LORD Smith of Kelvin has announced he is to step down from his £362,000-a-year role as chairman of SSE.
The experienced businessman said he felt it was the right time for him to move on from the post that he took up in 2005 having first been appointed to the board in 2003.
He will be replaced by the company's senior independent director Richard Gillingwater.
Yesterday Lord Smith said: "It is a question of good corporate governance. When you have been on a board [for a long time] it is time to move on and give someone else a chance.
"Richard is an excellent man. He has a wealth of experience, has chaired lots of other companies and knows this industry inside out. I think he is just the person to take this onward."
Mr Gillingwater, on the SSE board since 2007, has previously been chairman of European Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston and Dean of the Cass Business School.
He will become deputy chairman on January 1 next year with Lord Smith stepping down on January 1 2016 after 13 years with SSE.
The changes on the board came as the utility unveiled a 4.6 per cent rise in half-year interim profits to £370.3 million. Revenue in the six months to September 30 came in at £12.4 billion, down from £13.57bn in the prior year.
However SSE trimmed its annual profit forecast amid weak energy prices and the warmer-than-expected weather.
It also continued to see a loss of customers in the period with a further 100,000 departures since June.
That means customer numbers have fallen by close to 500,000 over the past 12 months, although SSE still has 8.89 million gas and electricity customer accounts.
The drain on customer numbers was put down to growing competition between large suppliers as well as new entrants into the market.
The retail business made an operating profit of £37.3m in the period, compared to a £71.4m loss in the prior year.
However operating profits in its wholesale business fell by more than 80 per cent to £26.7m, as a result of lower electricity output from renewable sources due to the milder weather, and lower profitability in gas production - which slumped by 80.7 per cent to £13.3m.
The electricity transmission division reported a 46.3 per cent increase in operating profit to £98.9m, which SSE said was a result of major investment.
The electricity distribution arm saw a fall in operating profit from £232m to £215.7m while Scotia Gas Networks was up from £138.2m to £143.8m.
SSE's capital spending in the period was £679.3m, which included investments such as the Strathy wind farm in Sutherland and replacing sections of the Beauly to Denny power line.
While the company said it expects annual earnings per share to be at the lower end of market expectations, it maintained a commitment to raising its dividend.
Separately SSE confirmed it has sold its interest in seven street-lighting projects in England to an Equitix infrastructure fund.
SSE said it was receiving cash of £97.5m, which along with the removal of debt associated with the lighting contracts would reduce its net debt by £326.4m.
A further four street-lighting projects which SSE has an interest in are also to be up for sale, the company added.
Alongside those developments SSE confirmed it is looking at ways to grow its provision of home telephone and broadband services, although plans are at an early stage.
SSE shares closed down 44p, or 2.8 per cent, at 1536p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article