British Energy Group Plc, the U.K.'s biggest electricity generator, said full-year profit rose 8.1 percent as it benefited from higher power prices.

Net income for the year ended March 31 increased to 465 million pounds ($921 million), or 79.9 pence a share, from 430 million pounds, or 73.8 pence, a year earlier, Livingston, Scotland-based British Energy said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service.

British Energy's profit increased even though it had to halt operations to repair cracks at two of its eight nuclear plants for most of the year, causing its shares to fall to their lowest in 19 months in February. Higher prices compensated for a 15 percent drop in output.

``They're in pretty rude financial health despite the outages because of where the power prices are,'' Iain Turner, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in London, said today in a telephone interview. He has a ``buy'' recommendation on the stock. ``I think what's encouraging is that prices are pretty good.''

British Energy restarted two of the four units at Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B this month and its shares have recovered from their February low of 389.75 pence. The other two reactors will be started ``shortly'' at 70 percent capacity, the company said.

British Energy shares fell 5.5 pence, or 1 percent, to 563.75 pence as of 8:45 a.m. in London.

Power Sales

The company sold 58.4 terawatt hours of electricity in the previous 12 months at an average price of 45 pounds a megawatt hour, beating analysts' expectations.

Power prices jumped to records because of increased costs for natural gas, enabling the company to fix sales at higher levels. The producer fixed power sales for 57 terawatt hours for this financial year at a price of 42 pounds a megawatt hour, it said.

As of May 20, British Energy has fixed 33 terawatt hours for the financial year 2008 at about the same price as for this year.

British Energy got permission earlier this month from the country's nuclear safety regulator to start the plants, after completing repairs and test on the boilers.

``I believe that 2007/2008 will be a far better year for the company in delivering output,'' Chief Executive Officer Bill Coley said today in the statement.

British Energy is about two-thirds controlled by the government and owns all but two of the U.K.'s 10 operating nuclear power plants. The only non-nuclear unit in the company's generation fleet, the Eggborough coal-fired station, has a capacity of 1,960 megawatts.

British Energy proposed a dividend of 13.6 pence a share and is considering an additional payment in February, it said. This is the first time British Energy has proposed a dividend since it was re-listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005.