After coal exit, Vattenfall sees German future in heat

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall [VATN.UL] is moving into growth-mode in Germany after selling all of its carbon-polluting brown coal activities there last year, counting instead on promising heat operations in its largest foreign market.

The company aims to break into new areas of growth both in its core cities, Hamburg and Berlin, but also across Germany's onshore and offshore wind industry, Vattenfall's Chief Financial Officer Stefan Dohler told Reuters in an interview.

"We have a strong position in Germany. We want to stay here. We want to grow here," Dohler said.

This year and next Vattenfall plans to invest 11 billion Swedish crowns (£989.2 million) in Germany, where it employs about a third of its workforce.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Victoria Bryan)