SSE profit rises 3%

19th May 2010 07:04

Scottish & Southern Energy has increased full-year underlying profit by 3%, in line with expectations, and added a quarter of a million new energy customers during the period.The UK's second-biggest electricity producer reported adjusted profit before tax rose to £1.29bn in the year ended March 2010 from £1.25bn last time.It's also raised the number of energy supply customers in the UK and Ireland by 250,000 to 9.35m.There's a final dividend of 49p per share, making a full-year payout of 70p, up 6.1% on the previous year. It's also targeting annual dividend growth of at least 2% above inflation in each year to 2013, and annual above-inflation increases after that.Chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin said the group had made solid progress in electricity generation, energy supply, networks, gas storage and other energy services. "SSE's market-based and economically-regulated energy businesses provide a broad platform from which to deliver sustained real growth in the dividend, through enhancing value from operations and creating value from investments," he added. "The next few years will present major challenges, including evolving energy markets. Our strategy of balancing market-based and economically-regulated businesses gives SSE an in-built resilience and a breadth of opportunities to achieve the new dividend targets to 2013, as well as the scope to build on them with further real growth in the years beyond."