(Bloomberg) -- SSE Plc kept its earnings outlook, despite lower-than-forecast renewable energy. The Scottish utility reiterated its intention to recommend a dividend in line with its five-year payout plan.

Key Insights

• The company is still keeping its options open for its retail arm, with a sale, merger or spinoff all on the table since the deal with Innogy SE’s Npower faltered last year. SSE has appointed Katie Bickerstaffe as executive chair to oversee the future of the energy retail arm outside the group and she took up her role in late June.
• The firm still faces uncertainty over when it will receive payments from the U.K. capacity market, which has been suspended since November.
• The “Big Six” utility has lost millions of customers since 2010 as new market entrants have taken market share with cheaper, more flexible tariffs.

Market Reaction

• Shares have recovered from their nine year low in May to gain 6.6% since the start of 2019.

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• Total renewable energy output rose 15% to 1.79 TWh in the three months through June 30, compared with a year earlier. That’s about 20% lower than expected in a typical year.
• U.K. customer accounts continued to fall in the second quarter, sliding 1.2% to 5.71 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Andrew Reierson

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