National Grid H1 Pretax Profit Rises

National Grid PLC (NYSE: NGG) reported a 12% gain in its pretax profit for the first half of the year.National Grid posted a pretax profit of 1.18 billion pounds ($1.87 billion) for the period, versus a year-ago pretax profit of GBP1.05 billion.Its adjusted operating profit rose 2% to £1,611 million, while adjusted earnings per share climbed 16% to 23.4 pence.Its revenue fell to GBP6.36 billion from GBP6.72 billion.National Grid declared an interim dividend of 14.71 pence per share.At 30 September 2014, net debt was £21.7 billion, versus £21.2 billion at 31 March 2014.Steve Holliday, Chief Executive, said, “After the first six months of 2014/15 National Grid remains on track to deliver another year of strong overall returns and asset growth. We continue to provide good value and strong reliability for customers while keeping our element of bills as low as possible.”National Grid shares fell 2.19% to close at $72.81 yesterday.