United Utilities trading in line

30th Jan 2014 07:00

- Current trading in line with company views- Confident of good underlying full-year performance- Continues to tightly manage its cost baseWater operator United Utilities said trading since October has been in line with its expectations and remains confident of delivering a good underlying full-year performance.The FTSE-100 group added that it is ahead of schedule in meeting its 2010-15 regulatory outperformance targets."We continue to narrow the gap to sector leading performance. Revenue has increased, reflecting the regulated price change for 2013/14," the company said in a statement."This revenue increase is only partly offset by higher depreciation and other operating costs, as the company continues to tightly manage its cost base."United Utilities said it continues to make good progress on its regulatory capital investment programme and remains on track to invest at least £800m in its asset base in 2013/14."We intend to undertake transitional investment in 2014/15 to de-risk key projects due to be delivered in the next regulatory period," the group revealed.As a result, spending on its 2014/15 capital investment programme, including spend relating to private sewers, is expected to be similar to 2013/14.CJ