SSE plc Announces Fall In Total Retail Accounts

SSE plc (LON: SSE) plans to increase market-beating dividend.

Mark Stones

Mark Stones (TMFMumbojumbones) joined The Motley Fool in 2014 and initially worked as a writer for Fool.co.uk, before joining the Fool’s analyst programme. Mark earned a BA in English from Loughborough University. Although he spends more time reading annual reports than Russian literature these days, he still appreciates a novelist’s antipathy toward the accepted view, which is a useful attitude when trying to sniff out hidden gems on the stock market. His approach to investing has been largely influenced by the principles of Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. He also takes a special interest in the work of healthcare companies. Outside of investing, Mark plays guitar, enjoys good writing and has a guilty passion for combat sports.

Published 23 January, 2014 8:51 am GMT

| More on: SSE

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The shares of SSE (LSE: SSE) (NASDAQOTH: SSEZY.US) closed yesterday at 1,317p. Today, the FTSE 100 member confirmed that during the period between April-December the number of electricity and gas accounts throughout Britain and Ireland fell from nearly 9.5 million to 9.2 million.

SSE added that work is progressing on a new gas power station in Ireland, which remains on course to be commissioned in the second half of 2014. This follows last year’s pledge to commission new assets and capital expenditure is forecast to be £1.5 billion.

Today’s announcement also revealed that, following the government’s proposed consultation into reducing the cost of electricity and gas, SSE are going to cut energy prices starting in March.

“Despite what is clearly a difficult business environment, the overall performance of the company has been solid in 2013/14 and the efforts of employees, shown recently in the response to the Christmas week storms, have been excellent. It is encouraging that SSE is on course to deliver real growth in the dividend and increases in adjusted earnings per share¹ and adjusted profit before tax¹.

“The operating environment is not expected to be any easier in 2014/15 but we have a well-balanced range of businesses and a good range of assets and we are determined to maintain our operational focus and financial discipline for the benefit of customers and investors.”

SSE has a market capitalisation at 12.7bn and trade at 10 times expected earnings. An expected increase in the full-year dividend will take the payment up to around 88p, yielding 6.5%.