27th Nov 2018 09:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Water and waste utility Pennon Group PLC on Tuesday reported a strong performance in the first half of its financial year, saying that South West Water and Viridor continued to operate well and that it is on track for its full-year expectations.
The FTSE 250-listed company posted for the six months to the end of September an underlying pretax profit of GBP142.5 million, up 8.7% from GBP131.1 million the prior year. This excludes exceptional items. These were a loss on the fair value measurement of derivative financial instruments of GBP8.9 million in the recent period versus a loss of GBP1.3 million a year before.
On a statutory basis, pretax profit rose by 2.7% to GBP133.6 million from GBP129.8 million. This was on revenue that grew by 3.1% to GBP746.7 million from GBP723.9 million the year before.
Revenue growth was attributed to continued strong performances by South West Water due to increased customer demand despite and by UK recycling business Viridor due to the building of new energy recovery facilities.
Pennon Group declared an interim dividend of 12.84 pence per share, up 7.3% from 11.97p the prior year.
The group said it is on track to meet its full year expectations, as well as its cost savings and synergy target of around GBP17 million per annum starting from 2019.
"Momentum for Pennon continues with a strong performance in the first half of 2018/19 across both water and waste. We are delivering on our promises to customers and communities and our investment across the group is driving tangible and positive results," said Chief Executive Chris Loughlin.
Shares in Pennon Group were up 1.5% at 767.40 pence on Tuesday.
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