25th Jul 2014 10:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - United Utilities PLC said Friday that trading in its second quarter was in line with group expectations as a rise in revenue was offset by higher depreciation and other operating costs, as anticipated.
In an interim management statement for the period April 1 to July 24, 2014, the company said that trading remains in line with expectations. Revenue rose in the period, reflecting the regulated price rise for 2014/15, it said, but this was partially offset by the special customer discount of around GBP20 million which has been applied to this year's bills, as previously announced.
The FTSE 100-listed company said that its financial position remains "robust," recording "similar" net debt to that recorded March 31, 2014, despite continued high levels of capital investment, it said. This is ahead of the GBP164 million set to be paid in its 2013/14 dividend on August 1.
Ahead of its annual general meeting Friday the company said the first quarter revenue rise was largely offset by higher depreciation and other operating costs, as expected.
United Utilities said that it has remained focused on improving its customer service during the period; the company reported a top quartile performance across energy regulator Offwat's 2013/14 key performance indicator reports' range of operational metrics.
The company plans to continue with its dividend policy of targeting 2% per annum growth above the rate of RPI inflation through to at least 2015, underpinned by its capital structure.
Looking ahead the company said that its business plan means that customers would benefit from below inflation growth in average household bills for the decade to 2020. The company expects to deliver a good underlying financial performance for the full-year, and said that in respect of regulatory outperformance "we are ahead of schedule and remain confident of delivering our 2010-15 targets."
The company said that regulatory capital investment for 2014/15, including infrastructure renewals expenditure, is expected to be similar to the high level of investment in 2013/14.
The company intends to issue a pre-close trading update on September 24, 2014.
United Utilities were trading 1.02% lower at 894.8 pence per share Friday morning.
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
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