RWE profits plummet in first 9 months

 RWE, Germany's second-biggest power supplier, said Thursday that it was sticking to its full-year targets, despite a sharp drop in profit in the first nine months.
"Persistently low prices on the wholesale electricity market and the unusually mild weather continue to affect our business performance in 2014," RWE said in a statement.
"Since these developments are in line with expectations, our outlook for the full year remains unchanged."
In the period from January to September, RWE booked net profit of 763 million euros ($949 million), 60 percent lower than in the year-earlier period.
Nine-month revenues fell by 8.8 percent to 35.288 billion euros.
"The severity of these decreases is partly attributable to a high one-off payment ... during the previous year ... and partly to the fact that net income no longer includes the result from RWE Dea as it is in the process of being sold," RWE explained.
"Despite the decline in earnings, there were more bright than dark spots in the first three quarters," said chief executive Peter Terium.
Looking ahead, RWE said it is pencilling in net profit of 1.2-1.4 billion euros for the whole of 2014, and underlying profit of 6.4-6.8 billion euros on sales of around 50 billion euros.