E.ON posts profit jump after unveiling RWE deal to redraw Germany’s energy market

German energy company E.ON posted an unexpectedly strong jump in quarterly operating profit, boosted by its retail unit that will form one of the energy group’s main pillars after a recently unveiled overhaul that involves breaking up rival innogy, reports Christoph Steitz for Reuters. First-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew by 24 percent to 1.3 billion euros.
Earnings at E.ON’s renewables business rose 7 per cent to 171 million euros. The utility noted  “countervailing effects” in the market: “On the one hand, its installed capacity was higher than in the prior-year period due to the addition of new wind farms. On the other hand, the sales prices for its power output declined”.
Jürgen Flauger writes in business daily Handelsblatt that E.ON is “back in attack mode” after piling up losses in three consecutive years. 

Read the Reuters article in English here and a Financial Times article here.

Find the E.ON press release in English here.

For background, read the article RWE and E.ON overhaul power sector - German reactions to innogy deal and the dossier Battered utilities take on start-ups in innovation race.