Swedish utility Vattenfall AB (VTF.YY), Europe 's fifth-biggest electricity generator, Thursday said it will increase the speed on asset sales and hopes to close a large number of transactions this year.

The firm last year presented a new strategy, implemented in 2011, according to which it will focus on the German, Swedish and Dutch markets, and sell non-core assets within three years.

"But it will be sooner rather than later," chief executive officer Oystein Loseth said at a press conference Thursday, adding that at the end of the year he hopes to have sold, or to have reached a decision to sell, a large number of the assets.

"We can give no detail on where we are in the process but 2011 will be a very important year," Loseth said. Vattenfall has yet to specify exactly what assets are up for sale.

The new strategy identifies the U.K. as a growth market, leaving Belgium , Denmark , Finland and Poland as "other markets", but the firm has said it will still keep some assets on these markets, such as hydro power in Finland and wind power in Denmark , despite its core-market focus.

The firm, fully owned by the Swedish state, has made a number of transactions since the autumn of 2010 and recent media reports have stated that it will pick a buyer for its Polish assets by July. However, the bulk of the asset sales are yet to come.

"These are things we have had plans to sell for a long time. Now we start doing the important sales, and those will be a larger number," Loseth told Dow Jones Newswires on the side lines of a press conference.

The money that Vattenfall raises from the transactions will primarily go towards paying down on its debt, but "we also have big plans of investing in wind power in the future, particularly after 2015," Loseth said.

The firm Thursday posted a fall in first-quarter operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability, as lower average prices hit the firm. Average electricity spot prices in Sweden were 8.7% lower in the first quarter compared to a year ago, which counteracted rising spot prices in other markets

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