LONDON, May 13, 2026, 13:02 BST
- SSE restated full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance to 149p-154p from 147p-152p after changing how it accounts for losses at Neos Networks.
- Full-year results are due on May 28; net debt and hybrid capital guidance remains just over £10 billion.
- SSE shares were quoted at 2,448p, down 1.29%, in delayed Bloomberg data near midday in London.
SSE PLC lifted its profit guidance weeks before full-year results, but the increase came from an accounting treatment tied to Neos Networks rather than a new operating upgrade.
The Perth, Scotland-based power generator and network operator said 2025/26 adjusted earnings per share, a company profit measure that strips out certain items, should now be 149p to 154p. Its April range was 147p to 152p.
That matters now because investors are judging the quality of SSE’s earnings as much as the size of them. The company is spending heavily on Britain’s electricity grid, and its balance sheet is under more scrutiny as UK borrowing costs rise.
SSE said the carrying value of its equity investment in Neos Networks fell to nil during the year, meaning it could no longer recognise further losses under IAS 28, the accounting rule for investments in associates and joint ventures. The change is expected to add 1.9p to adjusted earnings metrics.
The impact is mechanical, but not tiny. For Neos, SSE said adjusted operating profit would move from a £17.9 million loss before the accounting change to a £0.8 million loss after it. Adjusted profit after tax shifts from a £23.2 million loss to a £1.3 million loss.
There were other housekeeping changes. SSE said it will refine how it presents debt in alternative performance measures, or company-defined figures used alongside statutory accounts, and will cut its reporting segments to seven from 10. SSE Thermal will include the old gas storage segment, while Energy Customer Solutions will include SSE Business Energy and SSE Airtricity.
The company said the debt disclosure change does not alter 2025/26 guidance. Adjusted net debt and hybrid capital are still expected to be just over £10 billion at March 31, while capital investment is expected to be around £3.5 billion.
SSE is doing this inside a much larger capital programme. In November it announced a £33 billion five-year investment plan, with about 80% aimed at regulated electricity networks and the rest at renewables and flexible generation. Chief Executive Martin Pibworth said then that “our world is rapidly electrifying.” SSE
Peers face the same grid race. Ofgem’s RIIO-3 price-control framework, which sets allowed revenues for network operators, runs from April 2026 to March 2031. The regulator has approved a £28 billion upgrade for the energy system, with SSE and National Grid both central to the investment push.
Jefferies analyst Ahmed Farman wrote when SSE launched the plan that it “brings clarity on the balance sheet,” Reuters reported. The same article noted National Grid had also tapped shareholders to fund investment, showing the pressure across European utilities to raise capital for networks. Reuters
The financing backdrop has become less friendly. Reuters reported this week that UK 10-year gilt yields hit 5.13% on Tuesday, the highest since 2008, while Polymarket odds showed traders assigning an 83% probability to no Bank of England rate change in June but a 65% chance of a rate hike at some point in 2026.
The risk for SSE is that higher rates, planning delays or weaker renewable output could blunt the benefit of its regulated growth plan. The company said in April that renewables output should rise about 10% to 14.5 terawatt hours, but it also cited mixed weather conditions, a reminder that not all earnings drivers sit inside the grid business.
Full-year results on May 28 will give investors the fuller test: how much of the profit is operational, how much is accounting, and whether SSE can keep funding the build-out without stretching the balance sheet.
