Italgas boosts spending on grid as 9-month profits rise

(Reuters) - Italy's biggest gas distributor Italgas reported a 4.9% rise in core profits in the first nine months as it cranked up investments to speed up digitalisation of its grid and help get it ready to carry renewable gasses.

"We have invested more than 610 million euros, in order to maintain the 2022 objective: to make Italgas the first utility in the world with a fully digitised network," Chief Executive Paolo Gallo said in a statement.

Italgas, which runs around 74,000 kilometres of regulated gas pipelines, said core earnings grew 4.9% in the period to 749 million euros ($871.69 million) while group adjusted net profit rose 10.5% to 273.6 million euros.

($1 = 0.8593 euros)

(Reporting by Federica Urso, Stephen Jewkes)