Innogy forecasts profit drop as UK retail business remains weak

FRANKFURT/ESSEN (Reuters) - German energy group Innogy on Wednesday forecast a 13-percent drop in operating profit this year, as competition in the British retail market remains tough following a failed attempt to merge its local unit with that of SSE.

Innogy, which will be broken up under a deal between parent RWE and rival E.ON, said it had to write down the value of its British retail unit npower by 1.5 billion euros (£1.29 billion) in 2018.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Matthias Inverardi; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)