United Utilities trading as planned

23rd Jul 2010 07:12

United Utilities says current trading reflects lower prices for 2010/11, revenue pressures from reduced water volumes, bad debt and an anticipated rise in property rates.But the firm, which revealed a drop in full-year profits in May due to high borrowing costs, will tell shareholders at today’s AGM in Manchester that everything is going as expected.In his AGM statement, chairman John McAdam adds that these negatives are being partly offset by a drop in power costs.“The business has entered into forward contracts for the majority of its power requirements for 2010/11 and 2011/12 and unit power costs are expected to be in the order of 20% lower than in 2009/10,” he says.The company is implementing a programme of efficiency and performance improvement measures and is confident of delivering outperformance in respect of the 2010-15 regulatory contract, a claim made at the time of the annual results.UU is also continuing to evaluate the expressions of interest received for its remaining non-regulated businesses. Its main non-regulated water interests in the UK and Europe were sold to Veolia Water last month.The company is also reviewing the recent hosepipe ban for customers in the North West following an increase in rainfall.A pre-close trading update will be published on 23 September.