Acciona's first-half profit edges up despite revenue drop

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish energy company Acciona Energia on Thursday reported a near 4% rise in first-half net profit to 405 million euros ($444 million) even as revenues fell 20% due to an accounting impact on regulated assets and lower electricity prices.

"During the period, the company doubled its net investment cash flow to 1.54 billion euros, a figure that reflects the acceleration in the construction of new renewable projects, mainly in Australia and the United States," it said in a statement.

Acciona maintained its year-end deployment target of around 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of new installed capacity, after adding 442 MW in the first half to reach a total of 12.27 GW. It had nearly 2.2 GW under construction as of June.

The accounting impact of the change in the Spanish regulatory parameters also weighed on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) that fell 25% to 686 million euros. Revenues fell to 1.76 billion.

($1 = 0.9118 euros)

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Alison Williams)