United Utilities on track

23rd Sep 2009 07:19

United Utilities said it is on track to deliver results in line with its expectations of a "sound underlying financial performance" for the six months ending to September.The group said underlying operating profit in the regulated business is expected to broadly be in line with the first half of last year, reflecting ongoing revenue and cost pressures.As indicated previously, reduced water demand means that regulated revenue growth for the year is expected to be lower than the allowed price rise increase of 6%. "As expected, the company also faces cost pressures in areas such as power and bad debts, alongside an increase in depreciation," it said.United Utilities expects a marginal increase in underlying operating profit in its non-regulated business in the first half of the year.United Utilities Property Solutions is expected broadly to break even in the first half of this financial year, reflecting difficult conditions in the UK property market. "Earlier this month we submitted our written response to Ofwat's draft determination of prices for the 2010-15 period and we will be discussing this with the regulator ahead of the final determination in November," said United Utilities.One-off costs in the order of £10m are expected in the first half of 2009/10, which principally relate to restructuring within the business.