Innogy lowers 2017 outlook on weak British retail business

FRANKFURT, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 13 (Reuters) - Germany's Innogy on Wednesday cut its outlook for operating profit in 2017, citing a persistently difficult market environment for its British retail energy business, which it last month agreed to merge with that of peer SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) .

Innogy said it now expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of about 4.3 billion euros ($5.05 billion) and adjusted EBIT of about 2.8 billion euros. It had previously expected adjusted EBITDA of 4.4 billion euros and adjusted EBIT of 2.9 billion euros. ($1 = 0.8519 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Tom Sims)