SSE Raises Medium-Term Guidance; Says Profits Will Grow Again This Year

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

SSE PLC on Wednesday raised earnings growth guidance for the five years to March 2026, reported higher profits for fiscal 2022 and said that they will rise again this year.

The U.K. energy group now expects to deliver an adjusted earnings per share compound annual growth rate of between 7% and 10% in that five-year period, up from previous forecasts of 5%-7%. SSE said that this is based on its strong performance in fiscal 2022, higher inflation forecasts, higher and volatile energy commodity prices and increased value creation potential for its thermal, hydro and gas storage assets.

The FTSE 100 company reported a pretax profit of 3.48 billion pounds ($4.36 billion) in the year ended March 31, up from GBP2.42 billion a year earlier.

Adjusted EPS rose 22% to 95.4 pence, within the company's guidance range of between 92 pence and 97 pence.

The group declared a final dividend of 60.2 pence a share, bringing the full-year payment to 85.7 pence--up from 81.0 pence in fiscal 2021. The company's dividend is linked to inflation but will be cut in fiscal 2024.

SSE said that it expects adjusted EPS of at least 120 pence for fiscal 2023, and that it has started a sales process for a 25% share of its SSEN Transmission business which is expected to formally start in the summer.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at [e-mail]; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 25, 2022 02:43 ET (06:43 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.