SSE PLC on Wednesday said its long-serving chief executive will retire next year, as it posted a sharp rise in half-year profitability.

The Perth, Scotland-based electricity generator said Alistair Phillips-Davies will retire in 2025 after 11 years at helm. He will stay in place until a successor has been found, a process to be led by Chair John Manzoni.

The news came as SSE said pretax profit jumped 38% to £845.9 million in the six months to September 30 from £615.3 million a year prior. Adjusted pretax profit climbed 26% to £714.5 million from £565.2 million.

Earnings per share rose 55% to 47.7 pence from 30.7p. Adjusted EPS increased 35% to 49.8p from 37.0p.

This was as guided by the company. In October, SSE said it expected to report adjusted EPS of more than 45p for the six months period.

Revenue, however, fell by 7.4% to £4.46 billion from £4.79 billion a year before.

‘This is a strong set of interim results,’ said CEO Phillips-Davies.

In response, shares in SSE rose 0.5% to 1,710.00p each in London on Wednesday morning. The wider FTSE 100 index was up 0.1%.

SSE said ‘value creating’ investment helped to drive increased contribution from electricity networks and renewables which delivered over 95% of half year adjusted operating profits.

The results also reflected the benefits of the ‘balanced’ business mix, SSE said, with favourable weather conditions meaning increased SSE Renewables profitability offset a lower SSE Thermal contribution.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the Renewables unit ballooned to £335.6 million from £86.8 million. However,the Thermal arm recorded an adjusted Ebitda loss of £43.8 million, compared to a profit of £226.2 million a year before.

‘The first half of SSE’s financial year has seen the group deliver strong performance, in line with expectations, in an evolving market environment. The greater operating profit contribution from electricity networks’ businesses has reduced the level of seasonality in the half year results, with the higher output delivered by renewables meaning that flexible thermal generation capacity was not required as often in a stable market environment,’ SSE said in a statement.

Looking ahead, SSE said it is on track to deliver financial 2027 adjusted EPS of between 175p to 200p. It said guidance for financial 2025 will be provided later in the financial year.

Expectations for full-year operating profit remain broadly unchanged, the firm added.

Capital expenditure is expected to significantly increase to around £3 billion, with the net debt to Ebitda ratio expected to be towards the lower end of the 3.5 to 4.0 times targeted range.

In the year to March 2024, SSE reported adjusted investment and capital expenditure of £2.48 billion.

The interim dividend was boosted by 6.0% to 21.2p from 20.0p.

SSE reiterated a commitment to target dividend increases of between 5% to 10% per year across the financial years to March 2025, 2026 and 2027.

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