E.ON underlines wafer-thin margins

摘要

E.ON UK is making ￡5 profit on every ￡1,000 it earns from its domestic power and gas customers, the utility disclosed on July 1.The company has published a detailed breakdown of its profit before tax (EBIT) earned across its generation and energy supply businesses in the UK. In 2010 E.ON UK made a profit of ￡19 million on domestic power and gas customer revenue of ￡3,969 million - a 0.5% margin.Its domestic gas business made a loss of ￡34 million, but this was more than offset by a profit of ￡66 million from its non-domestic gas supply business, where E.ON UK's margins are healthiest at 12.1%.Total generation and supply profit came to ￡317 million on revenue of ￡8,281 million, a margin of 3.8%.Chief executive Paul Golby said the company wanted to make "detailed information available to all of our stakeholders - whether they are customers or not -about the amount that we make and where we make it." Although the numbers may look large, Golby said, "our profit margins are actually quite slim."