INNOGY has said it has lost around 500,000 customers in the UK this year while acknowledging the planned merger of its npower business with SSE’s retail arm could fall apart, Reuters has reported. Asked whether talks about the planned retail joint venture could still collapse, Innogy’s chief financial officer Bernhard Guenther told journalists such a scenario could not be ruled out although the firms still aimed to complete the deal. Last week Perth-based SSE said the proposed merger would be delayed beyond the first quarter of 2019, citing the introduction of the energy price cap in the UK.