German nuclear policy hits RWE

Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan led to a sharp fall in profits at RWE, the utility which has recently named the Dutchman Peter Terium as its next chief executive.

The company said recurrent net profits for the first half of the year had declined by 39 per cent to around €1.67bn as it took a €900m hit over provisions to meet costs of decommisioning nuclear plants, writing off fuel rods and to cover a nuclear fuel tax. Analysts had been expecting profits of around €1.71bn. "The decisions made by the German government have led to substantial financial burden," the outgoing chief executive Dr Jergen Grossmann said.