30th Mar 2006 07:00
Pennon Group PLC30 March 2006 30 March 2006 PENNON GROUP PLC PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE Pennon Group Plc today reports on trading for the 12 months to 31 March 2006,prior to entering its close period, and confirms that trading to date remains inline with market expectations. One year into the K4 period (2005-2010), South West Water is firmly on target todeliver the current regulatory contract. In February 2006 the company exercisedan option to convert a 35 year £114m finance lease to an RPI index linked basis,taking advantage of historically low index linked rates and also to reduceearnings volatility. Viridor Waste remains confident of delivering continued full year growth inoperating profit before intangibles. It has now achieved preferred bidderstatus for the Somerset waste partnership. On 15 February 2006 Pennon's shareholders approved the proposal to return £200million of cash to shareholders, with c.£145 million of this return to be by wayof a B Share scheme and c.£55 million through an on-market share buy backprogramme. The B shares have now been issued and c.£138 million of capital wasreturned in March with the balance of the B share return to be paid in April2006. In association with the B Share scheme, Pennon undertook a share consolidationwhereby shareholders received ten new ordinary Pennon shares for every elevenexisting ordinary shares. As a result, the number of ordinary shares in issuewas reduced from approximately 130.5 million to 118.6 million. Pennon intends to announce its Preliminary Results on Thursday, 1 June 2006. For further information, please contact: Pennon David Dupont - Group Director of Finance 01392 443998Jo Finely - Investor Relations Manager 01392 443401 Finsbury Mark Harris 0207 251 3801Sally Hogan 30 March 2006 www.pennon-group.co.uk End transmission This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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