United Utilities sees revenues and profits swell in first half

19th Sep 2013 07:04

Regulatory price increases have allowed water and sewage group United Utilities to raise revenues, profits and investment in the first half of the year. The FTSE 100 company said it anticipated underlying operating profits would be moderately higher than the first half of last year in the six months to the end of September due to tight control of costs. As the company had flagged earlier, it continued to expect the increase in its revenues to be slightly below the allowed regulated price rise due to the effects of the recession limiting water volumes.United Utilities said it expected to invest around £800m in capital investment upkeep and improvements over the whole year, up from £787m in the last financial year. Well within the regulator's comfortable range of gearing, net debt at the halfway point is anticipated to be slightly higher than £5.45bn at its March 31st year end due to a combination of increased capital investment, plus previous years final dividend and payments in relation to interest and taxation, largely offset by operational cash flows and fair value gains on the group's debt and derivative instruments. Following much consultation with customers, regulators and other stakeholders, the company said it was now "well advanced" in preparation of its business plan for the 2015-20 regulatory period and is on track for plan submission to Ofwat, as required by December 2nd this year.OH