Electricity network’s profits are highly-charged
SOME 24 hours after United Utilities reported a 20% drop in pre-tax profits, the electricity network it sold off three years ago has reported a 700% rise in pre-tax profits to £139m.
Electricity North West, the electricity network operator sold in December 2007 to a joint venture company owned by JP Morgan Chase, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Colonial First State, saw its sales boosted by 21% to £394m during the year, largely as a result of an agreed price rise with network regulator Ofgem.
Chairman Phil White hailed the successful purchase of the United Utilities Electricity Services, the company that maintains its electricity network, as a deal which has “transformed the business” into one that can own, operate and maintain a regional electricity network used by more than 2.4 million households.
He added that the company now planned a capital expenditure programme of £1.4bn over the next five years which would support economic growth in the region, as well as providing job opportunities for engineers and trainees.
“These considerable business and financial achievements have been set against an industry background which continues to face more public scrutiny and media attention than ever before – a sector dominated by significant challenges both now and in the years ahead,” said White.
Chief executive Steve Johnson said that progress had been made on a number of fronts, including the reliability and availability of the network.
The company has introduced more automated technology to fix faults, he said, meaning that interruptions and minutes lost by customers had improved and were ahead of regulatory targets.
He also said that the firm had “achieved our best ever results in both our customer satesfaction measure and in quality of telephony response”.
“The board and management are committed to building on the success of the current year and in implementing a challenging strategy to ensure we deliver for our customers, our people and our investors,” he said.
