NORTHERN Ireland steady half year results Electricity turned in yesterday and said it hoped re-focusing its business would deliver efficiencies.

NIE, whose prices are under review by British authorities, said half year pre-tax profits rose to £52 million sterling from £47.7 million previously and paid out a dividend of 5.5p, up from 5p. NIE said the price review by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) would "have an impact on our future income".

But chief executive Dr Patrick Haren said that "no matter what the outcome, we will be looking for efficiency gains". He added that NIE was hoping for "a reasonably fair outcome to give an incentive to continue driving the company to efficiencies".

Shares in the company edged down 1 1/2p pence to 363p as the results were in line with expectations of profits between £46.5 million and £56 million. "It is a fairly steady set of results, no particular news, no surprises nor disappointments," Dr Haren said.

Analysts had been expecting NIE to keep a low profile in these results while its dispute with regulator Ofreg over pricing was being considered by the MMC. Ofreg proposed new pricing controls for the company which would have become effective in April but NIE countered with its own proposals and the matter is now being considered by the MMC, which is due to report by March 17th.

Dr Haren said the company wanted an indication from authorities as to whether it should continue planned levels of investment. "The regulator in his price proposals signalled his view that we should not maintain those levels " he said.

NIE had planned to spend £400 million over the next five years on infrastructure and other investments, he said. "We are an isolated system and cannot be expected to achieve similar tariffs to British companies which have the benefits of economy of scale and diversification of generation source," Dr Haren added.

He said the company had already cut staff by 34 per cent since privatisation five years ago. Sales, meanwhile, were growing at a rate of around 2.9 per cent, the company said, reflecting "good economic performance in the region".