SSE Fiscal Year 2019 Pretax Profit Rose 59%

By Carlo Martuscelli

SSE PLC (SSE.LN) said Wednesday that its pretax profit in fiscal 2019 rose 59% and that it expects its full-year dividend to decrease in the fiscal year ahead.

The U.K. utility said profit for the year ended March 31 was 1.37 billion pounds ($1.74 billion) compared with GBP864.4 million in the previous fiscal year.

Revenue in the year from continuing operations fell 73% to GBP7.33 billion, SSE said. Accounting for exceptional and one-off items, the company said adjusted pretax profit for the year fell 38% to GBP725.7 million.

The utility company proposed an increase to its final dividend to 68.2 pence a share from 66.3 pence in the prior year, making a full-year dividend of 97.5 pence. SSE said that in fiscal 2020, it intends to recommend a full-year dividend of 80 pence per share.

SSE said that adjusted investment and capital expenditure in the fiscal year ahead is expected to total GBP1.5 billion. Net debt is forecast to be around GBP10 billion as of March 31, 2020.

The company noted that the British Labour party is advocating nationalization of the energy networks. SSE said that it is in dialogue with representatives of the party, and is trying to show that plans to bring utilities under government control will not advance its wider energy policy goals.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2019 02:40 ET (06:40 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.