Innogy saw its first-half income cut by more than a quarter (26.3%) year-on-year as losses from its UK-facing npower unit spiralled.
Net income for the first six months of 2019 stood at €488 million (£453 million), as the utility’s UK energy retail losses more than quadrupled year-on-year to €81 million (£75 million).
Those figures compound Q1 losses of €33 million reported in May.
The “persistently difficult” market conditions for energy retailer in the UK have been exacerbated by industry regulator Ofgem’s price cap on standard variable tariffs, while high wholesale costs also had an impact on the supplier’s margins.
Npower also lost around 240,000 customers year-on-year, causing further issues at the beleaguered supplier.
Bernard Günther, innogy’s CFO, argued that its results needed to be “looked at in detail”, noting that the performance within its renewables division had increased as expected, and its operational grid and infrastructure business remained “on track”.
But innogy cannot hide from the drag its npower unit has caused the entire business.
“The most important thing for us is to drive forward our operational business and ensure value-added development for our company,” chief executive Uwe Tigges said, describing the grid and infrastructure division as the “backbone” of innogy’s economic success.
Both innogy’s grid and infrastructure and renewables business units saw revenues slip in H1 (4.5% and 4.8% respectively), however there have been material developments. It said it was now driving forward in subsidy-free renewables development and had around 1.4GW under construction.
