Higher wholesale energy prices boosted Edison International’s 2005 earnings outlook, but the company said Friday that third-quarter profits fell 43 percent because of the sale of the international assets of Mission Energy last year.

Edison, the parent of local utility Southern California Edison, reported third quarter net income of $462 million ($1.41 per diluted share), compared with $813 million ($2.49) for the like period a year ago. Revenue rose 19 percent to $3.8 billion.

Rosemead-based Edison boosted its 2005 earnings forecast to between $2.80 to $2.90 per share, up from its previous estimate of between $2.53 to $2.63 per share. The company attributed the expected jump in earnings to higher energy prices from its domestic Mission Energy unit, which owns power plants in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Chairman and Chief Executive John Bryson emphasized that the company’s core earnings rose 43 percent in the third quarter to $408 million ($1.24 per diluted share), compared with $286 million (87 cents) a year earlier.

“SCE continued to increase its core earnings, in part, on its large capital investment to strengthen and modernize the utility power grid,” he said.