UK regulator sees lower profit for utilities after price caps

LONDON (Reuters) - British regulator Ofgem said on Thursday it expected big utilities to earn less profit as a result of the price caps it proposed on Thursday but also for them to boost the efficiency of their operations.

"We expect there to be lower profitability going forward," Ofgem Chief Executive Dermot Nolan told a conference call.

The suppliers, controlling 80 percent of the market, are Centrica's <CNA.L> British Gas, SSE <SSE.L>, E.ON <EONGn.DE>, EDF Energy <EDF.PA>, Innogy's <IGY.DE> Npower and Iberdrola's <IBE.MC> Scottish Power.

(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by David Evans)