Berlin, Aug 16 (IANS): Germany's big energy companies are making profits despite a government decision to phase-out atomic energy, industry experts said.

At the top of the positive trend is the market leader E.on, which has more than tripled its profits in the first half of 2012, the German news agency DAPD reported Wednesday.

Other major suppliers RWE and EnBW have also registered a positive growth.

In the first six months, E.on had a sustained budgetary surplus of 3.3 billion euros, while the RWE posted a net profit of 1.7 billion euros during the period.

Germany's third biggest energy company EnBW managed the closing of two atomic reactors well and moved on faster than expected.

In July, it had increased its profit forecasts for the whole year, according to DAPD.

However, a few negative effects of last year's phase-out decision could persist for sometime, said Marc Tungler, manager-in-chief of German investors' group DSW.

Thus, the employees of the energy giants must anticipate further job cuts, and shareholders must prepare for very low dividends, he said.

Due to the phase-out process, huge sums of money needed for development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure, and all of this without profits from the atomic sector, Tungler said.