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* British unit Npower lost 261,000 customers in Q3
* Npower 9-month adj operating loss 167 mln eur
* Had to take 200 mln eur impairment on Nordsee Ost
(Recasts, adds context on Britain)
By Christoph Steitz
FRANKFURT, Nov 28 (Reuters) - German energy group Innogy
on Thursday said it was continuing to lose clients in
Britain, where a price cap has increased pressure on the 'Big
Six' energy providers.
Npower, Innogy's British retail unit, lost 261,000 customers
during the third quarter, bringing total customer losses to
447,000 so far this year. The division posted a nine-month
adjusted operating loss of 167 million euros ($184 million).
Npower's problems will soon be an issue for German utility
E.ON.
E.ON acquired Innogy's retail and networks assets as part of
an asset swap with the company's former parent RWE
while Innogy's renewable activities, along with those at E.ON,
will become part of RWE under the deal.
Profits from supplying gas and electricity at Britain's six
largest energy firms sank by more than a third last year as they
continued to lose customers to smaller rivals, a report by
energy market regulator Ofgem said last month.
Apart from Npower, big players in the British market include
Centrica's British Gas, E.ON, SSE, EDF's
EDF Energy and Iberdrola's Scottish Power.
E.ON will report nine-month results on Friday and
management, when asked about Npower, has said it would not
tolerate a loss-making business for long. Npower is expected to
post an operating loss of 250 million euros in 2019.
Innogy also said that had to book about 200 million euros in
impairments related to its Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm,
triggered by the bankruptcy of service provider Senvion
earlier this year.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
(Editing by Toby Chopra)
