FRANKFURT (Reuters) - It will take Germany's No. 2 utility RWE (>> RWE AG) until 2015 to get its old strength back after the country's exit from nuclear power, the chief executive told a German newspaper.

Germany's big utility companies are only just emerging from a downturn caused by the government's decision last year to shut all nuclear power stations in the country by 2022.

"We will likely need that long (2015) until debt and earnings power are back to satisfactory levels," Peter Terium told Handelsblatt in an interview to be published in its Monday edition. He said RWE would be a stronger and more international company by 2015.

RWE last week reported slower profit growth than that of main rival E.ON (>> E.ON AG), and said it would cut an additional 2,400 jobs on top of 8,000 job cuts already planned.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Stocks treated in this article : E.ON AG, RWE AG