Germany's E.ON: Profits down in Q2

E.ON, Germany's biggest power supplier, said Tuesday that profits were down in the second quarter on the difficult environment and the loss of earnings from divested companies. E.ON said in a statement that its bottom-line net profit fell by 22 percent to 919 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the period from April to June while second-quarter sales slipped by 3.0 percent to 28.762 billion euros. Taking the first six months, however, net profit climbed 6.1 percent to 3.069 billion euros, despite a 1.2-percent drop in sales to 64.643 billion euros. Underlying profits, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), were down 15 percent at 5.695 billion euros in the six-month period. "Midway through 2013, our business performance continues to be in line with expectations," E.ON said. Cost savings delivered by a restructuring programme and higher earnings in the renewables and exploration and production divisions "had a positive impact on earnings but were more than offset by the absence of earnings from divested companies and the effect of the current market situation in fossil-fueled power generation," it said. In particular, the power generation business in Europe was suffering from low capacity utilisation and low wholesale prices as a result of the economic crisis and "interventionist energy policies and regulations," E.ON explained. Nevertheless, E.ON said it was sticking to its targets for full-year EBITDA of 9.2-9.8 billion euros and underlying net income of 2.2-2.6 billion euros.