By Christoph Steitz
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Innogy (DE:IGY) reported a 7 percent fall in core profit on Friday, hitting the power utility's shares and those of struggling parent RWE (DE:RWEG).
Innogy's performance represents a significant blow for RWE, which is grappling with debt of more than 28 billion euros (£24 billion) and last month listed a minority stake in the business on which it relies for stable returns.
Shares in Innogy, Germany's largest energy group by market value, were down more than 5 percent at 31.04 euros by 0934 GMT. RWE, meanwhile, fell 3.5 percent to 12.24 euros, at the bottom of Frankfurt's benchmark DAX (GDAXI) index.
The initial public offering (IPO), spinning off Innogy's networks, retail and renewables units, was designed to ease pressure on RWE's stretched balance sheet and to benefit from Innogy's stable dividend.
RWE's reliance on Innogy, in which it retained a 76.8 percent stake, stems largely from the struggles of core power generation operations, which have come under intense pressure from renewables and a steep decline in wholesale prices.
However, since listing on Oct. 7, Innogy stock has dropped by 14 percent, with analysts citing falling returns on its grids, competition in renewables and low margins at its retail unit.
The company said on Friday that nine-month earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to 2.92 billion euros, partly because of a 3 percent rise in network investments to 656 million euros, accounting for about 60 percent of its total capital expenditure.
Its third-quarter net loss was 71 million euros, against a profit of 215 million euros in the same period last year, though the comparison is skewed by the post-IPO balance sheet split.
"All had expected a positive surprise after the recent IPO," one Frankfurt-based trader said, adding that fears of rising interest rates and bond yields are also putting pressure on the shares.
While traders said it would be hard for the company to reach the analyst consensus for 2016 EBITDA of 4.25 billion euros, Innogy said it still expects the full-year figure to be between 4.1 billion euros and 4.4 billion euros.
The company has pledged to pay out 70-80 percent of adjusted net income for dividends, which would mean a payout of 1.39-1.58 euros per share, based on its forecast for 2016 adjusted net income of about 1.1 billion euros.
That would mean a dividend yield of up to 4.9 percent, in line with the industry average.