26th Jan 2015 07:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - SSE PLC Monday kept its lowered guidance for its results in the current financial year, and said it still expects to pay a dividend for the year that's at least equal to RPI inflation, continuing that policy in future years as well.
In a trading statement, the gas and electricity generator said it still expects its results for the year to March 31 to be in line with the guidance it gave when it put out its half-year results last November. At that time, it had said adjusted earnings per share would be towards the lower end of a guidance range it had given in March, and roughly the same level as it had achieved in its last financial year.
At that time it had also warned that dividend cover could, temporarily, fall below its target range of around 1.5 times earnings and be closer to around 1.2 times in 2016/17.
It said Monday it still expects to report an increase in the full-year dividend for 2014/15 that will at least be equal to RPI inflation, and is targeting the same level of increase in future years too.
SSE also said it will cut household gas prices in Great Britain by 4.1% on April 30, joining several other of the so-called 'Big Six' UK energy companies in cutting prices after a recent fall in wholesale gas prices.
"The challenging business environment we identified at the start of this financial year is likely to continue into the new financial year and we believe that addressing the resulting issues directly is the right thing to do for customers and the best way of safeguarding the interests of investors. That is why, at the same time as reducing tariffs for customers, we're continuing to make sure our own house is in order for the future, with a clear focus on our value programme to make sure SSE is well-positioned for the long term," SSE Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said in a statement.
SSE said that it expects that its capital and investment expenditure will total around GBP1.55 billion gross in 2014/15 and total around GBP5.5 billion net of disposals over the four years to March 2018.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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