Earnings are electric at Scottish Power owner

Spain's Iberdrola has said it will bring forward its growth plans by a year after profits rocketed.

The Scottish Power owner said it now expects to hit 2022 targets, including net profit of €3.5bn to €3.7bn (£3bn to £3.2bn), by 2021.

The supplier, is on a major investment spree, having poured €4.1bn into its networks and renewables business.

The company closed up 1.3 per cent yesterday to €7.32 following the news.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) jumped nearly 28 per cent to €9.35bn in 2018, causing the firm to raise its dividend by 7.7 per cent.

“We are still betting on investing in networks and renewables,” finance chief Jose Sainz Armada told Reuters.

“We have been investing in all these areas, in all these countries, and this is what we are starting to see in 2019 … we have grown in all businesses and in all countries.”

Iberdrola has more than 30m customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil and the US.