Wind power woes: RWE's profit plunges after weak wind conditions

Germany's biggest power producer RWE posted lower-than-expected first-half core profit on Thursday, which it attributed to weak wind conditions and a muted trading business.

First-half adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by more than a quarter to €2.14 billion ($2.50 billion), missing the €2.24 billion average estimate in a company-provided analyst poll.

Shares in the company were 3.3 per cent lower at 07:37 GMT, the biggest decliners in Frankfurt's blue-chip index.

The group, which is also the world's second-biggest developer of offshore wind projects, still confirmed its outlook for 2025, as well as its mid-term guidance for earnings per share for 2027 and 2030.

First-half profit at the group's supply and trading division, a traditionally volatile business that benefits from big price swings, fell 95 per cent to €16 million, RWE said.

"Today's results particularly underscore the current difficult conditions for volatility-dependent businesses," Bernstein analysts said in a note.

RWE, which has around half of its installed renewable capacity in the United States, still expected adjusted EBITDA of between €4.55 billion to €5.15 billion in 2025 and a dividend of €1.20 per share.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Additional reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Rachna Uppal)