SSE Agrees U.K. Household Energy Merger with Innogy; 1st Half Profit Falls
November 08 2017 - 3:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Adam Clark
SSE PLC (SSE.LN) said Wednesday that it has entered an agreement
with Innogy SE (IGY.XE) to merge two of their U.K. retail energy
units, as it reported a fall in first-half profit for fiscal
2018.
Under the deal, SSE will spin off its household and services
energy business and merge it with Innogy's U.K. retail division,
Npower. SSE said that its shareholders will get a 66% stake in the
combined business, with Innogy taking a 34% interest. The spinoff
will be achieved via a dividend in specie or repayment in capital
to SSE shareholders.
London-listed SSE said that the transaction is to be completed
by the last quarter of 2018 or the first quarter of 2019, subject
to regulatory and shareholder approval.
Separately, SSE reported first-half results for the six months
ended Sept. 30, saying that pretax profit fell to 402.2 million
pounds ($528.8 million) from GBP675 million the year before after
being hit by substantial profit reductions in its wholesale and
networks operations. SSE said this was largely due to the phasing
of capital expenditure and the resulting impact on regulatory
revenue.
SSE declared an interim dividend per share of 28.4 pence, up
3.6% from 27.4 pence the previous year.
The company still expects to report full-year earnings per share
at least in-line with a consensus forecasts of 116 pence, based on
18 estimates gathered by the company. It also plans to invest
around GBP1.70 billion in its assets during the current financial
year.
SSE shares were up 44 pence, or 3.1%, to 1,454 pence at 0807
GMT.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com;
@AdamDowJones
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 08, 2017 03:25 ET (08:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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