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SSE has insisted that any “additional profits” driven by market turmoil will be reinvested in building new low-carbon assets.
It comes amid predictions the company could generate a pre-tax profit of almost £1.7 billion in the current financial year, which runs until March 2023. This compares to the £1.1 billion unveiled earlier this year and £950 million in March 2021.
In an update to the stock exchange on Tuesday (27 September) the company said market conditions continued to be volatile. While the company saw good performance from gas storage and flexible thermal, renewable output fell 13% below plan, mainly due to weather impacts.
In light of this, the company expects earnings per share of at least 40 pence for the half-year to 30 September and is predicting at least 120p by the end of the year. However, Investec analyst Martin Young has forecast this could reach 138p, meaning a profit of nearly £1.7 billion.
Delivering the market update, finance director Gregor Alexander said SSE’s balanced portfolio had “ensured a strong performance to date” but added that weather plant availability and commodity price movements were among the factors that could influence full-year performance.
He said plans for the future include a “growth enabling, rebased dividend from 2023/24 onwards” as well as investing £25 billon this decade in “vital UK and Ireland infrastructure”.
He added: “As an infrastructure company SSE’s over-riding response to the European energy crisis is to address the root cause of the problem and we are committed to reinvesting any additional profits derived from market variability directly back into energy infrastructure that will prevent a repeat of the crisis in the long-term.”
The company also listed key developments over the half year, including:
- Generating the first power from Seagreen, Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest tethered offshore wind farm, in August 2022
- Construction on what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank and Viking onshore wind farm on Shetland progressing to plan
- Delay to completing the commissioning of the Keadby 2 CCGT, which is now expected to be available later this winter
- Completion of the joint acquisition of Triton Power with Equinor, including the 1.2GW Saltend power station which has significant decarbonisation potential
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