17th May 2018 10:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - National Grid PLC said Thursday its annual profit increased by almost a quarter in the year ended March, prompting a 3.7% dividend hike.
The electricity and utility company posted an increased statutory pretax profit at actual exchange rates of 24% to GBP2.71 billion from GBP2.18 billion the year before. It said this was due to the reduction in the US federal corporation tax rate.
The company's underlying pretax profit at actual exchange rates increased 12% to GBP2.69 billion from GBP2.41 billion the year before.
The FTSE 100-listed company increased its capital investment by 10% at actual exchange rates to GBP4.25 billion from GBP3.86 billion.
This was driven by record levels of infrastructure investment in the US, totalling GBP2.42 billion in its US Regulated business, an increase of GBP311 million on the previous year. This included higher spend in KeySpan Energy Delivery New York, Massachusetts Electric, and Massachussets Gas.
There was also a GBP68 million increase in investment from the UK regulated transmission businesses, including increased spend on the gas transmission project under the Humber Estuary.
National Grid increased its final dividend to 30.44 pence from 29.10p, bringing the full year dividend to 45.93p. This is a 3.7% increase on last year's full year dividend of 44.27p.
Looking ahead, the company said expects the "good financial performance" from its US businesses to continue due to the agreement of a number of regulatory filings. Its UK businesses are on track to meet expectations.
As a result, National Grid expects growth to be at the top end of its 5% to 7% guidance for the medium term and "at least" 7% in the near term.
Chief Executive John Pettigrew said: "We delivered strong operational and financial performance in 2017-18. Our networks achieved high levels of reliability and safety and we increased customer driven investment to GBP4.3 billion. The US business continued to make significant progress enabling record levels of investment. In the UK, we continued to deliver incentive outperformance generating significant cost savings for customers. Consistent with our strategy, we continued the repositioning of our portfolio towards stronger growth with the recent agreement for the potential sale of our remaining interest in Cadent."
Pettigrew added: "The business is well positioned with a balanced portfolio and an efficient balance sheet that underpins asset and dividend growth."
Shares in National Grid were up 0.9% Thursday morning to 840.00 pence each.
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