Energy Ltd (CEN.NZ), New Zealand's largest-listed power company, plans to raise more than NZ$250 million ($175 million) in debt to fund new projects, the company said on Tuesday.
It gave no further details on what form the capital raising would take.
"We will be going in to the debt markets in the next six months in order to finance the investment programme we have," said chief executive David Baldwin at a media briefing on its annual result.
Baldwin said Contact Energy expects to more than double its capital spending in the year ahead, from just under NZ$300 million to about NZ$630 million, in order to boost its generation capacity and gas storage facilities.
Contact plans to spend about NZ$3 billion in total to develop 1,400 Megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity in geothermal, wind and hydro power.
It currently has about 1,885 MW of generation in gas, geothermal and hydro, or about 28 percent of the country's generation.
Earlier, the company reported a 1 percent fall in full-year net profit to NZ$237.1 million for the year to June 30, from NZ$239.6 million last year.
Shares in Contact, 51.2 percent owned by Australia's Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AX), which is the subject of a hostile $13.1 billion bid by Britain's BG Group (BG.L), were flat at NZ$8.31 in a broader market down 0.7 percent.
The stock has gained about 1 percent so far this year, compared with a 17.7 percent fall in the benchmark NZSX-50 Index .NZ50.
Contact, New Zealand's second-largest listed company, has 9 power stations and around 647,500 electricity and gas customers. (Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by James Thornhill) ($1=NZ$1.43)
