Germany's EON Posts $12.7b Loss

German energy giant EON said on Wednesday that it booked a record loss of $12.7 billion in 2016, after massively overvaluing its coal and gas-fired power generation business which was spun-off late last year. The previous year, EON had already run up a bottom-line loss of almost $7.5 billion, Bloomberg reported. EON's writedowns have swelled to about $26.5 billion over the past four years as a power price slump eroded the value of its conventional power plants. To adapt, the utility listed its Uniper SE unit in September to focus on renewables, grids and retail customers. EON had to keep its German nuclear reactors. EON proposed a dividend of $0.22 a share for last year, rising to $0.31 for 2017. Adjusted net income fell 16% to $960 million. The figure, which does not include writedowns and earnings from minority-owned Uniper, beat the $880 million average estimate of 16 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The utility forecast it will be between $1.27 billion and $1.54 billion this year.