MOSCOW — RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia reported a 35.15 percent drop in net profit last year, to RUR 17.411 billion (about $609 million). Core business profit shrank 15.1 percent, at RUR 26.426 billion.

Core business revenue stood at RUR 42.917 billion (about $1.5 billion), down 25.95 percent from the previous year. Lower results were due to a decrease in electricity transmission revenue, as a result of dropping tariffs after the newly created Federal Grid Company and Central Dispatch Department of UES established their tariffs. Another factor was a lower revenue from electricity exports, after Inter RAO UES took over as electricity export and import operator.

RAO UES’s core business costs dropped 38.5 percent last year, at RUR 16.491 billion (about $576.8 million), mainly due to lower maintenance costs for high voltage power lines after Federal Grid Company took control of them.

The energy giant’s total assets stood at RUR 286.781 billion (about $10 billion) by December 31, 2004, RUR 10.953 billion (about $383 million) up from the previous year. Value of non-operating assets increased RUR 17.211 billion last year, to RUR 259.473 billion, and operating assets dropped RUR 6.258 billion in value, at RUR 27.308 billion by December 31, 2004.

Fixed assets were RUR 12.601 billion on December 31, 2004, RUR 15.48 billion less than a year earlier. This is due to RAO UES’s investing RUR 10.494 billion of its fixed assets in the authorized capital of its subsidiaries. Total investment in subsidiaries and other affiliates increased RUR 26.229 billion.

RAO UES’s accounts receivable shrank RUR 2.217 billion in 2004, to RUR 10.385 billion. And accounts payable dropped RUR 734 million, to RUR 2.35 billion.

RAO UES stock was stumbled in the first minutes of trading on the RTS on the news of lower profit.

Last month, RAO UES shareholders approved a dividend for the financial year 2004 at RUR 0.0559 per ordinary share and RUR 0.2233 per preference share, a total of RUR 2.758 billion, 15 percent more than a year earlier.

RAO UES’s authorized capital of RUR 21.558 billion is divided into 43,117,903,368 shares with a face value of RUR 0.5. The government has a 52.68 percent stake in RAO UES, through the federal property agency. Gazprom controls more than 10 percent, and about 11 percent are traded as ADRs.