FRANKFURT (Reuters) - E.ON <EONGn.DE>, Germany's second-largest energy group, posted its third record loss in as many years, battered by a fresh round of writedowns on Uniper <UN01.DE>, the power plant and energy-trading unit it spun off in September.
The company, which had flagged further writedowns in August, posted a net loss of 9.3 billion euros (8 billion pounds) for the first nine months of 2016, compared with a 9.8 billion loss average analyst forecast in a Reuters poll.
The loss was triggered by 6.1 billion euros in writedowns on Uniper, pushing E.ON's total writedowns on power plants since 2014 to more than 24 billion euros, about twice its current market valuation.
By spinning off Uniper, E.ON is trying to refocus its business on more promising renewables, networks and retail operations, hoping a recent deal with the government over the funding of nuclear waste storage will give it freedom to do so.
E.ON will have to stump up about 10 billion euros for a public fund that will be responsible for storage in the future, and the group previously said that a capital increase was one of the options to get there.
But Chief Financial Officer Michael Sen on Wednesday said the group aimed to avoid a rights issue, adding the group had sufficient "financing flexibility" to make available the necessary funds.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Eric Auchard and Georgina Prodhan)