National Grid says profits up 24 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Energy network provider National Grid (NG.L) said on Thursday its pretax profit had grown 24 percent to 1.8 billion pounds, while its outlook for the current year was positive.

The company, which bought U.S. firm KeySpan for $11.7 billion (6 billion pounds) last year, had been expected to report profit of more than 2 billion pounds, according to Reuters Estimates.

(Reporting by John Bowker)