SSE's energy supply, network businesses help to higher annual earnings

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LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Britain's second-biggest energy supplier SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) delivered higher full-year earnings on Wednesday as its energy supply and network businesses made stronger profits, allowing it to pay its shareholders a higher dividend.

Profit at the Scotland-focused utility's power plants business continued to decline, resulting in SSE's decision to close down its 1,000-megawatt Ferrybridge coal-fired power station, which employees 172 people, by March 31, 2016.

SSE, which supplies energy to 7.3 million domestic customers, made 1.56 billion pounds in adjusted pretax profit in its financial year ending March 31, up 0.9 percent year on year, allowing it to pay an annual dividend of 88.4 pence per share, 2 percent higher than the previous year.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in SSE were down 1.8 percent at 0729 GMT.

"The company is well-placed to deliver in 2015/16 and beyond an annual dividend increase that at least keeps pace with inflation," said SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies in a statement.

Higher profit in its energy supply business were driven by cost savings in its retail unit. The utility lost more than half a million customers in one year, despite its pledge to freeze energy prices.

SSE and its rival energy suppliers are being investigated by the competition watchdog for uncompetitive behaviour. The authority is expected to announce its preliminary findings in the coming weeks and deliver a full verdict, which could lead to companies being broken up, by the end of the year.

SSE, which has a growing renewable energy business, including onshore wind farms, said it wanted Britain's new government to make well-informed decisions on cutting renewable energy subsidies.

Britain's new energy minister Amber Rudd has said her party's pledge to stop subsidies to onshore wind farms would be initiated in next week's Queen's Speech.

"There should be substantive discussion with stakeholders and experts to enable Ministers to take well-informed and robust decisions," SSE said. (Reporting by Karolin Schaps; editing by David Clarke and Louise Heavens)