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EDF Energy first quarter sales drop as it loses customers

EDF Energy saw its sales fall by more than 13 per cent in the first three months of 2016 due to a decline in customer numbers and a mild winter.

Results for the period showed its revenues were €2.9 billion (£2.3 billion), down from €3.4 billion (£2.7 billion) in the first quarter of 2015.

The decline was attributed to lower than usual gas consumption due to the mild winter as well as falling customer numbers, which dropped 4 per cent to 5.2 million. 

Revenues were also down for the EDF Group as a whole. They fell year-on-year by almost 7 per cent to €21.4 billion (£16.9 billion).

Although the British business saw the sharpest drop in sales, revenues for the French business also declined by nearly 5 per cent to €12.1 billion (£9.6 billion).

EDF reaffirmed its strategy announced in April to slash its costs by €1 billion (£790 million) by 2019 and sell-off €10 billion (£7.9 billion) of assets by 2020.

Analysts at Jefferires said: “[The] Q1 update is in-line with our view that EDF’s earnings are set to come under increasing pressure due its rapidly rising exposure to wholesale power prices. Without further policy help we see a challenging outlook for the business.”

You can read EDF’s full-year results for 2015 here