Profits top £200m at Urenco
URENCO UK, the Cheshire-based supplier of enriched uranium, saw pre-tax profits rise by 4% to £212.7m last year.
Newly-filed accounts for the year to the end of December show the Capenhurst-based business increased profits on the back of a 3% rise in sales to £432m.
The accounts show the company has made a £10m provision to allow for a voluntary redundancy programme. The number of job cuts was not given.
There was also a provision of £33.7m to cover the cost of handling depleted uranium, a by-product of its manufacturing process.
The directors said certain assets at the site were bought from Sellafield Ltd during the year and it embarked on a “transformation project to ensure continued competitiveness in the post-Fukushima environment”.
The business is part of Urenco Ltd which operates around the world and saw pre-tax profits grow 16% to £455m on sales of £1.3bn, up 23%.
Urenco is jointly owned by the UK government, and the Dutch government – which each hold a third of the shares – and the German energy companies RWE and EON.
Last year there were reports that the UK government was looking to off-load its stake and had appointed Morgan Stanley to weigh up its options. In 2011 the Dutch were looking to exit and a price tag of £3bn was mooted.
