Germany's largest energy producer, E.ON, on Wednesday reported a record loss of almost €5.7 billion ($6.1 billion) for January-September. The news came on the back of the company's massive writedowns on its gas- and coal-fired power stations, which the firm said had become unprofitable because of rapidly sinking prices at the electricity exchange, DW reported. Caused by an ongoing boom of energy generated from renewable sources, conventional power stations keep being driven out of the domestic market, with prices at the Leipzig Electricity Exchange having been cut by half over the past four years. E.ON already booked a bottom-line loss of €3.2 billion last year, but said Wednesday it would be able to look at an operating profit of between €7 billion and €7.6 billion for the whole of 2015. The Dusseldorf-based company is working feverishly to complete a planned split-up into two entities called E.ON and Uniper. The latter will take over the firm's big power station business, while E.ON is to focus on renewable energy projects. "We're on the finishing straight, concerning the operative separation of our current activities," E.ON said in a statement.
