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Npower losses grow as customers flee

Innogy has reported a rise in losses from its UK retail arm Npower after 211,000 customers left the company over the three months to the end of September, leaving it with 3.64 million accounts.

The financial results for the first three quarters of 2019 show revenue from the supplier falling 4 per cent year-on-year to €4.86 billion (£4.14 billion).

Npower’s losses in terms of adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew from €71 million (£60 million) during the same period last year to €167 million (£142 million). When also incorporating depreciation and amortisation (adjusted EBITDA), the losses swelled from €34 million (£29 million) to €133 million (£113 million).

Innogy blamed the poor performance on Ofgem’s cap on default tariffs.

The company also reported hundreds of job losses, with Npower’s headcount falling from nearly 6,000 at the end of June to just shy of 5,700 at the end of September.

The results come shortly after the completion of Eon’s takeover of Innogy as part of a wider asset swap with RWE. Its 76.8 per cent stake in Innogy was transferred to Eon on 18 September. RWE will retain Innogy’s renewables portfolio and gain Eon’s.

Npower was originally intended to be merged into SSE’s retail operations but will instead be combined with those of Eon after the deal fell through. Ovo Energy stepped in to buy SSE Energy Services in September.