Scottish & Southern adds clients

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Scottish & Southern Energy has said it won 700,000 new customers in the year to the end of March.

It raised prices in March by an average of 14.2% for electricity and 15.8% for gas, but was the last of the major energy suppliers to do so.

The firm also reported a 14% rise in annual pre-tax profits to £1.23bn.

That figure excluded £65m of exceptional items, such as a foreign exchange loss from the acquisition of its wind-farm business, Airtricity.

The company's chairman, Sir Robert Smith, said it had been "a challenging year for the sector in which many key questions were asked about the sustainability, reliability and affordability of energy".

"The maintenance of our policy of responsible pricing helped us to gain 700,000 additional electricity and gas customers, making us the UK's second-largest energy supplier."