28th Jan 2016 07:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - SSE PLC on Thursday said adjusted earnings per share for its full financial year are expected to fall as it lost customers during 2015, but the power utility said its dividend remains safe and will continue to at least grow in line with retail price inflation.
SSE said its adjusted earnings per share for the financial year ending on March 31 will come in "at least" at 115.0 pence, which would be down from the 124.1p reported in the previous financial year.
Despite the expected fall, SSE said it still expects to report an increase in the full-year dividend for the current year that will at least be equal to RPI inflation, and the company confirmed it plans to continue to grow that dividend at least in line with RPI inflation in the years going forward.
SSE said it had 8.28 million customers in Britain and Ireland at the end of December, which is down from 8.58 million at the end of March 2015. However, in that nine period, average household electricity consumption rose 3%, whilst gas consumption remained broadly flat year-on-year.
Total gas output in the nine-month period to the end of 2015 experienced a small drop whilst total electricity output from renewable sources rose considerably, with output from gas and coal powered stations falling.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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