Profits dip for region’s water company

United Utilities

WATER company United Utilities has suffered an expected 9% dip in underlying operating profit to £604m.

In its year end results to March 31, the company reported a marginal increase in revenue to £1.73bn (2015: £1.720.2bn).

Meanwhile, its total dividend per ordinary share rose to 38.45p from 37.7p in 2015.
And the company has vowed to fulfil its pledge to invest £100m in renewable energy projects before 2020.

The company highlighted further improvements in customer satisfaction and benefited from a “systems thinking” operational approach and the “improved resilience” of its network.

Chief executive Steve Mogford said: “We are encouraged to see further improvement in customer satisfaction, particularly in light of unprecedented flooding events.

“We placed customers at the heart of our response and we benefited from our recently opened integrated control centre and improved network resilience.

“We accelerated our investment programme to deliver early operational benefit and exceeded our expectations by achieving a small reward across our outcome delivery incentives, against a tough set of targets.

“In addition, we have now identified and are implementing a range of efficiency initiatives to meet our total expenditure allowance. We plan to invest more than £100m across the 2015-20 period in renewable energy projects.
 
“We received CMA approval for our joint venture with Severn Trent to merge our business retail operations, providing us with first mover advantage and economies of scale ahead of full market opening in 2017.

“The joint venture, named Water Plus, combines the complementary skills of both companies to deliver a fresh, competitive operation providing a very attractive retail proposition for business customers.
 
“Our progress over this first year of the new regulatory period shows we are well placed to deliver further value for customers, shareholders and the environment, underpinned by a robust capital structure and good credit ratings.”

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