Areva - nuclear fallout - FT.com As profit warnings go, the one from French nuclear power group Areva on Thursday was hardly of the megawatt variety. Certainly, it was a far cry from the whopping €2.4bn of writedowns the Paris-based group announced a year ago. This time Areva is cautioning that earnings could be a little light in 2013 - more than €1.1bn rather than the previously anticipated €1.25bn floor, at the pre-interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation level. It is, however, reconfirming guidance for 2012 and still expects breakeven free operating cash flow next year. Even so, Areva's shares, which had been edging up from 10-year lows, gave up 5 per cent. One worry may be that the problems seem to stem from the company's renewables business. This is a small unit in the context of the group overall: its €300m sales accounted for just 3 per cent of the group total in 2011. But Areva chief executive Luc Oursel had been projecting rapid growth for this division, with annual sales to top €750m by 2013 and more than €1.25bn by 2014-16. Now Areva says revenues from renewables will probably be flat next year, in line with the €600m expected for 2012. Blame is placed on financing delays at some projects. Investors, familiar with the fickle nature of renewables earnings flow at other European companies, including Siemens, may be nervous. By contrast, Areva's core nuclear business appears to be on track, with target revenue growth of 3-6 per cent confirmed for 2013. But the challenge here was always going to come post-2014, when Areva is projecting a pick-up in sales growth to 5-8 per cent a year. There have been some positive developments following the post-Fukushima hiatus, but nuclear's prospects are far from rehabilitated. Areva shares, on 14 times consensus 2013 earnings, may be in for a slow crawl for a while yet.