In response to a letter published this morning by Elliott Advisors(UK) Limited Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE Chief Executive, said:
“Having conducted a rigorous process involving constructive engagement with shareholders, and consideration of independent advice, we were delighted to launch our Net Zero Acceleration Programme on 17 November which represents the optimal pathway to accelerate clean growth, lead the energy transition and create value for all stakeholders. Since then we’ve continued to have constructive and supportive discussions with our major shareholders and stakeholders about the plan, which was also backed by Moody’s who reaffirmed SSE's Baa1 rating and upgraded their outlook to stable on the strength of the plan.
“We are the UK’s clean energy champion; our plans maximise our potential and will mean that we are investing around £7million a day, enabling delivery of over 25% of the UK Government’s 2030 40GW offshore wind target and over 20% of upcoming UK electricity networks investment, whilst deploying flexibility solutions and exporting our renewables capabilities overseas.
“Separation risks valuable growth options across the clean energy value chain, would jeopardise our ability to finance and deliver the major infrastructure the UK needs to create jobs and achieve net zero, and would lose shared skills that benefit the group. Separation does not support the financing of our core growth businesses and would rule out adjacent growth options, as well as reducing the resilience of the business model – it is not the right outcome to maximise value for shareholders or our other stakeholders.”