EDF mulls lowering dividend payout ratio to max 50 percent - BFM

PARIS (Reuters) - French utility EDF is considering a cut in the amount of net profit it pays out in dividends, a business website quoted a finance ministry source as saying, as it looks to shoulder a multi-billion euro investment bill in coming years. The website of TV station BFM Business said the state-controlled utility would reduce its dividend payout ratio to a maximum 50 percent of underlying net profit from 2017. EDF declined to comment. At the publication of its nine-month sales in early November, EDF had confirmed it would stick to a planned payout ratio of between 55 and 65 percent of net income excluding non-recurring items. EDF, which in recent years has had to borrow billions of euros just to pay dividends, plans to invest tens of billions of euros in the next decade for building two nuclear reactors in Britain and for upgrading its ageing French nuclear fleet. In February, as it published a 68 percent drop in 2015 earnings, the utility proposed to cut its dividend to 1.10 euros per share after paying 1.25 euros three years in a row. The French state - which owns 85 percent of EDF - has agreed to take its dividend on 2015 earnings in shares, which left about 1.8 billion euros worth of cash in EDF. It will also take its dividend on 2016 and 2017 earnings in shares and will subscribe to 3 billion euros of a 4 billion euro share issue which EDF plans for early 2017. EDF shares were 0.5 percent lower in mid-afternoon trading, outperforming the wider French stock market which was down 1.1 percent. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by David Holmes)