SSEZY SSE PLC (PK)

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

SSE PLC on Wednesday posted a significantly higher profit for the first half of the fiscal year reflecting one-off gains, but its underlying performance worsened dragged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The FTSE 100 energy networks and power generation group made a pretax profit of 829.5 million pounds ($1.10 billion) in the six months ended Sept. 30, up from GBP128.9 million a year earlier. SSE reported exceptional gains of GBP327 million, mainly related to disposals.

However, its adjusted operating profit--which strips out exceptional items--declined to GBP418.3 million from GBP491.9 million. The company said it took a GBP115 million hit from the coronavirus pandemic at operating-profit level.

SSE declared an interim dividend of 24.4 pence a share, in line with what it had anticipated in September and up from 24.0 pence a year earlier.

As for the full fiscal year 2021, the energy company said it expects to report adjusted earnings per share of between 75 and 85 pence, including gains on disposals. It also forecasts that the coronavirus impact will be toward the middle of the GBP150 million-GBP250 million range forecast in June.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 18, 2020 02:42 ET (07:42 GMT)

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