E.ON First-Quarter Net Profit Falls 46% to EUR628 Million

E.ON SE (EOAN.XE) said Tuesday that its net profit declined sharply in the first quarter from the previous year, suffering from currency effects and weaker sales among its U.K. businesses, as well as lower wind volumes across its wind farms.

The German renewable-energy titan, said net profit for the quarter ended March declined 46% to 628 million euros ($686 million), or earnings of EUR0.31 a share, from EUR1.17 billion ($1.28 billion), or EUR0.60 a share, the company made in the same period a year ago. Sales fell 7% to EUR10.49 billion from EUR11.27 billion last year.

Analysts had expected sales of EUR12.35 billion for the quarter, according to research firm FactSet.

Chief Financial Officer Marc Spieker said new consumer products, including the SolarCloud solar-battery system and Google's Sunroof web tool, would strengthen "the new E.ON's earnings profile in a lasting way."

The company is still finding its footing after the spinoff of Uniper SE (UN01.XE) in 2016. In the first quarter of this year, E.ON issued 200 million new shares to raise capital and paid down net debt by EUR1.6 billion, the company said, as part of preparations for a EUR10 billion payment into Germany's nuclear waste disposal fund.

Write to Zeke Turner at zeke.turner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 09, 2017 01:52 ET (05:52 GMT)