Germany's EnBW cuts dividend, sees lower profits in 2016

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A logo of German power supplier EnBW Energie Baden-Wuertemberg AG is pictured at the company's headquarters in Karlsruhe, March 17, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - EnBW, Germany's No.3 utility, cut its dividend and said core earnings would decline for the sixth consecutive year in 2016, hurt by an ongoing fall in electricity prices that has already led to writedowns and losses at its larger peers.
EnBW, E.ON and RWE have all taken massive writedowns on their power plants, most of which only run a fraction of the time required to be profitable as they are edged out of the market by solar and wind power.
As a result of the crisis, EnBW, which is almost entirely owned by its home state Baden-Wuerttemberg, on Monday proposed a dividend of 0.55 euros a share for 2015, down from the 0.69 euros it paid per share for the previous year.
Adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) are expected to fall by 5-10 percent this year after falling 2.7 percent to 2.11 billion euros ($2.37 billion) in 2015.

The drop was cushioned by a 50 percent profit rise at its renewable division, which focuses on capital-intensive offshore wind projects, carrying a price tag of at least 1 billion euros apiece.

EnBW last month said it was in talks with investors to sell up to 49.9 percent in its 497 megawatt (MW) Hohe See offshore wind project by the end of the year.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

Culled from Reuters