First-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 9 percent to 2.83 billion euros (2 billion pounds), the company said on Thursday.

Analysts had, on average, expected first-quarter EBITDA of 2.69 billion euros.

The decline was mainly driven by an 18 percent drop in profits at the group's generation business, hit by the closure of gas and coal-fired power plants that are being increasingly replaced by renewable sources such as wind and solar.

In response to years of weak energy demand, plunging wholesale power prices and growing debt, E.ON last year announced it would spin off its power plant business, energy trading and oil and gas activities into a separate unit.

"This transformation represents our systematic response to a dramatically altered energy world," E.ON Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen said in a letter to shareholders.

The new company, to be called Uniper, will be listed on the stock exchange at some point during the second half of next year and its assets account for roughly half of E.ON's current profits.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Victoria Bryan and Maria Sheahan)