Germany’s E.ON and French GDF Suez, two leading European utilities, posted lower earnings as a prolonged energy crisis in Europe is leading to power plant closures and asset writedowns.

Both companies said they would focus on investment in emerging markets to try and counter a stagnant western Europe struggling to emerge from recession.

E.ON said its European electricity production fell 7 per cent in the first nine months of the year and saw core profit fall by a fifth. The group trimmed its 2013 core earnings forecast to a range of €9.2 to €9.3 billion ($12.4-12.5 billion), from €9.2 to €9.8 billion.

GDF posted a 6.5 per cent drop in nine-month core earnings and said it would write down European power assets but confirmed guidance for current earnings. – (Reuters)