SSEZY SSE PLC (PK)

   By Oliver Griffin 
 

SSE PLC (SSE.LN) said Friday that its pretax profit in fiscal 2018 fell 39% but that operational performance was generally very robust.

The utility company said profit for the year ended March 31 fell to 1.09 billion pounds ($1.45 billion) from GBP1.78 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Revenue in financial 2018 rose 8% to GBP31.23 billion, SSE said. Accounting for exceptional and one-off items, the company said that its adjusted pretax profit for the year fell 6% to GBP1.45 billion.

The utility company proposed an increase to its final dividend to 66.3 pence a share from 63.9 pence in the prior year. This takes the total dividend for fiscal 2018 up 3.7% to 94.7 pence a share.

SSE, which is planning a demerger of its household energy and services business in Great Britain, said it was recommending a total dividend of 97.5 pence a share for fiscal 2019.

However, the company also said it was planning to set the first post-transaction dividend, in fiscal 2020, at 80 pence a share. This will reflect the impact of the expected changes on SSE.

From fiscal 2021 onward, the company is targeting annual dividend increases that keep the pace with retail-price-index inflation. Over the five years to March 2023, the company said it expects capital and investment expenditure to total around GBP6 billion.

Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 25, 2018 02:45 ET (06:45 GMT)

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