18th May 2016 06:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - SSE PLC on Wednesday said it has delivered on its dividend policy by increasing its payout for the recently ended financial year, and although profits and earnings fell year-on-year, the results beat expectations.
The FTSE 100-listed utility said its adjusted earnings per share, which excludes exceptional items, was 119.5 pence in the financial year ended in March, down from 124.1 pence a year earlier.
Although down year-on-year, the result beat analyst expectations and came in higher than SSE's guidance range of 117.0 to 119.0 pence, which had also been raised from initial guidance of only 115.0 pence.
SSE's dividend for the year increased by 1.1%, in line with its policy, to 89.4 pence per share from the 88.4p last year.
Revenue in the year slipped to GBP28.78 billion from GBP31.65 billion, causing adjusted earnings before interest and tax to fall to GBP1.82 billion from GBP1.88 billion. SSE's wholesale, networks and retail businesses all reported declines in adjusted Ebit for the year.
Pretax profit excluding exceptional items totalled GBP1.51 billion, compared to GBP1.56 billion the year earlier and reported pretax profit dropped to GBP593.3 million from GBP735.2 million the year ago.
Exceptional charges totalled GBP889.8 million in the recent year, mainly on impairments of wholesale assets. Capital expenditure totalled GBP1.60 billion, and that will rise to GBP1.75 billion this year, SSE said.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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