E.On’s UK customer numbers continued to fall throughout 2019, it announces.
In its annual financial statement, released today (25 March) the European energy giant also highlighted the effect the COVID-19 pandemic was already having upon the continent’s electricity use.
E.On SE CEO Johannes Teyssen emphasised that utilities have “special significance” in this crisis and a following responsibly.
“We’re Europe’s biggest operator of energy networks. Their reliability and continuous availability is of paramount importance for health care, public order, and people everywhere.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure supply security, even in this situation. Despite the difficult times, more than 14,000 of our employees are working for our customers in our networks and at our production facilities. Policymakers and the general public can count on us in this period as well.”
The current pandemic and its likely effect upon the economy has not been included in the company’s overall results, although it is likely to “leave its mark on our bottom line” Teyseen continued.
Overall the results painted a promising picture for E.On, but its UK business continued to falter. In particular, its customer numbers continued to fall throughout 2019, with power sales declining by 3.9 billion kilowatt hours.
Last year, E.On acquired innogy and its UK based supplier npower, after the company ran into financial difficulties. The acquisition dominated many of the company’s figures, causing its net income to fall by 49%. This loss was largely attributed to the acquisition, with 51% attributable to parent company E.On SE’s shareholders.
Other areas of the company’s financial statement showed growth however, with its adjusted EBIT rising by 9% to €3.2 billion (£2.9 billion).
Similarly EBITA increased by 15% last year, to €5.6 billion (£5.2 billion) as the company lauded its results, which it stated are in the upper half of its forecast range for the fourth year in a row.
Moving forwards, the company has predicted an average annual EBIT growth of 7% to 9%, including €740 million from 2022 onward and €780 million from 2024 onward in innogy based growth. This however, does not take into account any impact that COVID-19 may have on the company.
The financial statement reiterated the company’s plans to reorganise npower, as announced during the takeover last September. It has set aside £500 million for the restructuring over the next two years.
Earlier this week, E.On announced that it had signed a strategic partnership with Kraken Technologies, and will be moving all of its npower customers over during 2020 before also transferring its E.On customers, unifying the two.
This is part of the launch of the company’s new subsidiary E.Onnext, a key component of the company’s “bold steps” to help future-proof its UK residential and SME supplier business.
