E.ON, Germany’s largest utility, posted a record loss for the second year in a row following asset writedowns totaling more than half its market value and prepared investors for lower payouts as it conserves cash to fund future growth, Reuters reported. Germany’s traditional power companies such as E.ON and rival RWE have been hammered by the effects of a surge in renewable energy, plunging wholesale electricity prices and the country’s plans to abandon nuclear power. “Our future dividend policy must reflect the current market environment,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Sen told reporters on Wednesday. “The €0.50 per share we will pay for 2015 doesn’t reflect it.” E.ON, in the process of spinning off its power generation and energy trading business into a new publicly traded company called Uniper, said its net loss more than doubled to €7 billion ($7.7 billion) in 2015, from €3.16 billion in 2014.
