Czech power company CEZ reports eightfold profits increase

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech power utility CEZ says its 2022 net profit reached 80.7 billion Czech crowns ($3.6 billion), eight times as much as the previous year, resulting in record dividends. The country’s main electricity producer said it attributed the massive increase to an “enormous rise in prices” caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and to higher profit from commodity trading on foreign markets and also high operational reliability in its power plants. The Czech state, which has an almost 70% stake in the company, will receive in 2023 more than 100 billion crowns from CEZ in dividends, income taxes and levies on production sales, including a windfall tax on profits introduced as prices for energy soared.