UU agrees £500m loan and is on track for good results
UNITED Utilities, the North West’s biggest listed company, says it is confident of delivering good annual results and has strengthened its financial position with a new £500m funding facility.
The loan from the European Investment Bank will help fund environmentally friendly projects in the region, a spokesperson for UU said.
The Warrington water company said in an update from October 1 that
current trading is in line with expectations, with customer performance levels continuing to be improved alongside “good operational and environmental performance.”
The group said it is making good progress on its capital investment programme and remains on track to invest at least £800m in its asset base in 2013/14.
It said expenditure on its 2014/15 capital investment programme, including spend relating to private sewers, is expected to be at a similar level to this year’s figure.
The £500m term loan with the European Investment Bank means UU’s financial position remains “robust”.
The loan which can be taken in either fixed or floating interest rate form,
will have an average maturity of 10 years and is expected to be drawn down via a number of tranches within the next 12 months.
Assessing its outlook, the group said: “United Utilities is confident of delivering a good underlying financial performance for the year ending March 31 2014 and is ahead of schedule in meeting its 2010-15 regulatory out-performance targets.
“We are encouraged by our operational and customer service performance improvements and believe we can improve further. We will continue to actively engage with our regulators, ahead of the draft and final determinations from Ofwat later this year.”
