31st Jan 2017 07:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - British energy firm SSE PLC on Tuesday reiterated its full-year guidance and stuck to its commitment to raise its annual dividend, in addition to the share buyback related to the sale of its stake in SGN Ltd, which is now underway.
The company said it still expects to deliver full-year adjusted earnings per share of "at least" 120 pence in the financial year to the end of March. In the prior year, adjusted EPS came in at 119.5 pence.
The annual dividend will "at least" keep pace with UK retail price inflation this year and in "subsequent years," the power utility said. The full-year dividend per share in the prior financial year was 89.4 pence.
In addition, SSE said the share buyback launched after selling its 16.7% stake in Scotia Gas Networks Ltd has started. Around GBP500 million will be returned in total before the offer closes at the end of 2017. So far, SSE said it has completed GBP87 million of the buyback.
SSE said it had 8.08 million energy customers under its retail business at the end of December, falling from 8.21 million at the end of March 2016. Over 400,000 smart meters have been installed compared to only 180,000 at the end of March. Home service accounts rose slightly to 460,000 versus 400,000.
The wholesale unit reported a rise in gas and oil-fired generation output in the nine-month period of 12.8 terrawatt hours compared to 6.6 terrawatt hours a year earlier. Coal-fired generation fell to almost nil from 3.7 terrawatt hours a year earlier. Renewable energy generation fell to 5.1 terrawatt hours from 6.8 terrawatt hours.
Gas production also increased in the nine month period, as did liquids production.
"As we acknowledged in our interim results in November, the operating environment presents some challenges. The period since our interim results has featured volatile wholesale energy market conditions and, during November and December in particular, a period of relatively dry and still weather leading to low output of renewable energy," said SSE Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies.
"This did, however, allow good progress with our large construction projects. Political and regulatory scrutiny of the sector has also continued," he added.
SSE said capital expenditure and investment for the full year will be GBP1.75 billion gross, the highest annual investment and capital expenditure budget to date.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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