Italgas Q1 results boosted by Greek acquisition

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest gas distributor Italgas said on Thursday its core profit rose 19% to 297 million euros ($328 million) in the first quarter, lifted by both a newly acquired Greek business and its energy efficiency services.

Total revenues were up 36% year-on-year to 480 million euros, with sales from Greece accounting for nearly 10% of the total.

Italgas finalised the acquisition of Greek gas grid operator DEPA Infrastructure last year and will announce on June 14 its updated plans for investments of the group and its new unit.

It is currently in talks with Veolia to buy the French group's stakes in companies running water services in the Italian regions of Lazio, Campania and Sicily.

The group, which runs around 81,000 kilometres (50,000 miles) of pipelines, said net financial debt rose slightly to 6 billion euros at the end of March.

($1 = 0.9046 euros)

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, Editing Federico Maccioni and Mark Potter)