How quickly the world changes. Only 15 months ago, SSE was trumpeting a £3 billion plan to merge its household energy supply business with Npower in a move that was going to bring an end to the traditional Big Six model as we knew it. Not only would the separately listed combine supposedly be able to give consumers a good deal, but it also would enable the former Scottish & Southern Energy to get out of a retail energy market under fire from all sides — from consumers, from the government and from Ofgem, the regulator.
Three profit warnings later and the proposed merger is a thing of the past, presenting SSE with a headache about how to get rid of a business it so