Iberdrola launches $5.9 billion capital increase

MADRID (Reuters) -Europe's largest utility Iberdrola launched on Wednesday a 5 billion euro ($5.87 billion) share capital increase.

Separately, it said first-half net profit declined 14% from a year earlier, when results included the sale of gas assets in Mexico.

Net profit for the period was 3.56 billion euros ($4.18 billion) compared to 4.1 billion euros a year earlier.

Excluding one-offs, profit was up 20%, it said.

($1 = 0.8523 euros)

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, editing by Inti Landauro)